It was the sort of day where welders would have done a roaring trade in replacing the missing bits from brass monkeys!

It was Saturday in Herne Bay and boy was it cold but a lot of hardy folk had ventured out from the comfort of their firesides to witness the annual turning on of the lights.

The stage had been built on the corner of William Street which made things even worse as the freezing wind was gusting in straight off the sea, so by the time 3.30pm arrived (my start time), I set about my task, my nose dripping and hands shaking, of attempting to whip up some passing trade which includes my one fan, her husband and three children and rather bizarrely, a Darth Vader and Dalek), into a frenzy of excitement before the switch on at 5.15pm.

The chocolate selection box that I was offering as the prize for the competition didn't exactly cause a mass stampede of interested souls so it was fortunate that things were cut short by the needs of the two bands who were playing during the afternoon to do a sound check which came as a welcome relief because with hypothermia beginning to set in I was able to beat a hasty retreat to the nearby cafe for a warm-up and a coffee.

Slightly warmer and with the crowd swelling to a couple of hundreds I did my next bit. The prizes were getting better, the throng more amenable.

Billy wears Dresses, who were runners up in kmfm's Battle of the Bands, played a fine 30-minute set which really got the crowd going, then the Herne Bay am dram people did a turn before it was time for me to do some more whipping up of a crowd which by now had swollen to more than 2,000.

We ran through a rehearsal for the countdown a couple of times until I sensed feet behind me and there's Emma Barton, star of this year's Marlowe Panto.

These people come with subtitles.

Last year it was Sean Williamson (Barry from Eastenders), this year (Honey from Eastenders).

I introduce her, (desperately trying not to make the same mistake that I had made earlier at home when I was describing her to my young son and called her Emma Bunton) wished her well with the panto which gets underway on Saturday and then say something stupid like:

"Do you realise you have 47 performances to do."

She gives me a long look and I'm sure her face turned as white as her teeth for a moment before she recovers and says:

"No, but I do now!"

With that we get down to the business of the night. Chris West, the Herne Bay town centre co-ordinator takes over the countdown, Emma pushes a big yellow plunger thingy which looks like it had originally been designed to set off a few tons of TNT and within seconds Herne Bay is plunged into light.

Emma retreats to the warmth of a rival radio station's car where she signs some autographs, I say goodbye to the assembled throng and that's it, Christmas has arrived in the Bay.

A big thanks to everybody who turned out on a bitterly cold day and to Karen and Stan who allowed me to share their warmth, without you two, I think I would probably have ended up in the K&C.

Stan incidentally will be once again be turning on his own massive Christmas lights display in South Street, Canterbury, this Friday evening in aid of charity

Whitstable's lights go on on Sunday. I will be talking to the town centre co-ordinator, Linda Mason about that and other things local on Wednesday after 9am on kmfm on 106.