TV rules my world

WELL once again I have let myself go a bit with the blogging but in my defense it has been a crazy few weeks! I've been through emotions I didn't even know existed and, as sad as it is to admit it, the television has influenced a lot of this.

The story starts a few months ago when I got a very exciting tweet from Metro (yes the newspaper!). Now as an up-and-coming journalist, and I use the term in the loosest of contexts because nobody has heard of me at this stage and even fewer would consider me up-and-coming, it was quite a shock to receive a tweet from one of the most circulated freesheets in the country asking me to write for them. They wanted me to direct message them which, as you tweeps will know, you can only do if the tweeter is following you which, unfortunately, the Metro were not. I replied as such and offered them a way to get in touch with me but to no avail and in a few days my excitement had subsided and within a week I had forgotten that my dream had come within my grasp.

Thankfully for me they were very persevering and a few weeks later they tweeted again after following me, I replied and it led me down the path I am now on. I am officially a VIP TV Reviewer for the Metro online and as such am proud to display the badge you see on my blog. This is literally one of the best opportunities to have literally come knocking on my door (HA to my mother who said that THAT would never happen!).

Being in full time work I sadly cannot dedicate all day every day to reading news, writing reviews and generally watching for the next big story. What I can do however, after a long hard day of selling contracts and explaining that Barack Obama owning a Blackberry does actually make you cooler for owning one too, is sit on my overly comfortable sofa, eat my microwavable meal for one and catch up on the soaps, dramas, real life stories and ridiculous countdowns that I have missed during the day. And then write my own opinion about them. It's just Facebook but more long-winded!

So here I am, after a hard week in the real world, losing myself in the world of others. And this week I have been completely gripped by the ITV drama The Jury. Crime thrillers are just my cup of tea so when adverts started showing for the program I knew I would give it a nose, but being skeptical of ITV drama premieres because I do consider BBC One's to be better, I was wary. Within thirty minutes the show had piqued my interest. There were twelve stories to learn, a mans fate to decide and Julie Walters to marvel at. Why was that man going to the tanning salon every day, would the teacher abort the baby and of course did Alan do it??

What I hate most about dramas, and of course what makes them what they are, is cliffhangers. I am an impatient person and if there is a way of finding out what happens next sooner, I will. I am the person who skipped to the last page of Harry Potter to see who died (FYI you can't actually tell from the very last page), the first to grab the remote and switch over to E4 before the credits have finished rolling on Hollyoaks to see if they catch Silas (please note I don't watch Hollyoaks but as I said before, crime thrills me) and probably the only person in the world who would rather be told who I end up with if it were at all possible. So a 5 night drama is the perfect show for me. Yes It still riles me when it ends and I know I have 23 hours to go but the beauty of having a real job as well means that I get thoroughly distracted from the drama on telly by the drama in my own life until I get home and then it's time for the next installment.

So this week has passed in a haze of jurors, phones and more jurors and I do believe that ITV have outdone themselves this time. The show really did have everything; romance, intrigue, suspense and controversy. And the best part of a show like that is that it really makes you look at the society we live in. With the ongoing debate across the drama about whether jury duty is a credible form of justice in modern day society and a look at how 12 different people can come to a unanimous decision it automatically makes the viewer consider what their verdict would be.

The program was directed in such a way that we were not led to a decision, each verdict was given equal weighting so it really was entirely up to us to decide for ourselves. I very quickly decided he was not guilty of the murders, the clincher for me being the glass of water taken to the bedroom as one of the jurors said, you take a glass of water when you go to bed to sleep, not at any other time. But I found myself wondering what if I were a little older or in the same situation as those women, would I take it as a personal attack and therefore return a different verdict? A program that can make you look at the world around you and the decision you make is so rare that ITV should take pride in creating one so powerful.

However, I would heed that they not get overly keen on the idea. Such a program works because it is rare. There are so many shows that stem from seeing a success story in a similar vein (The Hills led to The Only Way is Essex, which led to Jersey Shore, which led to Made in Chelsea which led to Geordie Shore and now my geography of the country is much improved but sadly my IQ is diminished). I think another series in a similar vein would detract from the value that The Jury has given to television at a time when shows can become so predictable and cliche, with so many obvious events and celebrations.

So there it is, my little piece of opinion which will no doubt clog the seas of the average web surfer. In the coming weeks I expect to make a little more social television commentary, especially in the build up to Christmas (it really does start earlier every year!) so please give me any feedback, arguments are always welcome!!

This is my platform, to do with what I please.

LATELY I've been looking for a way to voice my many and varied opinions on subjects from X Factor to the Rugby World Cup. Unfortunately moving flats left me with no internet for quite a few weeks but I now have it so I am back. There's far too much to catch up on so I'm going to concentrate on this weekend of television so far.

Well last night was the second week of live shows of the X Factor after four acts were sent home last week. Now, I am usually a huge fan of X Factor. I always have a favourite, last year was Matt Cardle, the year before Joe McElderry (I also have a knack for picking the winners!), and this year is Sami Brookes. So when Louis Walsh had a completely senile moment and sent home the best acts, keeping some of the worst, I lost all faith in the programme.

Thankfully someone in the viewing figures department picked up the general vibe that the audience were not happy with his choosing Goldie Cheung over Sami, forced Goldie to quit (family issues my a**e) and invited Sami back. And in one swift move I genuinely believe Louis had put himself back in the running.

And then the live shows began and as expected, Louis was the laughing stock of the show. Or rather, his acts were. Kitty is a self-obsessed, over-bearing, chubby-looking Gaga-wannabe, Johnny is camper than a pink row of tents queueing for Elton John tickets and Jonjo was painfully aware that he'd taken the place of a far superior vocalist in the form of Terry. Louis' only hope is Sami.

But once again he is stealing attention from his fabulous acts with his joke acts and his own appalling attitude. This year his sparring partner is Gary Barlow who is doing a very good impression of Simon Cowell at his meanest. Now as you may or may not know from my blog, I am a huge Thatter. That is to say I flipping LOVE Take That! So I would defend Gary Barlow to the hilt and never hear a bad word about my boys kindly. So when Louis starts making boy band digs by saying "ALL of you can sing" then pointedly looking at Gary I get riled. If it continues I'm going to feel compelled to go down to London, search Louis out and teach him a thing or two about great boy bands.

