Tuesday Breaking News Day

Dear Hymie, Marmite and all the rest of you well wishers, I took your good will with me to Leicester Square.
The 170 bus arrived late so I started off the day with a freezing cold nose.
The tube to Oxford Circus was comfortably full, and the walk from there to Leicester Square was bracing.
Imran and Harry, on the reception are delightful.
I was taken to level 3, plonked in front of a computer, spilt some water over my newspapers and ate a ton of fruit that had been sent in as a christmas gift…

At 12.30 I was taken to a little booth to do the hand over with Mr. O’Brian.
No lunch – who cares – and then there I was making a little piece of broadcasting history.
Susan and Claire filmed it for the website.
Me and my new mic and somebody elses head headphones, ( mine are being doctored to fit the new sockets ) Me and my pens and tea bags. The gallery full of people. Engineers, directors, producers, assistant producers, more engineers, and so on….
I was still cold as the heating wasn’t right for me.
Everything was the other way round. I couldn’t hear properly and there were no pints of sparkling cold water or mugs of hot tea.
The emails and texts came in slowly BUT the callers and feedback was so positive.
I loved it.
I could not have been more supported by the proud team that sat me down and churned me out.
The lovely James Whale came in and made the room feel lived in.
It’s a BIG STUDIO, with windows overlooking The Garrick Theatre.
An oval table with seats for many people. I can’t remember how many mics there are I was too excited to count.
The office space overlooks Leicester Square. Jo Parkerson sits right by the window, lucky girl, and over looks the Ticket Booth and a beautifully lit carousel set up for Christmas. As the ponies bobbed up and down the rest of us work horses spilled over our computers and desks whilst consuming free bottles of sugar free cola.
I think there may well be a lot of freebies in this building.
I had to have my picture taken for my pass otherwise you can’t get in or out. The pass gets you from one floor to another, from one loo to another, from one world to another up on the roof….
So happy was I when the photograph was taken I look like a grinning Malasian girl who plays with ping pong balls for a living.
I swear I could feel the buzzy energy in that room today.
I can only say a massive thank you to Chris Lowrie for plucking me from the televisual corridors and chucking me down the newly carpeted walkways of Capital House.
Nobody made a big fuss, nerves were kept well under wraps and nobody shouted. Lucy Fergusson was Miss Cool, even though she felt like carp today, and Jessica Howe was as delicious as always handing out little mugs of hot water and apologising for not understanding the air con.
It’s exactly one year to the day that I sat in for Alison Bell. I still cant believe my luck.
The daughter collected me. Hugged those people she knew and then we shopped for trendy Bee style clothes and ate a wonderful Chinese meal in my fave restaurant in Garrick Street – literally minutes from LBC.
The only spanner in the works.
I applied for two Bafta tickets to see Kate Winslet in a q/a at The Odeon in Leicester Square. I only received the confirmation when I got back to the flat. Instead of eating buttered prawns in China Town we could have been eating buttered popcorn in The Odeon right next to LBC- ENOUGH ALREADY.
Ah! The yin and yang of it all.
Still even that disappointment hasn’t ruined the day. I dare say there will be a bit of a second performance tomorrow, but whatever it is I’ll let you know.
Listen Hymie and Marmite, it doesn’t matter how you wrap up your good wishes just as long as they keep coming. Broken legs or not your love was with me today.
cyouall2morrer