If you are new to my blog series “You wont believe what happens when the CEO doesn’t like your story ” will give you the back story
What a relief
This morning I woke up to a familiar ping from my calendar – Council Business Papers Released. It’s a standing reminder, set for the second Wednesday of every month. These days, it makes me smile. A quiet kind of relief.
Because for a long time, that ping meant game on.
Like the councillors themselves, I’d be facing anything up to a thousand pages. As the civics reporter for our local paper, I had to work out what mattered most to the community and turn it into two or three solid stories within 24 hours. That was just the start.
The rest of the week meant deep research. Back through past decisions. On the phone to former councillors. Listening to Public Access presentations. Sometimes speaking at them. Sitting in on community advocacy meetings to understand what people were pushing for.
Then came the council meeting itself – usually several hours of policy, politics and process. Lately, it’s felt more like theatre. Half the room auditioning for Utopia. Speeches aimed at the livestream, not each other. Lines delivered for effect, not impact. It’s not about getting things done – it’s about being seen to be doing something.
And after all that, I’d still have to write it up. Fast. The final 48-hour stretch often meant no sleep, just a deadline and the hope that the final version made sense to someone who hadn’t been living and breathing it for days. Then came the next round – usually wondering how long it would take for the CEO to demand the article be taken down. Sometimes I didn’t even get through breakfast.
What I didn’t realise at the time was how completely this cycle had consumed my life. Not just my time, but my attention, my energy, my bandwidth for anything else.
This morning, the reminder was still there – but the pressure wasn’t. I can choose now whether to open the papers. Whether to watch the meeting. Whether to write anything at all.
Better still, I’m no longer trying to figure out what we all aren’t being told.
Turns out, freedom feels like a Thursday morning without a thousand pages waiting for you.
#StopwatchIsTicking #LocalPoliticsUnplugged #WhatArentWeBeingTold #FreedomFeelsGood #CivicsUnfiltered #Kiama #TheBugle #TheBugleNewspaper #TheBugleApp