The Power of the Pad

Having just about recovered from Friday night's drinking session with the other Westminster student journos (the hangovers last that long these days), I dragged myself out of bed on Sunday morning to set off on my first reporting assignment. Exciting stuff.

I've nominated Islington as my working 'beat' for the rest of the news course and my first story was to cover the dedication of a new war memorial at Islington Green that has been dividing local opinion. Small fry in the world of national news I know, but you have to start somewhere.

After patiently taking notes throughout the remembrance ceremony while also dodging the backs of other press photographers jumping in front of me, I started to notice that something odd was going on.

A lady standing next to me seemed to have become obsessed with my notepad. She kept looking at it to see what I was writing. What's more, she started telling me all of her thoughts about the day and then checking to see if I'd written them down.

Fortunately, she was a useful contact to have. I had no idea that the Labour MP for North Islington was at the ceremony, let alone the fact that he was not wearing a poppy and did not sing 'God save the Queen'. What luck to have landed next to a local fountain of knowledge I thought, perhaps the lady just likes to chat.

However, the urge for people to come and talk to me only increased after the service had finished. It was at this stage I realised that the 'power of the notepad' was in force. Stand around for long enough with a notepad and people will start telling you things - how fantastic!

Needless to say, with little more than a smile and a quick round of the square I'd spoken to ex-mayors, a councilor, the sculptor and many really interesting war veterans. For some strange reason, as soon as people saw my notepad they wanted to tell me things. This also increased exponentially, the more people I spoke to, the more people approached me. What a great introduction to the world of the roving reporter.

I can only hope the appeal of my trusty reporters pad will be as strong on future assignments. It really makes for an interesting morning hearing so many diverse views on a subject.