Our Brighton webcam was down for over a week due to technical issues that I can’t personally get my head around - but I’m happy to announce that it’s back up and running at www.itvlocal.com/meridian/live.

We’ve had lots of queries about the downtime from locals and Brighton expats alike - it’s a really popular view. Personally, as a fairly regular Brighton daytripper, I associate the pier and beach with good times and like to log in now and then just to take in the unique Brighton vibe.

The good news is that during the downtime, we pressed forward with getting a second regional beachcam up and running - this time in Bournemouth. It’s up today for the first time - have a look at the default view on www.itvlocal.com/meridian/live to see it, I’m afraid today’s weather is looking a bit overcast but the waves aren’t too rough for October.

By clicking on the right-hand menu from our live cams page, you can see the whole network of ITV Local regional webcams, all over England and Wales. There are some real gems in there - Newquay harbour is one of my favourites, and everyone loves Gorillacam - live from the ape enclosure at Bristol Zoo. so if you’re bored with the view from your window, check out the live views in full screen. It’s cheaper than a train ticket!

Avast ye scurvy knaves!! We be come over all piratey today at ITV Local. Yarr, it be International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

This web phenomenon started in the States (where else?) a few years ago and now has spawned events and shenanigans all over the world.

Well, here on the South Coast of England we weren’t going to miss out - after all we’ve been dealing with pirates here since Saxon times and just about every cove from Kent to Dorset is laden with piratey tales of old.

So yarr, check out the team in full Lady Pirate gear - from left: Heather, Sarah and Sharon (or is that Pirate Julia the Well-Tanned, “Parrot-Got-Me-Eye” Ramona and Filthy Jan Drake? - generate your own pirate name here) and don’t forget to tell a few rum pirate jokes before eight bells after clicking on our pirate joke link.

Now that Casey’s made the trip up to the Smoke (see post below), I find myself at the helm of the regional site. We’re sad to see Casey go, as she, more than anyone, has shaped the success of Local in this region since the early days (and she buys cakes and always gets her round in!).

But the good news is any changes will be subtle - why change a winning formula?

Casey’s left the site in great shape so I don’t have a lot to worry about - Meridian and Thames Valley is consistently the best-performing region in the ITV Local network, and I believe our content is second to none. Already this week we’ve carried exclusive packages from the Kingsnorth climate protests, Brighton Pride and Cowes Week, and published factsheets on buying property abroad, the Gosport War Memorial Hospital deaths inquiry and ran a poll on England cricket captaincy (our viewers strongly backed the appointment of Hampshire’s Kevin Pietersen). All this and it’s still only Tuesday morning!

From a personal point of view, as news ed I was happy to bury myself in the daily news side of things while Casey led the way on her real passion - film and programmes. All that side of things is important to Local but quite new to me - although I enjoy movies (favourite film of all time, Brighton-shot Quadrophenia) being mum to a five year old means that when I do get out to the cinema it’s to see family movies like Wall-E, or the new Star Wars animation. So I’m looking forward to getting more acquainted with the region’s burgeoning film industry as Local builds media partnerships with showcase events across the South.

Looking ahead, we have loads of plans to make the site even more essential viewing - for a taster, just wait till our FA Cup channel takes off in earnest in a couple of weeks’ time. We’ll be following the big teams of course, but also filming games at the very grassroots level of this classic competition and bringing you action from the very first kick of the ball for the first time.

So, we may be one down, but the rest of the team is still here, and we’re on a roll.

I spent much of the weekend at Guilfest, hanging out backstage like with all the rest of the journos and hangers-on.

I really love this festival - just a week after Glastonbury, the events couldn’t be more different. For a start, Guilfest is held in a town centre park, and despite some heavy showers, the mud was almost non-existent.

As for the line-up, Guilfest trawls the back catalogues of rock history for headline acts, so we were treated to a wonderful set by Blondie (left) on Saturday night, followed by The Damned (above left) on Sunday afternoon.

Both bands sounded fantastic onstage, despite both suffering from the loss of some original members since their punk/NewWave heyday.

On the other hand, I felt very uncomfortable watching Woking’s own From The Jam perform on Sunday evening.

This band is basically The Jam - minus Paul Weller. They play some fantastic pop songs from the Jam archive with the assistance of two extra musicians, one of whom makes a fair stab at imitating the gruff Weller vocal on some of The Modfather’s greatest hits. So why was I so uncomfortable watching them?