His whole purpose as judge on X Factor is to prove to himself that he still knows a thing or two about music. Now he's got competition in the form of someone who has been in a boy band, won an Ivor Novello award for songwriting, reformed now the best man band ever to have graced Britain and looked sexy doing it, Louis is showing his true catty colours. And it's getting tiresome.

Because of their petty squabbles alone, this year, for the first time, I find myself preferring Strictly Come Dancing. A lot of this is due to the fact that I know almost all of the celebrity dancers for once, some of it is due to the fact that Harry Judd, the drummer from McFly, looks very handsome in a penguin suit and none of it is due to Brucie's "jokes". The judges have a deserved respect between each other, Bruno makes it comical, Alesha makes it real because she really has been in their shoes and Len brings a bit of decorum to the whole affair. X Factor bosses should take a leaf out of their book next year and get judges who care about finding a star rather than proving their own skills. Then the show might not get so slated for being generic and predictable.

Now as promised, I also want to talk about the Rugby World Cup. I've always watched rugby but never as intently as this before. I think the change came at the beginning of August when I saw a game in real life. I was lucky enough to go and see a World Cup warm-up between the England first team against the Welsh "second" team at Twickenham. Before this experience I had never fully appreciated the beauty of the game. On television it's difficult to see the lines and the way they move together, it's like a well choreographed ballet and it was magical to witness. So since then I have sacrificed sleep, lie-ins and holiday lazy days in order to witness some of the best rugby I've ever seen, and some of the worst.

Worst has got to be the Quarter final between England and France. It's very easy to admit that England did not deserve the win. Messy lines, terrible hands and no atmosphere meant that even if France had brought their poor form of late, I still don't believe we could have won it.

And best has got to the Wales vs Ireland Quarter final. The skill of both teams had me completely gripped despite the 6am start. It was very tough to call almost all of the match but Wales just kept up the pressure and eventually the Irish started to crack.

Which leads us to this weekend and the semi-finals. Sadly work yesterday morning prevented me from watching any of the France vs Wales match but I am aware it was a very close match and many are of the opinion the result was decided very early on when the Welsh captain Sam Warburton was sent off for a dangerous tackle. Having read many opinions on the matter and listened to many more, I decided to watch it for myself and make my own decision.

And I must admit, I fully support the referees decision to award an instant red card. Now I won't claim to understand every rule in this beautiful game, their offside rule still alludes me (and before you think it, no, I do not have the same problem in football) and many penalties I just accept that the ref is probably right. But even I could tell that the tackle was extremely dangerous. To lift a guy off the floor and then drop him could have caused an extremely serious injury. As Captain of the Welsh team one would expect Warburton to know the rules.

He did have a press conference where he stated it was not malicious but the three week ban, which means the captain will miss the third place play off match, is not being contested by Wales which answers all the critics of the decision. They clearly accept that the tackle was dangerous and deserved a straight red.

As for the final, I am writing this as Australia play hosts and neighbours New Zealand and I for one hope that the All Blacks are successful. The reason behind my aspirations? I want to see that Haka again!

For now that is all the opinion I have. Enjoy the rest of X Factor, Strictly and the World Cup and I'll write again in the week!

Many things I expected, and many I didn't.

A lot has changed since the last time I wrote in my blog. I suppose the biggest change is the good news that I now have a job! Well, I've been offered a job, I haven't actually started it yet. One of the things I didn't expect is that, despite it not being a journalism job, I am really looking forward to starting work. I will be working as a Sales Consultant at Phones4U and have training all next week at a fantastic technological base in Birmingham, no expense spared. Although phones have never been more than just a way of keeping in touch with my friends and family for me I am looking forward to learning all about them.

Another thing that has changed about me is that I am now a graduate! Yes, last Thursday at the Lowry Centre on Salford Quays I managed to shake the Vice Chancellor of the University of Salford's hand without falling over or hurting anyone. Up until the moment we had to leave our seats and go round to queue to the stage I was fine, then suddenly the nerves just hit me and I was imagining everything that could possibly have gone wrong. Thankfully and unexpectedly, it was all fine and I had a fantastic day celebrating with friends and family. As was expected, I had a bit of a cry when I eventually got five minutes to myself. It was an emotional but fabulous day.

Having done all of these very grown up things and seemingly entering the adult world these past few weeks, it is rather unexpected for me to find myself once again sharing my house with ten strangers. Yes, I have come full circle and am now living in the student halls I started my student experience in. It's only a temporary measure while I was looking for a job and it's been fine but this is not the time of my life when I would expect to be writing notes on the fridge saying "if the bin is full, empty it, don't fill it with more rubbish." I mean seriously, that's common sense right?? But my nocturnal housemates all seem to think if we have cleaners we don't need to clean. So they don't wipe the sides after they've made toast, they don't put away their clean stuff when it's dry so it just gets dirty again and i'm pretty certain i'm the only one who empties the bin. It's infuriating that i'm back to this stage in my life but I keep telling myself that it's only for a few more weeks!

As for journalism, don't worry the name of the blog isn't going to change to "when I grow up I want to be a sales consultant". Journalism is still the aim, this is just a stop along the way. In my own time I'm going to be writing all the time, hopefully writing something I think is good enough to be paid for. Freelancing is the best way to get noticed in the field when you're first trying to break in so i'll just freelance for a year or two and it will pad my CV out a bit, I'll complete my NCTJ's at the same time and in a couple of years I'll apply for roles in journalism with a little more confidence than I currently have. I know it sounds like a bit of a basic plan but I believe it will work.

I'm not quite ready to give up on my dream just yet.

The beginning of the end for journalism?

One of the few things I never expected to happen in my lifetime has just been broken on BBC News. A national newspaper is being closed down. Not because they are making no money, nor because journalism is dead.

The News Of The World has not just been reporting the news this week, they have BEEN the news. For just over a week now the phone hacking scandal has been the hot topic of conversation. Needless to say phone hacking is illegal and the people it has arisen that the NOTW have hacked is part of what makes it so disgusting. They have hacked the parents of murdered children Milly Dowler and Sarah and Jessica, they have hacked parents of people who died in the 7/7 bombings six years ago today.

They have also been found to have paid police officers for information, also illegal in case you were wondering. The list of people hacked is extensive, with over 4,000 being contacted by the police force investigating the newspaper. Today News International Chairman James Murdoch has given in to the tirade of abuse being launched their way- this Sunday, the 10th of July, will be the News Of The World's last publication.

