Today started like Groundhog Day. If you saw my day one post I mentioned that Clare was stressed about the ‘Pride of Australia’ series the Courier Mail is running. Today I would be working another journalist, Madura McCormack, and she too was stressed about ‘Pride of Australia’. So once again it was straight into work with only a cursory hello.

Madura asked me to flick through the mornings paper and come up with a suitable question for the vox pop we would have to do later in the day, and with just enough time to complete that task we were out the door.

We were travelling with a photographer to get a streetscape photograph of five locals who lived in the electorate and could answer some questions about issues that affected their electorate. It seemed like an easy enough assignment to me. Four hours later I would be proven wrong. That is how long we spent trying to get enough people to participate. And we still didn’t get it done. Trying to wrangle five people from the same electorate during mid-week when most people are at work proved a task too great for us. We have to return tomorrow.

But it wasn’t a complete waste, we got our vox pop done. We went back to the office to put the final touches on “Word on the Street’ and grabbed a late lunch. I handed Madura all of my Pride of Australia research which I think was greatly appreciated and may come to good use. I think it was a great help to Madura and Clare. Both journalists I have worked with have been really nice and incredibly helpful but they are both clearly stressed.

Late in the afternoon Madura asked me to write an article based on a media release that had come through, which resulted in my second published article in my time at the Courier Mail (not including the ‘Word on the Street’).

I’ve really enjoyed my time at the Courier Mail so far. I’m a bit wary of how stressed Madura and Clare have been but for me it has been fun and varied and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.