Off like a rocket

From "tumbles and turns" to rockets shooting off into the heavens.  That's the way my journalism career seems to be going.  I can hardly keep up with it.  In fact, today I have been out to Officeworks to buy one of those giant desktop/wall calendars with big boxes each day so that I can track all my due dates.

with triathlete Ashley 

(is it actually possible to take a photo with an iPhone that is NOT blurry?)

Yesterday I interviewed up and coming triathlon champion, Ashley Portas for a magazine article.  He was extremely friendly and we had a great chat at Campos coffee.  I bought him brekky (eggs and salmon - protein hit) which is now called an "expense" but I don't think my fee includes expenses.  Lesson No. 1:  will need to stop feeding my interview subjects! He is so focused to succeed. I found him very motivating and really enjoyed meeting him.  Now I am struggling to write the piece, which is to be in an interview format, but only 700 words!  I'm only half way through it and have already blown out my word budget @#$%^&*  How can I trim it and still keep the "vibe" of his story for crying out loud?  Grrrrr......  Meanwhile, before uni really gets cracking, I need to punch out another couple of columns for the two running magazines, just so I can get on top of those and don't have to think about them while I am trying to do all my uni work.  Meanwhile, uni this week has been absolutely phenomenal!  The stuff I have learned in one week has blown my mind, quite literally.  Look at this TED talk for instance:

 

This semester is all about developing our creative side and planning our major projects for next year.  I have about three assignments due for each subject so I need this calendar to keep track of what is due when.  I really want to do well and give it 110%.  And I am bursting my brain thinking of good ideas for my Major Project.  So far, all I have is a few scratchings and a bunch of scribbles....  

To top it off, I have been offered the opportunity to learn how to be a radio producer!!!!!!  I will be sitting in, watching, from next week but the gang tell me it won't take me long to work out what to do with all those dials, knobs and general buttons (not dissimilar to a cockpit).  I am extremely excited about learning this new skill as I think it will really help my journalism career, A LOT.  And then - yesterday I was offered a part-time position as "web editor" of an online running site.  They tell me it would just be about an hour per day and I will be paid and all that but now I just need to sit back and have a Big Think about the right direction for my jet-propelled journalism career.  I have to be careful not to try and do everything, thereby spreading myself too thin and not actually doing anything well.  I can't believe that this early on in my new career, I am in a position where I need to make important decisions about journalism jobs.  I still have a year of my degree to go!  So, I am in a bit of a cerebral pickle.  Oh, and there's my running coaching too, which I love to do.  I think I need to go have a lie down. I'm exhausted!  Any advice would be greatly appreciated folks.  Thank you.

Tumbles and turns

Hi readers!  Apologies for not writing sooner but I've been busy working, studying and being on holidays.  Time just flies by, as I discovered when I realised I'd not been for a run for ten days.  Needless to say, when I DID run, I was as stiff as .... as ..... as stiff thing.  Groannn.  Not fun at all.  I should have packed my running gear for Melbourne but I was trying to save room in my suitcase for shopping!

This was our first stop on arrival in Melbourne, at Laurent Boulangerie.  It was morning tea time you know!  We'd had a "harrowing" arrival in Melbourne as the airport was in blackout on landing.  We couldn't get out of the 'plane.  I figured this was a bit newsworthy and contacted the ABC Online news desk and sent a few photos along (taken with my iPhone).  Well, blow me over if my picture wasn't the front page "splash" of the website for a little while that morning!  I was also interviewed by the ABC people in Melbourne and they added my quotes to the story!  It goes to show that news can happen ANY time and ANY place so I have to be ready for it.  I think I need to develop my news sense +++

Melbourne is just such a fantastic city!  We love the atmosphere, the feel of it - the "vibe".  It was cold, but not icy.  The cake shops were sensational (unfortunately) and I had a bit of a macaron overload.

As you would expect, Queen Victoria Market was brilliant!  We caught the tram there and spent the morning salivating and gasping at all the delicious fruit, veg, cheese and seafood for sale.  It was absolutely fabulous.  How lucky Melbournites are to have this right in the middle of the city, every day (except Mon and Wed).

Antipasta that looked so fresh and delicious!

Beautifully green and crispy-looking veggies

Yes, you read that right.  Coffin Bay Oysters for $11/dozen!  Get outttttt....

This cheese shop was ..... my idea of heaven.  