Obviously such a step is a response to the calls for such a thing, but is it the right thing to do?? Does it really solve anything? As someone who is trying to get into the journalism sphere, and struggling I might add, all I can think is that surely not every member of staff knew what was going on so why should all of them suffer? At the moment we don't know what will happen to the staff but you can imagine it's not going to look on their CV in the future because NOTW will only ever be remembered for the huge scandal that destroyed it. There is already talk of an alternative Sunday tabloid, a Sunday Sun as it were, but nothing is confirmed.

And many are being more suspicious of this turn around. Rupert Murdoch had said several times that the paper would not be closed down because of calls for it. He now claims he did not know the extent of the problems when he made such a statement but it is a complete 180. Many are saying the move was made in order to save the deal for a majority share of BSkyB, a deal which looked set to fall apart following the scandal.

But is this the beginning of the end of journalism? If a few weeks of scandal it's easy to see how some people believe journalism is dead. Combine this with the wikileaks scandal its hard to see a bright future for the "4th branch of the state". Arguably the NOTW is just one paper, and not exactly the classiest to begin with, but if a paper that has been running for 168 years can be destroyed over one scandal does it show a lack of support and faith in journalism?

Obviously for years the NOTW have had some shady dealings but they haven't always been involved in disgraceful behaviour. Many of the staff who have lost their jobs today were not involved, in fact most of them were not even working in the paper when it happened. Yes journalists should be held accountable, yes it is illegal and court proceedings should take place, but does that mean shutting down the most widely read paper in the Western world?

I for one am sad to see this day. One newspaper turning against another, one team of writers being hung out to dry for previous writers decisions, a popular newspaper being removed from the public. Yes the phone hacking was the most despicable thing any human being could ever do, not just any journalist, but removal of a newspaper is not the answer- removal of the people that made the choice to cross the line is the answer.

On the plus side, I daresay this Sunday will break the record for most newspapers sold in one day- I'll certainly be purchasing the last ever copy of the News Of The World.

A Nation of Strikers

Napoleon once said that the United Kingdom was "a nation of shopkeepers" something he meant as an insult but which we took to heart and are proud of. Now I wonder, if someone remarked that we were a nation of strikers would be hold the title as proudly? Strikes seem to be rife in the last few decades- tube workers, public sector workers, miners. You name the job, they've probably striked.

Striking seems to be the first port of call for any dispute and is something which not only disrupts that particular area but can have a knock on effect for the entire country. Today the topic is once again in the news as public sector workers downed tools over rows about pensions. Among the picket liners were teachers, customs officers and job centre workers. The row, as far as I can gather, is because they are expected to work for longer, increase the amount of money they put into their pension and not have a pay increase. These are necessary measures for the future. The pension age has not been reconsidered for many years but the age at which we are dying has risen substantially. So the state is paying for people to be retired for longer.

In case you hadn't noticed, we are in a recession. The only way we can get out of a recession is to save money and it seems billions a year being saved by raising the retirement age seems like a small sacrifice for those of us it will affect. The one thing you should know about me before we get into my whole argument is that I am not political. At least I wasn't until I came to university. I got caught up in the politics of our students union for two years, then the general election came along and being one of the most interesting and closely contested in years, it was rather gripping. Ever since, I've paid a lot more attention to the world. I still have no political leaning- I wholeheartedly hate Nick Clegg for reneging on his promise to students that got him into government in the first place, but that doesn't mean I support all of Labour's policies, nor do I support all of Cameron's.

But on the pensions and retirement argument I can see the logic in raising the age of retirement. All the health freaks out there that made us panic about eating too much red meat, white meat, fish, eggs, ice cream, tea or any other such ludicrous idea they come up with next (I'm sure the Daily Mail will have one for us in the morning) now have to deal with the consequences of making us all much healthier. The consequence is that we are living longer but working the same length of time we were working a decade ago.

Therefore, we need to work for longer, stop relying on the government to keep us going until we pop our clogs. Unfortunately that means that some people, myself included, are now looking at an extra four or five years of work. And for some people retirement was close and now is much further. But, someone had to make the sacrifice, and would we rather be selfish now and argue the point so that our children and grandchildren have to work an extra ten or twenty years on top of what they will have to now? Wouldn't we rather make the small sacrifice ourselves than see our country bankrupt just in time for our future generations to pick up the pieces??

Personally I think that future generations have enough to deal with- global warming is supposedly going to drown the entire world in their lifetime, the apocalypse will be coming during their time and now we want to dump an extra ten years of work on them just so that we can have 30 years of retirement, rather than 25?? Not for me. I'd rather take the plunge now, stop whining and build a better future for my children, and their children and hopefully their children too.

The strikers today are the most selfish of all. They have pensions, they will have a comfortable retirement while people in the private sectors- the writers, the cleaners, the shop assistants, the people who keep the country ticking over- will be wondering if next week's pension will be enough to keep them warm in the winter. The knock on effect of their day off to complain about how an extra four years of work might lead them to an early grave (when actually statistics show that people who are active, i.e. doing labour every day, live longer) is that the queues to get into the country were twice as long (as if that were even possible), the school children did not get taught and the private sector workers had to lose a days pay to care for their children who should have been in school. And lets face it, their days pay is much more valuable to them than an argument against a government who are happy to negotiate ever could be.

I may not be the most political of people but I know the type of world I want my children to grow up in and I want to know that I have done everything in my power to be the best it could be. Perhaps the teachers should be thinking about the children rather than their retirement fund as well. That's what they're paid for after all.

Life after an Undergraduate Degree

Well it’s finally over. Time to enter the real and very scary world of jobs, homes and pets. After three years of dedication I am coming away from the University of Salford with a 2:1 (almost definitely) in Journalism and Sociology.

For the past four weeks I have been applying for any job I think I have a chance of getting. Originally the plan was to apply for as many journalism opportunities as possible but I soon realised that doing so was limiting my chances of getting a job. So I widened my net to retail, media and anything I think I could do.

Another week later I realised I had to cast my net even further. So now I am applying for jobs in towns I am 400 miles away from, my hometowns of Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells.

Now, I am a fairly optimistic person but four weeks of rejections is enough to get Little Miss Sunshine herself down. At this point I am considering anything. And yet somehow I still have hope that someone out there MUST want to hire me. So I’m not letting it get me down too much.

So other than searching high and low for the elusive job, what else is there to look forward to once your degree is over?

Well, you get to pay ridiculous amounts of money to hire a silly gown and hat (I’m trying to sound nonchalant about the mortar board when in all honesty I’m hopping with excitement in my head) to the only company in the country that provides them to almost every university.

