Coburg, Cobourg...

An eventful second week - and that’s just the journey there

My second week of training gave me an ‘interesting’ travel experience. I haven‘t lived in London for very long, so I‘m always keen to increase my knowledge of its various boroughs - and I can now say with some assurance that there is a Cobourg Road in south-east London.

The tube strike - coupled with my unease about taking a bus due to my eyesight problems - meant I had booked a taxi to pick me up from my house at 8.45 and take me to the course in Coburg Road. Ironically, poor communication meant I ended up on the other side of the city on a road with a similar name. The person taking the booking at the taxi company had relayed incorrect information to the driver, and so I found ourselves 12 miles from our destination in horrific traffic on a road named Cobourg.

I’m innocent!

I realised the mistake and told the driver, who radioed in asking someone to listen back to the recording of the conversation in which I booked the taxi. The recording showed I had been quite clear about my desired destination, and consequently the company took full responsibility for the predicament. The result was me not paying a penny for the diverted journey to Coburg Road, and getting to see a few sights along the way - which, as the driver pointed out, ‘people pay a lot of money for.’

Better late than never…

We did some interesting work today, and I learnt a few things that I’m sure will be of real use in the future. The Inverted Pyramid method of writing will, I’m sure, be used in much of my work - and the tips for effective writing are going to be immensely important to an inexperienced writer such as myself.

The afternoon provided an opportunity for me to get to know Brij better by writing a profile for him. This was quite tricky, and I found the rule that states ’make every word count’ was particularly relevant - as it involves squeezing a large amount of information into a very small space.

Writing assignment

My next piece of work involves re-working a jumbled Freddie and the Dreamers biog. I know the band, but couldn’t name a single one of their songs. Hopefully, with a bit of web research and some help from my tips on effective writing, I can make this into a respectable piece of writing. I am a bit nervous though, as this is my first shot at editing - but I took this course to try new things so I’ll have a good go and update next week on how it went.

Feelings update

Despite the slightly obscure start to the day, I’m still enjoying the course and I still think I made the right choice in taking it. Everything I’m being told makes sense to me and I understand it, the problem I have is that there is such a vast amount to absorb, remember, and reproduce on paper! It will all sink in eventually though, so I’m feeling positive and capable of really benefiting from this experience.