THE KINDNESS OF KATE ADIE

Of the many blogs I have written in regard to heroes and people I admire, I have mentioned Bill Neely. However, I have hardly ever mentioned my other hero, the wonderful Kate Adie. I've mentioned her in passing, like in my bucket list and my blog about women, but never in a blog of her own, as I have with Bill. This has not been deliberate, just a bit remiss of me. I intend to correct that right now.

I first got to know Kate Adie around the same time Bill Neely began working at ITN: 1989. 1989 was as Bill Neely once put it, "The year of miracles". The Berlin Wall fell down and the Soviet system started to collapse too. However, this was November 1989. The beginning of the year wasn't so great. On the 15th of April thousands of miles apart, two different incidents happened that I will remember forever. In my hometown of Sheffield, we had the Hillsborough disaster. A tragedy that would change the face of football for a long time to come. Both for the people of Sheffield and the people of Liverpool. 

Meanwhile, in Bejing, China, people were dying for a different reason. Students had taken to the streets, as many students, in many countries had before them, and have since. They were protesting for human rights and freedom and the things most people take for granted. And there, standing right in the middle of it all was Kate Adie. I took to her immediately. She was strong, dynamic, she gave me inspiration that women could do dangerous things, she had a tough no-nonsense way about her reporting. She was detached, doing exactly what she had to do.

I have followed her career ever since. She covered the Seige of the Iranian Embassy, the Zeebrugge disaster. She has been in Kosovo, has been embedded with troops in Iraq and like many people who wanted to cut their teeth, she ended up covering the Troubles in Northern Ireland.  And even though she is detached on her reports, this doesn't mean she is a detatched person, far from it. Through her interviews and her books, I found out she is a very warm and compassionate person with an absolutely wicked sense of humour. 

She has also been the butt of some harmless humour. As she has been known for going to a lot of warzones, there was a joke that said, "A good decision is getting on a plane at an airport where Kate Adie is getting off!" And there was this little gem:

She has wriiten openly about her career, being adopted, about the role of woman in war, especially World War II. And now she presents From Our Own Correspondent, still showing what an amazing broadcaster she is. 

When she was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship on Sunday 13 May, I was so thrilled for her, I jumped up and down. Well, as best you can jump up and down sat in a car at a motorway services. It has been too long in coming. She should have been awarded it years ago.

To Kate Adie, I have only this to say: I should have mentioned you before and for that I apologise. You have inspired me just as much as Bill Neely has and in some ways more because you have showed me that woman can be brave, get into danger and be downright awesome. When I'm doing my work, I will always keep asking myself that important question when I'm confused: "What would Bill or Kate do?"  I know what Kate would do. She would just, "Get on with it!" One day I hope to chat to you too, and unlike a lot of people, I will be happy to talk to you about Northern Ireland.

As I pursue my own journalistic endeavours, I know I have you to look up to and I always will. Maybe one day I will be in amazing places like Bejing or in the desert looking for a place to go to the bathroom. Thanks for the inspiration! You are one amazing woman!

My favourite anecdote by Kate:

Kate revisits Bejing

"You do not invade people's privacy too much. You do not expose the vulnerable. You do not question those who are incapable". ~ Kate Adie.

WHY THIS JOURNALIST WILL NOT BE COVERING THE ROYAL WEDDING

If you ask a foreigner to name something essentiallly English, many people will say the Royal Family. They make millions of tourist pounds a year and they are known around the world. And yet they (or rather their lives) are equally hated by people.

People are fed up of hearing about things they do that are no different to stuff anybody else does.

For example: a while ago Prince Louis was born. He was beautiful. But when he was due, the media were camped outside the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital in London for at least a week before. She (Kate Windsor) was having a baby. Something women do every day of the damn week. It's nothing special and is nothing surprising. A lot of women do it. 

And tomorrow - on the 19th of May Prince Harry marries Meghan Markle. An actress who under the the old rules would never have been allowed to be a part of the Monarchy. Firstly, she is American, and secondly she is a divorcee. Yes, okay, so was Camilla, but at least she was English. You remember Prince Edward and Wallis Simpson. Yeah, exactly. They weren't allowed to marry, so why the hell should Harry and Meghan? I'm not saying I disapprove. I'm just making a fair point.

Anyway, the main point of this is that it's just two people getting married. That's all. People get married all the time. Even I did it. Their wedding is no more important than anyone else's. They are tying the knot. And yet press people are under the illusion that we do care and my timeline has been full of it ever since the damn wedding was announced.

Well, I am not interested and to be honest, I'm fed up of the whole damn thing. They are just getting married, just like hundreds of couples do in a year. I am not anti-royal, but I am anti-Royals-doing-stuff-that-is-usual-for-everyone-else-on-the-planet. 

So you got married and had kids? Yeah and so does everyone else. When this whole (to quote Martin Bell) 'Comprehensive Rubbish and Palava' is on TV and Twitter tomorrow, I am going to take the advice of a TV show I used to watch as a  kid:

"Why don't you switch off your TV and go and do something less boring instead?"


Here Jay Foreman sings what I think: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_94807D3GQ

PLEASE DO NOT KEEP ON TRUCKING

My husband has a chant, which he uses to help keep me going, especially if I'm running. It goes: "Keep on trucking, keep on trucking, keep on trucking,'coz we like to truck". It's silly, but it's rhythmic and it works. However, this doesn't mean we have an affection for truckers. We don't and here is why.

We love to take long drives, especially on A-roads. Now one of the most important things drivers are told by police is take a rest and never drive tired.

Well, the only place to rest on an A-road (because the services are few and far between) is a designated lay-by. So, you're asking why we don't stop in one of those for an hour or so. Well, at night, it is virtually impossible because they are filled with trucks. 

Now, if the truckers/lorry drivers stayed there for an hour or so for a quick rest like they are supposed to, then everything would be fine.

But they don't. They stay there all night. And there aren't just a few. They are in practically every lay-by you come across. The bigger the lay-by, the more damn trucks are in it.

"Well, they need sleep too!", you may be screaming. Correct. And that's why we have service stations/rest stops with sections for trucks and lorries. And there are also official lorry parks, specially for this purpose. Don and I are fed up of not being able to get a break because of damn trucks clogging up the road.

Of course, this only reinforces my point that trucks shouldn't be on the road in the first place. Local trucks delivering to supermarkets is okay, but large artics' and vans should be taking off the road. In the old days most freight that is now carried by road was taken by train and I'm not even talking about necessarily small things. Even cars were taken by train. I still can't understand why this is not the case. It's just ridiculous.

But no. Instead of this, we can't rest in a lay-by because they are always full of anything but cars. 

So, my message to the trucking community is this: We understand you need to rest, but if you need to sleep properly, don't do it in a lay-by preventing long-distance car drivers from having the same privilege. 

Either go to a services station or better still, find a a frickin' lorry park. You have facilities, make use of them instead of causing inconvenience to car drivers.