Tuesday 12th April 2o11

Ahhh, the mystery is out. Thankfully it’s not going to be everyday that the journey home is such a nightmare; unfortunately a woman committed suicide on the 16.25 service between Northampton and Euston yesterday by starting a fire in the toilet after locking herself in. So while that train was halted, evacuated, investigated etc, all other trains operating along the same line were suspended. Which explains the heaving, swarming throng of people cramming the station - I wasn’t squished to pulp among just one – train worth of people, but in fact four or five rush hour trains worth of people. I look forward to a somewhat more peaceful journey home tonight.

It’s almost the end of another working day and I have all but completed my assigned tasks, so here I am blogging away of course. It’s been a real eye-opener so far and I know the experience will be great on my CV. I feel very up-to-date with all the current news and my colleagues are really great as well. I’m effectively working as a “website intern”, whereby I publish YouGov’s latest poll results on their website in the form of short, digestible articles for the wider public to read. (For those of you who don’t know, YouGov is basically a market research firm, but on a larger scale with clients such as the Post Office, Sunday Times etc). What I can say though is that I’ve discovered yet another profession I don’t wish to enter; as much as I enjoy the writing, and finally writing something that is useful, meaningful and significant, it bothers me that statistics dictate what I may write. There is no space for imagination, opinion or insinuation as articles must be purely factual, based on research findings alone. And that’s quite difficult. For example today I had to write about public opinion on assisted suicide, and it’s tricky approaching the topic sans compassion or emotion. Equally though it’s a great lesson in how one must adapt style to suit audience. I s’pose I’m just too used to writing exactly what I want!

I still feel a certain emptiness in my life, but I know that I’m not the first, last or only woman to have loved and lost. People come and go but life must move on. I guess I realise that feelings will fade only with a) the passing of time and b) distractions. So I write, work, study, cycle, cook, draw, party – whatever it takes to hold myself together. Above all, I just look forward to my summer...