05 MAY 1999 - Bruxells
And so, after two hours of sleep, we were winding our way through the empty streets of Brussels at four in the morning. As I waited for Gene to meet me in the lobby, I had a cup of coffee with the night manager of the hotel, and started gathering information for the vacation part of the trip. It's hard to imagine, amid the ongoing crisis of making television, that tomorrow I will be off for a long weekend of adventure and history. The night manager gives me information on trains and fares and schedules. A plan is starting to form in my head.

But that plan will have to wait; there is work to be done. We leave the hotel. The streets are dark, maybe an occasional grouping of cabs outside a late bar or hotel. Dark and quiet, as so often it is in this business. The taxi races us to our destination. I think this was the first cab driver I had that didn't sport a tie and/or jacket.

We arrive at NATO, and I'm dying for a cup of coffee. The kitckens won't open for a little while, and the soda machine is sold out. I'll make it for a few hours.

Around 5:00 the press begin to show up, and we access the satellite. Our signal from Brussels is now being seen in the newsrooms of the five major TV news groups in the United States. In about an hour or so the President will arrive, and our show will be on it's merry little way.
Ben poses with the "Death Star" at NATO headquarters
Steve Shelton and Bryan Cole from FOX return from shooting a Clinton event in Bruxells.
It isn't a bad show, don't get me wrong. The reality of it is there are no scheduled live events for us, and it's 1:00am in the states so nobody really needs to do any live shots. Our main function will be to gather videotape of Clinton's events, arrivals, and departures and feed the tape back to the states. And after 3 hours of this, Clinton will move on to the next stop on the trip.

It may seem like all of our work is overkill. Indeed in some ways it is. All of this equipment, cable, manpower, space, food, for what - to feed videotape from a three hour stop. But in the world of television, any stop can become an important stop. Not many people noticed when Kennedy arrived in Dallas. Not many people missed it when he left. That, the sorid assassination of one of our most loved leaders, is one of the main reasons for our existence here. Our job, in some ways our duty, is to be prepared for anything. Hence all the cable, equipment, and hurried preperation of the last few days.
And, thank the lord, most of our preperations were for naugt. The president stuck to his schedule, as much as a president can. There were no press conferences or impromptu briefings for us to cover. The only thing that sent things askitter came as ABC's Ann Compton rushed to file her report before the press charter departed. After quickly finishing her script with her producer, she grabs our microphone and does the "track" for her package back to the states. Then it's a quick rush to the stand up location to videotape the close. Everybody is on the press busses now except Compton, her producer, and the CNN crew assigned to the standup location. And Compton doesn't know where the standup location is.

So, I grab her bags and say "Follow me, please, Ms. Compton," and off we go at a quick pace for the quarter mile or so trip to the standup. She knocks it out in a couple quick takes, and the crew unplugs and the all rush off for the airport.

It may seem comic, and when it isn' happening to you it can be, but this is what TV news is often about. Rushing against deadlines, sometime to make it to air, and sometimes to make it in to the air.
(Above and Below): Ann Compton rushes to file a report for ABC
And with that one small rush, the press corps had left and moved on to their next stop. The president was still with us, though, and we would remain ready and on the air untill fifteen minutes after "wheels-up" on Air Force One. The morbitiy of it all can at times become unsetteling, especially after two hours of sleep.

Around eleven something AM, with the president in the air and on his way to Germany, we all took a deep breath. And then it became known to us that NATO wanted the room we were in back by the end of the day. Unlike set-up, there is usually a certain slackness with time that can be taken turn break-down. But with NATO wanting the room back in about eight hours, we would have no such luxury.

So, Estelle hired two helpers and we got to work. Everything that plugged, became unplugged. All the things assemebled, come apart. Every foot of cable run, comes un-run. To everything, turn, turn, turn. Somewhere in the early afternoon my feet started to fall off of my legs. And then I started moving with a distrubingly sloth-like gait. And again, things became a blur of furious activity compounded by a lack of sleep. Anf then the truck came and it all went away. Oh, I think I had a few beers in there too, between the feet falling off and the sloth metaphor. The Brussels Pool had come to a close.
(LtoR): Kim Hume, Fox DC Bureau Chief; Wendell Goler, Fox White House corespondent; Estelle Pratt, Fox London Bureau Chief; Jim Angle, Fox Sr. White House corespondent.
Tearing down the workspace in Brussels.
Except for the last great meal celebrating our hard and successful work. We gathered our bags and wandered into the snack bar at NATO. Two beers later we realize that it's getting on in the evening, and we should get our butts in gear if we wanted to get a good dinner in. Patricia Kelly, the CNN Brussels Bureau Chief, suggested that we go to Cafe Ogenblik, near the Grand'Place. Sounded good to use, the only challenge was to find it.

Seeing the weariness in our eyes, Patricia graciously offered to give us a lift to the cafe. This quickly turned into the Patricia Kelly Whirlwind Tour of Brussels. One every corner was another building of note, or park, or place of great significance. It was all great fun because these were all pointed out either at a red light, or as we zipped past them in her little BMW coupe. "Quick, quick, look, that's the so and so. Yes the one back there that we just passed." It was a great little tour, and I loved every minute of it. But the tour wasn't the only surprise Patricia would have for me.

We parked and arrived at Cafe Ogenlik, where some of our collegues were already waiting. The kitchen was still open, and the bar ready to serve. And with a fresh round of drinks in hand, I settle into the menu. Or rather, the menu comes up and bites me in the face.

Touring Brussels from the back of a VERY small BMW
Dinner at Cafe Ogenblik in Bruxells
Now, at the other cafes we had been too the menus were in rather basic French, and I could understand most of it based on my knowledge of Spanish. But Ogenblik, the menus there were, well, very descriptive. Each menu item would have two or three lines devoted to it. This was well beyond my comprehension. So Patricia offered to help. She ordered my meal for me. I asked what I would be getting, and she said that it's one of the dishes that Ogenblik is best known for, and that I'll enjoy it, and that they didn't have frog legs so she ordered a buffalo mozzarella tomato thing for me as a starter (it was out of this world) and that the entree would be along shortly. And had I ever heard of sweetbreads.

I had images in my mind of some sort of pastry dish, some exotic baked beauty of Brussels finest chefs. These thoughts went through my mind at the same time as the rest of the table began to snicker. I had to ask, what was so funny. My own ignorance of the finer points of continental cuisine now very aparent to the world, Patricia had the honor (and I think a great pleasure as well) of telling me that sweatbreads were her husbands favorite dish, that they are made extremely well here, and that she was sure I would enjoy my plate of veal testicles. What more can I say. Enjoy the pictures - AND NO MORE JOKES ABOUT MY ENTREE!!!!
So, what is this you've brought me?
Hey, these don't taste all that bad. They're kinda good!!
Hey, cut it out with the "Cream Sauce" jokes!!!!