You also get to have the debate with your parents about how much they are allowed to clap/cheer/cry during the Graduation Ceremony. My thinking is my mother is allowed to clap normally, not open her mouth and save the tears for the car journey home as she drives away from me. My mothers thinking is she isn’t bothered what everyone else thinks, she’s proud of the first family member to graduate from university and she doesn’t care how much she embarrasses me! Great.

The only aspect of life after a degree that I am looking forward to is simple- I get to get my very first pet of my own. As it stands I don’t have a job, therefore I cannot get a home. Without a home I should not get a pet but in my head I have already pictured the perfect cat and I know that I will get it in the next year. It is ginger and white, with little flecks of black through it, a very playful cat who will cuddle up with me when I get home from a long day in the office and stick a lasagne for one in the microwave. That is the dream.

For some of you reading this you might think it sounds depressing. You might be wondering why I am choosing to enter this adult world when technically I could stave off adulthood for another year with a Masters. The truth is, though I was tempted by a Masters in Social Media (being the perfect complimentary Masters to my course), another year of education sounds banal, and a little like I am hiding from the inevitable.

For many it is the perfectly logical next step but in the past six months I have really outgrown education and to continue with it, I fear, would make me disillusioned with the system (more so than I am already) and would set me back in life, rather than propel me forward.

No doubt in six months I’ll be screaming for the days when I didn’t have to think for myself, I just had to listen to the adult stood in front of me and repeat what he said in an exam.

Good luck to those of you brave enough to tackle an MA, and to those also in the throng of graduates trying to find a job in the impossible market. Until I get a job there will be little for me to say so thanks for listening and hope to have some good news for you soon!

Media City UK visit

Pods, hot rooms, preparation areas, hero suites and Christie tiles. It sounds like the blue print for a new spaceship being launched but no, this is what is making it’s way to the students of the University of Salford in September 2011.

Unfortunately for me I have just completed my three years of study here but it didn’t stop me from having a little poke around the rapidly finalising MediaCityUK on Thursday.

Until now the MediaCityUK was an area kind of near me that I’d been hearing about for three years, the main reason I ever chose to come to Salford to study and the thing that lecturers were always saying would be our big opportunity. It had never solidified itself in my mind that this really was going to be a hub of media creativity right on my doorstep.

But a ten minute taxi ride later I was starting to see just how within my grasp this really was. With four other Student Reps, two members of staff and the Vice President for the schools affected on board (pictured above, picture 2), we went on a tour of the University of Salford floors in a bid to get a better idea of the transformation of the Salford Quays taking place.

Taking us round were Andrew Cooper, Academic Director of MediaCityUK, Callum Macdonald, Site Manager for Overbury and newly appointed Operations Director for MediaCity Nick Horan.

Overbury are the refurbishment specialists in charge of making Andrew Cooper’s dream a reality. They were given the shell of the building, and an impressive shell it is too (pictured above, picture 4), and are basically interior designers en masse, boasting sites such as Canary Wharf before winning the bid for this project. With 236 builders working on our four floors alone, it’s easy to see how the building site we visited will be completed in 11 weeks ready for the handover on August 29th.

As we walked round each floor the areas in front of us were brought to life with a little imagination (which shouldn’t be hard with so much creativity flowing all around). For me personally I was obviously most interested in finding the journalism suites and I was not disappointed.

For those of you not familiar with the University of Salford I’m going to give you a little bit of background at this stage so that it puts the MediaCityUK area into perspective for you. The current building that houses the journalism courses used to be a factory several decades ago.

The most infamous thing about the Adelphi building is that it is a maze. For my first year of university I would walk through a door expecting to know where I was and find myself in an entirely different section of the building, I could never find the canteen two days in a row and the school office was an absolute mystery to me. After three years I can still be led to a brand new room that I never knew existed and not be able to find it a few hours later. For the journalism rooms you had to find your way to the basement. I know it sounds easy, just keep going down, but the basement is blocked off into various sections. The costume department for the performing arts students is apparently down there as well but being an old factory all the sections of the basement cannot be connected so they could be next to each other but you’d still have to go all the way upstairs and find a new set of stairs to lead you down there. And of course in the basement there is no natural light.

Contrast this to what I am about to tell you and you can understand why exactly I am awed by MediaCityUK to this extent. On the third floor, in a corner overlooking the MediaCity Studios there is a News Preparation Area, fully equipped newsroom which can connect to the TV and radio rooms in the other floors, a presentation space with adjoining control room with specially made state-of-the-art equipment that wouldn’t be out of place in the BBC and Sky studios and a huge newsroom, the biggest room on the floor (pictured above, picture 1). All of these have floor to ceiling windows, air conditioning and every software you could possibly want as a trainee journalist.

But don’t worry, if journalism isn’t your cup of tea the other floors have something for everyone, after all the four floors are going to be home to 39 Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses in a few short months. The third floor is also home to the video editing suites, the ground floor has three black-walled studios which can be used for vocal recordings, filming, theatre productions and so much more.

By the entrance to this magnificent building is one of the most exciting aspects of the move- the Egg. The Egg is an oval stage in the centre of the ground floor, unmissable and therefore the perfect place for displays and performances. What makes it so exciting is that a wall can be built in the centre of this zone to make a room used for seminars or two stage areas. It is the wall that is most interesting because it is built out of Christie tiles, I fairly new invention that act as a projection screen. Films, Twitter feeds and much more can be projected onto the whole wall or onto one tile of it, making it part of the enticing technological developments within the complex.

And this development is not all about the students either. The staff at the University will benefit from magnificent views over the Quays, the 9,000 seating piazza and all the attractions of the area (pictured above, picture 3) as well as a transformation of the way they can work. Floors two and three are open plan areas, with pods for semi-private conversations and hot rooms for entirely private discussions.

Andrew Cooper said that the floors were designed as such because he wants “everyone, including staff, to feel they can move freely” and it certainly does give that impression. On the third floor there is a huge open space with the above ITV floors looking into it. This, Andrew Cooper says, is to help staff and students alike to “use this building as much as possible to display the talents” and who wouldn’t want to with such an important audience on their doorstep?

The original statement about the partnership between the University of Salford and the MediaCityUK was: “It will be an extension of the university’s main campus, acting both as a showcase for cutting-edge projects and exhibitions, and a hub for research and teaching activities.” and it certainly seems to have delivered so far.

