Work Experience
Since Monday, I've been spending time at the Island's local newspaper for some work experience. (I live on the Isle of Wight. Yay for expensive ferries. And expensive buses.) It was for three days, and it was pretty awesome.
On Monday, I was introduced to everyone, and spent most of the day at the Island courts (first Crown and then Magistrate). It was actually quite interesting at first, but it did start to drag along a bit in the afternoon. Most of the cases were either traffic-related or drug-related. (Yes, I saw people in gowns and wigs. And yes, they reminded me of Clive.)
Yesterday, I went round with one of the photographers for the morning. We went to photograph this house, which was property of the week, and it was such a lovely house. Seriously, it was beautiful; it had a really big garden, and there was lots of oak and stuff. Also, the owner had the most adorable kitten, and it was so playful and soft! Both me and the photographer were squeeing over it.
Then we went to this center for the elderly, where several people from the circus were putting on a performance (they go there every year). They had a person in a giant slinky costume, which looked like something out of an acid flashback but was suprisingly good. Then they had a guy on a unicycle, who juggled and skipped rope, and another juggler from France (who also did diablo). Then there was the clown, of course. (Can't have a circus without one.) And guess who he dragged up to help him? Yeah.... I turned into Robin Hood with a balloon bow, and the photographer had a good laugh while taking pictures. It was pretty awkward, since 1) I don't like being the centre of attention and 2) I was really unsure of what I was meant to be doing, but I got a balloon flower out of it (which I promptly left at the office when I left, because I'm forgetful like that). Then we went back to the office, where I was given some press-releases to write up in the style of the paper, and was shown how the pages are lain out by one of the sub-editors.
Today was my last day, and it was a little slow for me. I did a couple more write-ups, and I went along with one of the reporters for a interview, but everyone was pretty hectic as the paper gets printed up on Thursdays, so everyone was chasing up stories and whatnot. Still, I overheard this story about a guy who stole a toilet from a pub. Yep, a whole toilet, and he just walked out with it, and he'd fixed up the plumbing and everything. It was a pretty crap idea really, since what can you do with a toilet? It wasn't a fancy one, it was just your regular bog-standard loo. He must have been a bit of a shithead.
I remembered to take my flower with me this time, but I gave it to a little girl on the way home. I think it made it day, and she was very sweet.