Howdy to all out there.

There have been a lot of sniffles and coughs emanating from the rooms of A1 VOX this week. It is a bit of a hazard when most of the people coming through our doors use the voice as their bread and butter. Whilst dishing out medical advice Charles has been uttering his famous slur - 'I'm a doctor you know'- believe what you will but amazingly the man does know more than thing or two about medical matters!

However, we have had more than one brush with a doctor as you will find out later in this weeks A1 VOX practice.

So after stocking up on honey and Lemsip for anyone that needed it, we were ready for action.

First up was Phil Tufnell or ‘Tuffers’ as he is affectionately known.

He has been featured in our blog before as he is a regular to A1 but on this occasion it looked like somebody may have had one of those legendary nights out on the tiles, as he turned up to A1 sporting some very dark glasses.

Phil has entertained many crowds over the years earning his nickname of “The Cat”. He is able to mix work on the field with his laddish behaviour and regularly enjoys banter with friends and colleagues.

After winning TV`s I`m a Celebrity – Get me out of here Phil has become even more popular.

Rarely seen without a beer and a ciggie, Tufnell has always been something of a folk hero, and has milked that to the full to carve out a successful career on TV and radio.

Well we didn’t get too much sense out of him last week but as soon as he was behind the mic the persona was there in a flash. I’m sure on leaving our studio it was straight back to bed for a quick ‘Cat’ Nap.

The comedy element of this week’s A1 sandwich came from Mr Phil Kay. Even though it was raining outside he was wearing his trademark birkies and carrying his guitar. Woodstock anyone?

He sat in the Green Room and was chit chatting away merrily until his turn in the booth.

Phil burst on to the comedy circuit in 1989, when he won the new act contest So You Think You're Funny in only its second year.

His unpredictable, freestyle approach won him a Perrier nomination in 1993 and the award for best stand-up at the 1994 British Comedy Awards. He was given his own Channel 4 show, Phil Kay Feels..., in 1997, which was recorded in front of a live audience to try to capture his manic energy.

Whilst remaining largely behind-the-scenes since, he has been writing successfully for television, with credits including Jonathan Ross's Saturday Show, Channel 4's Viva Cabaret, The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer, Sean's Show, Harry Hill's Pilot Show, and many more. Go on Phil, strum us a tune.

The big musical cheese to hop, skip and jump his way into A1 VOX was none other than muso genius Mr Michael Nyman.

Chris had to get all his faculties together as we were doing a live link up to BBC Radio Scotland for weekly show The Music Cafe.

Of course Chris handled the talent, and link up, with impeccable professionalism and all went according to plan – we heart you Chris!

The Music Cafe is hosted by Bruce MacGregor who hears about the music being made, played and talked about in Scotland with live sessions, new releases and interviews with musicians of the moment.

Well they don’t get more talented and current as this chap let me tell you!

As one of Britain's most innovative and celebrated composers, Michael Nyman's work encompasses operas and string quartets, film soundtracks and orchestral concertos. Far more than merely a composer, he's also a performer, conductor, bandleader, pianist, author, musicologist and now a photographer and film-maker.

For more than 30 years, he had also enjoyed a highly successful career as a film composer, the role in which - sometimes to his slight regret - he is probably best known by the general public.

His most notable scores number a dozen Peter Greenaway films, including such classics as The Draughtsman's Contract and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover; Neil Jordan's The End of the Affair; several Michael Winterbottom features including Wonderland and A Cock And Bull Story; the Hollywood blockbuster Gattaca - and, of course, his unforgettable music for Jane Campion's 1993 film, The Piano, the soundtrack album of which has sold more than three million copies. He also co-wrote the score for the 1999 film Ravenous with his friend and sometime protégé, Damon Albarn (Blur / Gorillaz). Most recently his music was used in the 2009 BAFTA award winning and Oscar nominated film, Man on Wire.

His reputation among highbrow critics is built upon an enviable body of work written for a wide variety of ensembles, including not only his own band, but also symphony orchestra, choir and string quartet.

He has also written widely for the stage. His operas include The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (1986) and Facing Goya (2000) and he has provided ballet music for a number of the world's most distinguished choreographers.

In October 2009, Nyman released The Glare, a collaborative collection of songs with David McAlmont, which cast his work in a new light.

