Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Sunday 10 August

I get to the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ straight off a train from Edinburgh where I've been for the last few days soaking up the Fringe festival. Me and Suzanne are becoming dab hands at putting up mic stands and playing with wires and cables (but I don't think engineer John needs to worry about losing his job to us any time soon!!)

The show is really, really good this week. Mishkin from Leeds absolutely blew us away with an acoustic version of one of their very loud and heavy tracks. Session band were Wintermute who were also really good and kept us amused with their obscure track names such as current single Fun With Wizard Stencils.

Monday 11 August

Today saw the return of our mentor Katy. We had a bit of a catch up, explaining what we've been doing and with us being half way through the placement, what we want to do with the rest of our time as arts reporters.

A photo from the shower room. Vain? Us?

Me and Suzanne finally get round to taking some self-indulgent pictures of ourselves. Bizarrely, we find the best light in the shower room. Luckily there's no-one around and so we manage to avoid what could have been a potentially very embarrassing situation!

I spend the afternoon doing some research and preparation for an event that I'm covering on Wednesday and catching up with my diary before jumping on a train back to Birmingham for a job interview tomorrow at the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ there.

Wednesday 13 August

Back in Hull today for a day of adventure, but not before I get a phone call about the job. I didn't get it but I get some really positive feedback telling me to continue to get as much experience as I can because that's all that held me back (which is what I was expecting anyway). It's disappointing, but it was a really valuable experience and I'm relieved that there's nothing I could have done differently.

I meet up with Paul from Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Learning and we head down to Creative Voice, an event that's being held in West Park giving young people the chance to show off their musical abilities. For a day that could have been a complete wash out given the recent weather, it's actually really sunny and stays dry all day. It's a tiny bit of a miracle. I talk to some of the performers and organisers and grab a few photos.

The 303's at Creative Voice in Hull

After that, we go up to Bridlington to the newly renovated Spa for Soundwaves which is a similar event but with a less weather-dependent venue! More of the same here, talking to some of the acts who've been given the chance to perform. We take advantage of being by the sea, having fish and chips before setting off back to Hull.

Thursday 14 August

Today I finally get chance to write up the story about the singles launch that we went to last week. That's pretty much where the day goes! We got so much material on the night that I spend half the morning trying to work out what angle I want to do the piece from and what we've got that will back that up.

Halfway through typing it up, something goes wrong and I lose what I've been working on. Nightmare! But because I spent so long dwelling on it before I started writing, I manage to do it again fairly quickly (whilst grumbling).

When I finish, I get back on another train to Birmingham. I've clocked up so many train miles this week that I've lost track (ha, ha) of where I am from one day to the next. On Sunday I'm heading off to Ibiza for a week so there will be no diary for week five, unless you want to hear about me soaking up the sun... Didn't think so.