First week over! Phew!

I've managed to get through the first week, yay! It was really good, but incredibly exhausting. On the second day we were thrown straight into learning shorthand, which is literally like being five and learning to write again. Because we have to be able to write shorthand up to 80wpm in order to gain the full NCTJ qualification (no one will be willing to take you on without it, apparantly) we have fifteen hours worth of lessons in it a week, which is more thanany other single lesson. Here's a little example of some words which I've been learning to write this week.



We also have to do law, public affairs, news writing, production, features and subbing. We've not had subbing or features yet, but we have them tomorrow, so let's see how they go! Only problem at the moment is work experience - I was only informed three weeks ago that I had to find it for 18-22 Feb. Despite sending out a ton of letters and emails, I've yet to find a placement because everywhere is full (Empire's work experience programme is full right until the end of 2008!). I'm trying to find the time to make some calls, but I spend six hours a day travelling to and fro the college, so most days I'm out before six or seven, and back after five. I'm going to try and call some places while I'm on the train tomorrow.

My biggest worry was that I wouldn't get on with the people on the course, but everybody seems really, really lovely, and there's a group of us that meet on the bus in every day!

Getting scared now..

I'm into my last week at work (not even that, I have Mondays off and my last day is Thurs, so I have a 3 day week), and will be starting my journalism course on Monday 2nd Feb - eek! I'm very scared at the moment, I never was particularly good at going into new places and meeting new people. I go all shy and end up coming across as a bit weird...

My fear is not being helped by the fact that I was only informed on Friday 18th of this month that I'm required to find a week's work experience from 18-22 Feb at a major magazine. It's not possible I tell ya! I spent all last week sending off grovelling letters and emails, as well as some of my interviews/articles from the website (and spent ages writing a 250 word film review for a couple of applications), and so far have had 3 responses; all 'No'. Not because I'm no good, but because they're full, and have been for months! Argh!

I used to be such an optimist, but I'm not any more!

I'll post again next week and update you on my first week. I will be positive, I will be positive!

Thank Goodness That's Over With!

Hurrah, the fun day's all done and now I never have to worry about it again! No more worrying that we won't be able to find toy cutlasses in the shops, or that no-one's going to turn up (among various other things)!

The day began badly when I got to the bus stop and realised that I'd left behind a bag with a load of things in that I needed. I contemplated just leaving it, but ended up walking back home to get them, and missing two buses in the process! However, I eventually got to work and found Caroline, the childrens librarian, in a state of panic - she'd been worried that I was ill and she was going to have to do the whole thing herself! After a scrabble around for various things (crepe paper, glue, the least sticky sellotape in the world etc) we went shopping and thankfully managed to find everything we needed. For future reference, Gamley's is a great place to get toy cutlasses...

So we headed back to work and made sure we had everything we needed, and then proceeded to spend two hours or so checking a CD of sea shanties (track 10 had rude language so we couldn't play that one to the kiddies!), cutting out strips of crepe paper, writing down various pirate phrases and doing a million and one other things. All the while I was getting crankier and crankier (I do not respond well to stress!) and Sam was winding me up more and more, but I suppose I should just be grateful he turned up! At 12 we were ready to leave, but I had a sudden panic that we didn't have enough bags of chocolate coins (we gave them certificates and a bag of chocolate coins each at the end) so we made a mad dash to Saninsburys for some more. We finally got to the centre at about 12.45 (only 15 minutes before we were due to start!) and set about getting things ready.

Not everyone turned up, but they were replaced by gatecrashers, so the event was still full. It started off well and they seemed to particularly enjoy playing 'Port & Starboard. Things did get a bit iffy when it came to the drama workshop though, as they were too young to really understand what acting was, even the little boy who actually goes to drama school. However, I just grabbed Caroline and she did story time with some pirate books which went pretty well. Sam, meanwhile, was seriously struggling with the craft activities (muppet). A couple of mums who'd stayed ended up helping him out! The local paper didn't turn up, but I was actually quite glad about that - I was already stressed enough!

So thank goodness that's over and done with! Next time I have an idea I'm gonna keep my big mouth shut.

Fun Day Finally Sorted...For Now

At last it looks like I've managed to sort out the fun day! Just as well, seeing as it's only a week away, the local newspaper is coming and the event's now fully booked. I've managed to rope my friend Sam into helping out - I'm not sure how he's going to do, but believe me, he was the only person left to ask!

It was necessary to change the activities we had planned for the workshop, as the majority of children coming are younger than anticipated. But anyways, we're gonna kick off with a couple of sea themed games then split the children into two groups. They'll make a couple of things ('Pirate's Pouches' and 'Mermaid's Purses', as well as either a pirate hat or mermaid tiara) and then attend Pirate School! It's gonna be scary, but hopefully it'll go down well!

'Jolly Roger Fun Day'

OK, so a week Friday I'm running a fun day that I organised through work. The idea is that under 5's can come along and do sea themed activities with the staff of the children's centre we've partnered with, and me and my best friend run a drama workshop with 5 -1o year olds. Only problem is it looks like my best friend's not going to be able to do it as it clashes with her uni timetable. Argh! The event's nearly full (47 out of 60 places are filled) and I cannot do the drama workshop by myself! I haven't brought the props yet either because I keep forgetting how near it is. At the moment I've got my fingers crossed that a friend of a friend, who is studying performing arts at my old college, will be able to help out. Yeah, let's keep them tightly crossed....

The original idea was that this would look good next year, and that the library where I work would be able to do something connected with RaW (if you want to know what it is then take a peek at my article on the 'Struggling Authors' website). We'll be taking along some of the RaW 'Quick Reads' and joining people up as library members on the day - the thought being that people will come along and have fun, and then connect the library with that fun.

If I get someone else to help out that is, otherwise the whole thing will be a total shambles...

First blog entry!

Ooh, I'm now officially a blogger.

Managed to set this up with the aid of Richard's tutorial on the website and shall get blogging. Only problem is that I'm not all that interesting so I probably won't have all that much to say until February when I start my journalism course at Brighton City College.

I'm a bit scared about it at the moment to be honest - the bloke who did my interview was a complete *insert rude word here* so I'm not sure how I'll get on with him. Other thing is that everyone else taking the entrance exam at the time were much older than me, and they all had degrees - I'm 20 so I'm not old enough to have completed a degree even if I hadn't changed my mind about going to university (originally I was going to do Media Production at Glamorgan but I decided uni wasn't for me). So for now I've got to work on doing as much writing as I can to prove to myself that I can do it...

Struggling Authors Website

Magazine Journalism Course