18May1997

My dear folks, Sunday 18/05/97

The end of a long week! I’m near worked into the ground. With any luck, I now have three days off – unless I’m cruelly called in. Oh what a blissfully sweet thought. I can’t tell you how I relish it. Thank you for lots of faxes & emails. I’ll sit down and go through them again, properly, before this is done. It’s been a Zaire weekend. It’s a story I’ve long been following & I promoted it heavily on Wednesday to the evening current affairs editor who paid me the compliment of making it the lead. That was when Laurent Kabila’s forces started to break through the army lines at a bridgehead 100 kms from Kinshasa.

I had Thursday off; went walking with cousin Jud in the morning & then had a session – including a winey dinner out – with a couple of “my” flat owners. On Friday, I went in to work an extra shift on a news review programme but found myself sucked into the Zaire drama as news emerged of Mobutu’s flight from the capital & the rebel advance. We went live for 3 hours with a rolling news programme.

Saturday Kabila’s troops rolled into town. Proved a busy day for them and us, as well as our several correspondents in the capital. The Beeb is a hungry machine with half a dozen radio & TV channels that want endless tracks & live interviews – most of them by phone as satellite feeds cost a fortune. Our team was two down & struggling to cope. I was midway through one bulletin transmission when we glimpsed a Kinshasa feed coming in on one of the screens. It turned out that there were a couple of minutes to spare at the end of the satellite booking & we broke our backs to get a correspondent up & into the programme. I also near broke my leg falling over a bench as I was leaping about the gallery. We got our interview, counting the presenter down to the very last second available on the feed. I’ve also got a bloody weal across my shins for my pains. Today was easier especially as we were up to strength again. I briefly napped on the boss’s couch both days – going out like a light & waking much refreshed.

Friday night it started to pour as I left the Beeb & I left reluctantly abandoned the bike & took a mini-cab from the dingy office at White City station, just over the road. To my utter astonishment, the driver took a short cut that I’d never dreamed existed – after two years of cycling through the area. I gave him a generous tip & a warm good night. I was able to walk to work in 45 mins the next morning instead of the hour it’s taken before - & to ride home in 15 mins that evening instead of 20. I celebrated the same route again this morning. There’s nothing else on the roads at 6.30 a.m. on a Sunday. The sun was up & I rejoiced in the freshness & tranquillity of the day. It felt even better as I returned with the day behind me this evening.

So that’s been my week. Cathy, an amazing conclusion to your soaked cellar episode & a welcome one – with the insurance company to pick up the tab. Was it just a bad joint in the pipe that was causing the problem? With leaking roofs in London & Portugal making a formative part of our own experience, we empathise in your troubles. I note that Anita is now off to her own French family. Oh but they grow up so fast! Makes me recall – I’m not sure why – the mob of shriekies who spent the whole of yesterday clustered outside the BBC gates, keening every time they thought they glimpsed some boy pop star. Throughout the day, their shrill wailing filled the corridors. They were still determinedly clustered there when I left yest, the victims of some exploding female hormone. Must be utterly terrifying to be the object of their attentions.

Thank you too Jones for your Quintassential accounts. However unseasonable & disruptive the rain showers, the garden will have been glad of them. Warming fires in mid-May do sound slightly ridiculous. According to the CNN weather forecast, you are due for partly cloudy conditions all week with temps rising several degrees over the next few days from current lows of 12 / highs of 20. I note the successful departure of Lo & that Piet is back on the job. Please pass my thanks on to him. There are deck chairs on sale in Swiss cottage. I plan to bring some down with me in June unless you advise me otherwise.