Today was set up day at the Fair, so I met my colleague Suzanne in the lobby of the Marriott and we headed over to Hall 8 at the Messe. This involves walking quite a long way. I used to say that you needed to take a packed lunch with you because it was such a long hike. The buildings are reminiscent of an airport with lots of moving footpaths and large windows to look out of as you pass through. In my early days the English language hall was Hall 4 and this consisted of three levels. These days all the English language publishers are in one enormous Hall 8. These countries include the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

When we got to our booth our packages had not arrived which made Suzanne very nervous. I was pretty relaxed because I know from experience that deliveries can take time. Only once in 20 years have my catalogs not turned up so I knew the odds were pretty good. When they did arrive we had to figure out how best to arrange the posters and the books. The background color of the booth we chose this year was an avocado, olive green which seemed good when we looked at the swatch of color, but en masse in the booth it was a bit overwhelming, especially with the lime green headers we had. It became clear something had to change if we were not going to be living in a pea green soup for the whole week. So we dispensed with most of the lime green and used the posters to bigger effect. The booth definitely is unexpected and makes you smile because it is so bright and cheerful. We have featured Bee & Me, plus the Posh puzzles and the new cartoon called The Argyle Sweater.

On the way back from setting up I saw several television cameras and lots of police who were there in preparation for the opening ceremony of the fair. There are expected to be over 350,000 people here from all over the world. As I write I can also here helicopters over head. Tonight I am going to meet Rob and Colleen, our old Canadian friends, for a drink and then my English friend Jenny Manstead will join me for dinner.