November 16th, 2020Just sayin’…

For one, it has probably kept us sane. I don’t know what I would do without work, well this year anyway. An ideal break would include being somewhere warmer than the Central Highlands of Victoria, beach strolls and lots of movie trips. So that was never going to happen.
Instead we kept busy in our office, with our wonderful crew virtually by our side, and kept going. First, we went weekly in March. Fortnightly had been a nice lifestyle pace but with no lifestyle on offer, why bother.
Then the break in the two lockdowns happened right at the start of Winter and so we thought, why not bring out our tourist magazine The Little Local. I mean, why would you stop anyway, people were still reading online and thinking about their next holiday – better to stay front of mind than not produce anything. That was our reasoning, each to their own.
Then as the regional Victoria lockdown ended and we could see Melbourne one day making a break for it, we produced our biggest ever real estate magazine, House.Land.Home.Premium – making the October 26 edition of The Local our biggest ever as well – during a pandemic. Who knew?
Oh, in between all that, we launched our new website – uninspiringly named www.tlnews.com.au – but we did want people to be able to find it. It’s got all the up-to-date stories, opinion pieces, dine reviews, real estate and, maybe best of all, anyone can upload sports results, club news, fundraisers…jump on to have a look. Maybe join up as a member or an advertiser. There are already tonnes of business listings!

And while you are there, check out our latest venture – a podcast. Yes, just when you think we would take a little break, we decided to add another string and start podcasting. It’s called Country Life and it’s my gig. Each week Kyle and I talk about what’s coming up in The Local and there are also another two or three chats with people we have interviewed. Sometimes my interviews, sometimes our other wonderful journos, always nice and low-key, easy listening.
And easy to find. Head to www.tlnews.com.au, hit Enter or just wait and the landing page will appear anyway, and then it is the fifth tile along that says, helpfully, Country Life Podcast – with a little movie of a country gate and lots of butterflies.
(I love butterflies except when they swarm by the roadside and you hit them with the car and think: “Damn, you only had one day, sorry.”)
Anyway, time to get back to work, it’s almost Summer and The Little Local won’t produce itself. Just sayin’…