My motivation in setting up this website was chiefly because soon I’ll be unemployed. It was my decision. I took voluntary redundancy.

In the midst of a global pandemic when people are losing their jobs, I decided willingly to ditch mine. Why? Because I was miserable.

I work in the news business and I leave in December. It can’t come soon enough.

I realised throughout lockdown, when we had to set up at home, that I had tolerated it for so long because my friends and colleagues made life better. They made me happy, made me laugh, kept me sane, fed my coffee addiction. They were my raison d’être for me being there. The work was bearable when I could take a minute to speak to a mate about something we’d watched or read about.

My maternal grandad was a miner. He told me in the winter he would go to work in darkness, descend into darkness, and chip away at coalface all day, and then emerge into darkness. And repeat. Zero sunlight and yet he loved it, for the people, the banter and solidarity in the face of what was physically tough and to me a pretty horrible existence. How does that compare to a comfy office? If you’re not happy it doesn’t matter where you work, how much you earn and much status you have. It’s irrelevant if all you want to do is cry.

The stress of the news environment was a driver in me leaving. Knowing more about the crappier things in life, triple that of the average news junkie, was depressing and I’m quite sure life shortening. For a worrier like me working in news was like a lion tamer who wasn’t really that fond of big cats. I have always thought of myself as an accidental journalist. I made a decent stab at it but sort of fell into the job.

On the positive side I have made a good living, had amazing experiences, met my friends for life, but the stress was slowly chipping away at me. My bicycle was my saviour. The commute home helped blow away the news dust that clung to me. The words and headlines that swirled in my mind about Brexit, Trump, Putin, climate change… Nottingham Forest, would fade by the time I arrived at my back gate.

The ride helped put things into perspective. The nice stuff, all the kindness, amazing things that people do, the incredible inventions that make our lives better, the scientific discoveries, don’t always make the news. If it did you probably wouldn’t read about it. We all have a negative bias, we are attracted to the rubbish stuff because that’s who we are. Our ancestors who paid more attention to the big hungry lion on the loose usually survived compared to the guys who sat on their arse and said “don’t worry about it”. Life is much safer these days. But news just gives you problems you didn’t know you have.

Anyway, I needed to get away, despite the money, the security, I wasn’t happy. Life is too short for that. Being creative has always made me happy. And so here we are.