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On arrival at the hotel in Wrexham I was sent to bed. An early night - nothing new for a shift worker. However everything was to change. My relaxed sleepy state was disturbed by a missed call on my mobile. It was work, tearing me off a strip for not being in. This threw me totally as I was supposed to be on a week of rest days. Now my involvement in the next few days was at risk. I rang my manager leaving a text & hoping for some good news.

I was no longer in the mood to sleep & I watched a programme on Channel 4 talking about radical Christianity. Part of this I agreed with but part of the presentation was unloving, judgmental and at times very offensive. I had real problems with the views being put accross as mine! My version of Christianity, is built on LOVE & JC tells us to "judge not, lest you be judged". This programme didn't help my sleep.

But at 1.30am I got up, showered and dressed and was well ahead of the game. I had heard talk of a possible Iolo ambush with camera at 2.30am BUT YOU CAN'T CATCH A SHIFT WORKER OUT :0)

I waited and waited and was able to turn the tables a little on the crew - with the help of my pillow which doubled as a cat for my sad Bond villian impression :0)

So out we went into the darkness & soon we found ourselves hiking over a moor - a quick Iolo briefing on BLACK GROUSE and then we had to get to the hide before 4.00am.

The hide - me, Iolo, Julie, Lloyd, Tom the sound man, Nikki on camera, one seat, one set of sound gear with a Dougal on a pole and of course one camera. The hide was tiny and three hours in it was a struggle.

Lloyd got bored after 10 minutes and tried to sleep, ending up having a fag out of the back of the tent. As time progressed Julie kept thinking of the loo while Iolo "the pro" let rip - much to everyone's amusement.

Me, I suffer dodgy circulation and pins and needles, so trying to move again was a comedy moment, especially when my feet wouldn't work ;0)

The crew - as professionals - did not break wind (MUCH) - or shake the camera when filming (MUCH) or laugh so loud the grouse flew away (MUCH). Iolo covered this by saying a bird of prey flew over to scare them. BUT WE KNOW THE TRUTH.

The LECK itself was weird. The grouse arch their wings a bit like Ricky Gervais in that stupid dance he does, white feathers then show from the rear like a giant rabbit's tail. The eye lids swell with blood like a lipstick coated lip above each eye - GROOVY. The birds then go macho, strutting about in an 'I'm the best' struggle for top dog (grouse). They hammer toward each other at full speed then stop a foot apart looking away something like Posh spice in front of Primark. So funny, A great bird, a rare privilege.

On to the Little Chef for a huge breakfast. I was still down in the dumps over work. But my manager sent me an email around 9.30am which confirmed I could stay.

YIPPEE :0)