Day two

Day two was much better. I actually walked into the station at 8h00 in a good mood and ready to take on the day. I wasn't as scared, and I think I was beginning to enjoy taking on something completely new and DIFFICULT. Ha!

At 9h00, I went to a press conference a Taipei city counselor gave on inflated water bills. In Taipei, water meters are often difficult to read because they're behind parked cars, locked gates, etc. When the water company can't read your meter, they charge you the same amount as the previous billing period. Sometimes the user wins, sometimes the user loses. Of course they only complain when they lose, and that was the case this time. Sometimes, though, part of the problem is the water company employee who may cite a bogus reason for not getting the meter reading and just breeze by. And sticking to tradition, the city counselor got really worked up, raised her voice, accused the water company representative of not being able to read the numbers in the photo she had, when she in fact was the one that couldn't read. It was pretty funny. "Do you know how to read? Oh, wait, nevermind." Anyway, if your water bill looks like previous months' and you think you've been charged too much, make an appointment to have the water company come by and re-read your meter. That was my morning story.

At 14h30, I went go a sports equipment show, expecting to see interesting sports equipment and sports "toys" but couldn't find anything interesting enough for news after walking around the entire trade centre twice, so we headed back to the station. By that time, I was getting really worried because it was 15h15 and I was trying to come up with something for the evening news. My boss wasn't worried since I'm so new at this, but I have a big problem with feeling useless... Then, two shots rang out and I was in luck. There was a bank heist and they needed support, so we got to go. My cameraman and I went to the police station where they were holding one of the suspects to get footage of the guy with his head covered and hand cuffed to the wall. There was a .92 Beretta, a cartridge and a mask. I suppose you don't see those things often, since guns are illegal in Taiwan. After sending our tape to the main scene where my colleague was reporting live, we were instructed to stick around...forever. Nothing happened, thankfully, I suppose. Well, I got totally smoked out at the police station and saw that many, many policemen and cameramen are no gentlemen, whatsoever.

We were finally released to return to the station around 18h30. Thankfully, I didn't have to write a script or make a package, since it was all taken care of by other colleagues. So I caught up on some more news and headed home around 20h30. I almost fell asleep while driving home...at 20h30. Boy, was I tired.

What an exciting day, though.