Working as a team...

I finally settled down to do some work in the office. The supporting team and my staff went out to cover the gatherings and it was my job to polish up our schedule as I was the commander in charge... This post is really tough... I'd rather go outside and cover the events than be strangled up with responsibilities!


a nice Japanese gift from Tokyo! I'm sure my staff will empty it quickly!

Supporting team arrives...

One correspondent and one cameraman arrived from Tokyo in the morning. They are here to help and support me for the election coverage, but they only have 10 days of permission to stay in the country. We have 13 days till the day of voting so obviously we have to ask for a visa extension. I'm hearing all these reports that the extension applications are being rejected and I'm really worried about our crew... If I don't get it, I'm going to be in real trouble!!
After asking my collegue to cover an election gathering, we found out that they might have left one of their baggages in the airport. Our faces became as pale as a dead person, but I just had to decide to make them go and find it!
I really don't believe in miracles, but they were able to find the baggage just before they were about to leave in vain. I hope this is a good sign for our coverage team for the next two weeks. Inshallah!

No pics today...

Mistake... mistake...

It was hard to decide whether to take a rare event by the incumbent, or the PC by the strongest challenger. I decided to go the event, but the incumbent started speaking hours after we reached the venue for the coverage... what a waste of time in such a precious day! We left the office at 8:30, reaching the venue before 9, but only permitted inside the hall for the gathering after 10AM. It was 12:45 when the incumbent finally started his one hour long speech! It was already around 2:30PM when we returned to our office... we used 6 hours just to get some pictures of the incumbent! I need to make the right decisions, but it's so hard with limited information and experience... I just have to be more sharp and hopefully, more lucky!


a long time waiting... and a very long speech...

Short trip outside the city...

We hit the road to a city in the southwest of Tehran. It took us about four hours to get to Arak, and though we had to leave shortly after 6AM, I was happy I could sleep in the car to gain some resting time for my body. The research we did in Arak was not very fruitful, but not completely incompatible for our coverage, and all I could do is decide to take the offer and go... I hope this will work out... I really do... because there's no other option!
It was just before midnight when we reached Tehran... There was a bombing in the instable southeast province of the country, but I asked my colleague in Tokyo to write about it, as it was too late for me to start the process.

Photos of the day...

a rest area we stopped by in the morning...


view of the city of Arak...


chai and...


rest area we stopped by later at night


and the burger I had!

Live coverage day, but...

I was ready for live coverage and with some help from my wife, it went fairly well. I was already being requested to work on another proposal using the footage of the story that I'd done on the 24th. Since the story was an important one that I wanted to put my efforts in, I used most of my time late at night to write the proposal. I was getting really tired, but I just had to tell myself it's only 16 days till the election day.

PS
My wife bought a DVD... very cheap... only 1 Khomeini (=1 USD)... why is so cheap!?

obviously...

Research and broadcast...

We were still doing research to get the necessary elements for the election reports and I also had to get ready for tomorrow's broadcast. I made a mistake of sleeping till 8 in the morning today and I was nearly in panic to write the scripts for my report and live coverage tomorrow. The day went past so quickly and I only had to hope that the research about the election coverage was going well.

Photos of the day (and yesterday)
FOOD SERIES!

last night's curry...

using the curry, my wife made a nice dish!

along with chicken!

a cake I had in the day time!

A regular PC!?

We had the President's PC today, but as the foreign reporters were given a chance to ask the President a question, I was sure everybody would want to ask him about his candidacy for reelection. But we were restrained to ask about foreign matters and many reporters asking about domestic issues were not getting the answers. Well, I asked about our neighbor in East Asia, as I realized that would be the only topic that Tokyo will allow me to get any broadcast time if ever. I ask the question, but the answer was not clear... at least until another Japanese colleague asked a related question...
So today was a regular PC that the incumbent will hold before the campaigning time... why now!? I hope he'll hold one as a candidate!


scene at the PC...

Election coverage...

Now it was time to put more of my effort to the election coverage. Taking about possible stories we can make and going to a gathering to film a possible candidate for a story. It's very important to follow the candidates for presidency, but for us it's more imporatant to find a candidate for a story! We are trying to follow supporters of the candidate and they are the ones that make us understand about why the people would use their time for the candidate and finally vote for a candidate. I don't really like covering press conferences and interviewing high profile people, but covering the normal people and asking their reasons for supporting a candidate is interesting. I hope I'd be able to meet many Iranian people who will tell us their hopes and concerns for the next 4 years!

