My own race against time after racing trip!

A lot of you already know I am a regular contributor on the afternoon show on BBC Radio Lancashire.

I love this part of my job and once a month do an hour’s broadcast with Gilly, giving listeners valuations on their antiques and treasures.

The other weekend Radio Lancashire was broadcasting live from Great Eccleston Show on both the Saturday and Sunday and asked me to do a “spot” on the Sunday.

Of course, I was delighted to be asked (I love valuing people’s collections and treasures) and said yes straight away, but it was only when I got home and Gloria, and I were comparing our diaries, dates and commitments I realised I’d double booked. We had planned a horse racing weekend with friends. We looked at the travelling and logistics and said it was just about possible to do both! So the fun began.

We have a group of friends we go away with regularly (I have mentioned them before). There’s six of us when we get together. Fondly, the two men and I call our wives “The Three Musketeers” as they are inseparable. They just love being together and incessantly talk, drink champagne and talk some more!

So we headed off to Pontefract on Friday, enjoyed the horse racing there, had some drinks and a nice meal and stayed over Friday night. From there we went to my favourite race course, Ripon, for events on Saturday and stayed in nearby Ripley on Saturday night.

On Sunday morning we had a good breakfast and said an earlier than planned goodbye to our friends as we set off back toward home.

The main event on Sunday at the show is the prize giving for all the animal trials, competitions and classes. I was due to be live on air before this, at 1.30pm, so we couldn’t hang about. We got to the show field with literally minutes to spare. I sat down and met my first visitor straight away and from there was talking non stop for an hour to visitors who had brought their treasures along to be valued. It was really busy and suffice to say that by Sunday night I was ready for a sit down!