For most of Tuesday it seemed as if I was getting nowhere. I was put on two stories to begin with.
The first was an idea I pitched to my editor – new designs for hospital furniture that aimed to stop outbreaks of superbugs. A topic with some importance in Kent due to the C.diff outbreak at Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells hospital which killed 90 people.
However this was quickly cast aside as no solid Kent link could be established: none of the hospitals which would be trying out the new furniture were in Kent. Although the hospital I was born in – Lewisham – would get to try them out.
The second story concerned declining beer sales. Jonathan Neame, from local brewer Shepherd Neame was unavailable, and so were a number of managers in pubs across the county.
Then news broke that there had been an explosion at a house in Kemsley, near Sittingbourne. I was put on standby to go down there. Then the call came and I was sent to get footage of the house and speak to whoever I could. After managing to find my way down there I set my camera up and got a few minutes worth of footage.
But amidst all of the chaos I was accused of moving a rather large cameraman’s tripod. Then I got an interview with the Incident Commander from the firefighters dealing with the blaze. Once that was all done it was back to base. The footage was cut and included in the site’s video bulletin, and the original article on the fire.
I spent the bulk of Wednesday working on the Gurkhas story. In the morning I got an interview with Jeff Brazier, Conservative MP for Canterbury. Then, at around 5pm, the news broke that the government had lost the vote on their plans for Gurkhas wanting to settle here in the UK. In a very welcome stroke of luck, Hugh Robertson MP, who I had tried to interview earlier – got back to me and I was able to get his reaction to the vote within minutes of the news breaking.
Tomorrow I’ll be working solely on video, and then on Friday it’s back to the website. And then a long weekend which I think I very much need.