Photos of the day...

I received a nice gift from the... US! wow!
I'll have this with my staff after things calms down!


always nice to have cold noodles... yummy, yummy!


pic I saw at the venue of the rally... this is the basis of this country... the Imam and Basijis...


scene at the rally...

Three jobs...

Of course the election coverage is important. There's only 20 days till the election day and I have no time to spare... But tomorrow's broadcast about the aftermath of the earthquake in Bam is a very important theme for me to cover. I did use most of my time covering the election these days and I was really sorry that I had to ask Tokyo to take the burden of making my story into a package. Today, I also had to film some parts of a different story due next week. I'm doing three jobs at once, but the most important is the story that will be broadcasted tomorrow... The election coverage and next week's story, I'm doing my best just because I have to... It's an obligation and I have to overcome the hardships so in the future I would be to do what I want!


sleeping in the shades... envious...

First day of campaigning!

It was the first day of campaining but it was a slow start for the candidates! We did go to a meeting held by the reformist camp in the morning, but on my way I saw no posters for the elections. I was surprised to hear that posters would only be seen days after the first day of campaining!
In the evening, a fairly large gathering for the imcumbent and a rally in the park for the opposition were two events we covered and I finally managed to get a story on board. Phew... I didn't know I would run into trouble to be able to film about election events on the first day of campaining!



bunch of people at the incumbent's rally!


and many people in the streets for the opponent!

PS
Now I'm so used to seeing the morning scenery from my room... sleeping in midnight and waking up again to work until early morning...

it was already quite bright at 6:13AM!

Precarious management

I just had to go day by day precariously... Today I couldn't resist sleeping from midnight, but woke up abruptly finding it was already 4AM! I concentrated so much to finish my job and it was around 6:15 when I finished my job. Why couldn't I just try staying up until 2:30AM and go to bed after that!? This precarious day to day management I'm taking is worsening my health condition and my performances. But I have no choice as I have no time to take a nap in the middle of the day... I'm sure this crazy kind of management will continue for days!


still some snow in the mountains... it's okay... it doesn't have to get hot yet!

Sleeping on the sofa...

It's always my mistake that I really can't stop lying on the sofa to get a nap. This time I couldn't resist the sandman's attack at 1AM... I woke up finally 20 minutes before 3AM and worked until 5AM! Of course it was a regular day, actually the day that the candidates running for the election will be announced by the interior ministry! We also received a guest from Tokyo and it was really a busy day. I was very sorry I had to be too busy to care about my guest, but I was crazily jammed with a traffic of work!

PS

a nice Japanese gift from our guest!
"youkan"... my staff likes it too!


my dinner! I love ramen!

Take it!

Ok. We took the interview. Whether this will work or not, I jsut have to take the chance. Only 8 days until the broadcast and we have to send the tapes tomorrow, so the deadline for the tapes was today (we only can send tapes on Wednesdays and Sundays with the tapes reaching Tokyo's headquarters at least two days after the shipping)...
Ok. We did it. We only have to pray it will work!

PS
Last night, I couldn't resist sleeping on the sofa from around 1AM... I woke up at around 2:30 and went straight to bed after 30 minutes... I woke up at 7:30AM to get to work... oh, it's really killing me!

PPS
My friend in Thailand sent us a nice wedding gift!

a silver elephant!

PPPS
My wife gets her dictionary!

it's a very very expensive one... but quite valuable one!

Relax now or never...

In the nighttime, I had some brief time to relax... very briefly...
Today's filming was not as I intended it to be, but there was some good news that I would be able to film someone we've asked to for weeks! Let's see how it will go tomorrow!

We wandered around the streets surrounded with merchant stores, the bazaar...

then inside the bazaar we wandered around again...


quite a maze!


many great figures!


some edible small berries in our garden!


some food my wife cooked for my staff! thank you!

Couldn't wake up...

