Hurdler's Race to be Mortgage-Free

Hurdler

Lord in heaven... HOW MUCH HAVE I WRITTEN!!! Gah! These had better count for the portfolio otherwise Imma gonna chew my feet off!

Hurdler

Towards the end (finally finished at least the ones I had managed to find online) at around 11pm... my notes accompanying the stories were roughly "I wrote stuff, they printed it, mmmkay?"

We had better be talking about this today at school now!

Monday I need to do a mock paper before my interview and school... but going to my mothers after school, so debating whether to lug my heavy folder in the car so that I can actually do some revision notes ... I think I just answered my own quessy...!

Hurdler

So they told us at school at the weekend that we have a mock reporting exam tonight, so spending the day doing finances, filing, shorthand and revision notes.

I have my interview for a tennis site later this afternoon and then school straight after... but at least I now have my Monday's free to do stuff for my course.
It's a great feeling.

What would be even greater is if these grey clouds stay off my washing!

Tomorrow - I start as a writer!!! Woot!

Edit: and OF COURSE after trawling through all my printouts of placement work and gathering them for the portfolio... did we chat about it at all? Noooooo!
But we did find a great tortilla place for lunch, so ... bonus.

DawnW

Good luck Hurdler! You're doing great by the sounds of it :j

misscousinitt

Hi Hurdler

Just caught up. Good luck with the next chapter and enjoy...

MCI

Hurdler

Well I was called into the office by my course director before last night's mock - thankfully I have enough in the Portfolio as it is to pass (and he gently nagged me to do my features in that kind of grizzly bear gnawing at your limbs kinda way... so Imma gonna do my features this week!!!)

The mock was... ugh. The "stories" had no useful quotes AT ALL in there.
That's 2 crappy non-story exercises we've been given recently... mehhhh!

Today I have tweaked 3 articles... then got a press release from the trade show of last week so had to tweak one of mine AGAIN!
I also am going to wade through a bunch of hifallutin stuff from someone who wants a bit of exposure - but first... I have a session with the accountant of grumpiness.

gallygirl

:eek: You're not with NoSweat Journalism Training are you - they've gone into liquidation :eek:

Hurdler

gallygirl wrote: »

:eek: You're not with NoSweat Journalism Training are you - they've gone into liquidation :eek:

No thankfully not... I saw that as I was heading out to the accountants actually.
There are only three (well were!) places around the London area that were recomended (of you weren't doing a full on academic masters)...
One course is in Lambeth (and one of our tutors teaches there), one is News Associates and the other was... No Sweat.

I looked at their stuff but they were most DEFINITELY targetting the young - and News Associates had on their site testimonials from people changing career and that's exactly why I went to them.

Well I went to see the Accountant and my obviously worded-note-of-pique rang a bell with them, because the guy was unbelievably trite. Apologised for being so brusque, and now realised with everything moving as quickly as it had, I was concerned (especially with small margins for only part time work, and yada yada yada...

So now it comes down to simple maths.
I took him to task a bit for the confusion regarding filing of VAT and we agreed that I would do it with their assistance a couple of times and then after that no problem.

So now I need to talk to the online folk and see what the combination of their service, + setup (one off cost) but the addition of self assessment tax return on top comes to.

Feel a bit brain tired, but I remember what someone on my placement sad - it's a happy tired.

I am just about done for the day - just some stuff to print out and review for tomorrow for potentially more interview questions ...

I sense there is more work here than the original part time days catered for, but then I do have to be strict regarding finishing my diploma now... serious stuff.
Hurdling game face on.

Hurdler

Well I ditched the accountants and not surprisingly got hammered by a stonking invoice and a snotty note telling me that they can offer more than internet accountancy firms.

Well too late buddy!

I had a couple of things published after my day of work experience on Sportsbeat (at the Journo school) ... one of which may well go into the portfolio, as it was an article with interviews and research, as well as an opinion piece on Media coverage of Hodgson and Muamba.

I managed to persuade Tennis Head magazine to take me on for 2 days work experience.

I had a quick run through Content Management in Wordpress for the other tennis opportunity I was chasing.... and topped off with some constructive feedback on my first pass articles for the day job.

All in all a good week - and even better - I have actually REMEMBERED to get receipts for everything, which was my biggest worry!

Today I am tackling a mock paper at 9:30 in timed conditions and then I have to do a stack of revision for a Sports Reporting mock tomorrow.

Alas before all that I need to sort out finances with all these payments out.... gates, got-rid-accountants...

gallygirl

What an exciting time for you :j.

Getting receipts will be easy once you get the hang of it. Great way to get good service in fast food outlets as they think you are mystery shopping . DD sometimes goes to McD's with colleagues for lunch, they can't understand why she gets her order quicker than them and then they all get cleared up and swept around all the time :rotfl:.