Birthdays are for subbing!

Ok, not exactly how I had envisaged spending my birthday, but who said subbing couldn't be fun!

With cake from Keith, chocolates and a jacket-potato inspired card...and general PMA cheer- what more could a girl want!

We are on our merry way to finishing the magazine and I cant wait to see the final product. Deadlines have been set, stories subbed and pictures sourced. Now, we just have to double the amount of copy we already have!

Forgive me, I will leave it there for today. I am compensating for the rather short blog with two lovely pictures of the gang! Over and out.

Taking the Biscuit

PMA journalists were shocked to discover the disappearance of a number of their fig rolls.

Shocked journalist Khidr Suleman, 22, said: "This is unacceptable behaviour. I can't believe people do things like this and I am devastated. I'd spent my last bit of spare change on a delicious jammy dodger and now it's gone. It's been hard to DIGEST this terrible news."

The fig roles were last seen in the PMA communal kitchen and journalists are searching for crumbs (Evidence - surely Ed).

Met Police Detective Inspector Knacker told PMA: "For God's sake, stop ringing me otherwise I will charge you with wasting police time."

Lois Lane has a new hobbie!

Gone Fishing!

Please contact my secretaries - Miss Flying Wosit or Miss Keithfish on the lobster phone or by re-nose email.

Many thanks

Over and out

F xx

To be the man, you gotta beat the man

Everytime we see Keith the work level triples. At times, I'd rather be on the receiving end of a Shooting Star Press....



Have mercy indeed

or a Spiral Tap......




Yes that was the Phenomenal AJ Styles

But I will draw the line at being thrown off the top of a cage.....



Just in case you were wondering they didn't stop the damn match!

Anyway, I digress.....It's Friday evening and I'm finishing off "subbing" four pieces of work for Keith. I don't know why but for some reason he's starting to remind me of Ric Flair.

Today, Roberta rejoined us from Portugal and kindly let us spend the day working on features on our mag, Gap Year Business or GYB as our Paris office calls it. I have to say it was strange not have a class today. I could almost get used to that!

The workload continues to pile up by the day though and next week is shaping up to be more intense. Saying that, the course is really enjoyable and there have been many times when I have been crying with laughter due to the many humorous things that occur.

It's all about keeping the faith. And that's the bottom line coz Stone Cold said so!!

I think I'm turning Japanese...I really think so

Oi oi saveloys,

I'm writing my feature on Japan for GYB (the premier B2B for the gap industry) and I'm just nipping away from it to write this blog.

Here's a question - how do you get from a cardiologist to a male ballerina to a female ballerina to a brewer to a boxer and finally to the keeper of the Crown Jewels ? (Keith I'm giving this capitals but if it's not house style please feel free to whack me with the style guide)

Well I will tell you, it's by having to do this blinking Life in the Day of feature :s (grumble, grumble). It doesn't help, that I get really nervous about interviews. It also doesn't help being bounced around by potential interviewees. Anyway, at least it's now sorted and it's parr of the course in the life of the journalist. It's called the right royal runaround.

Enough moaning it's boring and unattractive, but I think we've all been doing a touch of it and rightly so cause this course is bloody hard. So although I'm not an expert, I can tell you now there will be either 10 super bad ass journalists or a pile of corpses at the end of this debacle.

I think if anything is going to be the death of me and my fellow students, it will be blinking subbing. That reminds me I must blink, Keith told me to. I am just grateful I colour my hair, as the grey would definitely have shown by now.

The other issue dividing us is John "who haven't I had" Terry (Ade - I'm aware this is repeating libel but I will use the defence of the truth), who Guber thinks is legend and, who me and the other gals think is a right dirty beggar.

Despite the hellish work load and Keith's manic laughter as he delivers us yet another subbing abomination we are all pulling together and willing each other on.

Right I must get back to Japan, well in print anyway.

Ta ta my lovelies,

xxx

Lois Lane is flagging at the Daily PMA Planet

Sleep deprivation, no biscuits, missing the tube home, law, resubs, grammarnitus are just a few of my non-favourite things!

It is Groundhog dog at the Daily PMA Planet and at home. I remember laughing my head off in the cinema when I saw the film 'Groundhog Day' it was so funny. What's so hysterically worrying is that I am now playing the Bill Murray character. Just get it right Fiona (your grammar and resubs) and your life will go back to normal.

