I’m in Coventry, having breakfast in the Singers Bar and Bistro at the Ricoh Arena.

Nathan is making pretty pyramids out of juice glasses, Martin’s just started his shift, and Mark’s eaten the last apple danish!

I’m due to start work in an hour or so, so I thought I’d catch up with some blogging, courtesy of the free wi-fi.

I’m also waiting for Tom to come online, where I’ll guess I’l have to explain that eloping is runing off and getting married without your parents consent, and Gretna Green is a village in Scotland just north of the english border where you go if you want to elope!

Anyways, I’ll shortly be helping with the set up for tonight’s Christmas Live Event, ‘Circus Circus’ (so good they named it twice?).

This will be my third 12 hour shift, and my feet are beginning to ache, since you don’t get the opportunity to sit down. Good fun though.

I’ll help set up and do service for various corporate parties all on their christmas party.

We had 1470 people last night. And served them all a three course meal in 1 hour and 39 minutes. Great fun. (Mind you, spending four hours setting up 2960 glasses wasn’t the most exciting of jobs – Well done, James! What a star!)

After set up, my job is to manage the staff in my section, about 300 covers, making sure they are organised enough to get the food to the tables and clear each course.

You’d think that these young people were reasonably intelligent, and in the main they are, but when you get to a table and find they’ve had there main course served and someone has cleared the main course cutlery away with the starter cutlery, you do begin to wonder!

There are various circus acts performed between the courses then a live band. Oh an a fairground at one end of the huge 150 table exhibition hall!

In the words of Conrad from Lunch in Venice: “We have entertainment, but it’s totally cronic.” Especially when you’ve seen the exact same thing the night before.

There really is a limit to the amount of fire eating you can put up with. A few minutes yes, but fifteen?

One of the jugglers dropped his club, these were all alight as well, and so I told one of the lads in my section, that it was quite alright since the fire was a very special kind of performance fire that worked in such a way that although it looked like fire it didn’t atually set light to anything.

I think he believed me.

OMG, time to go – Nathan’s started singing along to “All I Want For Christmas”. X-Factor’s calling Nath!

I’m missing Rich, but I’ll be back home tomorrow, with a busy week of writing ahead, and a performance of Room 20! Yay!

Byeeeeee!

PS: TOM!! Where are you, mate!?