What have I been up to since then?

Well, I’ve been working. Pretty much non-stop. I am the poster girl for freelance newsreading.

But surely you can find the time to write a few words every now and then? Surely that’s what journalists do?

Yes, but the other thing that broadcast journalists do, is remain impartial. I wholeheartedly believe in that, but it does make expressing opinions off air difficult too. Well, in public anyway. And I am quite an opinionated lady – hence the lack of writing a few words every now and then.

Of course, the chances of the listeners of the remote communities I tend to broadcast to stumbling across my personal Twitter feed, or my personal unnamed blog are slim, so perhaps I should just be brave…

One day. One day I shall step over the line. And that will be the day I enter politics. You may want to cover your ears.

Hard at work

Staff journos often ask me what I do when I haven’t got a booking. I think there’s probably a perception that I sit at home waiting for the phone to ring. 

Now, there’s an element of truth in that – it’s hard to beat getting a phone call/text/email from a news editor in the ‘yay!’ stakes. But after three months of freelancing, and in this current climate (as they say) there’s been a lot of time that could’ve been spent twiddling my thumbs, or more realistically watching Diagnosis Murder.

I’ve found though that I have very little monging time. If I’m not working at a radio station I’m generally working on other skills, like web design; generating and responding to commissions; looking for job opportunities…and then sometimes I’ll take pleasure in the fact I’m not working 9-5, 5 days a week, and sit and knit while watching Smallville.

Hot Cakes

Of course I’d heard it was long, that’s all anyone seems to mention about it – so expectations were low.

Now, The Dark Knight was long – too long. There were several points in that where it could have ended and still been great. In fact it was pretty much two films.

Australia, again, could’ve ended at least three times before it did. Despite that it was very enjoyable – a lot quirkier than expected. I felt at times it sanitised some aspects of the attempts to wipe out the Aborigines, by only hinting at the rape policy, and I could only be annoyed with Kidman and Jackman’s characters that they didn’t stand up and try and make a difference for all kids in Nullah‘s situation, rather than just Nullah. But then it’s stupid to get annoyed with fictional characters.

My word, I digress. Back to Watchmen.

This was long in a different way, it was like being totally immersed in a mythology that I had no desire to be plunged into. Unlike Dark Knight and Australia there was no point where I felt ‘oh god, please end now’. It all tied together. But I wasn’t bothered. I didn’t want to know. And the woodenness of all the characters except for Rorshach got very irritating by the end of the 20 hour epic.

And another thing, ‘old’ makeup didn’t work at all. Why didn’t they just get an older guy to play Nixon? And Sally Jupiter was in it more as a old woman than a young one, so why not get an older actress?

Plus, the cinema was really drafty, what’s up with that?