Stepping into the office and greeted by FISH!

*pics of Fish running around so much it was difficult for me to get snaps of her. my colleague tried to pat her to get her to stay still. These were abt the only successful shots I have of her*

What can make one happier than to start the working day with a warm lick and jumps up your leg? One of the guys in the workshop 2 doors away just had a new Jack Russell puppy called Fish. She's only 10 weeks old but so cute and she loves walking away from her owner and just jumping up at me and coming to our office. I love her! And I love the irony of her name - Fish! Heehee..... =O) When her owner tried to get her to follow him back to his workshop today, she bit him (not painful cos its still baby teeth) and then barked at him. She didn't want to go....awwww! sweet!!! =O)

I watched Frasier last nite with hubby and it was the episode of Frasier's dad going to a school to do some road safety lessons with his dog, Eddie. And Eddie was just so cute! And I was telling hubby about Fish!

Yesterday's seminar at Wangaratta was good. We learnt about how we should be careful, defamation laws, style of writing, and many legal cases were raised of how some journalists were sued and the arguments in the case.

Some of the new things I learnt was and which I thot were interesting:

• In one example, during one local election (much smaller scale than state elections), one elector (resident of the area) was very frustrated with one councillor that he went and printed a mock-up of a Qantas airticket. He wrote down all the frequent flyer trips he made and he made 2 other mock-ups of other things too and distributed them to other residents. Anyway, this councillor then brought him to court for defaming him. Thing is, in elections, under the democratic process, anything (true or false) could be said against a politician. The judge basically said that the politician was fair go. Wow, talk about a liberal process.....now I know!
• Even though I have a digital voice recorder, I have to ask the person I interview permission to record the interview and not assume that he should know that since he's speaking to a journalist, that it is being recorded. My other journalist colleague (its juz 2 of us) told me that I could make that assumption initially which he heard from one of the editor from the head office. But big bosses yesterday said we must state, to cover ourselves.

I enjoyed the session even though it was fairly long. But boy, the driving was tough. I don't have passengers in my car ever, except Phill, so when I had to drive my colleague and I to the Wangaratta office, I was really nervous. And after nearly 3 hours of driving, I was badly cramping on my right side. My shoulders and arms were really hurting. At one point driving down the country road, I veered too much to the left. I was frustrated with myself but later on realised that cos I was cramped badly on my right that I may have over-compensated on my left when steering.

I've got a major story on my hands today cos my colleague came in to tell my co-journalist and I about it. I was chasing this story since last week when she first told me so its my story. Anyway, I was pretty pissed off with my co-journalist cos when he heard the news that the "rumour" is confirmed, he called the chief editor straight away and told him about it, etc, and then when he put down the call, he asked who I've called so far, knowing full well I've been chasing the story since last week. He said the chief editor said it mite be a cover story or page 3 story. So without batting an eyelid, I asked him, "Are you doing the story now?".

I think he turned red for abit and said no. My colleague who gave us the story and him then were nice enough to suggest people I could interview.

Reason I was pissed off was cos yesterday, he had to go up the school to cover a story at 10.30am and anyway, at 11.10am, he realised he forgot all about it and asked me to go. I was not v happy cos now it will appear I was late. I offered to drive him there but he said he can't make it cos he's tied up. And now, cos this story that my colleague is giving us is turning out to be major, he wants to do it? Makes me think he only wants to do the important stories and leave the other stories to me. Hmph!

If this carries on for another month or so, I'll need to speak to him about it.