Right place, right time: Keith knows what he is talking about!!

I was invited to two parties last night; the Shave for a Cure and one at my brother's. We planned to spend a short time at Pete's and then move on to the next, as soon as it felt polite to do so.

The party was for my brother's girlfriend, Jane We had never met her family before, and they were delighted to meet us - mum, sisters, cousins etc.

Like most parties, where you know few people, you sort of scope out the room and hope to find someone interesting to strike up a conversation with. I didn't have to wait long before a very vivacious lady approached me, introduced herself as Jane's sister and we were soon involved in some witty banter.

It was one of those moments when you meet someone and think, "Wow! this person is cool, I'd like to know more". We were like long lost friends, laughing and commenting on life etc, talking about a holiday she is planning with Pete and Jane. We knew many of the same people, were of similar age, had travelled to a lot of the same places and had a great capacity to make each other laugh.

She then asked me what I was doing, and I told her I was studying PR and was tossing around the idea of continuing on to journalism. Her face beamed as she excitedly asked, "You don't know who I am, do you??"

As soon as she mentioned her full name, I knew who she was, and her presence in the media. She is a journalist and the head media spokesperson for an organisation I am very interested in. I was able to impress her by telling her I had read an article in this morning's paper about her organisation, asked her how the article was generated, and continued to discuss other events that involved them. She sat back and smiled.

I don't know which of us was more excited! she offered to take me under her wing, introduce me to others in the industry, and wants to take me along to a group, which meets once a month, called 'Women in Media'. She talked about how she got her important and exciting role, the pressures and demands of her job (it is certainly not 9 to 5, 5 days a week), and made sure to highlight just how rewarding it was.

I was amazed by how cool and calm I was, sitting there in disbelief...how do you come across these people?? do things in life randomly happen for a reason??

My heart was beyond excited when she said, "Do you think you would be interested in doing some work experience with us?" she explained it wasn't common where she worked, but she really liked me and was going to present me to her colleagues. She knew about some of the other places I had worked in, people I had worked with, and was very positive about my future opportunities.

Do these opportunities really happen?? Was there some kind of devine intervention? I was doing very little to sell myself. I was being myself and she liked "me".

She went on to say that she liked me as soon as she saw me enter the room (was one of those rare moments where I scrubbed up ok) and was keen to chat with me. We exchanged numbers and emails, with a promise to 'keep in touch'.

Somebody pinch me please!