Home life is practically non-existant. It was a treat last night to bath my little boy and read him Teeline, sorry I mean a bedtime story. Conversations with my hubby usually consist of the following:

Hubby: 'What time are you coming to bed tonight?'
Me: 'No idea darling'

Four hours later - 2am

Hubby: 'Oh my god there is a strange woman in my bed, who is she?'
Me: 'It's me your wife, Teeline Resub....er, I mean Fiona!'

Struggling at the 'Daily PMA Planet' is what I do everyday and I know I am not alone. Features is interesting, but if I have to write about or go near Camden market again I will cry very loudly. Our GYB magazine reminds me of when I have to go for my smear test. Not pleasant but you have to do it.

Oddly, I am still enjoying myself, having Naomi supply me in nuts, Rehanon doing her impressions, Khidir providing communal bread and Charlie sharing his crossaints with me makes my day a little easier.

My current record for studying late is 5am, however Rehanon has beaten me (only just) on not going to bed at all, for a day. Will have to do a re-nose on that!

Keep the faith

Fxxxx

its not my day

Shh. This isn’t my blog day. Honestly the thought of working on the ‘Othello’ piece makes me want to Feng Shui my room just to have something else to do.

Today was subbing with Keith, which I think is going to help me no end with my lists, grammar, sentences and structure. Well, I hope it does, since we last spoke I have been going to bed at the ‘Jeremy Kyle hour’ of the morning and getting up less than a handful of hours later. I have been avoiding the urge to moan on this thing for a number of reasons. The main two are, I know I will look back on the posts in like a year and think ‘you moaning arse’, and I don’t want the past students to chuckle away at our misery.

Each and every day my desk seems to look like I am a detective obsessed with a murder case. Having to put up post-its and paper evidence of who did it, but I can’t crack the case. The case of the feature for GAP year business.

We have finished our features days with Will (until Monday at least) and have been set a task entitled ‘a day in the life’. I have set my sights a little high and finally ended up (I hope) with the guy who runs TFL lost property.

If I am honest I’m really looking forward to next week. DTP should be awesome, and I am quite intrigued as to what inDesign can do.

Anyone I am off to do some teeline… right after I have read War and Peace, in French, backwards.

Legal Pickle

I’m shaking as I write. I hope no one is reading.

We just did media law, and it seems you can’t write anything without being sued. Possibly jailed.

We discussed the defences journalists can employ against libel charges, such as fair comment, public interest, and speaking the truth. But none of them seemed to stack up...

I really hope no one is reading. If you are, forgive me. I didn’t mean that thing I wrote about the time you used a pickle to… Oops! I just remembered: never apologise, it can be used against you in court. Just pass the complaint on to your editor. Or Keith and Roberta!

Keith?

Roberta?

Someone?

with all the very best wishes and warm regards

Haircuts. The length of hair at the PMA has suddenly shortened. From ten minute trims to two hour designer snips, the boys have embarked on new looks. Perhaps it's their way to offload the burden of re-subs, or maybe they were preparing extra room for the doom cloud of media law around their heads. Who knows?

The routine is the same. Wake up. Travel. PMA. Nina. Lessons. Coffee. Lessons. Lunch. Lessons. Tea. Lessons. Resubs. Resubs. Resubs. Resubs. Travel. Home. Sleep. Repeat.

Lunchtime discussion: how to sign off emails: (are these colons right Keith?)

yours sincerely (seriously guys, it's an email, not a letter!), kindest regards, kind regards, warm regards, regards, all the very best, all the best, with best wishes, with the very best wishes, best and my personal favourite, cheers blad.

things are piling up

The last day of features with Will. Someone from the Sunday Times travel section came in to talk to us about intros. Brilliant.

Would have been quite an easy day, were it not for the fact that we have SO MUCH TO DO. Here's a list of some of the things that fill each day:

• doing the work we've been set
• doing the work we've already done that we need to do again
• doing the work that we've already done multiple times and still keeps coming back needing more work
  
• shorthand
• frantically calling people up to find news for our magazine
• thinking of features for our magazine
• researching and writing the features for our magazine
• media law
  
• reading the papers
• reading the travel news
• looking for jobs
• applying for jobs
  
• eating (when we get a moment)

All this doesn't include the classes that actually fill up the whole day. It is mental. It's also tremendous fun, which is lucky.