We've had a young lady, Poppy, in on work-experience all this week. Now, we get quite a few people coming through looking to see how it all works, wondering whether they might want to help it work in their future career. I certainly did my fair share - quite a few years ago now - but I did my fair share. Anyway, the young people who come in tend to fall into a number of categories. There are those who frankly would rather be doing extra maths - here only because someone else thought it was a good idea. There are those who leave you wondering how they dress themselves in the morning. And there are those who get stuck in, ask lots of questions and add to the general team effort. Poppy's in a category of her own - she brought in home-made cakes today. It's a first. She can come again.
Right, with a mouthful of fluffy-wuffy fairy cake, let's look at today's stories:
Our guest tonight is the astonishingly successful producer/performer Mark Ronson. We'll ask him about his new album and working with Duran Duran on their new album.
Lucy's also been chatting with the X-factor runner-up, Olly Murs, about his first single.
We'll be reporting on the new network of cycle highways that's about to spread out across the capital, and the controversial introduction of a parking fee for motorcyclists in parts of the capital - motorcylists failed in a legal bid to scrap it today.
Marcus Powell has the latest on the £5 million fine imposed on the five companies responsible for the Buncefield explosion 5 years ago - the families who live nearby are, shall we say, less than impressed.
Ronke's job is to tell us about the punishment handed out to one of the doctors involved in the Baby P scandal.
While Sharon Thomas has been talking to the father of a marine, Matthew Harrison, who was killed in Afghanistan this week. I'm sure she won't mind me saying that the composure and generosity of spirit shown by Brian Harrison today left her in awe.
We'll hear from him - and cover the rest of the day's news - at six.
Ben & Lucy
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It wasn't a good start to the day today. The trains were up the spout due to a power failure somewhere along the line meaning services were down to one an hour & the trains themselves were half the length they would normally be. The combination of lateness & overcrowding is not appealing & usually brings out the worst in people, but today everyone was remarkably well behaved & we all worked hard to make the best of a bad situation.
Perhaps it was just the knock-on effect of relief at escaping the brief shower (a left over from last night) that was pouring down as we whiled away the delay on the platform or maybe it was a general feeling of thank God it's Friday. Anyway I'm hopeful the train service will improve in much the same way the weather will (mainly fine & warm over the next few days) & that my journey home tonight will be punctual & uneventful.
Hope to see you later,
Robin.