Such a good investment, I am sorely tempted to return to education just for the perks of the building which, just with those four floors, is bigger than any other building on the Salford University campus. Watch this space!

Opportunity Knocks

Okay so I know I said it would be a few days until I wrote again but my life is VERY hectic at the moment so once again my apologies!

In the time I have been away from my blogging duties I have had several journalism opportunities practically land at my feet. My mother always used to say to me "Jobs don't just come knocking on your door" but the past week would beg to differ I would say!

The final two days of work experience were really good. I feel like the week really gave me some insight into my future and I definitely liked what I saw! I got to finish up early on the Friday because there was another work experience guy so there weren't enough press releases to go around! Chris, the man who gave me the opportunity in the first place, was really kind when he left, said it had been nice working with me and saying I should email him the week after to find out if any of my byline requests on lead stories were granted.

Well I emailed him a few days ago and hey presto! I have a couple of lead stories so he is sending me a copy of last week's paper and I will have some actual proper newspaper clippings! Not to say that the uni paper isn't real, it just doesn't have a big readership like the Sale and Altrincham Messenger!

So that was one opportunity knocking- the opportunity to improve my portfolio, which I also need to sort out with Steve because that is one component of my NCTJ Diploma which I have completely ignored! It will also improve my CV. Since graduation is looming "It'll look good on your CV" seems to be everyone's favourite phrase! Maybe they should have started using it at the beginning of university because then our CV's would be outstanding! Although mine doesn't look too shabby I reckon!

Another opportunity that came knocking was in the form of an email from a young woman inviting me to blog on a Manchester based student blog, much like the unitown website opportunity in the summer. Apparently my blog gets read by more than just my most loyal friends on Facebook as they read this and asked if i'd like to write for them. It's always a nice boost when someone thinks my writing is good enough for their own project. I know how protective I would be if I were setting up a multi-writer blog so i'm touched.

The third opportunity was one I had completely forgotten i'd applied for in all honesty! On one of my days of panic where I thought I wans't doing enough to realise my dream I applied for work experience at ITV, not really expecting to hear anything back because TV isn't what I want to do. However, there were chances to do writing behind the scenes so I applied with no expectations. That was probably six weeks ago and yesterday, in the same batch of emails as the blog opportunity, was one from ITV saying I had got through to the second stage of the work experience selection process.

Now it is yet more waiting, they have workshops in June in Leeds, Manchester and London and in the first week of June I will find out if I have a place. The best thing about this is, my friend Hayley from my course also applied and she also got through! So June could be a very busy but very exciting month!!

The final opportunity is obviously the best. Although something which I thought inevitable (not being big-headed but I did fulfill all application criteria), it has been confirmed- I have an interview for Editor of the uni newspaper on May 6th. The interview includes a 45 minute written test which seems to alarm people when I tell them but that's the part of the interview I know I can do! If i've learnt nothing else about myself in the past three years, i've learnt that I CAN WRITE!

I always used to think I had no talent so now I know that I do i'm hopefully never going to doubt it again! My worry is in the interview. I tend to say the wrong thing, can't describe what I mean, and get a bit flustered. Hopefully i'll be calm because this is something I do genuinely believe I can do, and can do well! But I know how nervous I get before interviews so i'm not certain!

One other thing, which is much less good news... I didn't win Student Journalist of the Year. I was disappointed because I did feel like I had a good chance this year but I did get awarded Gold colours for my dedication to the paper so I can't complain too much :D

The next few weeks will be dedicated to writing my final two assignments of my degree and revising for my final degree exam, as well as the rest of my NCTJ exams. So now I have a reason for not blogging for a few weeks!!

Over and out!

Work Experience Week

Firstly another apology that I didn't keep up with the writing every day this week as I said I hoped I would. But I did make no promises!

It doesn't make much difference actually because i've had three days of pretty much the same experience and press releases are now my friend!! I don't mean that the same thing was a bad experience, in fact the opposite is true. Writing fillers for 90% of my time is really making me hone my writing skills. Having to fit an entire press release into 50-100 words is tough. Okay so some of the fillers were a little dull but journalism can't always be about police chases and bombs going off.

Someone has to be left behind at the office filling the rest of the pages with things people need to know, and this week, that's me. I am really enjoying the experience, the time goes very fast, I am almost always busy and when i'm not writing i'm talking to the other people in the office about their stories, or last nights football (aside- SO happy Real Madrid showed Tottenham why they should stick to position 4-8 in the Premiership, they needed putting back in their place!)

I'm also perfecting the use of is and are, which and who. I've always given company's an identity and said "The Red Cross, who helped people in Libya" when what I should write is "The Red Cross, WHICH helped people in Libya" so it's good to be sorting these things now, when people are expecting me to not be perfect. Let's hope i've actually got that right here now!!

And it's not all been fillers, i've had few side bars, a couple of sport, some business and even two page leads, with a possible byline! I've even had to call a few people which is helping with my fear of the phone, always good to conquer it early on. And when I get a bit down that i'm writing non-stop and most of the stories will never be able to be credited to me i just tell myself that the reason i'm doing this is so that i have the best chance of getting my very own newspaper. Not just a story, column or section- the whole thing! And that most definitely perks me up. The thought doesn't even scare me any more so I guess I really have grown up!

In other news, the Graduation Ball is really coming along. A very successful meeting on Monday saw decisions on venue, price, date and DJ which is all promising. I am now in the middle of bossing someone else around who is very kindly designing the tickets and poster for it so by the weekend we will be selling tickets and it's crunch time- will it be a success? Will we sell enough tickets? Will anyone really want to come or are 405 members of the group just joining for a laugh? EEK!!!

Tonight is the USSU awards where it will be announced who has won Student Journalist of the Year and i'm laying in bed waiting for someone to tell me if I win!! Not that I am expecting to- I was in the collective that voted on the winners and although there was no discussion, if I hadn't been in the running I would have voted for Mark. He's a first year, already News Editor and he really has done wonders for the news section. He deserves it at least as much as I do!!

I'll report back in a few days to let you know if I am an award-winning journalist (!!) and how the rest of the week goes. Thanks for reading.

Gemma

Growing Up

It's once again been a long time since last wrote but i have very valid reasons this time.

The last few weeks my stress levels have been through the roof! I had three assignments back to back and rather than cleverly plan ahead I thought I could do the impossible by starting each one a week before it was due in. Start, research, write and finish three 3000 word assignments in a week each.

