Oh the working life (and failed attempts to cook)

Reason to smile for this week? I have my first paying job as a writer! Well, sort of. I'm working for Cue media which is the official paper for the National Arts Festival. It's not a proper job, but I'm getting paid fairly well to do what I love, write. And in between I get to explore the wonders of the Festival and attempt to live as a proper working grown up.

We produce a newspaper every single day, so things get a little crazy as we rush around trying to get in content within a few hours of pitching a story. I viewed a show today that involved learners from a school for the blind and deaf. They were incredible. Despite difficulties in bringing things together (the learners were not trained actors and the director did not know sign language and had to use an interpretor to explain everything), they still delivered a show filled with enthusiasm and a heartfelt message. It was such a pleasure to cover their play, and I even learnt how to sign the word 'hope', which is the title of their play.

Today was only my second day of reporting and I think I'm slowly getting into it. Since we started I've been doing a lot of walking around, and not a lot of eating. I wish I could say that the only reason for this is a lack of time, but that would be lying.

I'm not too sure how to cook and this is the first time I have neither my mom or the res kitchen to provide food for me. This has resulted in many bland meal attempts from me. I had nothing but tuna rolls on one day and I don't think I can eat tuna ever again. The following day I planned on warming up some delicious butternut soup. Unfortunately, I forgot to take it out the freezer early enough. Trying to get the right amount of soup out of the packaging when it's just a frozen block was nearly impossible.

Today I decided to be slightly more ambitious and make microwave macaroni and cheese. To be honest I don't quite know what I eventually made. It looked like watery mush mixed with milk and chunks of floating cheese and bacon. I don't know what's worse, the fact that I managed to mess up one of the simplest microwave meals, or the fact that I still ate it. 

I think that after the successes and disasters of today, a drink is in order. In a few minutes I'll be off to the Long Table, something many experienced festival goers have spoken of. Will post updates on Fest and life at Cue if there's time in between the madness of the newsroom!