It’s a Tuesday morning. Usual drill. Up, exercise, read, get the boy ready for nursery, get on my bike and head for the office. It’s around a quarter to four that afternoon when the “red drops” begin. These are the news wire services, telling us something important has happened. My editor is in my ear: “Check your urgent wires, getting some lines on Zelensky.” What now?

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It’s now four days after the Trump-Zelensky “Oval Office debacle”. Every day, this story – like a car out of control – feels as if it’s careering from one side of the road to the other. At times, the brakes have been applied (Starmer’s London summit at Lancaster House) but, once the US gets back at the wheel, things seem to lose traction.

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Zelensky has offered an olive branch to Trump, who wants peace and will do anything to get it – short of saying the word “sorry” for that Oval Office thing. That news broken, we move on to the next thing – Justin Trudeau responding to Trump’s imposition of tariffs on Canada. He tells “Donald” they are a very “dumb thing to do”.

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We are at our best on Sky News when we bounce from event to incident to analysis. All the while giving the viewer as much of the “why” as time allows, along with the “what”. It’s exhilarating. I love every crazy, busy minute of it.

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Putin signals that he’ll accept a ceasefire deal. Well, sort of. We take a news conference of the Russian leader and his Belarussian counterpart. I have to fill for the first few minutes as the two leaders spend that time signing big, important-looking books and then exchanging them. They eventually begin talking. Putin’s words set the agenda for the rest of the day.

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I speak to members of the International Broadcasting Trust for a few minutes before going on air. They are interested in what it’s like to deal with breaking news. I tell them that my brain must do three things at once. They ask about the breadth of topics and how I keep engaged. Answer: be interested in and curious about everything.

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I host a Q&A with defence specialist Professor Michael Clarke on YouTube. We take viewer questions on what comes next in Ukraine.

It’s a topic I have knowledge of and enjoy discussing. I recall that Thursday morning on 24 February in 2022 when the invasion began. At the time, I was doing The Early Rundown, a show that airs from 5.00-7.00am. I’d arrived in the office a lot earlier than my usual 2.00am because we knew that the invasion was imminent.

Putin appeared on Russian state television, announcing his “special military operation”. The wires told us that explosions had been heard in Kyiv. I got into the studio, and we rolled. I had Mark Stone, our US correspondent, talking about what was happening at the UN, and Deborah Haynes in the Ukrainian capital.

We bounced from New York to Kyiv to London, each moment taking us further into this profound new reality. Warfare had returned to Europe. An aggressive nuclear-armed power had invaded its smaller neighbour. From this point on, everything was going to be different.

And, in my own small way, I got to help provide the first draft of it. We rolled without interruption until 7am, when the next presenter took over.

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As I left the studio back in 2022, it was all a bit hazy. The sense that the world had tilted would become an ever-present feeling. My job for the next few weeks and months was to pay close attention to the Russian advance and Ukrainian resistance through maps and satellite images. But, on that morning, I went home, gave my son his breakfast, a big kiss, and dropped him off at nursery.