Nyman says "I was surprised and delighted by what we've came up with, so much so, that when I now play these pieces solo, it sounds like somethings missing and the music needs David's voice and approach. That's a remarkable thing, because I've been playing these pieces for years. Of all the many collaborations I've been involved in, none has ever given me more pleasure and I'm desperate to take it on the road and play these."

He might forgivably have been content to rest on his considerable laurels. However, instead of looking back on a lifetime of achievement, via a string of high-profile collaborations with everyone from Sir Harrison Birtwistle to the aforementioned Damon Albarn, he's still looking forward - pushing the boundaries of his art with a diverse and prolific burst of creativity as energetic and challenging as any new kid on the block. WOW! That is some life and some credentials - now I really feel inadequate.

(If you would like to hear the live recording as engineered by our own 'technically sound’ Chris O’Connor, then you have one day left. Just log onto the BBC Radio Scotland website or search on BBC iPlayer for The Music Cafe).

So sport personality – tick, comedian – tick, musical genius – tick and now to a somewhat iconic TV star.......Sophie Aldred.

If I say the word EXTERMINATE – I think we would all, pretty much, be on the same page.

Sophie was cast back in 1987 as Doctor Who’s sidekick 'Ace' and her tenure on the show spanned the last nine stories of the programme’s original run, which ended in 1989. Can you believe it was that long ago – makes even me feel old!

Both before and since Doctor Who, Sophie has had a varied and busy television career, particularly in children's programming, where she has presented educational programmes such as Corners, Melvin and Maureen's Music-a-grams, long-running BBC series Words and Pictures and also CITV paranormal show It's a Mystery in 1996. She has also performed on radio and in the theatre.

On being asked about smacking seven shades out of the infamous Daleks Sophie says “Yeah, well that was great. Because nobody’s done that before or since. I think that’s going to go on my gravestone, actually. I beat up a Dalek with a baseball bat! My absolute claim to fame, and I was very proud of that moment!

And the funny thing was that I was always the smallest in my class! I was always being called ‘shrimp’. I was much, much smaller than anyone else. So having that glorious line, “who are you calling small?”, and then smacking a Dalek was a great thing for me to have!”

In the last few years Sophie has wanted to be near home, so has really concentrated on her voice over work. She says “It means I don’t have to get all made up, or wash my hair before I get to work! I may feel like going back in front of the camera at some stage, maybe somebody needs to tempt me to do it!”

Well she looked great when she came in for her voice session with us and was full of beans.

But hold your horses... for there is even more linkage between Sophie and A1 VOX than meets the Cybermen eye!

Sophie also takes on her much loved role as Ace alongside our one and only voice-O Supreme artist, Miss Beth Chalmers.

Beth plays 'Raine' and both ladies work with Big Finish Productions to create audio CD’s for the Doctor Who Series. Due to fresh casting former “EastEnder” Ricky Groves joined the voicing team to guest star as 'Creevy', the father of new companion Raine.

Here is a piccie of the lovely Miss Chalmers flanked by Sylvester McCoy and Ricky Groves. A rose amongst .......well....her doctor and her dad!

London News

Some might say they are bananas - but hundreds of people dressed in gorilla suits have been running wild in London.

This Sunday they were taking part in a race along the Thames to raise money for The Great Gorilla Organisation - a charity dedicated to the primate's conservation.

Around 1000 people took part jogging and knuckle-walking their way across a 7km central London course. The route involved some of London’s most famous landmarks including Tower Bridge and The Tate Modern and caused more than a stir across the city.

Conservationist and television presenter Bill Oddie fired the starting pistol for the 4.3 mile Great Gorilla Run and has labeled it “the most fun event for conservation going on anywhere in the world”, the Great Gorilla Run is an annual costumed charity fun-run that raises hundreds of thousands of pounds for the conservation charity (The Gorilla Organization) for their vital conservation projects in Africa.

So there you have it people. Furry friends and all. I hope you have enjoyed your pit stop to all things A1 and will join us next week when we can tell you all about our visit from Gail Porte. Ta-Ra!

This week the studio has been exceptionally busy and whilst Chris was away in Denmark Jess did a fine job of stepping in and taking over in very daunting circumstances. Well done Jess, we salute you.

Charles has been taking me back to the days of disco in the office, and on Friday we had a very fun half hour working along to the Bee Gees. We certainly left the office with the ‘Friday Feeling’ once Disco Inferno had been played. What a belter!

