Now in Glorious Technicolor!

So, I may have mentioned pictures....

Journalism School - the computer room

A different angle, with Superchef and Lady Zorro

The common room, featuring the ever-popular vending machines

The portal to the world of student journalism...

Me, in a corridor

I really hope these all work, now, as it's quite late and I'm busy with my practice newswriting exam. Which is why I'm blogging, of course!

Today was a Mundane Monday, so there was lots and lots of subbing. And lots and lots of cracked.com. Also a fair few Chuck Norris facts. We had a very lovely visitor, a charming Italian man who is one of the most professional people I have ever met. And I didn't even see him at work! He taught us a trick or two (on Quark, of course!) and told us about the importance of typefaces. 

We also did a mock exam. I finished on time, despite the exciting Printer Challenge section. 

I decided on the train this morning that my subbing coursework double page spread is going to be all about shoes. No one was surprised...

Right, back to writing a story about an escaped snake called Bertie. Goodnight!

Not-so-lazy Sunday

Apart from oversleeping this morning (oversleeping! On a Sunday! I'm really through the looking-glass here) I've had quite a busy day!

Managed to drag myself into Leicester Square (despite the effects of families on public transport (it's not all bad, though - two little boys on a train recently taught me a new word: gayzor)) to see my lovely Career Advisor. He helped me with an application for an internship, which is exciting! We'll have to wait and see.

When I got back I baked cupcakes for the lovely folks who looked after me on my work experience week - they're really due a thank-you! Evening baking is more challenging than its afternoon counterpart, because you're hungry and have to concentrate on not eating too much batter! Afterwards, I made Noodle Doodle (old family recipe, sorry I can't reveal more) for supper for me and The Godmother, and iced the cupcakes while I waited for it to cook. That's Domestic Goddess-ery!

That doesn't look like a lot written down, but really it is! Also I realised that I was wearing jeans for the first time this week today, even though it's been so cold.

Off to bed now, or I will snore through subbing tomorrow!


P.S.: hopefully pictures soon, as requested by a biscuit-lover!

If you haven't seen this then you should

A smidgeon

A smidgeon of a post tonight because I am so tired I can barely keep my head upright. This is dedication!

Had an exciting day of video journalism, filming pubs and being filmed by tele france (don't get too excited, it was a guy with purple pompoms on his hat and a camera phone he had taped a hand-drawn French flag onto) and capped it off with a trip to the pub with the cool kids from Journalism School. We sat outside for far longer than was sensible, and have decided we need to procure a Father Christmas costume (minus padding) and a tutu for next month. More on this anon (possibly).

Going to bed now, very tired and rather chilly.

I finished the last Millennium book on the train!

Kate Middleton ate my hamster!

No, not really. But she's all over the news with a sparkly great ring on her finger, and people are grumbling about a Royal Wedding in a Time of Austerity, so I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon. I must admit, I have no opinion whatsoever on Kate Middleton. I know a lot of girls like her, and I will probably know even more before my number's up.

Today was another good day at Journalism School. We finished our interviews, so Lady Zorro and I returned to what is now 'our' table in Starbucks and had another chat, then wrote up our interviews. I have to admit, I was a little bit emotional, reading her interview of me. She said such lovely things! Also, she is a very good writer, and even managed to make my ramblings sound intelligent. I tried to take a celebrity interview approach to writing hers up, with random observations thrown in to try to establish some sort of flow. Luckily, Lady Zorro said enough interesting things that no-one is likely to notice. Also she's lent me a copy of number9dream, by David Mitchell (the guy who wrote Cloud Atlas, not the comedian), which I've wanted to read for a while. That's next on my list after I finish the Millennium trilogy, and if you're very lucky, I might even review it.

After we'd written our interviews up, Mr Hack read out our Dark Secrets, which he'd collected yesterday, anonymously, and made us guess whose was whose. Mine seemed incredibly tame compared to everyone else's - I think I'm just not as honest as them, I didn't want to put anything really bad (not that I have any truly awful secrets!). I can't believe Blondie (I'm still sticking to the rule of not thinking for more than 5 seconds about these aliases) ran over her cheating ex-boyfriend's new surfboard! Good work that woman.

We also chose the editorial team for the class publication we'll be making. I didn't volunteer for any of the big roles - I want my contribution to be lots of content, not lots of nagging, which is going to be required at some point, I'm sure. Superchef is the editor! Rather him than me.

I'm excited about the new episode of Misfits (I love Nathan - I know I shouldn't, but I do), but not excited enough to stay up to watch it. I have a grand plan to get a proper night's sleep tonight, whether Stieg Larsson lets me or not!

Right, time to go and do something useful.

Yet another disappearing act

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!

In which I explain where I've been

I've been offline. There, that was quick! Uh, yeah, so I've been staying in The Godmother's flat since Thursday, which doesn't have internet, but is in the centre of town. Would have mentioned it last post, but extreme tiredness tends to curtail my natural verbosity. (See what I did there?)

I had a really good work experience week! I can't wait to go back in December. Very fancy offices, very lovely people, lots of learning opportunities! Makes me even more reluctant to drag myself in for subbing tomorrow. I'm only really going so I can hear about people's weeks!

In other news, Jumanji has spent the evening texting me for answers to her pub quiz. (See, I seem nice and helpful, then I SHAME YOU ON THE INTERNET)

I was going to try to get my hair cut this weekend, but it completely failed to happen (due mostly to the fact that England tends to be a bit silly about Sundays - closing your establishment on one of the two days most people have off seems like rather a failure of business sense to me! Secularisation is progressive and good for the economy!), which is a Bad Thing, because I am starting get decidedly shaggy, and I quite like being able to see.

The Godmother and W were kind enough to arrange for me to see a professional to pimp my CV. We met him yesterday, for coffee and then lunch (The Godmother and I had already been for breakfast) and he was really, really helpful. And also a lovely guy. Actually, if you're trying to break into the job market, I couldn't recommend getting professional help enough - I've already learned so many things I've been getting wrong! I'll have to work on my now-overhauled CV for a few evenings (squeezed in around subbing practice - the first exam looms alarmingly close!)) and really oversell myself. Hopefully the conscious effort to do so will balance out my pathological hatred for any form of formal self-evaluation.

Right, off to skype mes parents!