Hello!

Before you condemn what could be perceived as raging arrogance in the title, there is a legitimate reason for it… and glory hallelujah, I’ve reached the gold standard in the NCTJ (apart from the portfolio which isn’t in until December, but that should be a breeze)! For those of you who don’t know, the gold standard can be achieved by getting A-C grades in all modules of the Diploma, plus 100wpm shorthand. There have been some moments it hasn’t seemed possible (I’m looking at you, shorthand and Reporting exams), but it’s over, it’s done with and I’m a GOLD STANDARD JOURNALIST. Unless my portfolio articles are beyond a joke, and I just submit pieces of paper with a crossword and a scribble, of course. I mean, who knows what could happen between now and December?

I’m currently in the process of applying for part time internships to take alongside my degree in London. They’ll be ludicrously popular because presumably other people will have similar ideas, but if I don’t apply there’s no chance I’ll get anything, so I’m ready and raring to go!

I saw fellow journalist Rachel for a most civilised dinner at Strada yesterday. We discussed ‘the industry’ (hoho), and her company is currently working on Christmas products, which sounds SO FUN! It made me really look forward to getting full time work actually. I just want to be earning and building a proper little life! We had a RIGHT old debacle as there was some horrendous, dubious ‘cheese mix’ on Rachel’s pizza, so it was sent back and replaced with something thankfully more edible. In case you’re interested (and I bet you are), I went for the risotto zucca.

In other news, I’m off to Oslo on Monday. Hooray! Customary post-trip city review coming up next Friday, of course. Aaaand not that it needs any more promotion, but my friend James has had one of his posts Freshly Pressed, which I find very exciting indeed, so check that out if you’ve not seen it already. Of course, I, being the true WordPress authority, will no doubt treble the number of views on that one as a result of this mention, haha.

I’ll try to post again before I shoot off to Norway!

Kayleigh