On some personal A1 notes I have to wish my fiancée Dom a very Happy Birthday, twenty one again, and say a Big Congratulations to Viv White who had a healthy baby boy named Rufus last week.

Dervla Kirwan make another delightful visit to the studio, though due to the ‘Boris Bike’ she arrived late, panting and sweating (steady on boys)......from not being able to find a bike docking station!

After guzzling a pint of water and stripping off to her T-Shirt (crikey!), Dervla, ever the professional, got stuck right in to her voice over job.

You better watch it Boris you don’t want the celebs of Soho turning on you – more docking stations please!

Next through the A1 doors of voicing delight, was funny man James Dreyfus and considering his brushes with Hollywood royalty he was extremely down to earth and a right nice fellow.

He is now the toast of British sitcoms, but it hasn't all been plain sailing for actor James. There was his unusual childhood, as well as the bittersweet experience he shared with the legendary Bette Midler.

James was exposed to the world of glamour and showbiz from birth - his mum lived in France and worked as a model for Christian Dior. However, she split from James' wealthy businessman father shortly after he was born, and they moved to Britain with very little money.

James' dad didn't want his boy going to any old school though, so he personally paid the fees for James to attend the exclusive public school Harrow. James hated it there and found it odd to go back and forth from the plush universe of Harrow to his very ordinary household.

After he left Harrow and finished his time at RADA, James worked on stage in many serious plays. He saw himself as a classical actor, and even had a small role in 1995's Richard III movie, with Ian McKellen. Then fate came calling when he landed the part of a camp hairdresser in Absolutely Fabulous.

He was now officially a comic actor.

Ab Fab led to him getting the similarly flamboyant role of PC Goody in The Thin Blue Line. And then came the part of Kathy Burke's gay housemate in Gimme Gimme Gimme - a show which James proudly describes as "an assault on the senses".

With the turn of the millennium came an amazing opportunity for James. Having seen him in the movie Notting Hill, the legendary American singer and actress Bette Midler personally flew him over to New York to see if he'd be suitable for her new sitcom, Bette.

"She summoned me, it was tremendously scary," James remembers. He was basically handed a script and told to improvise around certain comic scenes with Midler - an experience which had him "wiping my head with napkins in fear!"

James passed the test, and was offered a juicy role in the US sitcom. This was his biggest breakthrough yet, and James was overjoyed. But then the audience had their say - and it wasn't good.

Ratings for the show nosedived and Bette Midler, in James' words, "panicked and started firing people". It soured the atmosphere on set, and James was eventually told that the show was going to be axed. Bette Midler left town and James left aimless and alone returned to Blighty.

So the US sitcom wasn't quite the gateway to global fame that James imagined it would be, but he still managed to get roles in a number of big-budget flicks, appearing with Christian Slater in Churchill: The Hollywood Years and the sequel to Agent Cody Banks.

In 2006, he became a sitcom star once again - replacing Ardal O'Hanlon as Thermoman in My Hero. Nice tights, James!

He has just finished an appearance in Breakfast At Tiffany's at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London so maybe things have gone full circle for him again with a return to serious theatre.

James has worked with many high-profile stars over the years, but he says that there is one who stuck out for him, literally:

“Dolly Parton,” he answers. “You know those big, tall canvas chairs with your name on the back? I was sitting in one and she came up and sat next to me and she sort of shifted in her chair and fell forward out of it. As she got back up she turned round and said to me ‘Whoa, that was close. If I’d fallen on the floor you’d have had to milk me to get me back up’, which I thought was one of the funniest things I’d heard in my life. She came straight out with it and then offered me two tickets to Dollywood – from her breasts. She’d stuck them in-between her breasts. She said ‘go on then, go on then, take ‘em. Oh come on you English gent, take ‘em’”.

The stuff of legend!

Last week we talked about Nihal and his turn on Celebrity MasterChef and this week we had a bona fide culinary whizz in our midst in the shape of Mr Reza Mahammad.

Reza is one of Britain’s freshest ‘foodie’ talent and found television fame when he filmed a TV series about his trip of a lifetime through California and Nevada in search of culinary wonders, United States of Reza. He can now be seen popping up on many different TV shows including a regular slot on This Morning.


Reza was born in England to Indian parents but sent off to India to be educated to stay in touch with his roots. His father sadly passed away when Reza was only sixteen and so he took over the running of the family business, The Star of India Restaurant in London. Reza explains that he inherited a piece of 1950’s London, flock wallpaper and all, and set about inflicting his own brand of artistic flourish. Voila; from flock to Baroque!

