Inquests, monsters and words...... (From News Shopper)

Inquests, monsters and words......

4:10pm Thursday 1st November 2007

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Hello to you all and happy Halloween! This week has been quite eventful in some good ways and in some bad ways....read on to find out what I've been up to....
On Monday (deadline day) I came into the office and was told of a man who had been killed while trying to cross the M25. The information I had was sketchy and so I went to the area it was believed to be to talk to some residents and see if I could find out anymore information.

I didn't have much luck and so came back to the office, by this time a name and age was given of who it may have been.

It was a difficult situation because I knew if I spoke to anyone who knew of him they would have been grief stricken and may not want to talk to me, and on the other hand I needed to know the information was correct.

We ran the story with all the personal details as 'believed to be.'

On Tuesday I spent the day at inquests. One particular inquest was of a man who was killed as a car reversed over him.

I had already met his parents a few months back as they had invited me for a press briefing, so an appeal could be written to help find the driver responsible.

In the circumstances, it was nice to see them again and they thanked me for the previous appeal.

Before I started working as a journalist it didn't occur to me how much death I would be dealing with on a day to day basis, maybe it was naive of me.

On Wednesday the day was filled with spooky goings-on in the office, my fellow colleagues turned into monsters and grew claws....of course this was all in the spirit of Halloween.

I also had my first disagreement with a member of the public relating to an article I had written.

This was not nice but I stuck to the point and the issue seemed to resolve itself when I told him he could write a letter giving his opinion.

On another note I passed my probation!

So sadly (for you guys) you will have to put up with me for a little bit longer!

Anyway, if you are still reading this epic blog I thankyou and hope you enjoyed it!

Have a nice weekend, (only one more day to go)

Vicki :-)