It's just over a week since I stood in the Compass Rooms in Llantwit Major and gave my talk "The Time Traveller's Strife". You might have known this was happening... I've mentioned it once or twice ;-)

I'd never run a two-hour workshop before. I'd never given a lecture on time travel before. It's actually quite unusual for me to do an event like this on my own. I'm normally teamed up with someone else. I think they are there to keep an eye on me. (Unless it's Louise Mumford, then I'm definitely there to keep an eye on her.)

All I had were my notes, a bottle of water, and my Playmobil Doctor to use as a prop. I was prepared, wasn't I?

Thankfully, the whole thing was a great success. After a few minutes to warm up, I definitely found my stride and, with some great help from volunteers (who probably thought, because they'd paid to be there, that I would all the work... suckers), I managed to get through everything I'd planned to talk about. People laughed in the right places. People asked questions. A few people even wrote notes - although these might have been things like "Ask for a refund" or "Kill this guy later", I couldn't possibly say.

I hope, at least, that everyone who came along had a good time - because I certainly did.

Normally, I like to hang around at a festival, but this one was a flying visit for me. Llantwit always has a lovely atmosphere and the whole town had, yet again, embraced this festival. Either through ingenious planning or happy accident, there was also a food festival on the same weekend, and this definitely added to the vibe. It felt like art and books had taken over the whole town, a sort of miniature Hay Festival (but with added me!). In some ways, this festival seemed to expand out to occupy far more than just the weekend. Through some masterful social media marketing from Waffle, which included what my children referred to as some "OP Trolling" of me, it really felt like things had kicked off way before any of us set foot in Llantwit Major.

The aforementioned "trolling" - after I subtly mentioned that I was missing from some promotional artwork, the festival starting using my face EVERYWHERE.

Hopefully, there will be enough good feedback on my talk that I'll get invited back next year. I suppose, if not, I'll just have to buy some tickets!