On my long journey home from work tonight it occurred to me just how surreal the life I’m living is.

I started and ended my day in the middle of nowhere – our home is just about as far from ‘civilisation’ as it’s possible to be. We can only see one other house from our windows so we really are in the woolly wilds of nowhere. I left home at 6am to go to work and arrived back home at 10pm after spending the middle of my day in the swanky part of one of the biggest, most cosmopolitan cities in the world. In fact, in the Grosvenor House Hotel. I believe it’s the biggest ballroom in London. There were in the region of 1500 guests at the gala awards ceremony that I was at and where I stood on stage, next to Dara O'Briain (yep – he of Irish stand-up and ‘Mock the week’ fame), dishing out an award.

This event is a real glitzy glamorous (well, if the Pharma industry can be regarded as glamorous) event, chock full of stars….Ginny would have been delighted to see an X-Factor finalist (Chicco?) strutting his stuff and doing weird stuff with his six-pack….not that he was the first to do strange stuff on that stage. A chap whose name I forget did the most bizarre mime to a Natalie Imbruglia song…..bizarre but surprisingly entertaining.

So, little old me – on stage with all of these celebs and industry dignitaries – and still with the smell of fresh air in my lungs from home this morning.

This pic isn’t (not that you’re going to need me to tell you this) splendid for any reason other than to give a bit of a flavour for how big and glitzy the event is. I was down there, on that stage, not ten minutes before this pic was taken!

Anyway, after a four course lunch, a magnum of champagne and a good afternoon, I jumped in a black cab and came home to the back of beyond. And do you know what? I’m glad to be back. What happened when I got home? DM switched on the TV and there was Dara, my new pal(! Hee hee ) hosting a TV show……how’d he do that??? (No, don’t tell me, I know really.)

Last year, I was photographing the beautiful, talented, kind woman who in the space of two short years has become one of my closest friends, Patti!