Rachel Smalley is TV3's 'Firstline' presenter. Photo / HOS
My favourite memory is the first time I ventured outside with my newborn son, Finn. It was a beautiful spring day and we went for a walk at Dulwich Park. He was tiny, the pram was huge and I was possibly the proudest woman in London.
I thought "what the
hell am I doing" one night when I was in Khost Province in Afghanistan, reporting on the impact of the war on women. It was pitch black, I was staying on a small American base and the Taliban began firing mortars at the camp. I was bundled into a concrete bunker with 20 American soldiers and we lay there listening to the scream of incoming mortars, and hearing F-16s scrambling up and down the valley.
I don't think I've learned anything positive or negative from television. It's just television. It's just what it is.
If I wasn't in television I'd either be a slightly mad antiques dealer with big hair and crazy glasses or I'd open a native plant nursery. Or perhaps I'd be an economist. Or I'd import linen. Then again, I've always fancied being a librarian, too ...
I like the fact that I'm tall. Height, at times, is useful. And what do I dislike? That would be that crisis of confidence that creeps up on you at the most inopportune of times.
