Just writing a random journal entry to tick away the minutes before home time. Nothing spectacular has happened today - nothing journal-worthy except that whole faff with my art work... but meh. Let's write random stuff!

I was a bit worried that after the last few weeks' big stories like the Claire Glover IVF, Carl Pickervance's flat, the allotments break-ins and the NUT strikes, the period of excitement would be over and it would be back to church fillers and cleverly reworded press releases. But this isn't the case - again I've got some good leads going on, quite a few of which seem to revolve around the government dealing further injustices to the British public.

Alas, my head simply isn't in the right place today after I lost all my artwork. I wouldn't say I feel like a bereaved mother but I feel bereaved in some way. That work was a part of me - it was like my novel, a product of my imagination, my visual interpretation of 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. The work wasn't fantastic but it was mine. I created it.

I do think I'd feel worse if I lost my novel, for instance, but the loss I'm feeling is still pretty bad. Anyway, I've dedicated a whole journal entry before this to wallowing in misery so I'll move on because you all know I'm currently feeling very morose about the whole thing and need no further reminders.

I brought my own milk and sugar to work today, so tea for me! Yay! Since Andy went on holiday the mysterious source of milk and sugar dried up and it no longer materialised in the upstairs kitchen so I can only assume he was the one who usually bought it. Mike's the only one other than us who drinks tea and he's not here very often. So it must have been Andy. Anyway, I felt very mature bringing my own for once. This is me solidifying my new-found status as 'part of the team'!

Tell you what, there's a nice tangent into a happier subject! Over the past few weeks I've been told by Andy, Steve and Steven how well I've been doing. Steven, the other day, was saying things that imply I might have a job here when I come back (I hope I wasn't reading too much into things there, as I typically do), and Steve's said a few times how I'm not just a work experience kid any more; I'm actually a 'trainee journalist' and a valuable member of the team!

But it's not just them saying things. I've noticed that I feel a lot more comfortable now in work. I feel like I've settled in properly and I do genuinely feel like one of the team. Not only that but they've been trusting me with bigger stories that aren't just the aforementioned fillers and rewritten press releases. I've been allowed to get down to some bona fide journalism this past month or so, and it's great!

Plus I'm now building up a rather nice portfolio of articles and stuff now - a portfolio that I won't be leaving in a college to be recycled!