Wow, The List.

Is so not what I was expecting. I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't what I found. The offices are in what looks like converted flats and they're like a maze of corridors and passages and rooms with way too many doors. Everyone there seems lovely but older and much more subdued than I was expecting. Again, I don't think I was expecting 19 year olds swinging from the rooftops and those who do work there aren't much over 30. I know that I did expect to feel totally inadequate with all their fountains of knowledge, and to a certain extent I was, but t looks like my years of reading the magazine and trying my best to always know whats happening in town have paid off. I wasn't completely over my head and yes, I did feel cool sitting at my very own desk with my very own computer drinking tea and doing some research for a feature.

I'll have some skivvying jobs aswell I'm sure. Although I haven't made my own cup of tea yet! And I'm sure the getting up at 6am and getting home at 8pm will become normal. I hope.

But there is something nice about travelling by train, theres also something cool about having a rail card. It's like a status symbol that says: "yeah, I do this all the time. I'm bored of it now, I'll just sit here listening to my ipod or reading my paper." When really I'm like: "yeah, look at me. Commuting." I'll get used to the early starts, it's all in preperation for my next work placement which is going to be as big a mission as this but in different ways.

So back to the capital tommorow, doing my dream job for free and finding out it's not quite as glamourous as I imagined. ALthough I was impressed when a voice came from somewhere in the distance and shouted: "Who wants press accreditiation for Glasgow Fashion Week?" I was desperate to shout out but you know, take it slowly. I'm sure the credits will come next week.

Home isn't really home.

I'm home apparently, well home where my parents live and where I grew up for all of my teenage years and most of the rest. I don't really have a bedroom as such, none of my stuff is here and I'm living such a different life to my friends here that it's hard to stay in touch and catch up when I'm here.

All my stuff is at Uni. My computer, my music, my clothes, what I would call my bed, my TV, my boyfriend, my clothes (my shoes however have remained here in Glasgow throught my Uni life) and worst of all I think I left my social life there along with my house keys! Although calling what I have at Uni a social life is a huge overstatement if I'm honest. I don't make plans, I don't go anywhere other than the Uni bar or someone else's room and I never have any money to do anything else.

When I'm in Glasgow however, there's everything going on and everyone to do it with but I still feel like I'm just visiting. I've been gone for so long and had the easy life for equally as long that I don't really know how to get back into the swing of things. Phoning round and seeing what people are doing is the option. Did that. Found out everyone was out last night when I was stuck outside my own house after forgetting my keys and driving 200 miles.

So now it's Sunday, I'm watching a repeat of Top Gear because this series has finished and hoping that by reaching out through my mobile and this borrowed laptop I can find some civillisation and some entertainment tonight before I start working for free (read 'making tea') for those lovely people at the List tommorow.

It's nearly Easter!

And I can't quite believe it. I've just submitted my penultimate piece of work for this semester and it's a little scary. Not only because I've had my last Journalism lecture of 2nd year but because I don't really know where 2nd tear has gone!

One minute I'm stressing out because I've got 4 exams in a week and the next I'm planning my trip home for Easter. Before I know it, it's going to be work placement. (That I've managed to arrange thank you very much, at a free local Newspaper in Warrington where I'll be a reporter for 6 weeks) Hopefully that will lead to my name in print and probably also to me swearing never to set foot in another newsroom again!

I've got to decide this week also whether or not to do the dreaded dissertation. 10,000 words on a media/journalistic topic of my choice. It's optional, but the other options are considerably worse. So I'm condemning myself to the torture that my friends are going through right now and this time next year I'll be cursing my want for a decent degree while staying up all night frantically writing thousands of words on a hideously defined topic that I'll be sick of by Christmas.

I thought it was a great idea to get myself a degree. I don't think I could do it again, I think I;m old enough and reclusive enough to not want to put myself through another freshers week and having every single person on campus come up to me and say "oh my god, you're scottish!" I know that, I have seen my passport and know Glasgow well enough to say, "yep, I live there." Two years ago I was so up for it I would have won the coveted Adam Palfrey Up for it award. But this year I'd be lucky to win an honorable mention!

Half of me can't wait for this year to be over, the other half is terrified of third year and its finality. Who knows what I'll do after that, to be honest as one of my friends said the other day. "I don't really think I want a graduate job after this. I think I just want to lie down!"

I wrote this....

I'm entering the T Break competition for music journalists with this piece. 500 words is looooong for a review! Tell me what you think. Leave me a comment at the end.

Waiting by the old piano in the Night and Day Café is an exciting but nervous experience. Austin Texas’ Voxtrot have been on stage for about 20 minutes but haven’t played a note. They are anxiously checking and rechecking equipment that doesn’t seem to work for them. The lead singer Ramesh Srivastava dons his guitar and steps to the front stony faced only to encounter a silent microphone. He looks to his right to see the sound engineer rushing to his desk. They’re ready to begin.

Ramesh apologises for the technical difficulties and launches energetically but hesitantly into “Mothers, Sisters, Daughters and Wives”. The vocals are muffled and Keyboard player Jared Van Fleet, also known as Sparrow Hall, frantically signals for them to be turned up. Something else is way too loud and the band is looking nervous. Ramesh looks uncomfortable but storms through the first song with his usual excitement and vigour. He looked much more comfortable on stage at Optimo in Glasgow last year where his boundless energy resulted in a dramatic end to the gig. Ramesh was dragged offstage before the last song after cutting his head on a low monitor. Images of him bloodied but still singing appeared on you tube within a day.

After the disappointing first song, a quick scan of the crowd shows the majority squeezing their way closer to the front. Voxtrot have overcome the problems and the crowd want more. The far from sold out Night and Day is intimate enough to reward persistence, being at the front gives a rare glimpse of the band close up. Drummer, Matt Simon, looks bored to begin with and the rest play stony faced through the first few tracks where the obvious lack of a sound check causes problem after problem. The silence between songs feels like respect, but the nervous faces on stage must think it’s something more sinister.

The band soon relaxes though and Van Fleet dances behind his instruments and bass player Jason Chronis sings along. Voxtrot storm through the rest of their optimistic poppy set with Van Fleet working up a sweat behind his multiple keyboards. Ramesh really looks as though he’s enjoying himself and dances awkwardly but energetically through song after song of catchy rocky pop. Not even a broken microphone stand as Ramesh takes to the keyboard for “Soft and Warm” can stop him bouncing along. Voxtrot have been likened to Belle and Sebastian and the uplifting keyboard effects only back this up.

Voxtrot don’t say much during this gig, Jason Chronis reluctantly takes the mic, as Ramesh tunes his guitar for the third time, and introduces two new songs before giggling nervously and slinking towards the back staring at his bass. The gig ended on a massive high with “Missing Pieces”. The band overcoming all earlier obstacles to play like we knew they could. This might be the last time Voxtrot play the Night and Day Café but it certainly won’t be the last we hear of them.