We were at the Market on Friday morning and stumbled upon ABC774 radio station doing a live broadcast from the market.  It was great!  Like being at a live show - which, I guess, it was.  There was lots of interaction with the audience, some interesting speakers and music!  One of the musos, Casey Bennetto was especially excellent. He is so smart, so clever... He could come up with song lyrics and play his guitar with absolutely no warning.  He was funny, his music was great.  I am a new fan.  He wrote "Keating, the musical" which would give you an idea of his talent.  Other musicians there were Angie Hart and James Reyne who both played and sang their songs. It was a really super duper morning. Lucky us! 

Here I am with James Reyne!

We also had a perfect and delicious dinner at a restaurant called "Cumulus" which was one of those memorable meals that we will still be talking about in a year.  W.O.W.   Spud was especially excited about the prevalence of hot dogs shops in Melbourne and we managed to find one "dog" for him.  I could just go on and on and on about it but I realise I need to stop writing and do some research!  I am interviewing a triathlete this morning, for a magazine, so need to get my questions finalised.  Will write again soon!

Shock and awe

Yes, shock and awe works pretty well for me as a post title. I've just been examining my blog's statistics and I am quite amazed at who is looking at my blog, how they come to my blog (via Google mostly) and what words bring them to me (I must avoid "breasts" and "Nigella Lawson").  It makes quite fascinating reading, but is also a little disconcerting, in a manner I can't really explain.  

The other shock for the week is that we are not in Vanuatu, as we are supposed to be but instead, ended up at the hospital extracting mum from the coronary care unit after she decided to have a heart attack, 16 hours before we were due to fly out.  So, we cancelled our holiday and instead, we're enjoying the pleasures of northern NSW during winter.  It's actually been very pleasant and relaxing, though it's a full-time job corralling mum who wants to get into her garden and dig up some shrubbery.  She called the cardiologist's office yesterday to make a follow-up appointment and told the dour secretary that she was going for a jog on the beach!

We had brunch on Sunday at The Beach Cafe at Byron Bay (this was the view) to cheer her up but unfortunately, there weren't many "heart healthy" items on the menu really.  Well, nothing that looked as tasty as the bad stuff.  Isnt' that always the way?  So, with heart disease now evident on both sides of the family, I guess I'd better start kissing goodbye to cheese and ice-cream myself - and keep up the running!  

Mum is threatening a 100% pure carrot diet for her heart health but I'm sure this is just a knee-jerk reaction.  I've seen it before.  Spud was stented himself about eight years ago and I haven't seen him eat a raw carrot since!  Instead of Vanuatu (currently 26 degrees C) we are going to fly down to Melbourne (currently 9 degrees C) for a few days.  We love Melbourne and really, with my skin cancer "issue", it's much better to be fully clothed and out of the sun, don't you think?  Can't wait to be in Melbourne again as it has been several years since we were there and it will be great to have a little bit of a holiday before uni starts again next week.  

This wattle is in mum's garden - together with black cockatoos flying overhead.  Fabulous!

Ahhh-ha.  Mum has just woken up and is in an all together different frame of mind this morning. Instead of thinking her heart attack is all a bit of a laugh and adventure, she is starting to be worried about it, thinking she is having another attack.  I think she's moving into the next stage.  We were wondering when she would stop being so relaxed about it all.  Luckily my sensible brother has arrived from Sydney and he will straighten her out.  

I made these French macarons yesterday.  Yes, they are macarons - not geological specimens from the Simpson desert!  They are my first attempt and they were utterly awful.  I think I over beat the egg white so when they cooked, they seemed to separate.  They were so chewy that our jaws ached.  Priority Number One in Melbourne is to find a decent macaron. After that, it's off to the Napoleon exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria.  

Just had to post this photo, taken at the local BWS store, attached to the supermarket.  Yes, that's a bottle of Grange for $699.  And it's right by the automatic-opening doors, so it can have lots of lovely temperature changes throughout each day.  I am not a "wine wanker" but I know this is some fancy wine and shouldn't fancy wine be kept in a fancy 'fridge so the delicate (expensive) flavours aren't ruined?  By the way, isn't red wine good for your heart?

Turning the page...

