Right! So, my last few days at the Sunny Coast Daily were a whirlwhind. Things were going well, one foot in front of the other article-wise etc, when life took an unexpected turn shortly before I left on wednesday afternoon. Technically, I’d been assigned to the features and travel section,  but so far the emphasis had been heavy on the features part of that title. But that changed a tad when my editor handed me a travel piece! Woohoo!

 

I’ll hold off on putting the details of exactly what my assignment was on here, as it will only be published in about a week, but basically, the bare bones of the assignment was to go visit a bunch of Sunny Coast attractions and review it. I also had to review some B-E-A-utiful accommodation. Here’s where it gets interesting. Part of the job involved calling up the owners and having a chat, and as you’d expect with an opportunity for free adversiting basically, they were very happy indeed to have a reporter drop on by. So enthusiastic that they wanted me to stay the night at said luxurious accommodation, and provide me with a delicious dinner too.

Initial thoughts? Woohoo! Bye bye student life for a day. My tastebuds were tingling in anticipation. Of course, I had to clear the stay with my editor first. Casually chatting with the owner of one of the establishments I visited on the phone, I made the excuse of time pressure and needing to check my schedule before committing to anything (mmmhmm, yep, I played it cool – bit surprising really, but I seem to have pulled it off).

After the call I waltzed up to my editor (ok, so maybe it was more of a suppressed bounce, the possibility of free stuff is always exciting), and explained the owner’s kind offer. What a let down. Alas, I the dream assignement wasn’t to be as awesome as I’d well…dreamed. Due to insurance limitations for interns, I had to decline. Sigh. I can honestly say I didn’t bounce back to my desk, drooped perhaps?

Ah well, I still got to spend half a day touring lovely places, albeit in a rush(9 attractions plus accommodation and about an hour and 20 minutes inclusive travel time all packed into about 4 and a half hours – yikes). And, also very exciting, because the paper couldn’t spare a photographer for a whole 3 or 4 hours, I was to  take the pictures! Nice! So I got to learn how to use one of the paper’s less new-fangled hi-tech cameras and shoot away. The real photographers whittled down my hundred shots to a more reasonable 8 or 9 acceptable ones for my editor to pick and choose from. It was a whole lot of fun actually, and I got quite good at my “Hi, Lara from the Sunshine Coast Daily, mind if I take some pictures?” routine too. The story is to be published this weekend I think, with my pictures. I’m really looking forward to that actually, not being a photographer it will be interesting to see how well it all came out.

Friday was also very rushed. Tying up loose ends and whatnot, and finishing up articles. It was also the last day for one of the reporters, heading off to start a family (poor thing looked ready to pop, and was due in a week exactly!). So, naturally, cake was involved. Caramel mudcake from the Cheesecake Shop. So, my previously tingling tastebuds got a little treat afterall.

I wrapped up on time and made the 2 hour (haha, allowing for traffic and wrong turn time) drive back to Brisbane.

 

Now that I’m home, I’ve also had time to download a couple pics from my trip too. Mostly of the beach – I even got up at 4.30 on my last day so I could snap some shots of the sunrise. So here are the pics, simply to make at least on of my otherwise visually uninteresting blog posts somewhat aesthetically appealing.

Oh, and John, I’m sure you’ll be relieved to know, this particular intern didn’t forget to get their paperwork signed (haha I was determined not to get sidetracked and forget) and kept in their hot little hand. It’s currently burning a hole in my handbag and I’m sure keen to get it back.

Cheers all! Hope you had a great time on your placements, and looking forward to the last four weeks with you all!

Ciao

Lara x