The most amazing part of this decision is that I managed it! I'm not sure I had enough references on one of them, definitely didn't have enough analysis on the second but the third one, which I found the hardest to begin with, I was really pleased with. Of course this means that i've probably got the worst mark on that one! But that's a worry for another week.

Two days before the final assignment was due in I went to a house party (I know, I should have been at home working but, well, I wasn't). And it was there that I decided to take on yet another task which I probably don't have time for, and definitely not organised enough to handle but that I simply could not ignore:

I am organising the University of Salford Graduation Ball 2011.

And before you ask, yes, I am mad! A friend of mine helped organise last years and I love balls. I love an excuse to go out and buy a brand new dress. I love having a three course meal and a night out which I can guarantee won't get messy. So when I found out that the Students Union weren't organising one for us this year, and hadn't for a few years, I was outraged.

Finishing university without the grand send off is like doing 50 years in the same job and being given a card rather than a gold watch! It's just not on. So I, somewhat drunkenly, decided I would make the ball happen myself.

That was a week ago and since then we've decided dates, looked round venues, met with events managers, rung round chocolate fountain rentals, begged for sponsorship and informed everyone of the news. I honestly believe i've done more growing up in the last week than I have ever done before.

Ordinarily I am terrified of phones, it's the unknown of what will be said on the other end that scares me. But this week i've just done it without hesitation. I also get nervous when meeting a stranger. This week i've met a stranger every day and survived. I've grown in confidence, something which was essential to getting good deal offers from the various venues, and i'm now prepared to go into the unknown until the ball happens.

In the next two months I will meet strangers, make dozens of phone calls, beg for money from anyone I think will sponsor the event, haggle costs with several different people and take charge of hundreds of students until they each buy a ticket. If you'd told me that's what i'd be doing this time last month I would have laughed in your face or hidden behind the sofa.

And next week I get even more grown up- I get to do work experience with the Sale and Altrincham Messenger all week. This is more growing up still because it's early mornings for an entire week, something I haven't done for almost three years, travelling to unknown areas of Greater Manchester, and I can imagine there are going to be many phone calls throughout the week.

This time next week I will be unrecognisable from the version of me that started the year! And the other difference might possibly be that I will be an award winning journalist... Yes, that's right! I am up for Student Journalist of the Year once again, having lost it to a good friend of mine last year. I don't expect to win it, the team on the Salford Direct this year have been fantastic and they all deserve an award but it's possible!

Since work experience next week is very journalism-related I will be trying to do a blog every evening of next week but I make no promises so keep your eyes open!

Domestic Violence + Lent

*DISCLAIMER- This may offend the deeply religious among you, but it is just my opinion, so, sorry.*

In order to fully understand what I was undertaking by giving up cake for Lent I went off on the Internet in search of the basis for it. I have always been an atheist, reluctant to believe in anything bigger because I think that life is ultimately in our own hands and we make of it what we will.

Don't worry I know the basics- six days, day of rest, Jesus was born, there was a donkey, he died, he came back again etc, but Lent was one of the stories that I had never fully known. And for those of you that are in the same boat (surely i'm not the only one?!) here it goes...

Lent lasts for 40 days and 40 nights because that is how long it is said that Jesus spent wandering through the desert. So for 40 days and nights people are meant to give up something very tough for them so they can understand the trials and tribulations of being Jesus. Or something like that. Except, whatever we choose to give up we can indulge in to our hearts content on a Sunday because apparently every 7 days Jesus was allowed some water.

As i've made clear, i'm not all that religious, but I really don't understand this part of Lent. I can understand with Ramadan that they can eat once the sun has set because they have to eat. But the point of Lent is to understand the suffering and surely everyone would understand it better if they couldn't indulge in a sneaky cigarette at the end of each week?

So, for Lent, as some of you may have read, I am giving up cake and doughnuts, baking and eating. Which is a lot tougher for me than it sounds. But by my reckoning it's going to be very easy if I am allowed to bake and eat an entire cake each Sunday! So my house mate and I have agreed that we will not have cakes, even on Sunday. So we're actually going to have to go 47 days without cake. So technically, we're going to be better than Jesus yeah?

Unfortunately for me, Lent has come at a very bad time. In the next three weeks I have three assignments due which add up to almost 9000 words. And they are all Sociology so it's a lot of reading, a lot of understanding and not a lot of enjoyment on my part since I have completely lost the "buzz" for sociology.

I am currently in the middle of reading up on domestic violence and why it happens and if there is one thing you need after a day of reading about how "all men are potential rapists" it's a cup of tea and a slice of homemade Victoria Sponge. So, needless to say, i've been finding the challenge of Lent very difficult, especially since we have some cupcakes left over from our last baking session that I am not allowed to eat!

But I am determined to complete this challenge. I am well-known for being a person who gives up, unless it is something that i desperately want. For example, when i was 11 and had to choose which secondary school I went to I would only let my parents put one school on the list which was a grammar school, for which I of course had to pass an 11 plus to get into. But, because I wanted it badly enough, I did it and got in.

When it came to making the decision about what I wanted to be when I grew up, as the name of the blog suggests, I was determined that my future was in writing and journalism was the home for me. And here I am several years later, still holding on to that dream no matter how many people try to shake me off it!

Now, I may not have the same amount of determination about this cake business as I did about my education but I am determined enough that when a cupcake is waved in my face to say no (some people are as determined to see me fail!).

But it is only Day 2 so we shall see!!!

Gemma

Lent and the F.U.T.U.R.E

In three months I graduate from university. The plan for my life is to then get a job as a junior reporter, slowly climbing the ladder until someone lets me into Features and I eventually become an Editor. The reality is journalism jobs are dwindling, but more people are turning to it as a profession. Which means that for every job opening there are hundreds of applications. And much as I hate to admit it, my CV would not stand out.

So, I need a new plan for the future. And here's where my problem lies. There is a very good opportunity for a very good job as the Editor of the the university newspaper. I have been involved in the paper for two years now and the previous Editor told me I should go for it and at the time I really wanted to. But a year has passed since then, I've seen from the current Editor how much work the job is which i'm not sure it is the ideal job straight out of university.

I am also unsure I want to be an Editor, it was never part of my plan to do Editor first then go back to reporter. I'm not even sure that would be possible. I don't want to get pigeon-holed into an Editor position without ever having the experience of court reporting or a junior reporter. This is how people get their contacts and their tales and these are the experiences which shape you as a writer. I really don't want to miss out on that.

