Hay we come!

I had a marvellous night's sleep and was up and showered (under a shower way better than mine at home, in other words, powerful) by 9.15am and felt great.

We had a lovely slow morning in our huge sitting room and then outside in the garden watching a red kite, a buzzard and a glider in the gorgeous blue sky and it was warm, getting up to about 17C. We've been very lucky today and even caught the sun a bit.

At about midday RadioGirl and I went into Hay town and mooched around various shops... art, glass, craft, clothes and this amazing Alladin's cave of a shop called Goosey Gander which just sells chandeliers, some of which sell for £8,000 apparently! We had a super quiche and home made salad lunch in a relaxed bistro with a long leisurely chat and then went down to the festival site.

Today, being the first day of the festival was very quiet, with a school's day and a limited programme. RadioGirl took me backstage at the BBC tent to meet some of her former colleagues who were very friendly and I had a snoop round an Outside Broadcast van filled to the brim with flashing lights and wires.

Griff Rhys Jones entertained very engagingly whilst plugging his book and it was a good introduction to the festival. We then sat in the biggest tent listening to a load of local choirs singing marvellously. Their compere was a local vicar the Rev. Ian Charlesworth who was laugh out loud funny while drawing a very long raffle. It was like a sketch off the Fast Show. Brilliant.

We got back to the house at 9ish for toast and butter and hot chocolate and more random chats about twitter, bats and the festival.