Being a journalist hasn’t given some people the best reputation in the last couple of years, but that doesn’t mean that journalism is a bad career choice. If anything, I say that journalism has opened countless doors for me and has given me some awesome opportunities over the last few years. There are lots of amazing things about the job – you get to work with people which is perfect for social butterflies like myself, you get the chance to hear amazing stories first-hand and have the privilege of sharing them with the world, the trust that your readers and those sharing their stories place in you. There are a lot of tougher sides of the job as well, like having to write a tribute to one of your former best friends after a horrible accident, but that is why I think it is important to enjoy the good parts.I know some don’t agree with getting freebies through journalism, but this is one of my favourite parts of the job – the privilege and extras that come with it. Journalism opens you up to a world of opportunities that you would never have had otherwise, and that is something I love about it.I know a fair few journalists who never really take advantage of the extras in the job, which personally I think is a shame considering how low paid so many journalists are. I know some won’t agree, but I tend to look at it as the tips a waitress would get. This is just a bonus to the job and, as a bit of a blagger, I don’t mind asking – I always figure if you don’t ask you don’t get. Which is clear from how many amazing things I have been lucky enough to gain – I always ask the question. So what have been my best blags and the top experiences my job has given me?

1. My top has got to be weekend tickets to an incredible electronic dance music festival, Glade Festival, that was right on my doorstep. It was only my second festival and this experience really showed me how much I love festivals, plus it gave me a taste for reviewing and writing about festivals which then led to my work at This Festival Feeling.
2. Close behind was tickets to Wyndstock – a Midsummer Ball, another festival, this time a more upmarket one with swing dancing, posh banquets and a fake fox-hunt – it was so much fun and again gave me a great opportunity to write about festivals. As did free tickets to the first Zoo Project Festival.
3. I have just booked in to write a feature on a circus that is coming to town – how better to do it than to have a lesson from a Mexican high-wire expert who has been walking the wire since he was six-years-old and to interview him?
4. Tickets to the theatre – I have pre-written and reviewed various shows at theatres across the area over the last few years. All brilliant experiences and, as a big theatre-lover, have helped me develop a working relationship with the various theatre groups because I have actually seen their work.
5. Tickets to the ballet – a stunning night watching Swan Lake as a thanks for giving a series of write-ups to another theatre and free tickets to music events in the town.
6. Taking on a new local bootcamp for a feature was brilliant fun and I got to take along a group of mates to get really muddy as we tried to complete an obstacle course and had a boxercise class.
7. I’ve got another coming up – this one is Loopy Ball, which is also for a group of mates and it football but inside giant blow up balls – should be funny and I’m looking forward to it.
8. Getting to interview and meet theatre, music and TV stars is an amazing bonus of the job and running the entertainment section, I’ve been pretty lucky.
9. Priority screenings of the pantomime – I love a Christmas panto, and getting invited along, with my family in tow, to watch it before anyone else has is pretty good fun. Priority tickets are always a winner – running the entertainment section means I always know first when a great comedian or show is coming to town and I can usually reserve tickets.
10. A fantastic Glamping trip with my girls as part of a review.

Of course, we’re not all in it for the freebies, we do it for the love of the job and a passion for reporting news. But, being a journalist is a stressful job with constant deadlines, you work hard and if opportunities come up I don’t think we should be afraid to snap them up. Much like bloggers accepting gifts of review products. There’s plenty more I haven’t listed – so budding journalists, if anyone tells you that you are making a mistake with your career – why not ask them if their job gives them the chance to do all of these amazing things?

What’s the best freebie you’ve ever had through work? Are you thinking about going into journalism?

I know, I know guys, I’ve got to stop talking about food. I don’t know about you lot but I’m making myself hungry! This is a review of a fantastic restaurant I discovered when I went to Norwich a few weeks ago with the boyfriend. We have a bit of a obsession with discovering new places to eat and although we find some pretty delicious places, we always try to stop ourselves from revisiting places when there are so many more we have yet to try. I did a bit of research into local restaurants ahead of our trip, to make sure we had a couple of restaurants up our sleeve if we had time to try somewhere new and amazingly we managed to fit two restaurants into one weekend! These ones were so good, I just couldn’t resist sharing them with you, so here is my review of the first.