The years Reza has spent managing The Star of India has established the restaurant as an institution and enabled him to explode onto the restaurant and food scene.

He loves to experiment with foods from all around the world, adding elements and ingredients that bring a new dimension to a traditional dish saying, “I am a firm believer in bringing a personal touch to cooking”.

Managing a restaurant does have some perks. A regular customer at The Star happened to be a television director. They got talking and he came up with the idea of doing a cookery programme with Reza and the then Goddess of Indian cookery; Madhur Jaffrey.

Reza first came to the public’s attention on UKTV Food Channel’s Delhi Belly with Sanjeev Bhaskar, the star of Goodness Gracious Me/The Kumars. This lead on to Coconut Coast, United States of Reza and A Place in France.

Aside from cooking, Reza has a great passion for music and the arts and has come to realize that food and music are indisputably linked. “A symphony of taste which feeds the senses is like beautiful music which nourishes the soul.”

He was an absolute delight to meet and hung around in the Green Room talking to everyone for a good half hour once his session had finished.

I tried to sum up his exceptionally flamboyant character in one word for you, but I think I will instead take a nod to The Observer Food Monthly who described meeting Reza as "being ambushed by a cross between Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and Freddie Mercury".

Outstanding!


Last but by no means least Dariel Pertwee visited us with a huge smile on her face and very sunny disposition. She is the daughter of Doctor Who actor Jon Pertwee and sister of actor Sean and as a British TV actress is probably best known for her turn in the series The Buddha of Suburbia.

She has a repertoire of voice styles including comedic, animation, and corporate. She is very versatile and has an excellent capability for copying accents.

Lovely to have met you Dariel – I now believe I have met most of the Pertwee clan!


Soho/London News:

‘Roll up, roll up’ and get your fashion fix at the Lucy In Disguise London shop, featuring clothes specially selected by Lily Allen and her sister Sarah Mary Owen.

She might be better known as a singer, and controversial ‘tweeter’, but with the Lucy In Disguise London clothes shop, Lily Allen is making a further foray into the world of fashion, following a stint as a designer for New Look. Alongside all the vintage fashion on offer, a number of Lily's own designs will be available to buy.

With clothes sourced from vintage fairs and markets, there's bound to be something to please many a retro loving shopper. There's an international flavour to many of the designer clothes in the shop as well, with fashion brought in from Paris and the USA.

The brand new shop in Covent Garden features everything from Alexander McQueen designs to the specially designed Lucy in Disguise t-shirt. Fashionistas can also have a drink at the all day vodka bar inside the store, and get styling advice from the staff.

She’s not daft that Lily, she knows that a couple of voddies down the gullet and the ladies will be rampantly roving the shop and making impromptu buys under the influence. Nice Strategy Lils.

(The Lucy In Disguise London shop opens from Saturday 18th September 2010 at 10 Kings Street, Covent Garden, WC2E 8HN. Nearest tube: Covent Garden).

Fashion, food and comedy – what a nice all rounder. Join us next week for sport (Phil Tufnell) and music (Michael Nyman) as we endeavour to continue to enhance your cultural horizons. Till then, keep it Jive, keep it Talkin’.

Hello everyone and welcome back to the A1 VOX blog.

Summer has now come to a close and the mood in the office is distinctly autumnal.

I always feel, as it turns to September, that I should be hitting the high street and stocking up on stationery bits and bobs and finding that all important new pencil case – old habits die hard I guess and I am still a big child at heart.

Talking of children, I have a little yarn to share with you about one of my more personal A1 VOX experiences a little later.

Now those of you that are friends of A1 on Facebook will have seen that we have now added AudioBoo to our proceedings. The first is a corker from Brian Blessed, recorded only a week ago. He shares his thoughts and er...feelings about A1 in his usual bombastic way. 'Brian's Alive' - check it out!

So whilst Charles and Chris were being let loose on our celebrity guests and I was off sunning myself in Cornwall and getting rained on in Ireland, the A1 VOX cogs continued to turn. Many a familiar face seems to have graced VOX Towers in my absence, the first being loveable funny woman Caroline Quentin.

Caroline has had an extensive television and acting career but is probably best known for her television appearances in Men Behaving Badly, playing 'Dorothy', and her turn as 'Maddy Magellan' in Jonathan Creek.

