Well that is probably an exaggeration, (Adrianno tells me I need powerful headlines) but I have felt much more confident this week as have found my niche, namely obsequios-sycophant-vox-poping-treeplanting-PR-spin-doctor.
Yes, I’ve honed my interviewing skills and feel quite comfortable giving people the 20 questions,,, I’m not afraid to ask the hard questions dam it! Like: “What have you most enjoyed about the Q150 top 150 historical documents on display at the railway museum?” POW right in the kisser!
I got a free lunch today, free party sausage rolls, I ate five (I hope it will prove to be enough to get me through to knock off time), thanks to Leightons tree planting project,  give back to the community junket. Mayor Pisasale was there hanging about for an interview, but I gave him the cold shoulder and took the lead from the Australian Plant Planting expert! I refuse to bow down to the Councils Spin Machine. OH, It’s ON!

What else, getting on with everyone well now. Have made my pocket of cronies but unfortunately I have to move desks every day and have to try and charm a new bunch.
Hmm, what else, oh yes, my last vox pop in the next couple of hours! Sweet Deliverance! I won’t be missing the sixteen-year-old toothless mummies smoking crack in the Swich Mall.
Oh I have labelled Goodna Stab City after 2 murders by stab in the last 2 weeks. Nothing like a good old fashion stab for a headline.

So I’m still waiting for two comments for my last two stories for the Tiser due at 5pm. All under control, everything going be all right.

So summing up, it has been a positive experience, once I managed to get my reeling ego under control from the slug-in-the-face concept of working for free, and I have learnt a lot. I’ve learnt on a regional paper, you are required to cover community news and this has to written in a much more colourful way than the hard news writing we have been practising. Although the tasks are sometimes uninspiring and menial on the surface if you dig a little deeper there is always an interesting angle to take or character to interview.

I’ve also learnt the Journo’s are a hugely different job from stockbrokers,,, but similar in some respects. The similarities would be, they both thrive under pressure, work well to deadlines and tend to be outgoing. Similarities end there. Stockbrokers tend to be a much more homogenous and aggressive bunch where the diversity in personalities in the office here (including the greater staff –photographers, subs etc) is much greater, and dare I say it more interesting and less one dimensional.
 
 What else.. oh yes, Localize, Localize, Localize… that’s the ticket.

All right that’s a wrap.

Raul Duke