I am one of 12,100 Conservatives here in Manchester for the party conference which promises to be packed with policy announcements and optimism. And there have been a couple of dramatic events before I even stepped foot in the heavily policed secure zone.

As I arrivedd at my hotel last night, David Cameron walked down the steps and into a waiting car; maybe he had popped his head into the agents’ dinner taking place there. Fortunately for him, he wasn’t around after midnight when the fire alarm went off and we stood on the pavement for 20 minutes before being given the all clear. Any thoughts of catching up on lost sleep, especially as I had to move rooms at 1am, were completely dashed when the fire alarm went off again at 6.20am.

I was one of only a handful of bleary eyed guests who went down in her nightwear. Why did everyone else insist on getting fully dressed while the alarm was screeching? No doubt only wanted to be seen looking their best, whatever the circumstances. The guy in the room next to me (a musician) tried in vain to wake his friend in another room by banging on his door, but he ignored him, or didn’ hear. I grabbed my iPhone and left everything else. A BBC cameraman who is a couple of rooms away grabbed his camera too and followed me six floors down the fire exit.

The first alarm turned out to be false and the second time an electrical fault. Not surprisingly people were anxious to return to their rooms and prepare for early morning fringe events, including an elegantly dressed woman in a pink suit and high heels. I felt a total washout in comparison in my slippers and unbrushed hair with a jacket and trousers quickly slung on top of my nightwear.

After half an hour we were able to return to our rooms and I bumped into our dashing PPC for Luton South, Nigel Huddleston, bright eyed and smiling, in the corrider. He was on his way to the 7.30am Google breakfast to learn about about online political campaigning. I had been hoping to go myself, but couldn’t face the day without a shower.

I plan to get to the conference in time for Eric Pickles’ opening conference speech – what a savvy media star he has turned out to be with his war room video briefings. Unless anything else unexpected happens.

*Do you have any fire alarm stories: I remember having a seaweed wrap at Centre Parcs and was wrapped in silver foil in a flotation tank and left in a darkened room when the alarm went off. I just grabbed a bathrobe and ran out. It gave the golfers on the nearby course a good laugh!