Three full days of work at the St Helens Star! I said a second farewell yesterday to Chris, the work experience lad who only works Mondays and Tuesdays - last Thursday I said farewell to Steve, the editor, because he was off on holiday for two weeks so I most likely wouldn't see him for a good few years. I hope he's still working there when I get back after university, because the first thing I'm going to do when I've graduated and thrown myself properly into looking for a job is get back into volunteering there. The more journalism experience, the better quality jobs I can start looking at. I don't want to end up in one of those menial, shop floor or office gopher jobs like most people. That kind of job would drive me crazy!

So, this is where the truly epic work begins. I must resist the temptation to, if someone phones with a story, take that story on board and do it myself. I know some of my very best stories were acquired that way, but I've already got far too much to do. Today I must try and get four or five stories shifted from my to-do list, and then tomorrow it must be the same - as well as printing off all the pages of mine that I've downloaded from the St Helens Star e-edition (basically the newspaper in PDF format).

I think I can do it. I've got eight hours in work each day, which is easily enough time to shift even the most difficult of these stories. There are one or two I fear I won't be able to do because I'm awaiting contact details from press and communications offices, but I can shift the rest of them as soon as I can. The less I leave unfinished, the better.

Wish me luck.