Pimp My Retro Ride

Would you spend hundreds of pounds on an old, second-hand toilet? Unlikely. However, some vintage car accessory enthusiasts would delight at such an item.

This is the kind of fact that I have found out when researching a piece on retro car accessories.

Here are some other quirky finds:

1. In 1955 you could buy a record player for your car but could only play specially designed vinyl on it featuring songs from stage shows and nursery rhymes - not so rock and roll.

2. It is possible to buy an accessory that turns your car into a flame thrower.

3. In 2004 8m people in the UK had car air fresheners, 4.5m had bumper stickers and 2.1m had dashboard figures.

4. In the days when sleeping kits were popular (allowing you to turn the back of your car into a double bed) a Volvo advert for its sleeping kit was banned as it featured a couple stretched out in the back of their car but someone spotted that the woman didn't have a wedding ring on - shocking!

There's something to tell your mates at the pub!
Let me know if you've any such gems to share.

Irish Dancing

Despite not knowing what softshoes, hardshoes or feis are, I have just begun writing freelance for www.irishdancing.com. I'm producing news for the site which is pretty exciting as it means I will have a continuous stream of work to do, in the form of rolling deadlines, which will be great experience. It will also test my journalistic skill. After all, a journalist has to try to absorb expert knowledge on any topic that comes his/her way. It's a strange business really.

If anyone knows anything about Irish Dance or has any news they want covered let me know.

Big Up PR

I have begun writing my first feature for my specialist motoring module. As a result, I have been trying to get in contact with the PR departments of certain motoring companies. I thought that I would be trying in vain. It seemed hard to find any relevant contacts and I am, after all, only a student. However, I was wrong.

A lady from GM got back to me and said that my request wasn't really in her field so she referred it to two colleagues who also got back to me and offered me some answers to my questions and their phone numbers. This all happened in the course of one day.

A lot of times journalists and PR people are at odds. What a delight to see that we can work in harmony. Cheers guys!

Inappropriate

I just had to draw attention to an act that I saw play at Cardiff Barfly last night called no bra. I just don't understand it. The performer has a moustache, long hair and big breasts that were on full show. The songs consisted of talking about sexual acts, body parts and disease. No one in the crowd seemed to think that this act was at all odd. I thought it was pretty appalling. Are there not even rules about this kind of performance? Surely there should have been some warning for youngsters in the audience. I hate to be a prude but this was one surreal and pretty disgusting experience.

Shorthand REALLY IS worth it...

I was pleased to see a fellow blogger extolling the virtues of shorthand but he seemed concerned, as everyone does, that it is far surpassed, in terms of practicality, by the dictaphone. I suppose there is no doubt that using a dictaphone will mean getting that extra snippet of information but I really believe that shorthand has a lot more going for it than that.

1. Quality Not Quantity:
In some respects the genius thing about using shorthand is that you don't get a record of every 'um' 'ah' and false start sentence. You get exactly what you need and thus it is a much more manageable entity to work your way through when it comes to transcribing.

2. The Wonder of the Human Eye:
When transcribing, if you have a pad of shorthand you can transcribe exactly one line at a time without rewinding and fastforwarding (which wastes unbelievable amounts of time). Equally, you can scan the pad for key quotes that you need and pick them out without searching through a recording.

3. Trust:
It's silly for people to think that a dictaphone recording is more dependable than shorthand. Shorthand does need to be practiced to be at its best. However, eventually it should be as strong as standard writing and it is rare for a journalist to doubt his or her longhand. Equally, even during the time we have spent on our course technology has failed to record one student's interview with someone in America, the batteries have run out for another and for myself, the background noise that was picked up on one of my recordings drowned out the best part of the interview. With shorthand you know whether you have everything as you go along - you can ask people to slow down or reiterate and you can double-check your notes with them. You only find out how successful your recording is when you get it home.

4. Having a Secret Code is Nice:
Sad but true.

I rest my case.