Unexpected moments happen all the time in news, that’s part of the challenge and part of the appeal of being a journalist.
Sometimes, the strangest moments are the ones you remember the most.
Like the time I put a bag full of audio equipment down on a stainless steel bench in an IVF clinic.
"You're okay to touch the bench," says the clinic employee, "but don't touch any of the pens."
It was a timely reminder that the places we visit are people's homes and workplaces, and sometimes those workplaces are active sperm banks.
Other times, they’re 8000-tonne British warships.
The crew of the HMS Daring are highly-skilled, well-trained military personnel. They have patrolled pirate-infested ocean corridors and helped clean up after devastating natural disasters. They are tough, seasoned professionals.
So I found it hilarious to spot the child’s game Twister taking pride of place in the officer’s Wardroom. I guess even the military elite need their down time.
And from their various posts, they were able to laugh right back at me while I was trying to file my piece to camera on the windy, moving deck of the ship as she came into Sydney Harbour.
As we often do when the situation calls for it, I filmed myself, trying to rattle off the relevant names and weights and events of the ship in a long, unhalting spiel, the whole time poised to leap and catch the camera if it threatened to fall as the ship tilted on the swell.
Then there are little things that make you laugh and drive you crazy. Battling torrential downpours during outside broadcasts. An over-excited puppy that wouldn’t stop licking the camera. Carrying gear over a mud-filled mosquito breeding site in Sumatra, desperately trying not to slip and fall into the water. Or my personal favourite, having to pull the light globes out of the ceiling every night in order to charge camera batteries, because in that particular hotel, you couldn’t turn the lights out without the power going off too.
All the little things are worth it, in the end, for the stories you get to tell, and the people you get to meet. Brave, resilient, strong people with incredible stories.
People like Rosanti, the beautiful young woman I met underneath a railway line in a downtrodden part of Jakarta. Her dream sounded so simple. She wanted to be a farmer. But sex work paid more, and she would do anything to feed her son.
Then there’s Lily and George, Jay and Franz, and too many others to name. People who have gone through and survived more than many of us could ever imagine.
And, yeah, you remember the strangest things, sometimes. But others, you never forget.
