About an hour ago I made my first phone call identifying myself as Bec from the ABC in Brisbane. I was calling the Office of Fair Trading after being handed a media release about the safety of portable pools.

Unfortunately the story came to nothing, the new mandatory safety standards were not as a result of a drowning or a coronial inquest, the spokesmen said. So now I’m sitting here at “my” desk for the week, in front of the snack bar (so much chocolate) waiting to be assigned something new.

On my left are the recording booths, where the news is broadcast and grabs are recorded; this is also where you nip off to to watch the Super Bowl, apparently. Out the window on my right is the Wheel of Brisbane.

Providing the ambient noise is the incessant chatter of the police radio and the random conversations of journalists discussing story ideas, news and what they did on the week end. It’s quite a nice place to work.