So, a new financial year and a new career, the highlight of which occurred, ironically, on Sunday 1 July.  Day One.  I spent three days on the Gold Coast last weekend for the Gold Coast Marathon weekend.  I go every year with my fabulous running group, Intraining.  In addition, I had asked the editor at ABC News Online if I could cover the event.  He amazingly said YES and suggested a "colour piece".  I armed myself with Spud's fairly basic SLR camera, my iPad and my notebook and headed off into the sunrise.  After lining up my First Ever Media Pass (!) I arranged to be at two press conferences on Friday afternoon and also arranged interviews with a couple of people I'd heard about through the organisers of the event.  The Elite Athlete press conference (my first) was my introduction to the world of sports journalism, with hordes of gigantic zoom lenses slung across journo bodies.  It was a little .... er.... intimidating.  I stayed on after that for the Indigenous Marathon Project presser and met some of the runners, who were all very friendly, if not a bit shy.  Interestingly, one of the girls is from Maningrida, Grace, and she pointed out some "locals" who had flown down to run (separately from the IMP group).  I went over and started chatting to them because, of course, my friend Swellgal has been working up there for five years or so and would know of them.  Well, as it turned out, this group had their own amazingly interesting running story.  They were a great bunch of people, working together and running together in rather trying conditions.  One of three, Gerard, has a blog: www.ironmanlegend.blogspot.com which he had just started about the day before I met him.  This guy knows A LOT about running.  This is them below, after they finished their various runs.

Exactly as were have been taught in journalism school, sometimes the best story is not the one standing right in front of you (the Indigenous Marathon Project) but the one you see when you least expect to (the Maningrida runners).  I am sure I will write about them some more in the future.  Saturday morning saw me run faster than I have ever run before.  I had been hoping to break 50min for the 10km,  my previous personal best having been 50:09.  So, I was really wired and ready to go and I DID IT!  I finished in 48:37.  It was The Very, Very Hardest Physical Thing I have ever done. I have never pushed myself so much. Running in the finish chute, I thought I would cark it.  The official (and hideous) photos are the evidence of my distress.  However, as soon as it was over, I was overjoyed.... of course.

Secondary to running so well, the highlight of my weekend was meeting the people I did and having the experiences I had while composing my story for the ABC.  It really required a lot of work and focus.  Meeting people, ensuring I got accurate information, fact-checking, photographing, writing the story and then trying to send it when the Media Centre had run out of WiFi...  I learned SO MUCH in those three days.  I got a really good finish line photo of the winner of the marathon but not without a battle!  I had a really great spot, right in the centre, until all these bossy, aggressive "snappers and shooters" with HUGE lenses elbowed in on me.  Luckily I had befriended an SES volunteer and he let me climb up onto the camera stand where I had a perfect view.

You can probably tell already, can't you, that I have Major Zoom Envy?  It wasn't until I was driving home that I heard from a friend that my story had been published on the front page of ABC News Online.  As you can probably imagine, I was extremely excited.  And I was trying to drive!!  I just couldn't believe it. I really couldn't.  It was absolutely the most fantastic thing that has happened to me so far in my journalism career.   I mean... the ABC!  That's not chicken feed you know!  http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-01/diverse-bunch-flocks-to-gold-coast-marathon/4103252
After recovering from that thrill, Monday marked the first day of a one-week internship at the Murdoch-owned 'The Courier Mail' newspaper. I was to be working in the Online newsroom but it actually all seems to be blended together really.  I didn't note a real differentiation.  It was quite impossible to get an idea of how the newsroom works there in just one week.  However, day one and this was my desk:

A promotion to Website Editor on my first day!  I pitched a story idea on Monday and went out with a photographer to interview Rob de Castella and Lee Troop, two of Australia's most incredible and successful marathon runners and Olympians. It was a great story, I thought, though I realise now I wrote too much.  It didn't get used.  Neither did my Tuesday yarns.  By Wednesday I was thinking I was in a bit deep and, having nothing in particular to do, headed off to the city on the shuttle and found my own story.  It wasn't too hard to find a story as a major football show-down was on that night and the city was choked with fans.  However, I needed to find a new angle!  I interviewed a couple of people and wrote a few words (by this time I had learned to keep it tight!) but I was despairing of the quality/content until the sub-editor told me I was ON!
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/ian-goes-nuts-for-the-queensland-state-of-origin-rugby-league-side/story-e6freon6-1226416763554
Unbeknown to me, the other intern Claudia had been sent to town to cover the donuts story so my yarn just segued nicely with hers.  Hooray, I was starting to get the hang of this gig...
Thursday saw me attend the Supreme Court for the sentencing of a notorious triple-murderer.  It was a media scrum, which was an eye-opener in itself, but it was also extremely harrowing listening to the victim impact statements and examples of other gruesome murders used to illustrate prior sentences.  By the time I got home that evening, I was up for a BIG glass of red wine.  I don't actually know how a judge can stay "normal" if their career involves listening to sordid tales of savage cruelty all day.

