A day out in Dingle...

Daisy and I have enjoyed many beautiful days together; cruising the canals of Venice, walking the walls of Dubrovnik and, last Thursday, spending an afternoon in Dingle.

We are now ‘community reporters’ for Liverpool Echo, charged with bringing the good people of Liverpool all sorts of heart warming stories from Dingle and Aigburth.  We had gone for a ‘walkaround’ with Stephen Mumby, one of the local councillors for the Riverside ward, to acquaint ourselves with an area which, until offered the patch, we had never heard of.  He very kindly introduced us to local businessmen, vicars, parishioners, community workers and young people - all with interesting stories to tell.

Mr Mumby has been councillor here for 14 years, during which time he’s seen the area undergo alot of transformation, from the little things like hanging baskets to brighten up the area to residents turning their lives around and making good.  He may not be paid for his councillor work but almost everywhere we walked people waved from their cars or windows, and you can’t put a price on that!

When I was at The Independent on Sunday some of the other work experience people looked at me with more than a hint of pity in their eyes as I said I’d love to work on a local paper, sourcing stories about real issues affecting real people. 

On Thursday we heard a plethora of beautiful stories; the community centre who’d been granted funding for a new play area by a Siberian glamour model, boys from disadvantaged backgrounds signed up to Everton’s youth squads after playing for their youth centre’s teams, and a man who’d only secured his first job at 50 years old!

This, to me, is real life and reporting on it is real journalism.  Going out and meeting a vicar who is immensely proud of his parish or a man who has created jobs for nearly 200 local people is a pleasure to do.  It might not be as glamorous as working in Kensington for a national publication but you can actually see the difference that your story can make to people.  It’s not news that you can hold at arms length and forget about once the paper has been put down, it is stuff happening on your doorstep that a whole area can be proud of or make a difference to.

From the walls of Dubrovnik, the views over the city and out over the Mediterranean are beautiful.  Sailing through the veins of Venice, peeking into houses, hearing music float down alleyways and the smell of rich food all around, is glorious.  The sights and sounds and smells and tastes of these cities bring them to life, adding flavours and experiences anew.  

Now, Dingle might not be the most aesthetically pleasing of places, but it’s the people that make the place, right?!