We started off on the Saturday night be heading to Pinocchios Restaurant on St Benedicts Street. This Mediterranean brasserie is in the heart of the city and is easy to find, with convenient free parking right outside. Best of all, it is an independent restaurant, which I always try and stick to just to support local retailers rather than bigger chains. Of course, this isn’t always possible, but I think it is something we should all aim to do. From the outside, the restaurant is warm, inviting and really cute – it has the old-fashioned charm of a Lady-and-the-Tramp-style Italian but with a more diverse menu that incorporates some delicious dishes. The restaurant is very spacious so perfect for a romantic dinner for two or a large group for a birthday, there were several different groups in there when we were eating with plenty of room for all of us. The staff were attentive and looked after us well, bringing us pepper and drinks as we needed them, but leaving us alone to enjoy our food. The restaurant also had a lovely upstairs area with more seating.We were in the mood for some comfort food and this was the perfect place to enjoy delicious and tasty dishes reminiscent of a home-cooked Italian, but with some slightly different and more exotic flavours. To start, we shared squid in tempura batter with aioli and salad, and a peach and Italian cheese bruschetta  with balsamic and salad. Both were gorgeous dishes and complemented each other well, they made a great combination and really allowed us to try a mix of flavours. The aioli was delicious and really added something new to the squid dish which I had tried previously in other restaurants, it was great to see them putting a different spin on the dish. The bruschetta was delicious, it wasn’t something I would have usually ordered, but I fancied trying something unusual and I loved the combination of balsamic and peach, they worked really well together.

For mains, I had a gorgeous carbonara – not usually a dish I would order, in fact it was the first time I had ever eaten it out, but I was just in the mood for a creamy pasta with plenty of flavour. It more than lived up to my expectations and I ate every scrap of the bowl. The portions were of a healthy size, much better than when you go to a restaurant and have three pieces of ravioli brought out to you. But most importantly, the sauce was delicious, it really combined the cream with the bacon well and with a light dusting of pepper it was pretty perfect. Mark had a parpadelle pasta with lamb in a tomato sauce. His was absolutely delicious, the lamb added a hearty flavour while the tomato kept it fresh and light, he loved the dish and I enjoyed a taste as well.

We had a lovely meal, accompanied by some gorgeous wine and sadly couldn’t manage desserts. But I would really recommend this restaurant to anybody, whether you are after a romantic candlelit meal for two, a group meal or a big party, their menu has something for everyone and their service is faultless. I really enjoyed my evening with them and was even more impressed by the prices, if you are on a bit of a budget, this is a great restaurant for you. I genuinely cannot understand why anyone would rather go to the Pizza Express that is further up the street than dine in an independent, great priced and fantastic little restaurant like Pinocchios!

Have you eaten at Pinocchios – what was your meal like? Have you any other Norwich restaurant recommendations?

Lynn News photo

My apologies for the delay, but as you guys have probably seen of late, I have blog posts coming out of my ears! I seem to have all these amazing posts running around my head, barely the time to write them and certainly not enough time to post them. I would post every day on my blog if I had the time to maintain this, but sadly working four jobs does detract from the amount of time I can spend on this. So sometimes there are a few posts that I put on hold, just so I can make sure I do them justice when it comes to writing them up to share with you guys. A few weeks ago, I had a fantastic girl date with one of my best friends and in our usual style, we decided to go all out and treat ourselves. Although we speak pretty much every day, it had been a while since we had the opportunity to really catch up after we had been working lots and away at festivals – we’re both pretty busy bees! But that’s the great thing about our friendship, although we are both always busy as anything, neither one of us ever takes it personally when the other can’t make it along to something. We always know that when we do finally get a chance to catch up, that we will more than make-up for it.

We headed to one of the newer restaurants in King’s Lynn, Marriotts Warehouse, for dinner – a real treat we had both been excitedly awaiting as neither of us had tried it out yet. I had actually been there previously for a Christmas meal with friends, and the food was incredible, but it was a completely different menu to usual, so I considered myself a newbie to the restaurant. As you guys will know by now, I’m a bit of a foodie and I love going out to eat, but in King’s Lynn we are sometimes a bit lacking in different types of restaurants – we have loads of Indian, Chinese and Italian restaurants, but very little else and it was great to go to a real bistro-style restaurant. After all of the local restaurants I have been to, I have yet to find another that serves the same type of food as Marriott’s.The restaurant itself is in a fabulous place along the quayside, the old warehouse building overlooks the water and at sunset provides a stunning view. The outside seating area has seen various new additions of more benches, seats and plants which, although a little busy, was a lovely place to sit out in the sunshine with a glass of wine, as Vikki was doing when I arrived. Inside, the building is softly lit and has a cosy feel, with lots of wood panelling, beams and a huge wooden bar. The restaurant has a great atmosphere because although there are plenty of places to sit, it is not over-filled with tables so it is never too loud and voices don’t echo, even when it is busy. They have plenty of staff, perhaps too many considering the volume of tables, but they give a very personal service and are on hand to cater to your every need.The food itself is outstanding. I don’t really know how to describe it beyond that. The flavour combinations are fabulous and in some cases very unusual, they use local produce and it is all presented beautifully.

