OPM work experience

I've just come back from the most amazing week. Obviously I can't put too much detail up here as out of respect, I am keeping most things quiet but I can tell you all a little bit about it.

One my first day I was so nervous. My parents dropped me off and I went into the building. I'd been in here before so I walked up to the desk and explained myself. The lady was nice, got me to fill out a slip and called someone from OPM down. She also gave me a card which turned out to be a lovely good luck card from Martyn and family - so sweet! I sat and waited with another girl who was also doing work experience, not sure where though. Then Leon appeared. I saw his eyes flicker from the other girl to me until he either recognised me or realised the other girl looked far too feminine! I waved to him and then shook his hand. He asked me a few questions as we made our way upstairs and he quickly showed me around the office. He was really the only one in but the others soon started to emerge as the time passed. The IT people set up my own username and password so I could access any computer I wanted but before I logged on Ben invited me to come along to the podcast recording.

It sounds silly but I didn't realise the podcast was recorded in a different building. It was only round the corner and as we walked there I had a bit of a chat with Ben about the minions which was nice. He certainly is very chatty and he makes you feel involved in things, which is lovely. When we got there they all sat round the table and I sat with James Jarvis who was recording and sound checking everything. Everything is recorded on one long take and any mistakes, swearing etc are edited out afterwards so it meant I got to listen to the uncut version, hurrah! It was an interesting experience and meant I now don't have to listen to the next one.

The rest of my first day consisted of collecting screenshots and artwork for the top 50 playstation games of all time as that will be one of the main features for the next mag. As sad as it sounds it's strangely satisfying to see the art guy using the pictures I'd picked out in the feature. It was also very funny hearing Ben commentate on people's votes as he was the one collating them.

Tuesday lunchtime I met Martyn for lunch and he took me to a nice cafe and we had a chat about things. Was nice just to spend time with him - unfortunately I made him a little bit late back for work which I felt bad about. The rest of my days spent at the OPM office was a lot of doing little jobs. But you know what? Even doing the little things wasn't boring! Which made me think if I did end up doing a job like this, it really would be my dream job. I got to write the round up news section which was fun and I'm going to get 2 small reviews published - yay! I can't wait to see my name under something in next weeks mag. That will make me so happy. I think my dad is so proud he's thinking of framing everything I've ever put in the magazine! Such as all the off the wall stuff and the letter of mine that got published.

Wednesday evening I met up with Lee Groom and Martyn, we had dinner somewhere and then pudding somewhere else. Lee was a nice bloke, very friendly and jolly so all in all it was a great evening. But the best day of all was my last day of work. Near the end of the day I'd finished all the work Joel had given me, he felt a bit mean giving me any more work to do so he let me choose a game of my choice to play. I think the choice was dead rising 2, enslaved or vanquish. I really wouldn't have minded any of those 3 as they all appealed to me but I ended up choosing Dead Rising 2 as I love a bit of zombie bashing. So I played that whilst texting Martyn to arrange going to the pub with the minions. Tim and Rachel came to sit next to me to watch and Tim took over at one point to have a play. It really did make me laugh the way he was shouting "HAVE SOME CHAIR ZOMBIE!" Though he ended up killing me and I hadn't saved...woops back to the start then!

As thanks team OPM gave me a copy of Kane and Lynch 2 but they felt a bit mean about that so later on in the pub Rachel came over and gave me some signed Final Fantasy artwork and a God of War 3 box with the game in and loads of other little extras. I was genuinely surprised! I really am a very lucky girl! Plus Ben brought me a drink! Spoilt! OPM couldn't spend too long in the pub as it was someones leaving do. Though she had very kindly invited me and my friends along to it so we said we'd come along later as Ben was very insistent we come. We were hungry so we went to pizza hut first - which was good times. Then we ended up braving the rain to go to this other pub we were invited to. The lady whose leaving do it was, was surprised there was so many of us and Joel said they'd been waiting for us. It was a really good night, felt really happy, surrounded by people having conversations (and sometimes arguments!) about games and, of course, surrounded by my best friends. I was annoyed I had to leave early but it wouldn't have been fair to keep my parents up really late so I had to head back.

All in all I had a great week. Couldn't have asked for a better one :)