Okay, they have to make a living, and while Paul Weller has creamed off most of the songwriting royalties from the Jam days, the Other Two have to keep gigging to make ends meet. But the sight of a soundalike belting out “When you’re young”, 30 years after I saw the actual Jam play this live and blow me away, gave me the creeps. Was this an updated Jam or a tribute band? I’m still not really sure.

I suppose the moral of the story is: if a band keeps the same singer, they can get away with other changes over the years. If the frontperson goes, then they’re in trouble…

Any comments on this?

He may be well into his 70s, but old rocker Bill Wyman is showing no signs of slowing down.

This revealing interview with Meridian’s Richard Slee shows that the former Rolling Stone has been far from taking it easy since he “retired” from the Stones back in 1993.

Fed up with flying from stadium to stadium for mega-concerts, where the audience members are no more than specks in the distance, he’s gone back to his roots with the Rhythm Kings and now travels by band charabanc from club gig to club gig, all over Europe - and says he enjoys actually seeing a bit of the places he’s visiting. His enduring passion for music really comes across in the interview and you can tell he’s never regretted leaving the Stones’ rock ‘n’ roll circus behind him.

Apart from his music, Wyman keeps himself busy with his London restaurant Sticky Fingers, holds photography exhibitions all over the world and is a keen amateur archaeologist (insert lame joke about dinosaurs of rock here).

Although the idea of octogenerian rock stars is frankly quite horrifying, all the surviving Sixties swingers are now bus pass holders. This near 72-year old and his elderly bandmates seem to be having so much fun, it would seem that grandad rock is far from fading away…

Why? well the cost of getting the ferry across for starters. Not for nothing is the Solent named as the most expensive ferry route in the world, mile for mile. And once we get there, a place in the campervan field costs a steep £250 on top of the ticket price - yikes! But I always fancied a trip to this festival, as the line-up never fails to impress.

Well, having secured media tickets and cunningly found a free parking space for the camper just off-site, nothing could stop us this year, and although I was working, thought it would be a good idea to bring the family along too (hubby and five year old son).

Casey says below that it didn’t feel like work, interviewing bands and other celebs who were hanging out in the VIP area. In a way she’s right, but at four months pregnant, I certainly knew I’d been working by the end of each day. My head barely touched the pillow on the rock-and-roll bed in the camper, and I’d be asleep till morning, when it all started again…

We were presented with a steady stream of bands and solo performers to interview, and in-between I tried to catch performances so I’d know what to ask them. Once I found myself face-to-face to a young rock band The Gundogs, who I knew absolutely nothing about. I had no choice to admit this in my first question and asked them to describe the music in ten words or less. They didn’t seem to mind and were just happy to be part of the bill.

One surprise visitor was Mike Rutherford of Genesis who turned up on Sunday afternoon and gave us a short interview. He didn’t divulge whether Genesis were hoping to headline next year, but I’m told that casing a festival one year is a good indicator of a willingness to play the next…

As festivals go, this was one of the best organised I’ve ever been to (and I’ve been to so many I’ve actually written a book about them!).

We’ve got several more coming up in the region over the summer - Guilfest, Reading, the Bestivals and more. So expect more festival updates from your increasingly pregnant news editor as the summer progresses!

My usual Sunday morning lie-in was a non-starter last weekend - rudely awakened by both husband and son at 7am, equally excited that our street was under a thick blanket of snow, which was still falling in abundance, despite the local shops selling easter eggs off at half-price and big ads everywhere for barbecues and swimsuits.

There was nothing for it - we bundled up in our warmest gear (where DID I put my left leather glove?) and took a walk down to Winchester Cathedral. (Son travelled in style in his wagon as usual). After the usual snowball fun, we posted some footage from a mobile phone here but to be honest it doesn’t really do the scene justice.

Anyway, there are lots more snow clips on Your News at the moment though, and some of the ones from further east and inland show much more snow than we had. We’re not going to forget April 2008’s snow for a long time I suppose, unless this becomes the new norm. I guess climate change is more than just global warming then, eh kids?

You never know - just after we took that footage, a man of the cloth wandered past (we were in the cathedral grounds) and commented that it was like Christmas. Well actually, I don’t remember a white Christmas for many years, maybe the church should consider moving it back a few months to take advantage of spring snow. Swap Christmas and Easter perhaps? Or Christmas card manufacturers might consider depicting scenes of carollers wearing cap sleeves and shorts?