The first two days of the tour have passed smoothly, bringing the Irish leg to a satisfying close. (I originally intended to do more events in Ireland on this tour, but logistics on the UK side meant I had to push back my Irish plans until next year.) Things almost got off to a sticky start in Mayo -- I set off from my home in loads of time for the trip up to Castlebar, but we got stuck in horrendous traffic in a town called Tuam. I thought we were going to be late for the first event, but luckily my driver took us back the way we'd come and found a sneaky back route, and managed to get me there bang on time!! I did a very enjoyable event for a couple of hundred kids, signed all their books, then bombed down the road to Galway. I hadn't had huge crowds on my last few events in Galway, but loads turned up this time, and I was signing for two and a half hours -- nice!!! My publicist, Geraldine, and I then met up with Bas and went for a lovely meal in Dromoland Castle. It's not often that I have time to treat myself on tour, but every once in a while an opportunity drops into my lap!!!

This morning I did a fab schools event in the Glor Theatre in Ennis -- 500 kids!!! There was a signing frenzy afterwards -- steam was almost coming from my pen at one point!! We then had a few hours of a gap, so we had another nice, long meal. Then I signed in the lovely Ennis Bookstore, and again we had a huge crowd -- I was there for 2 hours 20 minutes. It's been the perfect start to the tour! Now I'm sitting in Shannon Airport, waiting for my flight, and the start of the UK leg in Windsor on Saturday. Busy times ahead, hopefully!!!