Found this via Facebook and loved it.  It helped me face Friday...

After Thursday, I wondered what was in store for Friday and soon discovered, as I set off with a photographer to visit a potential crime suspect.  The idea was to try and get a statement from that person as to whether they had hired a lawyer and if so, possibly get a name. Ha!  I think they sent me along because they knew this bloke was never going to talk - and they were right.  I did learn however that one must always visit the "Ladies" before going out on a hunting mission and always carry a snack and some water in your handbag when travelling with an enthusiastic photographer.  I wrote a yarn, which was awkward because there was nothing newsworthy about what we were doing at all, but I felt I should provide something after three hours in the shrubbery.  Trying to write about nothing was a very good exercise however, reminding me that it wasn't about what I "thought" but about what I was actually seeing and hearing (ie nothing).  After learning the other intern had had another story published (about fashion week) I really felt down (read: D.I.V.A) thinking I was obviously totally crap at being a journalist.  Yada yada yada.  Spud soon sorted me out.  The editor at the Courier even told me it is quite normal for journos not to get a story published for up to three weeks!  So, I need to get over myself and ....

Last night I met up with my journalism mentor, Ernie, who was brutally honest with me about my ABC story, telling me I'd buried the lead and suggesting that the ABC only left it on the front page of the website for four days because they are too busy to remove it and they needed something to fill a hole.  YIKES!  I offered him my stainless steel filleting knife and asked him if he'd like to borrow that to really drive home the message.  I know, of course, that what he says is true but I'd been holding on to the ABC story as my proof that I can't be completely awful at journalism and he rather chopped it for me.  He wants me to re-write the ABC story with a different opening par, so that's my homework.  The thing is, I'm glad he was so honest.  I'm not going to learn a thing with someone pandering to me am I?
I've had a HUGE week of journalism.  As the Courier Mail editor said to me, the internship is about finding out if I really want to be a journalist and my answer is a resounding YES but...  I don't want to do stories of only 80 words that involve chasing people down streets.  I want to write people's stories.  Is that still journalism?  It's made me think about the different types of journalism and consider what defines "journalism"?  There are so many commendable journalists out there and so much more for me to learn.  I will just have to be patient, keep reading, keep writing and keep on keeping on! I have learned an enormous amount this week and am just so lucky to have had these opportunities  #luckyme
PS:  found this amazing photo-essay (?) re Marie Colvin this morning on the Vanity Fair website:  http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/08/marie-colvin-passport-photos#slide=1

One thing I can safely say is that Journalism Ain't for Sissies!  Ha.

  

A teaser

Hi readers.... if I have any left after neglecting my blog for over a week!

I have been SO BUSY and so much has happened that I want to write about but, of course, right now, today, this minute, I just can't write it all because I'm a bit busy. It's Saturday morning and we have interstate visitors coming at 12 and I haven't made up their beds and then we are off to see "Yes, Prime Minister" at 2pm and then we have a few neighbours coming for drinks....  So, in my usual form, I have bitten off more than I can chew.

Basically, last weekend was the Gold Coast Marathon and I ran really well and also covered it for ABC News Online and they published it (!!!).  This week I have been doing my internship at The Courier Mail and ohmygosh, I learned so much then too.

So, as you can see, lots and lots and lots to tell you about.  Can you give me another day?  I hope this time this morning I will be blogging myself senseless.

Here is a hint of what's to come ...  