We shared the Marriott’s Sharing Platter to start, which had a delicious combination of feta stuffed peppers, potato and chorizo salad, jerk chicken skewers, minted yoghurt dip and spicy jerk sauce, goat’s cheese, mushroom and sun-dried tomato bruschetta, chicken liver pate with malted bread. Wow, it may have sounded over-ambitious, but we finished everything and it even shut us up for a few minutes because everything was so tasty. It was the perfect accompaniment to a glass of Pinot Grigio and a great conversation. I always love the sharing platters when out with friends because it is such a lovely tradition to share a meal and I love the mezze-style of eating lots of little bits of bigger dishes – as you can imagine I absolutely love tapas!For mains, we actually both went for the same dish because it sounded so tasty! We had the pan-fried duck breast served with chocolate and chilli sauce, potato rosti, braised red cabbage and caramelised oranges, and we ordered some onion rings on the side. I chose the duck because I have never really had duck out in a restaurant and I was dying to try it, my main experiences of duck are having it in pancakes as part of a Chinese. The richness of the meat really appealed to me as a big lover of venison, and I loved the idea of chocolate and chilli sauce with red cabbage. It was absolutely delicious and I struggled to keep chatting because it was so damn tasty. I loved the combination of the flavours, particularly because I would never think to have a chocolate and chilli sauce with meat, or to combine it with oranges – but it really worked and it is making my mouth water even now to remember the dish.

The whole meal was fantastic and I can’t recommend this restaurant enough, the whole venture was a brilliant idea and I’m so pleased it is paying off for the guys behind it all. Particularly after they suffered so much with flooding and even a fire earlier this year. I have heard nothing but good things about Marriotts and I always think that is the mark of a good restaurant, not what you read on websites by people who have had a free meal and rate it, but people like me who just love the food and genuinely want others to share the experience, and those who can’t stop raving about a place. Marriotts is easily one of my favourite restaurants in Lynn and I will definitely be going back again to try more on the menu!

Have you been to Marriott’s Warehouse? What was your favourite dish?

Sometimes university isn’t quite what you expected – perhaps you don’t make the friends you thought you would, or your accommodation isn’t the best. Or sometimes it all works out and you have the best university experience possible with great friends, a fantastic course and the best accommodation going. It can all turn out very differently depending on where you are, who you meet and how you do things – but one thing that can hit all of us at times is homesickness. Even the strongest, most independent individual can feel homesick at times and just want to catch the first train home to mum and their own bed. When Freshers Flu strikes, we all just want to curl up in a ball under the duvet and have our mum bring us chicken soup – so how do we deal with this when mum is hundreds of miles away?

Here’s my top tips for combating homesickness while at university:

• Don’t be afraid to call home, your parents will love to hear from you but at the same time, make sure you are not calling every day. Sometimes indulging yourself is the worst thing you can do, so try limiting to once a week, or once every few days if you can’t cope.
• Photos of your family, friends and pets on your walls are great for making your feel like they are with you and they make your walls look good.
• Don’t just sit in your room crying and feeling sorry for yourself or you will never make any friends and you will feel even more homesick. Get busy – throw yourself into your course, join societies and generally keep yourself busy and moving. The busier you are, the less time you have to think about missing home and the more you will realise you can cope.
• Spend time with your flatmates or other friends – put time into new friendships because these are the ones that will become your adopted family over the next three years.
• Talk to friends, chances are they’ve felt the same as you at some point and you’ll both feel less alone for chatting about it.
• Arrange for your family or friends to come and visit for a weekend – it will give you something to look forward to and you can have a huge catch up when you see them which means you are less likely to feel homesick in the meantime.
• Likewise, arrange for a weekend when you will be going home to see everyone – make sure it is not every weekend, but once a month or so should be enough to make sure you feel less homesick.
• Don’t be embarrassed to take along something that makes you feel comforted like an old teddy or blanket, it’s great for when you feel a bit down and you can always hide it in your wardrobe if you don’t want anyone to see it!

What helped ease your homesickness the most? Have you got any other top tips to share?