In 1998 came the first sitcom to be built around Quentin herself, Kiss Me Kate. At the British Comedy Awards in 2004, Quentin won the "Best Comedy Actress" award for her performance in Von Trapped and in the same year, she started the major role of 'Maggie Mee' in the popular drama Life Begins. Steady on lady cakes.

She is currently starring in the 2009/2010 BBC comedy series The Life of Riley where Quentin is reprising her role as 'Maddy Riley', the matriarch of a modern, mixed-up family that includes not just a ten-year-old son from a first marriage and a baby from her new husband, but also two chippy, adolescents.

Her home situation, she says, is less complicated than Maddy Riley's. “I'm married to the father of my only two children which makes life more straightforward.” And yet it is still not exactly your conventional nuclear family. For starters Sam, whom she married in 2006, stays at home on their farm in Tiverton, Devon, to look after the children while Quentin brings home the bacon. “He's made huge sacrifices and my career wouldn't have been an option without him,” she admits.

The couple met shortly after her 1998 divorce from the comedian Paul Merton. Mention of the latter is the only time Caroline ever tends to get prickly. “Neither Paul nor I have ever talked about it. What I will say is that it was an incredibly sad time in my life. But it's also a long time go. People probably don't remember we were married and, if they do, they don't give a s***.

Here are some quick fire thoughts from the lady in question who turns the big 50 this year - Therapy? “Great idea...I'd definitely have it, although I haven't needed it yet. But, then, isn't that what all crazy people say?” Religion? “No. I think I can say with some certainty that I'm not a religious or spiritual person, unless you count having a smallholding as a kind of religion. There again, it's pretty quiet on the smallholding front right now. All our animals are in the freezer.”

Funny girl, Caroline Quentin, A1 VOX wishes you all the best as you reach that big birthday landmark and as a tribute to that fact below is a wee quote from Dorothy in Men Behaving Badly:

Dorothy: Gary, when I was away, did you sleep with a woman?
Gary Strang: How do you mean, "woman"?
Dorothy: A woman. You know, the ones with what you and Tony call "shirt potatoes."

I was very disappointed that I didn't get to meet Jasmine Harman when she came into A1 as I am a keen traveller and wanted to find out if she really does have the best job on the planet.

In case you are not au fait with Jasmine's work she is best known for presenting Channel 4's award-winning show, A Place in the Sun - Home or Away, and has filmed over 200 episodes.

From Bavaria to Barbados, Sydney to Slovenia and Tobago to Tenerife, no stone has been left unturned on her quest to travel the globe and find the best properties for her house-hunters.

Prior to working in television, Jasmine had a successful career in the Health Club industry. She is a qualified fitness instructor and lived in the Algarve for several years, working as Marketing Manager for a luxury health resort. It was here that she began writing professionally and developed her passion for broadcast, hosting her own twice-weekly live magazine show on the Algarve’s most popular radio station - Kiss FM. I really want to hate her now!

Since 2004 when Jasmine was selected from hundreds of applicants to present A Place in the Sun – Home or Away (it should have been me!!!), it has gone from strength to strength.

The programme is also broadcast throughout Europe and the rest of the world, some as far-reaching as New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. She is a natural and popular presenter who represents a generation of stylish, 30-something women. Stylish (in a shambolic bohemian type of way), 30-something...and I am indeed a woman – where do I sign up!? - ok I will stop now... I promise.

Jasmine is also an in-demand writer and commentator on topics such as overseas property, travel and homes, and has written features for Company, Living Abroad, and My Travel magazines. She is the resident travel columnist at LOOK magazine where you can read her weekly travel tips, and a regular contributor to A Place in the Sun magazine.

From skiing on the Austrian Alps to discovering perfect pizza in Puglia, Jasmine finds time to sneak away to some of her favourite holiday destinations found whilst travelling the globe with A Place In The Sun.

She grew up in Hackney, East London but has defected and gone South of the river where she now lives with husband Jon and their dog Shadow!

She seems to lead a charmed life and I wish her all the best..grrrrr...no really I do.

The only lad featured this week is none other than rude boy Radio 1 DJ Nihal Arthanayake.

DJ Nihal was born on 1 June 1971 in Harlow, Essex. That’s right people a fellow Essex lad to my Essex lady! Get In.

He is a British radio and TV presenter, club night promoter (Bombay Bronx) and DJ, currently broadcasting on BBC Radio 1, BBC Asian Network and from August 6, 2010 BBC Radio Five Live. He resides within Notting Hill London where he lives with his wife and two young children.