Medical mayhem

This post is not about journalism. It is not about running.  It is about sunscreen and medical terms.  It all started when I tested some fancy face cream yesterday that vows to make me look younger and to plump my skin!  I tried a blob, smearing it over my middle-aged face and asked Spud whether I looked "younger"?  Of course, he replied with the absolutely correct answer!  However, at $140 for a little golden-coloured pot, I was in no rush to purchase. Besides, it didn't have SPF in it. I have become obsessed with SPF, twenty years too late but better late than never.  This is because I have been breaking out into all types of skin cancers.  Since Christmas, I have had a squamous cell carcinoma, three basal cell carcinomas and an intraepithelial carcinoma excised from my face, neck and back and as I write this, I have another big old itchy, red BCC on my chest awaiting excision upon my plastic surgeon's return from South America.  I can't believe I "have" a plastic surgeon and all he does is cut barnacles off me....  Aaaanyway, I am determined now to only use moisturiser with SPF and if you notice, next time you are in that glossy department store beauty section, hardly any fancy skin creams have SPF!  Similarly, it's just about impossible to buy a stylish pair of sunglasses that is polarised.  And we are living in Australia.  Why IS that?

So, I had thought I was using an SPF moisturiser but after talking to this beauty product saleswoman I went home and examined my tubes. It seems that the tinted SPF-infused "finish" is some kind of base (for what?) and the Ultra Sheer Dry-Touch cream is just plain old waterproof sunscreen. Neither are actually moisturisers (which may explain why I am suddenly seeing so many more lines around my eyes in natural light).  So, off to the pharmacy today and now I think I have finally got the right product.  How can I have made it this far without realising there could be so many different types of goop that you put on your skin?  Maybe I should take a bit more interest?  How many other women have no idea?  The message here is this:  get it right early in life so that you don't turn into one giant skin cancer in your later life.  When quizzed as to the frequency of these eruptions of aberrant DNA, the plastic surgeon (my old boss) uses those two nasty words, "old" and "age".  Groann....  

Regarding illness, my friend Sarah saw this poor sick pooch enjoying an outing at the dog park this week.  Apparently, the pup is very ill and all efforts had been made by its owners to give it some fresh air, despite the dog having an IV infusion and being too sick to walk.  It is highly commendable to me that these people obviously love their doggy so much that they are prepared to go to all this effort for the poor animal.  

This morning I read about "takotsubo syndrome" and "capture myopathy" in a fascinating article about the similarities between animals and humans and their illnesses.  It was in The Australian magazine and you can read the article here (remarkably, it is not - yet - behind a pay wall).  I have always been quite fascinated by the concept of "broken heart" syndrome, having heard stories aplenty of elderly couples dying within days, weeks or even hours of each other. I even thought it was happening to me once, the day my dad died.  We were in the coronary care unit and I thought I had angina.  The nurses were so sweet.  My heart was hurting so badly and I remember thinking how appropriate it was that I was already standing here in the CCU, right next to the resus trolley, which had been decimated by my dad's death.  Then they gave me some antacid and I recovered....  

On a highly funny note, Spud saw this photo on the front page of The Australian yesterday and mistakenly took it to be a picture of Peter Costello, a very conservative politician.  Can you see any similarities?  They'd have to be purely cosmetic because the only other thing I think the pair of them have in common is that they both feature on this blog right now!

Distractions

It's Friday morning and I have showered, brushed my teeth, put on some clothes and now I am in front of the computer Ready to Write, Write, Write. I have lots of writing to do.  I can NOT be distracted by Twitter, the news headlines, my email account, the painter on his trestle transforming the house next door, the dog, the sound of a bird ....  I have to focus 100% - which is why I am getting this blogging done right now.  So I can then have a clean slate, ready to go.

It all started because I have several photos, spotted during the week that I put on my desktop "for the blog" and when I decided to tidy up my desktop, I realised I would have to write the blog post to put the photos away.  This one above of ... swoon...  two of my favourites just has to go in. I don't know where it came from. I found it on Facebook.  I know it's time to get over my "thing" for Hugh and Colin but it's just an admiration rather than a full-blown Bay City Rollers-type lunacy.  Lucky me has married a man who leaves these two in his wake!

This is a photo of the lovely Heidi, wonder dog and amazing runner, photographed here snoozing on the sofa at a fancy dress birthday party with her Thunderbirds eyebrows in situ.  Heidi, aged 14, died peacefully on her back verandah this week.  She was my running coach's dog and became our team mascot, running with us all those kilometres.  We are going to miss her very much.  

And this photo is courtesy of the Koala Hospital, Port Macquarie.  They do great work there, saving koalas that have been injured.  Sometimes, with all the news I am trying to read, I just get depressed.  I really enjoy reading Happy News stories.  Stories with a positive outcome or a quirky, fun factor. Okay, back to work.  I have so many projects on the go that I don't know where to start so need to take a big breath, write a list and work through it.  Cheerio!