Opinion: The year was 2006. We were about to cross live from London. Standing on a stage looking out across a room of eager young faces - up went the puffs of cigarette smoke and down went the cheap lager with a dash of raspberry cordial.
I was hooked. Hooked on the adrenalin of the breakfast telly I was there to produce at the infamous Walkabout pub in Shepherds Bush. Kay Gregory was the host, Harley Peters was on camera and Claire Watson was the Executive Producer back in Auckland.
This is a time when international calling cards were still the best way to keep in contact with home - back then 'zoom' was just a function on Harley's camera and 'facetime' was just telly speak to mock a presenter for their love of the limelight.
The time difference with London meant as our Kiwi expats were becoming a little slurred, their parents and grandparents were only just sipping on their morning coffee back in NZ - and in many cases seeing their adventurers for the first time since they'd set off on OE.
We made the most of that - inviting our guests to introduce their new boyfriends and girlfriends to family live on air. It was the kind of unpredictable and entertaining watch that morning TV does best. Although I do recall a young woman who wanted to announce she was pregnant on air. I spied a pillow up her top and thank goodness for us, and her, she never made it to air.
The Walkabout pub show is a very tangible and nostalgic example of how television has been able to connect people across cities instantly, but television's ability to connect people doesn't have to be so literal. We get emails every day on AM saying the show keeps them company in the morning. Some have said it's their impetus for getting out of bed.
That both validates my 2.45am alarm clock and breaks me at the same time. Because I get it. Watching all three hours of AM was part of my daily routine both times I was on maternity leave. I felt how important it was to feel part of a discussion, to feel connected with what's happening in the world - and, more basically, just to start the day with a laugh.
Morning shows on Three have been a common thread over my time with the network from back in the time of Sunrise, which launched just as I started in 2007.
Then came Firstline from 2011 - 2015.
As the then Europe Correspondent, I recall one morning I was waiting outside the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital along with a pack of media from around the world. Prince George, the baby who would one day be King, was due to be born any day.
So every evening for a week I would make the 40-minute trek across London just to sit outside for three hours on the off-chance breaking news might come through while Firstline was on air.
Booking a 10 minute live cross window with one of the local satellite trucks was expensive - we're talking hundreds of dollars a minute - so we seldom booked them if there was nothing new to report. However, one day we booked one just to show how many people were camped outside.
Well you wouldn't believe it, but a minute before I was due on air, my phone pinged with the announcement from the Palace we'd all been waiting for.
Breaking news! I heard the 30 second countdown in my earpiece. I couldn't believe my luck. This was ideal timing!
I heard the presenter start to read the introduction to me... and then nothing. Silence. With the audio cut out, an operator in the satellite truck sticks his head out the window and says casually: "Sorry luv, truck battery went dead."
Nowadays an instant text notification to your phone would have beaten me to the chase of delivering that breaking news anyway, but there are some situations where you just can't beat transporting someone live to a particular moment at a time and place.
Like crossing live to the impassioned singing of the mourners on the streets of Soweto following the death of Nelson Mandela.
Like being in the thick of panicked crowds as I spoke to Paul Henry live from Paris in the days following the Bataclan Theatre attacks. We hurriedly cut the live cross short as we were told gunmen were in the area. Half an hour later, while sheltering in a nearby hotel cellar, we were told it was just someone who had let off fireworks.
For the last three years our Europe Correspondent Lisette Reymer has given us insight into places we could only imagine without her skill in telling those stories and the new technology that gives us so much more access.
We are far from the days of the international calling card now. But in a world that is increasingly moving to on-demand viewing, there will still be a place for live broadcasting, for shared experiences - shared humanity - shared laughs.
I always did remain hooked on live television and judging by the many kind messages lately, many of you have too.
Thank you to everyone who has chosen AM - you've helped us close the ratings gap, kept up the commercial support and the messages of what AM means to our viewers have kept us going over the last six months.
It made it feel like we were in this together, and I like to think that's what morning telly on TV3 has done best all these years.
