Mission semi-accomplished

Well my first shift is over and I’m absolutely knackered.

It started with the chief sub-editor giving me a tour of the program I’d be using along with InDesign, the name of which now eludes me (Sacko? Sago?). He seemed genuinely enthused by its powers, but they frankly scared the shit out of me and I started to glaze over in a kind of involuntary defense response.
I’ve always preferred flight to fight.

Fortunately, I had Eliza sitting next to me, who lived up to her lovely reputation and proved to be unfailingly helpful and polite as I hammered her with inane questions and feeble pleas for help when the computer refused to do what I wanted. When I quietly freaked out as an entire paragraph suddenly and mysteriously disappeared, she calmly came to my desk and, with a few swift keystrokes, conjured up the wayward text.
She was even unflappable when, as I was sub-editing an article on Sydney’s best day spas, I asked her, “It says ‘dessert lime facials’. Do you think that should be ‘desert lime facials’?”
Well, you never know.

It seems I wasn’t completely incompetent because I’m heading there again tomorrow, starting at 8am. It took almost an hour to get there so I’ll use my trusty wake-up call service once more.

I’ll also get a double-strength coffee at Bar Coluzzi beforehand – Alexandria’s semi-industrial wasteland is a confronting sight first thing in the morning.