I had to wake up at 6AM to do some obliged work, but I couldn't! It was already 7:30 when I finally rose from bed and I rushed to my office to work!
After meeting some people, I had to make a decision to take it or not... I made the decision... we're gonna go for it!
After I made my decision it was already time to film! Only a day after returning from my trip to Bam, I'm already putting my full effort into another story to be able to make it on time! If this is not going to work, nothing will!


oh hello! you look relieved! I want to be relaxed too!

Sayonara Bam!

Leaving the hotel before 6:30AM and doing our last filming, we reached the airport at 7AM and then flew back to Tehran before 10AM. It could be a while before I could return to the city... I hope the people will recover soon!


I hope the buildings will be finished when I return... whenever that will be!


plane to take us back... to fear and reality...

Back in Tehran, I was really worried about so many things still left unsolved! I was too tired that I had to retire a bit early... Today will be the last day I'd sleep earlier... sadly...

PS
We changed our internet to ADSL! I hope my decision was correct! Let's see if the wireless works!

this gadget's quite expensive you know!

Doomed...

Everything did not work as planned and when the last day sucks, everything sucks! I'm too scared to talk to Tokyo about how things went, but sadly I'd have to face it sooner or later...
It made everything hard as it was a Friday when nothing is working, and since I had to think of priorities, I had to leave many things to film today which was a mistake.
I'm always mistaken and I feel so frustrated that I can't negotiate by myself with language barriers. Still, I'm happy that I could meet many people in my trips and since I'm using my organization's money, I can't be too frustrated that I have to be the servant.
How can I smile when I'm so sad... but I have to... and I did so in front of many nice people here in Bam so I could show my happiness to their hospitality. I just hope that things had gone the right way for my job too!

Let's at least enjoy dinner!

hmm... these chicken look really tasty!

can't wait!

pretty good!

My arm was all red...

because of the sunshine!

Getting used to the heat...

It was another hot day, but since we started filming outside before 8AM, the heat gradually heated up and our body was able to catch up with the heat. It was also good that there were some moderate winds blowing from time to time. Still it was impossible to film around 3PM and we took some rest in the middle and start again from the evening before 6PM.
I really can't understand how people can live in this climate, but I felt the same at Dubai when I went there last summer. It's still May and I don't want to find out how crazy it would be a month or two later!

Some pics...

reconstruction on the way...


near sunset time...


Japan is still helping!

Over 40 degrees!?

Waking up right after 4AM after sleeping for less than 4 hours, I was at Mehrabad Airport before 5AM and leaving for Bam in an hour after that.

It was only two months ago that I took the same flight out of Tehran, but the weather was terrible! The winds were strong and it was suicidal for me to use contact lenses as dust kept flying into my eyes! In the daytime, I believe the temperature was easily over 40 degrees and my mouth was dry at every moment! It's been months since I trully wanted to drink water so much!
Our coverage was average... Not super, but not bad either... I still have two days here and I hope I can nail the story... well, I must nail the story or I will lose all the trust!


the plane to Bam...


a ruin of a famous adobe building...

PS
My wife made a nice meal...


I like these! and they're very Japanese!

Media circus in Tehran...

It was a precious day, but once again I had to use my time for an important issue. It was the first time ever for me to see the most famous American lady (or most famous Iranian lady!) at this moment as she had spoken in front of the media today after her release yesterday. I was happy things went well... especially before everything will become chaotic with the election coming up.
I wrote the story quickly and started getting ready for my trip from tomorrow. It will be a very critical trip and I don't know if I'll be successful on this one... really!


media circus!


everyone satisfied to see her... LIVE!

Prison...

It was the first time for me to visit the famous prison in northern Tehran, but I was together with almost all of my colleagues working in this field, waiting for their former colleague to be released.
It was risky to use so much time just to wait for her release, but as we thought it would be the first time to at least take a glimpse of her freedom, many just waited for hours in front of the prison gate.


just a bunch of journalists and no sign of her!

We found out she left through the back door and I was so angry that I had to use my precious time as a work load was waiting in my office! We also could not get pictures of her in front of her home, as it was her father that just appeared to say hello... another betrayal...
I know how bad thing could have gone for her and it would be wrong to tell her to show her face, but she's talked to her friend journalist who is writing a story like she's got everything to herself. That's not how you treat your colleagues who were all worried about your well-being! I mean it!


here too...
just a bunch of journalists and no sign of her!

PS
My wife made me some...


porridge... relieving!