Missing in Action!

Apologies for being missing over the last few days. On Friday afternoon myself and my little family drove down to London as I was so lucky to be offered a ticket to the Strictly Final by Mark (the winner of the Super Fan Quiz). If you watched the show you will have seen I fought a good fight and just lost out on a tie break question and Mark kindly and unexpectedly offered me his other ticket! To say I was over the moon was an understatement!!! 

We drove passed the Elstree Studios on Saturday morning on our way into London. We took the boys shopping in Central London for a couple of hours and then we went to meet my friend Myles whom I met on the first round of the Super Fan Quiz.

 We only got a short time together but I treated him to a spot of lunch and we had a lovely time chatting and catching up and I introduced him to my boys. So pleased we got to meet through the Strictly process as we get on so well.

 It was soon time to head back to Elstree and to get ready for the Final as we had to be in the Production Guest queue from around 3.15pm. This is the queue for the public who had been queueing   since very early in the morning and had been successful and came back later with their posh clothes on and stickers to say they were in! The 2 ladies just in front of my camera were actually Karen Hauer’s Mum and Sister from New York! I had been chatting away a little bit with them and was completely oblivious!

So here we are in the queue, very excited to be able to see the show. I honestly cannot thank this lovely guy enough for allowing me to attend with him! Shortly after this photo we had our phones taken from us so I have nothing else to really show you. We were directed into the marquee for guests of the stars and staff and had a drink in there and were ushered into the studio about 4.40pm

 My first reaction was how sparkly everything was and how much smaller the studio looks than you think from the TV. We had to be involved with some parts that were pre-recorded such as the opening sequence and it was amazing to see the huge scale production that goes into bringing the TV show into our homes. We had good seats and loved every minute of it and the atmosphere was electric I have to say. I have never done so many standing ovations! After the show we were also invited to be part of the audience around the sofa on the Red Button special where Zoe Ball interviewed the finalists, that was an unexpected bonus.

 We finally got our phones back after the show and I got Ross to take this photo of my wristband that allowed us extra access to the guest marquee. If you were looking for us on the show we were on quite a bit and some of my friends spotted us straight away. Here we are were the red arrow is on the opening sequence from Claudia and Tess. 

Everyone who we met was so so lovely and I have to say Claudia was so funny. Her and Tess did a little rehearsal before the show and Claudia spoke about her daughter who was in a burns accident at Halloween. She said she was doing really well and was going to be fine and then went onto introduce 6 nurses who cared for her daughter whilst she was in the Burns Unit. The whole audience applauded this lovely gesture, what a wonderful woman and how great of the BBC to give them tickets! 

Hoping to be back with some crafting for you very shortly!