I knew I'd have to make my way into the centre of London and tried to telephone him. All I kept getting however, was a gaggle of giggling girls. After the forth attempt I shouted down the phone "IS RICHARD THERE?", but all I got was a sickly sweet voice saying, "queue passé?" I'd been travelling for seven hours and could do without the hassle so I said, "Listen luv, just get Richard for me will you!" She said ok darling and wondered off to tell him. It turned out that the voice was one of the All Saints messing around on his phone. They were all in good spirits after a particularly good show on Top of the Pops.

I finally met up with Richard and we went got back to his place in Clapham Junction and I settled down. It was past twelve o'clock by this time and he had invited me to the Big Breakfast TV show next morning AT 6AM!

Next morning a car came to collect us and take us to a unit on an industrial estate! It was a little peculiar. I had seen The Big Breakfast a few times and always imagined that it was in a large television Studio in the centre of London. Once we got in, I saw a large custom-built house and television crews running around all over the place. I went straight to the canteen and hid for a while before the stars arrived. Natalie and Nikki from the All Saints were due to make an appearance.

Natalie arrived a few minutes later. She was tired and not feeling very well, but she still managed to do the TV interview with Denise Van Elson and even managed a chat with me while she was being 'made-up'. She even cuddled up for a picture just as she was leaving.

An hour or so later Nikki arrived. She was also due to be interviewed and had managed to get a few more hours sleep. She was very friendly and we chatted about New York, which was where she used to live. Nikki's interview was great and she also managed to pose for a picture as she was leaving.

The person I really wanted to speak to was Mel Sykes, one of the presenters. She is very lovely but the security people didn't want me taking pictures of her. This is the closest I got (and was taken from the railings outside the studio). I did manage a chat with her though. She is from the North West like me (she is most remembered - at least by the blokes, as the girl in the Bodingtons Beer commercials), and she chatted about the holiday to Africa that she was about to take with her boyfriend.

It was a very exciting morning.  Little people like myself don't usually get the chance to meet pop stars and wonder around television studios. It was a real eye-opener. Richard spent most of his time working and I tried to keep out of his way. He kept his eye on me though. He went back to the office at lunchtime and I went home for some sleep.

That night I wanted to meet Kaya, a Polish student, email buddy that I've known for about a year or so.  We'd never met before and we were both a little nervous.  On the way over to Waterloo where I was due to meet her, I went for a drink with Richard in his local pub.  It was a nice pub and the beer was cool.  Richard suddenly leaned over and whispered something. I naturally exclaimed, "What are you whispering for Richard?" Richard gave me a 'look' and asked if that was 'Dangerfield' who was sat next to me. Dangerfield is a TV show about a Doctor (in case you didn't know).   The lead actor was Nigel someone and he was sat next to me. I reached for my camera and said, "Yes it is!" Richard looked at me in horror. On holiday, I'm a bit of a camera fiend and Richard was worried that I was going to make a fool of myself asking for the guy's autograph and picture.  I leaned over to the Dangerfield bloke and asked him if he would take a picture of Richard and myself. This is the result. You can almost see Richards face saying 'I'm gonna get you for this'.

I met up with Kaya at Waterloo. She is a lovely girl and a lot of fun. She wasn't too different from the way I'd imagined her.

We went to her local pub and chatted before going off to a great blues bar near Oxford Street.  The bar was tiny but the music was live and the company was lovely.  We walked back to Waterloo, there were no taxis and I took this rather romantic picture of the Thames.

Kaya was tired and we said goodbye at around 2am, It would have been nice to see her again, but I had to go home the next day.

I didn't get back Richards's house until 4am, I'd run out of money so I walked and hitched my way back to Clapham Junction.

Next day I got the train and arrived back at home sweet home. The last few days had been great, but I needed a couple of day's holiday to recover from the holiday, if you know what I mean!