So by friday I was feeling pretty good. The work load had intensified slightly and the big push to get the weekend edition out was very exciting. My day went like this:

Got to the office early, wrote some briefs fromĀ  once large pile of press releases that was now smaller.

Went to the news conference. My idea to see what the situation was for people living in boarding homes that had been displaced by expo 88 was shot down like a pinata and a 12 bore. But at least I said something.

Made a few calls and began to tie up all my straggly stories.

Went out in the QT car on my own with a Canon 1d! to take a pic and interview a lady who bought a 1955 Cadillac Coupe de Ville on ebay. When you hold a real gun for the first time and you feel how heavy and cold it is compared to the plastic novelties of your youth you become a real man. It was the same with the 1d. What a sexy machine that is! Sexy in a Xena kind of way. Anyway I had no idea how to use it but struggled through.

Got back to the office. interviewed the guitarist from The Angels who I had to frantically research the night before as they are apparently famous. Yet to be convinced. You Tube and Wikipedia saves the day!

Went to a medical centre and did an interview for a story about flu vaccinations for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

Got back to the office. Double vox pop time and no car or photographer. It was a second opportunity to handle that beast that got the better of me earlier, so I jumped on my bike with the camera bag and did ten people rapid fire. I was so pumped up by this time nobody would have dared reject me! Photos were awesome; shame they were printed the size of postage stamps.

Got back to the office. Wrote my cadi story, drank instant coffee, wrote my flu story, drank instant coffee, wrote the vox pops, drank instant coffee, finished a story about solar panels drank 5 glasses of water and wrote my Angels story. Said goodbye and waited an hour for my train in a ridiculously hyper-active state. Wound down about 3pm the next day.

I had a great time at the QT. They worked me pretty hard which I am very grateful for. I think JSchool gives you the opportunity to write more stories than any other course but working in a real newsroom is definitely a notch up. But at the same time thats what you are there to do. No phone bill, no work calling up to see if you can cover shifts, the name of a locally well liked paper to give you some cred. I interviewed David Hinchliffe in the toilet at my work recently – I didn’t have to do that here. So in some ways it was easier. Feel a lot more confident. The more I do this the more a see a method in it. We are all capable of covering any type of story. The more important it is, the more it is a case of just keeping cool and writing the story. I vow to no longer let people in positions of power or high-end electronic goods intimidate me!

Rob