I’ve read a lot of panicked Facebook and Twitter posts in the last week – fears about starting university in the coming weeks, not knowing what to expect as a Fresher, and the biggest worry of all seems to be what to pack and take with you. As someone who has graduated, but who still remembers her first day at university as clear as a whistle, I figured it was only right to give a little extra help to the graduates of tomorrow, by helping them work out what they need to take with them. Here’s my must-haves list:

• The most important thing to have with you is any documentation for your new accommodation and course, make sure you have your passport or a photocopy, plus bank account details. All of these will be needed at one point or another and it is always useful to have them ready.
• Cleaning products – if you’re staying in university accommodation, much as it will have been cleaned, you will want to give it a scrub down. I made sure to hoover everywhere, wiped down the surfaces and changed the bed cover. I’m not being OCD, once you see how some students live, you will be glad you did, if only to get certain “stains” off the bed.
• Laptop and a printer, if you have one, these are very important and will become the lifeblood of your time at university – you will come to use them more than anything else you pack. Try and have a backup system or external hard-drive and use it! There’s nothing worse than losing your essay the night before it is due in.
• Lots of plug extensions – usually the plus will be in a useful place in uni accommodation, but there are limited numbers of them and I found it really helped having an extension so I could have my TV, laptop, hair-dryer and straighteners all plugged in at once.
• Slippers and flip-flops can make a world of difference to your life – you will spend a lot of time in your communal kitchen if you’re friends with your flatmates and you don’t want to be walking around barefoot if there is food on the floor etc. Likewise, if you share bathrooms, wear flip-flops if they look a bit grim – nobody wants to walk barefoot into a toilet shared with five blokes! Plus a cosy dressing gown is a must.
• Food – so many people turn up without food when they are in self-catered accommodation. This is the best time to squeeze a food shop out of mum and dad when they are an emotional wreck. Plus it will set you up for a while if you do it right – buy big bags of pasta, pasta sauces, rice, some meat for the freezer, milk, bread, herbs and spices if you plan to actually cook, plus some goodies – always good to have a few teabags and biscuits stashed away for your new friends.
• Cosy new bedding – treat yourself to some cute bedding (Primark do really nice sets) and cushions to make your room nice and cosy. You’ll spend a lot of time in there and you want it to be welcoming. Make sure you have a spare set for when you drunkenly spill wine all over your bed and can’t be bothered to wash it.
• Clothes for every occasion, you should always have a smart outfit in case you have to give a presentation at university, plus slobs and regular clothes for uni. Don’t forget lots of outfits for nights out and of course, your fancy dress box. Good idea to check what fancy dress nights you will have in Freshers Week so you can get some outfits lines up ready.
• Books – if you can get your reading list before starting, it is a good idea to get your books early so you can beat the crazy rush to the nearest Waterstones to university – try looking online on Amazon or Play.com – often they are much cheaper.
• Photos of your family, friends, pets and boyfriend are a great way to decorate the usually bland walls of your university room, plus it’s nice to have them there if you’re feeling a bit homesick. Use Whitetack instead of Bluetack as some universities will dock your deposit for stains on the wall.
• Washing basket, washing powder and fabric softener – often forgotten but so useful when you have to nip down to the laundrette and have something to carry your smalls in.
• Toiletries – obviously all the standard ones, but don’t forget the things your mum usually stocks up on instead like hand soap, toothpaste, and of course you’ll need a couple of towels – a spare is great for when you can’t be bothered to do washing.
• Alcohol – take some with you for the first few nights as the shops on campus are usually hideously overpriced and you might be too busy to head off campus to stock up.
• Take folders, pens, highlighters and paper – so many people forget basic stationary but you will be going to lectures and seminars at some point and you will need something to take notes on.
• Contraception and a first aid box – pack this full of painkillers, plasters, bandages, cold medication, Lemsip and anything else you think you might need. You WILL get ill – just accept it and be prepared for it. A hot water bottle is also nice for when you are feeling rough. Condoms – self-explanatory really, better to be prepared!
• A great attitude! You are going to have a fantastic time at university, but it is a scary time. Don’t over think everything and let yourself worry – just go and enjoy it. The better your attitude and the more proactive you are about meeting your flatmates and joining clubs – the more friends you will have. If you sit in your room and cry because you are homesick, you will never meet anyone!

Most of all just remember to have fun, enjoy it, throw yourself into every moment, experience and night out – even if you don’t drink, it is a great way to meet people in those first few weeks when everyone will be out every night. Treat every person you meet like your new best friend – but you may well have a completely different group of friends by second year so don’t worry if you don’t really connect with some people.

What are your biggest fears about university? Has this list helped with your packing?

