It's the weekend! Hooray! This means a day's work at the ExtraCare Charitable Trust and a much-needed sleepover of writerly silliness in the House of Holly. I exaggerate not. This week, while fulfilling, has been insane.

Today we worked hard to finish off what we'd started yesterday; repainting the whole room after being told our colour scheme wasn't appropriate. And, after the woes of yesterday, it's been a much better day.

We got a lot of work done. The timing of our breaks, however, was a little off. Because we plunged ourselves into the work and became so absorbed, we missed our first break which was scheduled at 10:30 in the morning. This meant that, come 11:30, when we twigged and realised we'd missed the break, we were all going off to the local bakeries, having fags and raiding the vending machines. Lunch was at noon, a mere half-hour later. A few smokers in the group were wanting cigarette breaks every half hour - understandably so, with the stress of all the work.

After a stern talking-to from Tim, we decided to attack the job with less vigour and pay more attention to the strict times we'd set out for ourselves prior to the project's beginning. Because we had our first break slated for 10:30, but we had it an hour late, Tim thought we'd had two breaks. He had no way of knowing whether we had because nobody approached him and said 'it's 10:30, we're on a break'. It's not like school, where a bell rings or a teacher gives you permission. The Prince's Trust is about keeping your own time, organising yourself and being independent, and we've learned from our mistakes today. Come Monday, I'll keep my phone on me and check the time frequently.

Today, we've finished off the pink walls, including the high bits that health and safety dictated we could not reach and the thin bits in corners and around woodwork that required a brush and a master's precision. We've done the same on the purple walls, and all my previous worries about the amount of paint we had amounted to nothing - we had enough to get a nice, even coat up there. A fair amount of the woodwork had its first coat done yesterday, and today we did our best to finish it off. There's still paint to go on, but at least we now have a solid undercoat so none of the orange will show through.

As for flooring, our joyous partnership with Barton's Carpets didn't work out. They couldn't come up with any suitable cut-offs in time, and so we've settled for those grim-looking carpet tiles, the likes of which you might see in schools or offices or, like Anna said, Ravenhead Foyer - a council-run place where young people can go to live if they're incapable of living at home for whatever reason. The tiles themselves don't bother me. They're durable and easy to lay. It's the colour. We've done a room in pink and purple. The tiles we've got come in three colours: dark blue, dark green and brown.

I'm not happy about that particular fact, being a raving perfectionist, but we've got to put up with it now. And again, we should have resourced better. We knew exactly what colours we were after; we should have been bolder in getting appropriate carpet.

Monday's work, then, is pretty simple; finish undercoating the woodwork, then gloss it. Anna and I could probably have that done in half a day; indeed, Monday is a half-day. We're starting at 12:30 again. If anything, we should aim to get it done in a quarter-day so that we can help out where it counts - the main hall. That room's huge, and we started work on it only yesterday.

I have a feeling that this is going to be a very 'skin of the teeth' kind of project from now on, both time and resource-wise. But if we get our heads down, focus and work efficiently, we'll do it. We'd better, anyway, because I've just realised that there's another stumbling block in our way; we don't have Wednesday to work. That's the day of our handover ceremony, where we're 'giving the building back' to its owner. And I think that Tuesday, our last day of work, will be used mainly for finishing touches and cleaning paint off everything.

I'm willing to work overtime, Monday and Tuesday! Anything to see the place all snazzy and done!

The next step in my Prince's Trust journey will be the work placement. Yesterday, I quizzed Vicky on how she was doing in finding me a place and she said she'd found nothing yet. My heart immediately sank. When we gave her our preferred areas of work, I decided to be a risk-taker and opted for journalism/publishing. But finding jobs in that area is ridiculously hard; I know of one young fellow, in fact, who had to go as far as London for employment. Every time I scoured a jobs site for such an occupation, my search would come up blank. I realised it would be very difficult to find a placement.

Hope came in the form of Tim. While I was putting the finishing touches on the lilac wall today, he sidled up to me said said "I've got something for you to send off on Monday." My immediate thought was the letter to my Dad for the handover ceremony, but when I asked Tim replied "No, an e-mail to the St. Helens Star."

The Star? For what? My immediate thought was that they were writing an article on our project, but Tim then told me that it was in regards to my placement. He'd contacted someone from The Star, who'd got back to him, asking for me to send off an e-mail asking for a two week work placement. I've e-mailed Tim to get the guy's e-mail address and further instructions. I hope that they'll take me on! How awesome would it be to work for a newspaper?!