The Welsh leg of my book signing tour went very well last week. It was held at the rather groovy Cameo Club in the gorgeous Cardiff district of Pontcanna. With its grand three-storey town houses and tree-lined streets, Pontcanna is known as the trendy media part of Cardiff. That’s why I live there of course, ahem. Charlotte Church’s parents used to own the Robin Hood pub at the bottom of my road and Charl could be seen on occasion collecting empty pint glasses, probably when the bar maid didn’t turn up. Or maybe she had just drunk them all herself? Anyway, I digress. The signing was great, a very glam affair with lots of people including TV presenters, BAFTA winners, fashion designers and other ‘faces’ (unfortunately Shirley Bassey couldn’t make it). At 10am the next day, Wales’ biggest paper The Western Mail was arriving at my flat to interview and photograph me about COUNTRY PURSUITS. I woke up late with a throbbing champagne-induced headache, realised I had no tea or milk or biscuits and ran like a wild woman with hair still wet from the shower to the corner shop. I arrived back gasping at my front door just as Rin, the journalist turned up. Not the best first impression, but I obviously did something right as they want to come back and do an ‘at home’ shoot in January. Someone likes my taste – woo! It’s perfect timing for the release of the paperback – hopefully the gaping hole in the kitchen wall will have been fixed by my builder by then…

It’s been quite a busy few days in Churchminster land. Yesterday I hotfooted it from my pad in Cardiff to London to interview the Sugababes. For a change the trains were running on time (yes First Great Western, you know who you are) and I arrived at Paddington in a relatively serene state of mind. Then it was on the tube over to a South West London studio, where heat was shooting the Sugababes for the much coveted heat interview slot. The schedule was meant to run like this:

10am: Girls go into make up.
1pm: Start shooting (well, there are three of them)
3pm: I do the interview.

However, when I arrived at just before 3pm, they were STILL IN MAKE UP. I mean blimey, they’re all young and gorgeous, how can three people take so long to get ready? I wasn’t even that bad when I was in the ‘Heather Shimmer’ lipstick and half-a-can-of-Silverkrin- phase as a teenager. Apparently there had been some trauma about the hats they were wearing (the finished image will be in heat early next month!) but once ‘Hatgate’ was sorted out, we could get the ball rolling. All three were very pleasant; although I have to say Amelle was definitely my favourite, what a sweetie.

Today I was back in the land of the dragon appearing on Radio Wales ‘Jamie and Louise show’ which is huge. I was there to talk about Country Pursuits and they got one of the girls who worked at the Beeb to read out an excerpt in a breathy voice, set to romantic/pornographic background music. It was hilarious – especially when she got to the bit about Sebastian resting his champagne on Sabrina’s pert breasts. Well, at least the good folk of Wales know what they’re in for now. I wonder if Bonnie Tyler would read it? She lives down the road from my boyfriend’s parents, in the gloriously named Mumbles on the Gower coast. Maybe we should bribe the postman to slip it through her letterbox – I reckon it would be right up Bonnie’s street.