The final week! The final day! It all seems a little surreal. As I said, it seems like only five minutes ago I was walking into the office for the first time, watching that intensely informative safety video and answering to shouts of "Blast boy! More tea!" from the Norfolk Online team with "Yes, masters," before hobbling up and down the stairs, hands throbbing and burnt. While it's not fair to say they tied me to the chair with an electric shock machine activated if my typing rate fell below 500 words a minute (of course, the BBC would never do such a thing), it is fair to say that their icy stares were more than enough to strike fear in the hearts of even the most experienced of journalists.  | | It's been exciting to report on music... |
Of course, I'm joking. At least, that's what the lawyers are telling me to say. My time here has been amazing and, as I said in my application form, there really is nowhere better to start off a journalism career than with the BBC. However, from now on I expect to be constantly disappointed. How many other places am I going to work in that have an entirely glass wall and a fish bowl? Or a spiral staircase? A spiral staircase! Unless my next job is working in a converted cathedral (fingers crossed), I don't expect to see one of those in the near future. In fact, I'm going to walk up and down it a few times. Savour the taste.  | | ...and theatre for Blast. |
As a few other Blast reporters have said in their final diaries, I'm going to carry on doing stuff for the website, so you'll still see that achingly artistic black and white photo everywhere, complete with chiaroscuro and knowing half smile. Look out, Orson Welles. I've already got a few gigs lined up, including the wombatwombat night on Friday 16 September and, hopefully, Arab Strap and 65daysofstatic in the near future. Come along, say hello and see some amazing bands. To say thanks to Rachel, Martin and Zoe I got them all little gifts. Zoe got some fair-trade tea, to feed her addiction, Rachel got some flapjacks, also to feed her addiction, and Martin got some hair wax. He probably has an addiction, too.  | | Me in the BBC Norfolk Studio |
For my last Blast experience I recorded some summaries of the stories in the studio, so now you can hear me, see me and read what I've written, anywhere in the world! This is just the first step in my creation of a blissful utopia, where I am the news. 1984, anyone? Lucky I'm finishing Blast now, I don't know how long this ego trip would last otherwise. Surprisingly, there haven't been many The Day Today incidents in my time at the BBC - no shouts of "Peter, you've lost the news!" across the office, or "that was liquid football!" Perhaps that's for the best. Stay tuned for my review of Kaito, Ex-Models, Fun! Yeah! and Piney Gir, from the position of an ex-Blast reporter. Now, how many people in the world can say that? | 
