The Freelance diaries Part 1

I have, dear reader, finally been a bona fide freelancer for the last few weeks.

After weeks of moping around the house, not working, moaning about everything and smoking a lot, my time came.

I've decided that it has little to do with experience, talent, skills, or event pestering. I think some unknown force, the Broadcast God, decides it's your turn and picks you. Sometimes, he gives you an amazing job in London. Sometimes, he gives you a rubbishly paid job in Skegness. Sometimes he gives you a freelance shift at the other side of Yorkshire. I took that.

So, it is with glee that I can tell you, a radio station in Leeds have been giving me plentiful shifts and paying, yes, PAYING for me to be a journalist.

I get to drive round in a brand new Honda civic, interviewing all kinds of interesting residents of Leeds; from bank managers to the producer of Spooks, from the late Pat Regan's best friend to competitors of GMTVs Battle of the Bride, and from a British Olympic nuitritionalist from Leeds to a Child Psychologist.

I get paid the same as a BBC freelancer.

And whilst the driving is plentiful, the SatNav takes me the wrong way up one-way roads in Leeds, and sometimes I answer the phone with the name of the wrong station, the work has reminded me why I want to struggle to be a journalist.

Cos it's fun.