But the alternative is to get any job that will pay the bills and freelance until someone realises my potential which could be years and I might lose the thrill of journalism. Something else which I definitely don't want to happen. So i'm going to at least go for it- what's the phrase? "Throw my hat in"?

That was a whole lot of rambling for a decision wasn't it?!

Today is Pancake Day, so I had the customary body weight in pancakes, sugar and lemon juice. That makes tomorrow Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. I've never been much of a Lent person. I don't have any addictions, nothing which I could really do with cutting out of my life so my usual Lent line is "I'm giving up giving up, i'm very good at it."

This year however i am partaking in Lent in order to help out a friend. My friend wants to quit smoking but he can never manage it. So my housemate and I have decided that we will give up baking and eating cakes, including doughnuts, if he gives up cigarettes. Nobody quite understands what cakes mean to us.

Almost every weekend since the beginning of third year we have made a cake. If we are bored, or meant to be working, or there is something to celebrate, we make a cake. It's not the face that we then eat them that is the hard part, I can cope with not buying a flapjack when I go to my Monday lecture. But baking is my stress relief and final year is a lot of stress!

In the next 47 days (Lent, it turns out, doesn't count on Sundays) I have four deadlines. So ordinarily that would be 8 cakes, one while reading and preparing, one whilst writing or finishing. So I am officially in the market for a new stress release. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Well, that's me for the night!

Gemma

Journalism vs Sociology

Oh dear- it has been an entire month since I last wrote my blog. And I have hardly any excuses. In mid February I had my NCTJ Essential Law exam and the NCTJ Reporting exam a day later. But apart from that I have frivolously wasted away my time, neglecting my poor blog for more exciting reading and writing, such as my experience of speed dating (I did it for my career and I won't hear any more about it!).

So the Essential Law exam... Honestly it has been that long that I've forgotten what happened with it! There were a couple of short answer questions which I had never known the answer to- the head of the judiciary and what "taking the silk" means. But thankfully I feel like the other questions were passable at the very least. In the week leading up to the exam my brain had no capacity for anything other than McNae and even on the day of the exam I felt like I had not done enough. But the questions fell in my favour and I feel i've done enough for the pass at the very least.

The next day was the NCTJ Reporting exam and what a kerfuffle that was! The problem was we needed computers for the exam, obviously, and apparently had not booked a free computer room. Thirty minutes after the exam was meant to start we were still trekking round the maze that is the media building at Salford University trying to find a room to do it in. Eventually we came across a room of Mac's and with one guy in the group owning one we were soon all set up. This was a 2 and a half hour exam and after 90 minutes I was finishing up, went to add a header to this (bearing in mind I don't know how to use a Mac) and the computer crashed. I had saved it after the first of two questions, but not since so I had a major, but silent, meltdown. Thankfully the technician came and saved the majority of it, missing off the last ten minutes of work. So I finished up and got out of there before anything more could go wrong!

Since then I have thrown myself into my final semester which consists of entirely Sociology modules, apart from shorthand. Unfortunately I chose to do a course including sociology on a whim because I had discovered I was good at it during A-Levels. Let me tell you, for a journalist who wants to be writing news stories and features, not essays, five years of sociology is too much! It is becoming harder and harder to switch my brain between writing stories and writing essays and the harder it becomes the less I wish to do it.

Since the exams I have learnt that I passed my NCTJ Court Reporting exam. With a low mark but a pass is still a pass and that's all that matters. It worries me slightly that the one I was confident on came back with a lower mark than I was expecting, makes me nervous about the other law exam which I am far less confident about. But only time will tell now!

As for shorthand. Well! I had originally planned to take my first exam tomorrow, the 3rd of March. Unfortunately, despite my commitment to working at home this semester, I still do not feel ready, still yet to continually complete passages at 60 words per minute. So my teacher and I have agreed to postpone my first exam by a month, by which time I am hoping to sit the 70 instead of the 60. Then the 80 in May and 100 in June. Right? Right!

Anyway, very little to report, unless you want me to rant about the unreliability of Arsenal but I'm sure you don't want to hear about that!!

Progress

As much as i would love this to be about the new Take That album, it is not. No, this is about my progress. Because journalism was such a huge learning curve for me, having written essays all my life then being told i had to throw all the rules of essay writing out of the window for articles, any progress is a huge achievement for me.

When i first started learning shorthand i thought it was going to be impossible for me to ever be able to write it fluently. But the strangest thing is happening. As i am writing this the outlines are popping up in my head, i'm hearing people talk and in my head i am writing the outline. Many would think that this was simply me being slightly mental but for the shorthand elite out there i'm sure you can understand how important this is. In the past two days i have had 6 hours of shorthand and although it has been exhausting it has also finally started to click the whole language into place.

After two and a half hours of shorthand today my brain was shutting down and my mood was darkening.So instead of forcing onwards i sat back for ten minutes, watched others in class doing dictation and writing the outlines in my head and taking note of the words i couldn't work out quickly enough. Then i decided to try the last piece of dictation. We started at 60 words per minute and ordinarily, due to lack of regular dictation, i have big gaps where i have forgotten what was said. But this time it flowed. Words which would usually catch me out just wrote themselves. I was writing the word as it was being said which is a very new experience for me. Then we tried it at 80 words per minute and again i completed the whole passage. Finally we tried it at 100 words per minute and to my complete and utter shock i completed that one without any gaps. Admittedly upon the third time of hearing the passage i am bound to remember it better but the fact that i could still be on the pace is a huge step forward for me.

Now all i need is for everyone to take down the exam passage ten minutes before me then for me to do it since it was that which cleared my head!!

Next week sees the long awaited return of the Student Direct: Salford Edition and i get to write my favourite article of the year- an opinion piece on how much i hate Valentine's Day!! This year i have even more reason than usual to hate it, other than the usual being alone and the commercialism of the whole thing. This year i have an exam on the day of the cursed "holiday" AND the day after as well. So even if i wanted to celebrate it, i couldn't possibly.

Still, I am very much looking forward to suggesting to the readers the top ten things to do on your anti-Valentine's night. Any suggestions are welcome :)

I read on Twitter today a tweet saying that in a journalism class of 40, when asked who knew nothing about what was happening Egypt, 20 students raised their hands. Half the class of future media professionals had no clue about the huge uproar against the dictatorship, about the fatalities and the constant riots. I find that absolutely shocking. I admit sometimes news stories pass me by, i have a long day at university and the last thing i want to do is trawl through several newspapers or websites to find out what i missed but i never fail to catch the BBC News at 6 or 10 and i always try to read the top stories before i go to bed. I urge anyone that is reading this and wants to be a journalist to follow suit because there is nothing more embarrassing than admitting you don't know what is going on in the world you live in.