My Facebook is littered with students who are starting to get excited about going back to uni, some who are just starting and those, like myself, who wish we could go back, if only for one awesome night. The countdown is starting, and after the bank holiday, there really isn’t long to go until the universities once again open their doors to the madness. Regular readers will know that I had a pretty awesome time at university, made some amazing friends and loved every second of studying – even those all-nighters in the library and the early starts! And I have to say, that although by the time I left I was rather more excited to get out in the world and start working, I would always love to go back and experience it all again – I wouldn’t do a single thing differently and would love every second.One of the things I would particularly like the chance to experience again is living in such close quarters with all of my fabulous university friends. We had a group of around seven of us who spent most of our waking moments together throughout first and second year. By third year, we were spread across two houses just a few minutes walk from each other and some of us were even on the same courses! It was brilliant, especially for someone who previously had mainly boy mates  to experience being surrounded by so many like-minded girls who (sorry to quote Cyndi Lauper but…) “just wanna have fun!” We all had the same priorities, we all wanted to study hard and do well, but made sure we had plenty of time for lots of fun as well – these are the girls who would be up all hours studying and revising with me. But they are also the girls I was out pretty much every night with, the ones who came on Nando’s dates with me and the ones who came round for pizza and X Factor nights.It was always great to have a group of so many because you could always guarantee that no matter what you wanted to do, there was someone who was free to come along with you, there was always someone to get drunk with and there was always someone who could help you when you got stuck on coursework. It always really helped to have that support network when you were struggling because there was always someone around who could proofread your essays, test you before exams and to make sure you revise with promises of cocktails as a reward. Each summer, when we were all torn apart for three or four months, and now between each reunion I’m always thinking about all the silly and fun things I miss about my beauties. Trust me there are quite a few, but the things I miss most are the qualities that make this friendship and sets it apart from other friendships I share.20 Things I Miss About My University Girls:

1. Having someone there all the time – I was so used to having at least four of us in the house at all times, that meant someone was always awake to talk, snuggle or do shots with.
2. Silly inside jokes were constant in our group, as in any other, and they still go on now, years after they stopped being funny for everyone else – but they certainly still make us giggle!
3. Talking about EVERYTHING – whether we wanted to or not and no matter how gross or graphic it got – there was always someone there to listen.
4. Similar, but all the talk and comedy over sex – it held hours of entertainment of talking in detail about funny experiences and in hilarious detail about the blokes involved, then giggling when seeing the boys like immature 12-year-olds.
5. Cooking dinner after a night out, especially trying to fry eggs when drunk and basically just making a mess with lots of mayonnaise.
6. Cooking and eating big dinners together like a little family before watching a film – all when sober.
7. Being silly, tickle fights, spooning, snuggles in bed, pumpkin carving, baking and all the rest.
8. Fancy dress! My girls and I always went all out for every single fancy dress occasion, and even some we made up ourselves – we’d do all the school girl nights, army girls, cops and robbers, Disney princesses and all the rest.
9. My partners in crime – never have I met so many girls who were all up for causing carnage and as much naughty behaviour as I am – we had a good giggle and they were always there alongside me when I was causing mischief.
10. Getting ready together for a big night out, or any night out, playing our music loud, dancing like muppets, making cocktails, choosing our outfits and all the rest.
11. The ridiculous amount of time spent in the loo on nights out – it was silly and drunken and we loved it – much as we tried to deny it it was a big part of our nights out!
12. Dropping it like it’s hot every time we got into the club, busting hilarious moves and having the time of our lives – girls only.
13. Eating rubbish – I’m a hell of a lot healthier than back then, we loved a cheeky McDonalds, Nando’s, Dominoes, Indian… – but sneaking these foods with the girls was a lot of fun.
14. Chasing spiders – okay I don’t miss this quite so much, but we had a lot of laughs over trying to catch the enormous spiders that we found in our house.
15. Being really gross – I won’t go into details because I don’t tell on my girls, but we’ve all been pretty gross at one point or another, and we’ve all seen each other in the worst drunken states possible, so we know how to cope with anything!
16. Those all-nighters – I’m not even talking about the nights out, I’m talking about the picnics we would make and take to the library, hauling our laptops and books over there to study, having short breaks where we just threw sweets into each others mouths.
17. Fry-up Tuesdays – a couple of us used to pop to the university cafe for a cheeky fry-up between lectures, that certainly perked us up after an early start!
18. Running  was hilarious, we went as a group for a short time during the winter months and used to freeze ourselves to death before coming home for hot showers and dinner. After a while, I lost my running buddies, but it was funny while it lasted, with regular gasps of “I’m dying”.
19. Making the most of our garden  with barbecues, nudie sunbathing and revising during the summer – as long as the spiders kept away we were happy.
20. Nando’s  was our spiritual home between lectures, in the evenings and basically any time of day – we’d use any excuse to go and it was more than just chicken to us.

So what do you miss the most about your university mates when you’re on summer break, or since finishing? Why not share below and add to the list?