I drop off the radar for a short while, reappear to explain where I've been, then disappear again. Oops. This terrible neglect of my blog is due to exhaustion, which is due to Steig Larsson. No salacious secrets here, I'm afraid (he's dead, after all), I've been reading his Millennium trilogy (lent to me by W, although possibly without his knowledge) and am enjoying it to the extent that Reading Time is cutting into Sleeping Time. This has happened very regularly over the course of my life (I am an unapologetic bookworm), but never in conjunction with a Commute, and as a result I have been dragging myself upstairs to bed to read and sleep instead of to blog. Apologies. You will however be pleased to hear that I am halfway through the final book, so it won't be going on for too long. Anyone unkind enough to drop spoilers will be kneecapped.
My exciting news today is that I now have A Proper CV (professionally approved), for the first time ever. I really, really hate self-evaluation (my section 20, or whatever it was, for UCAS was like pulling teeth - I should know, I've had six of mine out) but this time round was impressively painless. I can heartily recommend the guy who helped me, so ask me if you're interested, he's very good!
Today was a good day at Journalism School. For one thing, I was on time for the third day in a row (due largely to The Godmother giving me lifts to the station in the mornings, which means I appreciate her being on holiday almost as much as she does!) and thus able to pick a computer that had not that day caused anyone to shout at it. We learned about Interviewing Techniques, which seems to be mostly Being Sneaky by another name - ask people about their childhood to calm them down, ask odd questions to surprise honest answers out of them. I could have added another point to our list of Top Tips - laugh at your interviewee's jokes. When I was off meeting the athletes (who I will not be more specific about, just in case) on Friday, I sat in on an interview that the lovely woman I was shadowing conducted (actually, she's more of an Amazon, but in a good way. I think her legs are longer than I am) with a very nice girl who has broken an awful lot of records. The interviewee told an amusing story, but the lady journalist was trying to make sure her dictaphone was working and missed it. I laughed, and suddenly the girl was talking to me. (I know! Get me!)
As part of the lesson, we were randomly paired off to go and interview each other. I was fabulously lucky in getting Lady Zorro, and we traipsed off to Starbucks for a natter. How I wish I was better at shorthand! We interviewed each other and descended into general conversation quite quickly because it is just so laborious writing everything down! I did learn some interesting things about Lady Zorro, though. I suspect we may end up reading out our finished interviews in class, but here is a sneak peek:
1. Lady Zorro actually owns some Vivienne Westwood clothes and shoes! I suppose she has lived in the real world, where people pay you, but still... I'm quite jealous. At least it proves she has excellent taste!
2. This feisty lady enjoys scuba diving and ultimate frisbee, and thinks whale sharks are cute!
3. Never go to Madrid.
That's all for now, no stealing my scoop!
Also excitingly, we had our first mock exam in shorthand today. I got 100% at 40 words/min, which is progress! I've only got to crank it up another 20 words/min in two weeks! Easy! Also I learned about bicycle theft.
It turns out that the vending machine at Journalism School is a Londoner at heart. We accidentally turned it off while attempting to liberate Superchef's crisps, and its first word as it switched back on was 'init'. I know, it can't spell either!
Still no progress on the haircut front, and I need to get my watch fixed. Such is life!
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