Jingle Bells - or was it just the Trimphone..?

It's fifty years today since the Queen made Britain's first ever national trunk call.

She rang up the Lord Provost of Edinburgh from Bristol telephone exchange - 300 miles away - addressing him "This is the Queen speaking from Bristol. Good afternoon, my Lord Provost".

To commemorate this year's anniversary, some of the original engineers are returning to the exchange to re-enact the call. They'll be using state-of-the-art video-conferencing technology, so - alas - this time Edinburgh definitely won't be able to do their bit from the 'home-office' wearing fluffy bunny slippers and a hotel dressing gown...

Notably, the Queen didn't sign off her call with 'Merry Christmas' (or 'lol' - whatever that means), as in those days Yuletide hadn't already started on 6th November (when this year's Bond Street lights were switched on by Kelly Brook) but had to hang on for a more sedate mid-December kick-off.

Locally though, this year's Christmas season is already in full swing, with lots of Christmas markets and events happening this weekend

For full details see:

http://www.northnorfolkradio.com/local/index.php

A special local highlight will be the Medieval Fayre at St Nicholas Church, Salthouse (pictured below in previous blog) to be held on Saturday 6th December (11am-4pm). This will include a Father Christmas, a juggler and live music all day with King Henry's Band playing a wide variety of early instruments. At 5pm there will also be a Mummers' Play and Medieval Carols with Kelling Consort of Voices.

In Holt the lights are on in the gallery and we are furnishing Byfords with a roaring trade in hot soup, home made Christmas cake and tree-shaped choc-chip cookies.

As a special treat for our non-local customers, here is a sneak preview of this year's Holt lights, to get you in the festive spirit (you'll just have to imagine the soup, cakes and cookies).

NB If like me you live several light-years from a BT exchange and you've got 'tortoise' rather than 'hare' broadband, mute the sound & let this clip buffer once through (whilst you do a few air-pirouettes on your office chair, pat the pet dog or grab a quick refill for your coffee cup) then un-mute, click play once again and watch it all the way through in smooth, non-stuttering comfort - ah bliss!