Back to the ‘Swich for my second week. Went to the NC and met the editor for the first time, he was away last week. He was running the NC now and I felt quite nervous about my ideas. I pitched both and the first one was welcomed, I am not sure how he felt about the second. It’s quite a performance, this NC business! I am enjoying hearing what everyone has to offer though. I look forward to it.

I began to work on my story, researching previous stories and talking to Zane who covered them. He told me about sources to ring and not ring! I called one source and he was a lovely old chap who needed a chat.

The highlight of the day was when I was sent to local library to research back issues for an upcoming story. They will be covering the ten year anniversary of September 11. So they only had two papers in hard copy so it was my job to look at issues from the 14th to the 21st. I had use the microfilm machine. I had always seen these in libraries and been intrigued by them. They are will probably disappear as the great digital storage revolution takes over. But for now, they store back issues on little rolls of film that the machine magnifies. It is hooked up to a PC which I was able to scan to my USB stick. I was fascinated by how the A3 size could be reduced to film the width of three fingers. The big story in the region at the time was the cancellation of an airshow due to the attacks, which was a big economic disappointment. A real shame caused by something on the other size of the world. It was interesting seeing the different design of the paper of the day. Today’s seems so modern and clean. I noticed Tony Moore of the Brisbane Times was the deputy editor then.

The air conditioning stopped today which I found quietly amusing. Those who know me, know I don’t like how they can sometimes run it too cold. Well, today it was sleeves rolled up and the back door was open. Zane had the fan on him which he got some stick for from one of the ad ladies!

Tomorrow the Prof drops in for a visit, better go find that red carpet.