London - Pakistan

Following the trail of the London Bombers on the 7th July we are in Pakistan waiting to see what turns up. By we, I mean Stuart the correspondant…

and Tim the producer both out of London.

Its been a bit of a mad trip where nothing has proved to be easy. Firstly trying to get visa’s in a hurry is a time where it would be very easy for the government to say no.

Next there are no direct flights between Delhi and Islamabad - you have to go via a third city in Pakistan - but not on a Tuesday. So instead I had to go via Dubai and back again taking a total of 23 odd hours for what should be a 3 hour journey time. I am sure they will work it out though.

Then with more equipment problems - my camera not recording when it said it was - grrr and live kit not working properly it was not the best start. Finally with some lives under our belt we headed out on Thursday morning at 6am for Lahore - no flights so a 5 hour drive scrunched up in the back of a Toyota Hi-ace.

My camera gives up again putting us back 2 hours - so it has been sidelined then In 45 degree heat and running against the clock we have to shoot more for toady and tomorrow, edit and get some lives in. It doesn’t help that I put my watch back to India time and loose half an hour.

Because of the significance of the Madrassa’s we do visit one of the ones where one of the bombers allededly attended.

This is one of the classrooms where the students learn the Qur’an by heart over a period of years.

Whilst the Mullah did treat us curteously it was quiet apparant from the students we weren’t welcome and even picked up a couple of secret policemen who then followed us for the rest of the day - to ensure our safety!

Having done all this on Thursday we hang around on Friday for some protests which didn’t happen - file again - do another couple of lives for Sky and Ch5 and up early on the Saturday morning for the return drive to Islamabad - still no flights. I don’t like mini buses you just can’t sleep properly.

The day did turn out better though - lazy lunch - bit of shopping - a few DVD’s but no Shreddies!

Champion!

Mission accomplished. Photo with Daley Thompson, and Jonathan Edwards to boot.

Caught on their way to breakfast the morning after - smiles all round.

London Wins

Indochine Restaurant… Big Screen… Tense Nervous Audience. Drama or what and tears before the announcement. It seriously did go mad when we won - fantastic news for London and the UK in the longterm but over the next seven years I think those living in the UK will get a tad bored with the constant Olympic news.

We needed to go live and had to share the costs and time with the BBC. Fine and working together we tried hard to get through an inpromptu location without having all the right kit.

Here we have Ben Brown using our phone and earpiece - me holdong the phone to make it work and using some of our cables to get the audio out…

He still didn’t get on…. as the Beeb couldn’t find the satellite. Our turn five mins later was perfect!!

And then we were live when Becks came out to say hi.

Victria looking and acting particualrily Posh as too.

And a while afterwards they (the BBC) got really p*s*d at us for not sharing!! Oh well sometimes you try!

Olympic Bid

Back in Singapore but this time for some real work. 20 or so of us, Delhi, Beijing and a pot of people from London. Good view from the room.

Not that we spent any time drinking… Lew and Rich.

Don’t look down your nose at me.

Vivek and Bevan and three hands - whats with that.

Not an bad bar either - it was at the top of the hotel on the 70th floor with a panoramic view of Singapore. Stuningly fantastic.