BBC - Around the World - Ariel's 'Foreign Bureau' - 27 April 2004

By Rupert Wingfield Hayes, Correspondent, Beijing, 27 April 2004

Monday 0700: The irritating ring of my mobile phone penetrates my deep slumber. I roll out of bed and answer it. It’s London. Seven Chinese have been abducted in Iraq and they need a response. I call the foreign ministry. No answer. I call the rest of the crew. Better get to the bureau as it looks like a busy day.

0830: The traffic crawls. It’s only April but the temperature is already in the high 20s. Two-way requests are coming in. I manoeuvre through the jumble of taxis and bicycles, cursing at anyone who gets in my way.

0900: Finally I’m at the bureau. But something’s wrong. The computer system is down. I reboot the server, but there’s nothing doing.

0920: Al, my cameraman, arrives. We’ve got a live down-the-line in 40 minutes. He starts to get ready while I crawl in to the server bay and start trying to track the source of the computer failure.

0945: Still no computers. London has faxed wires. I grab them off the machine and run to the washroom to shave and change for the live.

1005: Down the line into World TV over the Polycom, the new video link that has just been installed in the bureau. It allows us to send live pictures down eight channels of ISDN at a fraction of the cost of a satellite feed.

1030: The foreign ministry has finally confirmed the abductions. Still no computers, so I’m scratching out a dispatch the old fashioned way.

1100: We’ve found the source of the computer problem. The UPS [the uninterrupted power supply kit that is used if the electricity is suddenly cut] is fried. Al and I crawl back into the computer bay and start re-routing all the electrical cables to go around the burned-out UPS.

1140: Computers are back! More requests are coming in. Morning 'Bulletins' piece, Five-Live, 'Today' two-way. Even 'Breakfast' wants a down the line. Must be a slow news day elsewhere in the world. Of course! It’s Easter Monday.

1330: Grab some pizza before doing 'Breakfast' live.

PM: More down the lines with World and News 24, a track and piece-to-camera. Update dispatch for Bush House. My colleague Louisa Lim arrives from the airport, having flown back from covering Hong Kong demonstrations over the weekend.

Still not much information from Iraq. Chinese government doesn’t seem to know who the abducted men are or why they were in Iraq.

1830: 'Asia Today' special on Iraq hostage situation. Double-header down the line with Jonathan Head in the Tokyo bureau.

1930: China’s official news agency reports the abducted men are farmers and fishermen from Fujian province, confirming what we’d suspected all day. The men are almost certainly illegal migrants.

2100: File a final 'Bulletins' piece and head home.

2200: Home. Dinner sits cold on the table, the children are asleep, the house is quiet.

Tuesday 0645: The irritating ring of my mobile phone penetrates my deep slumber...