Lucky me! Once again I'm off to Normandy to cover the ceremonies and events to mark the anniversary of the invasion.
Loads I could write, but you may as well read the stories we filed from the road on the BBC. Sufice to say it's great fun to be wandering around with a journalist, emailing and ftp'ing stories from the road side and little French cafe's.
It was also a huge honour to meet some amazing 'old boys' and hear their stories.
Anyway, I've listed the stories as hyper-links to the BBC site and the dates they were sent, as it was over a weekend this spills over to Week 24. Hope it makes sense.
Weirdest moment! As we began a two mile walk into Arromanches on a burning hot afternoon (we were on foot as no traffic, not even those with press clearance were allowed in) a number of military vehicles did get through. We thumbed a lift!
A group of Canadians hauled us aboard, literally, and off we went, right into the centre of town, being watched by everyone Brown vehicle on the right is the one we were in.
Then it was over. It had been a long few days, most of them aournd 18 hours long! Hotel room was very small, and I do mean small. Neither of us had working phones in our room which caused mild panic, no make that massive panic the first night as we failed to file anything. Mobile phone wouldn't work either, thankfully I sorted the mobile the next day, though I hate to think what the bill was for the calls.
Main memory was above, one of the Canadian's mentioned that the cemetaries are so lovely that you forget what they are for, until you read the inscriptions, most are mildy uplifting, this one just struck me as very sad, a waste. (All photos Nikon D1/D2H)
Week 25
Back to reality - thankfully. Lydia is THREE. Can you believe it!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Lots of fun as usual. We had a family Bar-B-Q with a few of Lydia's friends. Lydia had loads of great presents and a fun time, despite poor weather.
Eleanor, Oliver, Lydia and Jay having an 'Egg and spoon' race.
I had a week off after Lydia's birthday, mostly very poor weather so ended up decorating and emptying my study ready for the new baby. Wow, years of stuff to get rid of.