After graduating university, he began an unsuccessful career as a recording artist and so in the late 90s, he turned to music promotion which seemed to be much more his bag.

This turn saw him working for artists as diverse as Nitin Sawhney, Judge Jules, Mos Def, and Elton John. It was while working for the groundbreaking Asian Beats record label Outcaste Records that he promoted, amongst others, Badmarsh & Shri's seminal Signs album.

Nihal joined BBC Radio 1 in 2002, to become co-host of a night time Asian Beats Show with DJ Bobby Friction. The show went on to win a Sony Radio Award in 2003 - achieving Gold standard in the Specialist Music Category for their show.

In 2007, Nihal became the presenter of the Weekend Breakfast Show on Radio 1 and is currently one of only two DJs to present both a mainstream and a specialist show on the channel, the other being Annie Mac.

But enough of all the hip muso stuff cause here at A1 we have a bit of a food crush on TV programme MasterChef so we were all chomping at the bit to ask Nihal about his recent Celebrity MasterChef experience.

The fifth series of Britain's favourite celebrity cooking contest started with five celebrities trying to impress judges John Torode ("It's like an alien has landed on the plate") and Gregg Wallace ("That fish is good enough to kiss").

Actor Neil Stuke, athlete Tessa Sanderson, Dragon's Den entrepreneur Richard Farleigh, Brookside actress Alex Fletcher and our very own guest voice artist Nihal Arthanayake were put through a series of gruelling cooking challenges.

Only two of them could go through to the next week's quarter final, taking them one step closer to becoming the next Celebrity MasterChef.

Nihal, who by his own admission 'didn't know what the hell he was doing' managed to impress the judges with his Thai chicken curry on a potato rosti with honey glazed carrots. Cor, Bang on the money.

It was between Nihal and Neil to be fast-tracked. It’s Neil.

There’s a palate test with a herb, mushroom and gruyere omelette. No-one stands out.

Nihal, Alex, Richard and Tessa all cook tempura vegetables and garlic mayonnaise. Alex did best at the test.

Alex and Nihal go through to the next round.

Alex, Nihal and Neil cook at the Swan restaurant. Nihal told us it was one of the hardest things he has ever had to do in his life and this guy presents live radio!!

The next challenge was to cook two courses for the Quarter Final.

Nihal cooks soup and chicken koftas and after deliberation the judges decide all Nihal’s dishes were sweet and needed chilli - he is outta there.

Don't let it get ya down Nihal even though you weren't exactly "a volcano of food emotion", we think your fab, and remember........

PRESENTERS DON'T GET MUCH BETTER THAN THIS.

So in my time at A1 VOX I have dog sat for an extremely large German Shepherd that could have dismembered me with one short, sharp command, I have held on to a new born baby whilst answering phones as its mother talked for money in the VoxBox and I have got up close and personal to many a celeb, some bawdy, some terrific and some downright scandalous, but nothing could prepare me for what came next......Child Minding!!!!!

Two small girls, seemingly cherub like in appearance, polite and unassuming. Enter pen and paper and it's like a Rolling Stone's after party for the underage.

I took my eye off them for one minute whilst answering a call in my office only to hear the sobbing of a small child the next.

Sarah enters the Green Room to a scene of florescent pink chaos. One child has blue ink all over her brand new uniform which she then informs me is her only one (EEK!). Child number two is hiding behind a chair sobbing, revealing pink arms of the permanent kind. Oh and they thought it would be hilarious to draw bindi spots on their foreheads. Hey Suess!

Luckily spots could be removed and we were left with ruined uniform and slightly chaffed limbs - god only knows what could have happened had I been one minute later.

What do they say about never working with children and animals...well lesson learnt.

SOHO NEWS:

This weeks Soho news is looking to the markets of Mexico for inspiration. New restaurant on the block Wahaca was born out of love for fresh, honest, Mexican market food.

To mark the launch of their restaurant in Wardour Street, Soho, they are launching an exciting competition to design staff T-shirts. Not only is this a chance for peeps out there to show off their creative side, but the winning designer will be treated to 12 months free food at their Soho restaurant!

Blimey that sounds like a jolly good incentive if ever I heard one - Areeba, Areeba!

It is good to be back people and I hope you have enjoyed your first 'term time' blog. Catch you next week!