A Busy Week...

Hello! It's been a busy old week, starting with my efforts to get to the Royal Welsh Show. It was chucking it with rain, so I abandoned all plans of walking, cycling or going in a hot air balloon and instead took the car to the Park and Ride. Now, usually Park and Rides are nice tarmacced areas that have a bus arriving near by: this was a forty-five degree field knee-deep in mud. I managed to get there early and slipped and slid my way down the field and came to a halt near the bottom track - perfect. Only a hack across two muddy fields to the bus and all was fine.

Firstly, I am sure that I sat next to Harry Enfield in one of his characters on the bus...

I arrived at the Show with plenty of time to spare and wondered around in the rain for a while, checking where the Radio Wales tent was, going to the toilet fifteen times with nerves and generally trying to keep my socks dry so that I could last the day...

Jamie Owen and Louise Elliot were already live on Radio Wales and I was sat down and told to chew my nails for a while whilst they interviewed their earlier guest. I could see lots of wires to trip over, a microphone to drop in a puddle and a large security guy to throw me out if I said Arse by mistake. Finally it was my turn and actually - it was OK. I managed to mention my book, my other book, and I managed not to mention that I had actually come to look at the bulls' parts, as had been in my dream the night before.

I was able to give them a free copy each and one for Derek the Weatherman on Huw's behalf, as he still thinks that Derek says, "Hello, S'mae" to him alone...

Finally it was over and I felt really pleased that it had gone well. I then got lots of texts from people saying, "so, when are you coming on then?" but never mind eh.

After that it was on for my Book Launch at the Welsh Books Council tent - with some poor bloke shouting out into the rain "come and see Lorraine Jenkin and her new book!" to people scurrying and sliding by in the mud. I did have some wine and some nibbles to give away, but in hindsight, I would have had a better reaction if I'd given away bin liners for people to put over themselves or wrap their kids in after they'd fallen headlong into the mud.

EventuallyI was free to go and after the world's largest pasty, I headed back to my car and then slid sideways down the field onto the track. All had been well.

PS - the experience gave me confidence to take the girls to the show on the thursday. The little one got "barked at" by a massive bull who stuck his head through the railings into her pushchair and so after that, every single animal was terrifying - not good at an agricultural show. Our return to the car also wasn't as easy as by that time, it had rained for another whole day and we, of course, got stuck. Seeing that everyone else was also stuck I thought "Oh my God, we're going to die here" but a couple of nice young men pushed me out of my rut and I was able to skid and slide my way down the hill eventually crashing down onto another track. I still haven't had the energy to take the pushchair out of the boot of the car, as the wheels had doubled in size due to the mud stuck round them and I don't think squirting a little WD40 over the bearings will work this time...