Back on the air waves.. sort of

I somehow forgot to write anything about my first few shifts at the ABC.... so here is a little bit of an update.

So far I've just done two shifts - one day shift and one overnight. The day shift was good, but kind of stressful. I was given two stories to do by myself, without any real refresher training. It was like so, you know how to do stuff - go do it! I had to remember how to use the recording equipment in the studio and editing software, which took a few moments, then bang out a copy/grab story. Feedback from the boss was good, but it didn't go to air. It was the day of the State Govt leadership spill, so the bulletins were pretty full.

In the afternoon they sent me down to cover Tony Abbott meeting the Dalai Lama, which was pretty interesting given it was Tony's third day as the Opposition leader. I wasn't expecting to have to front a press conference by myself so soon, but it went ok and I remembered how to use the recorder and managed to collect some audio. I wrote up a story for that and it went to air.

The next night I worked 10 - 6, which thankfully was pretty painless. My stomach was wondering what was going on - I was hungry by about 2am, but didn't really feel like eating anything more than fruit and soup. Apparently this is normal. The main duties on overnight are ringing around the police/firies/ambos and writing any national stories that come off the wires for the hourly bulletins and the next morning.

So yeah, all good. Not working again till Boxing Day... and from then on it's overnights, indefinitely, which is fine because it's a job, and I'm just thankful to have any work really!