Well, yesterday was definitely busy. But it was also great fun. Also I got to be on two different local radio programs, which is excessive even for me.

The first event of the day was an appearance on the Outlook show with Paulette on Ujima Radio. This is a radio station based in St. Pauls’, and area with Bristol with a lot of immigrant families. Ujima, unsurprisingly, plays a lot of Afro-Caribbean music. Outlook, however, is a community interest chat show, and I had been invited on as part of their Sound Reads project which, very splendidly, encourages listeners to read. You can listen to the part of the show I was on here. There’s some material about the Bristol Pound before the book panel comes on, and that might be interesting too. I got to plug a lot of good stuff, including Christmas stories, Colinthology and Doctor Who writers.

After the show, there was a party for the station staff and guests. As you can see from the photo, there was a huge amount of food (and mulled wine too). The things on the skewers were particularly delicious. And down the other end of the table there were mini cheesecakes and mince pies. The filling in the mince pies was obviously home made because it tasted way better than the shop pie stuff. And all of this was done by one person. Yvonne, you are amazing. If I ever need someone to cater a party, I’ll come calling.

I didn’t eat again all day.

Many thanks to Paulette and her colleagues at Ujima for a lovely time. Hopefully I’ll get invited back.

Also, one of my fellow guests on the program was Rebecca Lloyd. As you’ll see from the website, she’s one of us. Halfling is a kid’s fantasy, but she tells me that her real love is creepy Gothic fantasy. And I’m very interested in Pangea, the anthology of stories from around the world that Rebecca edited with Indira Chandrasekhar. Apparently they are planning a second book. I know some people who would be good in that.

After that I went to see Bristol-based artist, Penny Clark, about the portraits she has done of her friend, Martine Shackerley-Bennett. I’m hoping we’ll include one of Penny’s pictures in the LGBT History exhibition that we are putting on in February.

I had a bit of time to kill before my final appointment so I decided to do some shopping. Everywhere seemed to be having a sale, so I figured I should look now in case all of the good stuff is gone by Boxing Day (anyone remember when it used to be the “January sales”?). As it happens, I found myself a rather nice new leather jacket at 33% off. And the original price was very reasonable too. I was very pleased. Then, much to my surprise, I bought a new ballgown, at less than half price. No photos of that as I may want to wear it to an award ceremony one day. Also it is the first time in my life I’ve been able to fit into something sold in Jane Norman. Progress!

The final event of the evening was the live Christmas party show for Shout Out, the LGBT show on Bristol Community FM. We were broadcasting live from the Bristol Bear Bar, a pub in the gay quarter of the city. Mostly it was a silly hour of party games, but I did get to do a quick plug for the exhibition.

The highlight of the evening, however, was a fellow guest, Louise Goux-Wirth. That’s a genuine London Olympic torch she’s holding, and it belongs to her because she was an actual torch-bearer. London had a system whereby people could be nominated as potential torch-bearers because of the good work they have done for their local community. That’s how Louise got the job. US readers might be interested to know that the part of the UK where Louise carried the torch was the small North Devon town of Bideford. That’s the place where most of the colonists for the Roanoke Colony came from.

Louise’s next project is to go and work with orphan children in Rwanda. There’s a fundraiser going here to get the money for her trip. There’s also a blog here that explains a bit more about how the money will be used and what Louise will be doing. She’s amazing.