Ok, so, there may be a small chance that the list of interesting weaponry it a tad misleading, but hey, it sure made my title more interesting, and certainly kept me awake today. And now you’re stuck reading my blog.
Yesterday started quite early for me – at (very briefly) about 3am, 3.30am, and properly at 4am. I don’t sleep so well when I’ve got a lot on my mind, lots to pack, and a big ol drive to make.
I set off at 7am from my home on the Brisbane’s southside, to my internship at the Sunshine Coast Daily Features and Travel section (which I will hence forth refer to as the SCD, because I’m tired, and its easier), in Maroochydore. That’s about a 2 hour drive if you include traffic and my tendency to get lost.
I was supposed to get here at 10am, and arrived as planned, an hour early in time to refresh myself with a coffee and scunge off maccas free wifi. Excellent.
Fast forward, I find the paper without incident, and waltz on in early. Unfortunately, my editor was held up at a meeting, and little ol me was left unattended for a little while. Thankfully, a lovely lass from the editorial desk came to my rescue, found me a desk (oh, I laughed, the chair kept descending when I sat – so far that I felt like a munchkin – I’ve since replaced the chair) and whisked me into the daily news conference. Ha, oh how awkward. I was in one of the more prominent chairs in the room, feeling extremely awkward, surrounded by editors and journalists galore. Oh yeah, lets not forget I was sitting next to a freshly minted Clarions award winning journo. However, everyone was truly lovely, and easy going. Yay for the Sunshine Coast.
My editor arrived part way through the meeting, and prevented me from marinating in my awkwardness for too long. Insert here orientation speech and guided tour.
My first assignment arrived around the time for lunch (again, lovely journos – the girls went out of their way to invite me to lunch – cheers ladies), and I worked on that throughout the afternoon. Ocsober anyone?
Worky worky worky, phone calls, notes, typing etc. etc. 5pm and I leave the office.
Its freaking cold at night on the Sunny Coast. Crap.
I’m now going to change tack a little, and briefly cover the accommodation aspect of interning. Because frankly, we get sent all over the country side and we mostly have to figure out some sort of accommodation. As students, this is always an interesting exercise in getting the most bang out of your measly student buck and creativity.
I’m fortunate, and managed to wrangle my connections to get a place to crash for a couple weeks with an old friend of my dad’s who lives about half an hour further south of here in Caloundra. I was a little unsure of how this would work out, because neither my dad nor I have seen this chap since I was about 14, ten years ago.
I found the house ok (this time google maps, you worked out nicely), and re-introduced myself to my dad’s friend. He was absolutely lovely, he moved up to Caloundra to retire, but didn’t like the not working thing (my kind of person right there), and couldn’t be lovelier. Nice conversation, he had a meal ready and waiting, and had set up his lock up garage – separate from the house – with couches and bunk beds and a separate bathroom for guests. Really, I lucked out. The only thing is the house is sans internet connection, and gasp! No data connection on my phone there either.
Slept well, and returned to the SCD for day two at the extremely leisurely hour of 9.30 am. Ok, *cough cough* maybe it was more like 9.45. Sigh. My tendency to get lost reared its ill timed head and I ended up in Mooloolaba rather than Maroochydore. I sent my friendly editor a text to let her know, and from all reports she found it hilarious.
Finished assignment one, started the second one (interviewing a local author about her book) and am now as you may have guessed, typing this up after my intern-type activities have finished for the day at my desk (now with new non-munchkin chair!) typing this rather long blog.
Thanks folks, if you’ve read this far into the novel, I’m too tired to get ruthless with the cutting and whatnot, so cheers. Here’s your reward, the samurai sword? The baseball bat? The FLAMETHROWER? Yeah, there’s a police scanner near where I sit, and its mostly mundane, but occasionally throws out some gold. One of the other reporters is following that one up. Stay tuned for next week’s episode. Or, a couple days. I’ll let you know if anything interesting comes of it.
Ciao bambinos.
Happy holidays or merry interning, whatever you’re up to these days.
Lara x
Oh yeah, did I mention that I’m staying 5 min walk from the beach? Nice.
Update: here’s the link for that story I roped you in with