Thanks for reading, follow me on Twitter @gemmathejourno

:)

Examitis

I haven't written anything for a few weeks because i had one exam which i went nuts revising for! One week before the exam i decided to start properly revising for it, which is my usual system and hadn't failed me up until now, but this time it was not enough. I was in the library, in the silent zone (a heavenly place where crisps are not eaten, phones are not vibrating and even the slightest noise gets scowled at!) for at least six hours every day. Hundreds of flashcards and the biggest blister i've ever had on my finger later and it was time for the exam.

A few subjects had come up while i was revising that i simply thought would not come up on the exam, one of which was what happened to treasure. I read the single page written about it and thought that it was unlikely to come up in a court reporting exam. Sadly, it did. Luckily it was only one part of the question so tried to remember what i had read, but to little avail.

That one slip up aside i feel that i did enough to pass the exam, thankfully. £44 for an exam means that i am loathe to pay for it again and spend another week of my life learning quotes from Lord Justice Diplock, McCollum, Watkins or whoever else! So hopefully when the results come in the next few weeks it will be good news!

Until then, there are more exams to revise for. The other half of the journalism law exam is on Valentine's Day and then the NCTJ Reporting exam is the following day. I have allowed myself this week off from revision, instead choosing to remind myself how to write in shorthand and making preparations for our house party.

House party of course took priority in the last few days. Friday saw the night of the party and at 10pm we were worried that were still only a handful of guests. I had been telling myself that this was normal for a house party because it is but even i was nervous at this point. Then, as usual, everyone arrived at once and by 11pm the house was bulging with people. Unfortunately 6 and half hours later the house was still bulging and i was desperately tired! By 6am everyone had eventually left, thirty minutes later i was fast asleep and by 10am i was up again taking care of my guests!

A long winded drive around Manchester and Salford, a mountain of bacon and egg sandwiches and a vat of tea later everyone was happy and leaving. Then came the clean-up operation! Having only had four hours sleep i was not in the mood for mopping up the vodka jelly that had somehow gotten everywhere!

Yesterday went in a blur of reading, napping and watching TV in bed. Eleven hours sleep later and i was fully recovered from the weeks antics. Today's plan is to practice some shorthand (now that i am in the MA's class i feel a little more dedicated to the extra hours of work a week!) and do the last of the cleaning which thankfully isn't much.

Then tomorrow, two weeks until the exam, revision must start again just as semester two classes begin, just to make it that little bit harder eh?

Post-holiday blues

Well Christmas holidays are technically over and of course that means the onset of exams and more people on Facebook during the day writing statuses asking why they didn't pay attention in lectures, if it were possible to invent the pen in Harry Potter that gives the right answer or the latest in procrastination theory.

And this time i join them. I had been looking forward to being one of the lucky few that did so much work during the term that i did not have exams but then i realised that taking NCTJ classes means at some point i would have to take NCTJ exams. I have been doing NCTJ classes for two years now and have left it to the last term to take the exams. So here i am, writing another blog entry rather than revising because it would seem that even paying for an exam and having to do so again if i fail is STILL not enough motivation for me to revise.

In the past week i have written approximately ten flashcards about Contempt of Court and i see no more flashcards in my immediate future. Why is revision so difficult to do? Once i get started i am happy to sit down and write out dozens of flashcards telling me that section 4 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 gives me a defence for writing extraneous articles as long as they are contemporaneous and in good faith. Well look at that, i learnt something! And yet, the motivation to stop watching re-runs of Friends and Come Dine With Me, get out of bed, switch Facebook off and open McNae's 'Essential Law for Journalists' is severely lacking.

I am destined to fail this exam and pay another £44 for the privilege of trying again in 3 months or feel the burn when i sit in an interview and explain that no, i did not take my NCTJ's because i was learning how to cook a rack of lamb on Masterchef!

And shorthand. That pesky little language that i am supposed to practise every day for thirty minutes else i won't be able to take my 60 words per minute in March, let alone 70 or 80. So by my estimation i have neglected to do approximately 15 hours of practise and have a class tomorrow morning in which i will be competing with the MA's who work 9-5 every day and in their lunch breaks discuss the best way to shorten sentences in order to pass the 100 exam in March!!

Okay well, i have definitely panicked myself into some sort of action now so i am definitely going to do something pro-active with my afternoon. Oh wait- Man United vs Spurs in 45 minutes? Ok, after that i'll do something. Promise. ;)

Holidays = Lulls

Well Christmas and New Year have been and gone and i have not written a single thing in longer than i care to remember. The worst part about this is that there is always so much to write about at this time of year and i've just watched it pass me by!

I could have written about the serious decline in soap Christmas stories, taken a look back at 2010 and what's to come in 2011, or just generally talked about world events- England retaining the Ashes, Darts over the New Year, the flooding in Queensland, the lack of water in Ireland, the poor girl found murdered on Christmas Day.

But alas, i have not. And now it is January the 6th and far too late to make any comments about any of these. One thing i will do though is tell you all of my new years resolutions. Yes, unfortunately, it is that time of year again where everyone lies to themselves about this year being the difference. For me, these are not resolutions, because that would suggest at some point i had resolved to do the opposite of these decisions. These are simply statements of things i intend to do with my time rather than sitting wasting my final months at university away watching re-runs of Friends and Scrubs!

So my plan is three-fold (yes that was a very subtle Friends reference):

1. I WILL get a job whether Manchester likes it or not- otherwise everything else will fall out of place.

2. Despite having a job taking up all spare time i will also put more energy into my extra curricular activities- the student newspaper deserves much more attention, especially if i do decide to run for Editor in April! I will also put more effort into Twitter, reading more blogs, newspapers and features and of course this blog!

3. I will work very very hard at all of my essays this year, no matter how much i dislike the subject, the reading load or the lecturers. Sociology will NOT drag down my entire degree mark thank you very much!

With this plan set in place i am unlikely to fail. That's what i will continue to tell myself anyway, along with 6 billion other people who have vowed to work harder, lose weight or dump that loser boyfriend!!

Over and out!

Gemma