A blanker whiteness of benighted snow with no expression

What a strange afternoon.....

It was a simple task - follow up on a bank report into fixed interest securities that was saying investment grade corporate bonds (essentially a big safe company offering to borrow money from joe and jane public) were in high demand and find out if that's the case - 250 to 300 words or thereabouts.

Easy pickings - I've got a dozen or so fixed interest guys to call on......

"Hi, is so and so there?"

"No, s/he's away for the week/day/year/month...."

"Okay, thanks, bye."

Change phone number/name, repeat.

After exhausting everyone (including bigwigs at some of the country's largest fund managers), I finally got through to a pleasant chap who gave me a fairly good idea of what was going on, and was happy to get the odd call now and then (which is always handy).

Then, just on the stroke of 5, one of my guys came through for me with the perfect 8 minute interview explaining how everything worked, why it was doing it, and where to from here.

The only question I have, is what on earth would happen if it wasn't a baby reporter ringing but a big-time investor who wanted to know the state of New Zealand's bond market on a Tuesday afternoon?

Some days ya just gotta wonder......

PB.

Question: Which blue chip company likes to put out press releases late in the day to avoid immediate comment for the wire services/talk talk and can completely talk around the issue at hand when it finally comes out......?

Unhelpful and overly cryptic hint:

There will be nothing here for the diary entry

There was going to be a slightly more interesting blog about nothing and the banality of daylight savings, but then blogger pulled an IE and destroyed all of my beautiful musings.

Just look at the labels and think what might have been.

In the meantime, enjoy this:




PB.

Indeed there will be time to wonder, 'Do I dare? and, 'Do I dare?'

Sheesh - it's amazing what a good day can do to your attitude.

I'd been toying with the idea of making this a kinda thing that I dip back into when I have something eloquent to say for a while - six odd months to be precise. Unfortunately, it's rather embarrassing when you realise you don't actually have anything to add...

So, in a fit of rage yesterday, I considered turning this into the life and times of a baby reporter.

Am I still a baby? Unsure....

I've been doing this gig for six or so months full-time, which in the scheme of things could make me a veteran to some, but considering the old hacks I hang around with, I'm definitely a baby.

Anyhooo, that's not really what I wanted to say.

Oh yeah, hi, sorry it's been a while, if I could find the xkcd cartoon where it has the panel with the guy who blogs every six months to apologise for not blogging more often, I'd link to it, but I can't, so sorry on that front.

So what did I have to say today?

Just something I found curious about the Herald and Stuff in picking up me currency story and tyring to lose the crux of the story in the head they used.

Stuff did it a couple of days ago when they picked up a PA story on the appointment of David Mayhew as the new financial adviser commissioner.

Which poses the question as to why they don't add or edit the wire stories when they don't say what the web editor wants....

Sure they'll get the hits they want, but somehow that naive idealist in me just sees the reader getting swindled. And journalism ain't about.... is it....

PB.

Oh, as an aside, it was nice to see me currency piece forced PA to pick up on my theme - I'm not particularly one for the free market, but it is refreshing to see how competition can tangibly improve quality...