After several combinations of team working various morning and afternoon shifts, this week was time for a whole new experience: The main shift of the day: our night shift which begins at 1500 gmt/2300 local time. From 2300 until early in the morning there at least one EiC is on duty awith typically from five to seven sub-editors. The night shift is most certainly our heaviest shift with up to 1000 pictures landing over an eight hour period on a busy nights.

I arrived at the office at 2200 to give me plenty of time to read in, look through all the pictures moved during the day and catch up on our top-stories.

And sure enough we had one : The Indonesian island of Sumatra ihad been hit by a powerful earthquake, which toppled hundreds of buildings, killing at least 10 people and burying many others The previous shift already moved pictures and taken some TV grabs from remoter areas. In addition to our pictures wire I  monitored the file of our TV colleagues so as not to miss any potentially useful images fthey may have.

So my first overnight began shift began busily but I was to find out very quickly that this was just the beginning. My colleague Altaf was quietly getting on with editing and processing the file from the ICC Cricket World Cup Twenty20 from South Africa while the rest of our team was filing the pictures from some 22 Euro 2008 qualifiers and friendly soccer matches (Germany beat Romania!!), European Basketball from Madrid, US senator Obama giving a speech, military bands performing in Red Square , a huge file from New York fashion week, a boy practicing boxing at ” Fights for Peace project ” at a slum in Rio de Janeiro, pictures from the 32nd Toronto International Film Festival and preparing the images to accompany stories from the Reuters features desk . did I already mention England beating Russia 3-nil?

At about 0600, an hour before the end of the shift the incoming flood of pictures began to slow down. Thanks mainly to sub-editors Altaf, Deurbon, Gary, Jacinta, Kerk, Rina, Tom, TZ, and Wei Yang who are incredibly fast we had processed and filed more than 900 pictures in a single shift.

It was time to depressurise and relax a bit after seven hours non stop, without a break.

While drinking a coffee I find a nice story in a local magazine about ‘moon cake’. No big deal you may say, but I read that there is a local hotel making Black Forest mooncakesle which is irresistable for a boy from the Black Forest, like me.

My colleagues explain the mooncake, is a significant part of Chinese culture playing an important role in the lunar Mid-Autumn Festival, which this year falls on September 25. Usually packed in a box of four, the palm-sized round moon cakes symbolize perfection and family unity. Most mooncakes are baked and consist of a thin tender golden brown skin enveloping a sweet, slightly oily filling. It may contain one or more whole salted egg yolks in its centre to symbolize the full moon. The saltiness of the yolk balances well with the sweet filling in the mooncake.

Traditional mooncakes are decorated with the Chinese characters for longevity or harmony on top, along with the name of the bakery as well as additional imprints of a moon, a woman on the moon, flowers, or a rabbit for additional decoration.

Over the years, mooncakes have slowly evolved from a Chinese delicacy to something as common as any other cake. Adjusting to Westernized lifestyle many bakeries offer miniature mooncakes as well as a fat-free version. Some are made of yogurt, jelly and fat-free ice cream. To be competitive, bakers boast about how little sugar and oil they use. Customers can pick and choose the size and filling that suits their taste and diet. However, the traditional bean-paste filling with egg yolk mooncake is still very popular. According to an analysis a baked mooncake with four egg yolks contains some 975 calories and 46 grams of sugar which is half the recommended daily calorie intake for an adult .

However, the launch of a champagne truffle snow-skin mooncake in 1994 by a Singapore hotel triggered a wave of modern mooncakes and ended in a Black Forest Cherry Mooncake.

Which reminds me, I must go as I have an important errand to run before the Black Forest Cherry Mooncakes are all sold out!