It all started at the White Horse.................

It's been a long time coming, but long leave has finally arrived.  There were tearful farewells to my work colleagues on Thursday - well not really, but I will miss the daily banter that goes around.

I thought a good start to my long leave would be to get a request played on Simon Mayo's All Request Friday show on Radio 2.  The excitement built as I eventually got through by phone to the researcher, I gave it my all;

"7 months off work, wow" she said "that's amazing, what are you doing" well i said " I'm travelling around Europe, going to Florida with my family, doing some building work on my house, and lots of weekends away, starting with a beer festival in Scarborough at the end of April" "wow, that's amazing, and where do you work" " at John Lewis, its time off for good behaviour" "OMG you've got a proper job" errr well yes, "wow that's amazing, what song do you want and why" " well" I said " i would like I'm on Top of the World by Imagine Dragons, because I am and at the end of my European Tour I'm going to the BBK Festival (if i survive the bull run in Pamplona), and Imagine Dragons are one of the groups performing" "wow - look I'm going to put smiley faces all over this and pass it to the producer and they will phone you back"

Smiley faces! is that how the BBC works, maybe its a technique we could use in John Lewis.  The tension grew in the Riley household - well I was excited, Simon talked to David about his 10th birthday, someone stuck in a traffic jam on the M25, someone off to Ascot for the first time - boring boring, long leave trumps this lot I thought, ring phone ring ...... but alas no phone call.  Never mind, this looks like a challenge, get on Radio 2 before the end of my long leave!

Prinks before a family meal at the White Horse www.thewhitehorsebaston.co.uk.  Lovely meal together to celebrate the start of my long leave.  Drinks flowed, followed by a short stagger back across the road, before collapsing to watch 'Gogglebox - the show where you watch people watching TV...... mmmm I wonder ...... is it the drink talking, or should I try to get on TV rather than the radio.  I can feel an email coming on in the morning!

Long leave has officially started! Wow, that's amazing, smiley faces all round