It was a mindnumbingly early start this morning – I don’t often get up at 5.45! I made it to the hotel on time, and then was whisked to the ExCel in the official convoy. The morning was crazy, as we got our bearings and did some recceing for the afternoon’s press activities. The Commission President did two interviews before the summit started which was a really good idea, as he was one of the few. Mandelson was working the media section like the old hand he is, and between him and Geldof the whole place was all a-flutter for most of the morning. By ten o’clock it felt like it should have been hours later. It calmed down once we’d sorted everything like how many microphones to have in the press conference room (oh the glamour!) and so since then it’s been occasional briefings, wandering round the media centre talking to people and catching up with e-mails etc from the office. I’ve been at Councils before, but not the big European Councils or a summit like and it has been really interesting to see the dynamic of an event like this. I worked at a G8 summit years ago when I was at college, but as that entailed sitting in a nice hotel in Knightsbridge and eating chocolate, I don’t think it’s a comparable experience!
We’re all waiting for it to finish and then it’ll be a whirl of press conferences and interviews, before heading off out in the convoy again. A day spent in a bubble – I don’t even know what the weather is like outside!