Desperate Housewives-Season 1

So I finally jumped on the Desperate Housewives bandwagon (a few years too late, I know)-and I'm hooked! I've just watched all 23 episodes of the first series within 3 days and can't wait to get my hands on the second series.

To be honest, the show is not entirely what I expected (a group of attractive middle aged women sitting round drinking coffee, doing yoga and gossiping). Whilst this does occur, the show is so much more than this, as shown with a suicide in the first episode, with a body count to rival the sleepy English village of Midsomer.

What's so brilliant about this show is that most women will be able to identify with at least one of the main women of Wisteria Lane. I personally think there's a bit of Susan (Teri Hatcher) in me, in that I tend to panic, fluff things up and generally act hysterical. Pleased to say I've never stalked a boyfriend though :-). I love the way the dramas of each of the families are entwined with each other, and as the mysteries unravelled  as the series came to an end, I was utterly gripped.

There's also a lot of eye candy for male and female viewers too. Gabrielle and John make a very attractive couple. If the baby's his, it'll be a little stunner!

I've just shot myself in the foot a little whilst writing this-I looked up Teri Hatcher on imdb.com, where her character is named as Susan Mayer/Susan Delfino. I'm guessing wedding bells are on the cards in a forthcoming series then.

The day I joined the rat race (something else which disagrees with me)

There are very few jobs in which you can spend half an hour of your shift watching penguins and seagulls thrashing it out for the meal of fish being thrown to them, but fortunately for me,  I have one of these jobs.

Today was my induction day as a seasonal sales assistant at ZSL London Zoo. Having read the full information pack for new employees, containing information on what to do in case of fire, dangerous animal escape, bomb, or terrorist threat, I was beginning to wonder what I had let myself in for, never more so than when I paid the obligatory £18.75 train fare at 7.05 this morning. (more on that interesting journey later...)
All I knew was that I was to turn up at 9am wearing black trousers and black shoes. The rest was a mystery. I was just praying that I wouldn't be put on duty in the reptile house. Nothing gives me the creeps like the yellowing eyes of a hungry python.

After a brief introduction we were taken to get our uniforms. My usual work uniform consists of a forest green coloured polo shirt, black trousers and black shoes. I like a bit of variety in my life. Compare and contrast;

 Current work uniform, to be worn with black trousers and black shoes (company logo erased)

New work uniform, to be worn with black trousers and black shoes.

No variety for me then.

We also got a brief rundown of the interesting questions that staff have been asked before, including, in all seriousness, "Which way to the dinosaur enclosure?" Oh dear.

All in all a good day, all  the staff seem really friendly, and it was rounded off by watching the penguin show. I just find myself somewhat confused with so much new stuff to learn. And I confuse easy.

On another note, I have also come to the conclusion that I am allergic to commuting. I passed out. On the train. Twice. Each time waking up on the floor of an overpacked carriage to find 6 suited and booted city commuters peering down at me as I came round. Once was bad enough, but twice is just embarrassing.

Never a dull moment with me around.

The obligatory reaction-to-phone-hacking-scandal post

Unless you've been living in the back of beyond (or, like a certain Miss Brooks, you happen to be on holiday every time something big kicks off), you will have heard of the phone hacking scandal to hit the News of the World recently, and it's subsequent closure.

As an aspiring journalist, the press surrounding the press has in recent weeks worried me. The injunction hype involving a certain person who may-or-may-not-have-done-something-and-who-you-may-or-may-not-know-but-I-can't-tell-you has left many journalists with their hands tied, and their freedom of speech removed. As a demographic, I think that the journalist world received much sympathy, or at least empathy, from the general public when this gagging left them unable to go about their day to day jobs. Now, however, the general public are left questioning the integrity of the entire journalistic community due to the unjustifiable acts of a select few (several of whom were not actually journalists, but private investigators), and had left people questioning whether further action needs to be taken to restrict the way in which investigative journalists go about their day to day jobs.

In addition to the people who were hacked, there are other victims here. The current employees of NotW, many of whom won't have been working for the paper back in 2002 when this started, and even those who were are unlikely to have known anything about this scandal, let alone been involved. They are now out of a job, although there is a rumour that News International will be able to offer some of them jobs in other brands of their massive empire. Those who aren't so lucky will likely have their names blackened just by association with NotW, thus hindering their abilities to find employment elsewhere.

 Like many, I am expecting to see a brand new Sunday paper launched by News International within the next couple of weeks. As far as I can see, it's a win-win situation for Murdoch and co; Despite pulling all advertising on this week's edition of NotW just hours before it was announced that it was to be the final one, they're bound to make a fortune off of the back of it. Despite many readers initially intending to boycott it, there will no doubt be an increased demand for this week's edition as people scramble to read NotW's own reaction to the week's events. Murdoch and co. appear in the public eye to have done the 'right thing', thus allowing them to continue with their even more important money making scheme, the takeover of BSkyB, which completely overshadows the NotW in terms of revenue it will make.   NotW will leave a massive gap in the otherwise saturated Sunday paper market, allowing News International to create an entirely clean slate for themselves, and perhaps allowing other newspaper companies to attempt to fill the gap with their own brands.

 Rumour has it on Twitter that the domain www.thesunonsunday.co.uk was registered two days ago. James Murdoch made the 'shock' announcement of the closure this afternoon. Go figure.