That was fun. People came, and came and came. 10,000 of them. It was even more than we expected for the opening weekend and so we ran around like crazy but we kept all the plates spinning.

I spent Monday afternoon filming ‘Les’s Liverpool’ with Les Dennis. He had done his research and knew a huge amount about the Bluecoat. In fact, Les is yet another talent who started at the Bluecoat. He did a TV talent show audition here when he was 14.

It is 6 am March 15 and we open in 4 hours.  We are as ready as we are going to be and last night, for the first time in weeks, I slept like a baby.

We are tuning up nicely for the 15th.

We tested the building last weekend with the families and friends of the Bluecoat's staff and all those that worked on the building project. While the kids ran around the garden and the central hub, climbed the furniture and drew in the garden room, the espresso bar poured tea and coffee and served cake while ‘upstairs’ the restaurant bar was humming (my early lunch time favourite is the poached egg with mushrooms on toast).

9 days to go and the line between ecstasy and agony is very fine.

I came to work to find Lynne, who looks after our tenants, in the middle of the front courtyard grinning like the Cheshire cat. The first tenant was moving in. One of our creative retail tenants, Landbaby, was starting to fit out their space.

Standing in the hub I can see through the window a tree moving, not swaying, but moving from one side to the other. Rushing to the window I find that the garden has arrived and three new small trees are the first soft planting.