under the blanket

Things to look forward to today:
-- Prospect of a few rays of evening sun [Ahhhhh, the small pleasures in life, especially after two sodding miserable weeks of wet weather and damp feet]
-- Major supermarket trip after work [including bags and bags of crisps from Marks & Sparks...more small pleasures]
-- Start of the final season of Sex and the City [though I'm quite gutted that I will only get to watch five episodes before I go back to the land where it is banned]
-- Last day of internship [I swear, no more working for free ever again]

Most people seem strangely impressed when I tell them about my stint at The Independent. I admit, it is a credible newspaper, unafraid to ask hard questions and stand up for its views. I especially like its staunch anti-war position, especially now that the WMDs seem to be largely imaginary. There is a big poster in the office which says: "Truth need not be the first casualty of war". But it is also struggling financially and does not have quite the same intellectual, liberal clout as, say, The Guardian. Add to that a pretty indiscriminate open-door policy, with anyone who applies for work experience getting a slot, and it is really no big potatoes. I am just glorified free labour, that's all.

But in exchange, I did get a new perspective of how a newspaper works in the UK [not that different from back home, in terms of procedures and deadlines, but editorially, it is much more robust], made some useful contacts with journalists, may get a byline for a silly item I wrote, and have a new item to pad up my resume. So despite my endless complaints of boredom on the job, it has been a fruitful two weeks. But boy am I glad it is going to be over in less than five hours.