Butler School in Oxfordshire! BBC Oxford

I took a trip to to see what it's like to be a Butler. There's a Butler school in Oxfordshire believe it or not, at Ditchley Park, a stately home near Chipping Norton!

It's a far cry from everyday life and as you'll hear, I'm not up to it...

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN THEN CLICK PLAY

Two Week Tour of Blighty

I've had a very enjoyable time touring the country from friend to friend, 20 of them in total - in Sheffield, Manchester, Nottingham, London, Canterbury, Cheltenham, Swindon and Oxford.

One thing that has stayed in my mind is the way alcohol was central to my meet-ups.

Every friend that I met with, except for one who is tee-total, have been keen to share a drink with me.

It's just assumed that to socialise, you drink booze together.

I'm not taking the moral high ground here, I gladly drank almost every night!

One thing I have learnt is how easy it would be to slip into the bad habit of drinking every night.

Our society dictates that to relax after a hard day's work, to socialise with friends, to console oneself or to celebrate, we drink alcohol.

I raise a glass to all those I met up with!

If you are my friend on Facebook, check out all of the photos here.

I've "no chance" of TV career

Apparently I should just give up now. My career in TV kicks off in a few weeks but it was reported today that Jeremy Paxman is far from encouraging people like me to endeavour on my chosen career path: "If any middle-class white male I come across says he wants to enter television, I say 'give up all hope'. They've no chance."

He made his remarks in a recorded interview for the annual television top-bods get-together that is the Edinburgh International Television Festival.

I was shocked to read the story earlier and pondered for a while on whether my experience tallies with his view. It didn't take long to remember that every single person in my postgrad broadcast journalism group at Cardiff University was white, half were men and all appeared distinctly middle-class. And I don't remember there being anyone from an ethnic minority in the magazine and newspaper postgrad groups either - that's 90 young journalists who have just started their career from Cardiff, what some say is the best place in Britain to prepare you for the world of journalism.

Since finishing the Cardiff course in June I have worked in four newsrooms - BBC Oxford, BBC Derby, BBC 3 Counties, and Mix 96. I can count on one hand the number of people from ethnic minorities that work in these newsrooms. Surely Paxman is off the mark, certainly in reference to whites being suppressed.

I start a traineeship at ITV News in October and hope it'll be the start of a long career in TV, radio and online. Paxo thanks but no thanks, I'm ignoring your advice.