For those who are down with Damien Marley's 3.38 minute depiction of life in Jamaica, forget it.
Not that there's any reason Chertsey would remotely be anything like Jam-Down, but Damien does reference the Jamaican districts 'Cornwall, Middlesex and Surrey' during the outro to the song, and Chertsey is in Surrey, right? I'm just saying.
Anyway, the sun was certainly high in the sky radiating heat not far off tropical when myself and co-Catch-ee Hermione stepped into the office of the Surrey Herald, for our two week regional installment of the Trinity Mirror experience.
After a looooong train journey up to North Surrey, where the train zone is 'Twilight', we settled into our temporary journalistic abode.
The receptionist was delightful (shout outs to Susie)
and the team, busily hitting deadlines for an impending publication, had little time for small-talk (as professionals rarely do), yet the atmosphere was undoubtedly welcoming.
Under the expert tutelage of Content Manager Suzy Talbot, the first week was a mixture of re-working press releases, researching and feature writing. The peeps at C22 had prepared us for this, the more involved portion of the Mirror placement, so I was happy to jump straight in with the tasks.
My feature remained a bit unfinished, as my contact at Surrey Police was a bit scatty. Nevertheless, we press on.
By the end of week one morale was high, with the bar for week two set even higher.
WEEK TWO
With a much shorter slog to C-Town (how did any London-based commuter ever survive before tfl journey planner?) the start to week two was promising. I was enjoying it so much that the fact I hadn't ended up here:
But here:
wasn't bothering me at all.
Departing from the news team, I worked in the Commercial Features Department and wrote an 'Advertorial' piece for a wedding magazine.
Advertorial: a clever sales tactic that makes you think you're reading a story, when you are actually being impregnated with thoughts to buy buy buy!
My piece was good, with minimal editing from the line manager (ahem) setting me in good stead for rest of the week, which consisted of posting stories on 2 of Herald's news sites, 'extracting' (won't go into detail - all you need to know is this was the most tedious and finnicky job I've done in life) and some vox-popping.
On the last day I accompanied one of the reporters to the above impressive building for a news meeting with the police, in the hopes of catching that pesky contact (who shall remain nameless - Let's call him 'Mr. Ripley') But the elusive Mr. Ripley remained...elusive. Even so, I completed the job without him, like all good journalists do (your loss, mate).
So, as the 5.29pm train raced back to Waterloo, slicing through the North Surrey scenery and sending images of Chertsey retreating rapidly into the near distance, I feel Trinity South has given me all I expected and more. The variety of work was the best bit - what will I miss? The slightly uncomfortable near-silence of the newsroom, the bubbly and helpful receptionist, the bench Hermione and I ate our lunch on each day and the stimulating, engaging tasks.
Oh, and the dodgy-looking car wash next to the train station.
Memories...(sighs)
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