Cider country and jet setting!

IT WAS THE NAILSEA FESTIVAL OF BEER AND CIDER.....
GUARANTEED TO MAKE YOUR SMILE GROW WIDER......
THEN OFF ON A PLANE TO HAVE MORE FUN......
WITH MY NEW FRIENDS, THE ICELAND MUMS!

It’s been another exciting week here in the land of tractors, and cider.

Probably the biggest annual local event; The Nailsea Beer and Cider Festival came to town last weekend. Compared to Glastonbury, it’s like having a party in someone’s back garden, but for me that was a good thing after all those huge crowds. The community feel is very strong, and every year a lot of money is raised for charity, this year’s charity was “Help for Heroes” and local Army Cadets.

It’s also a chance for all the local brewers of real ale and cider to show off their produce. There were over 100 different beers and ciders with weird and wonderful names such as ‘Loose Cannon’, ‘Fiery Fox’, ‘Black Dragon’ and ‘Dog Dancer’ and despite my West Country roots, I am not a huge fan of cider but feel I’m doing my bit for farmers to try one or two at the annual festival!

It is also a big family event with lots of activities for children; they even have their own non alcoholic ‘jungle juice’ in the beer tent along with all the other barrels. Rob managed to win a coconut, and the children had great fun bashing each other off a big inflatable platform with big inflatable sticks! Luckily the weather stayed dry for the first year I can remember, so we had a very relaxed day with lots of friends, watching the local bands into the summer evening.

The pace of life soon changed again on Monday when it was time to go to Manchester to film my first ever television advert. To say I was excited about it would be a bit like someone saying they were “quite pleased” if they won the lottery! Iceland had kindly offered to fly me up to Manchester and in all the excitement and anticipation I had forgotten what a nervous plane passenger I am. Until I reached the airport.

Even with domestic flights you still need to be at the airport an hour and a half before you fly, so there was plenty of time to run through in my mind all the disaster films I had ever seen involving air travel. I think I was pondering too much whether there might be snakes on the plane, and not paying attention to detail; when my boarding card said a time I thought that was the time to go into the departure lounge, not realising it was actually the time to get onto the aircraft.

Even now I don’t know what on earth made me think that, as despite being scared, I have caught planes on numerous occasions and know you have to go through to departures long before your boarding time, to allow for all the security checks.

Anyway, as I was standing in line, amongst a huge queue of people going off on their holidays clutching plastic bags full of toothpaste and face creams, I noticed the screen listing my flight turn to red as it said “final call for boarding”.

The penny dropped and my mood changed from fear of flying, to mild panic as despite being at the airport two hours early I might actually miss the plane! A few toe-tapping moments later when I heard over the P.A system “would passenger Taylor travelling to Manchester please proceed directly to gate 6 where the plane is waiting to depart “, I decided I had to do something more drastic than stand in the queue being patient. All the people in front of me were very understanding when I said in a slightly wobbly voice “that’s me they’ve just called please, Please, PLEASE can I go in front of you?!”

After the speediest security check ever, I was soon running through the duty free shops desperately looking for the signs to gate 6. Clearly marked was a sign saying “gates 1 to 5” and another saying “gates 8 to 11” At this point my heart sank and I wondered for a moment if I was on secret film for the worlds stupidest people TV series or something. I rushed breathlessly up to gate 8 and shrieked “Where is gate 6?!!” “It’s just there” the kind lady said as she pointed to the gate next to her, which I still maintain was masked by a pillar!

Luckily I made the flight and had stopped being scared of flying for a while due to the immediate crisis management situation. As soon as I sat down though it came back, when the air steward came and started explaining to me how to open the emergency exit and throw the door into the sea in the event of a crash landing. I nodded nervously when he asked me whether I thought I would be able to do this, and then embarrassed myself even more by adding in a high pitched voice... “But of course it’s not going to crash is it? IS IT?!!”

Of course I got there safely and speedily, and once we were on safe ground again I remembered all the statistics about how you are more likely to be killed by a heard of buffalo charging along your street, (or whatever the exact quote is) than to be involved in a plane disaster and the feelings turned to excitement again as I thought about meeting up with Eve, Alissa and Lizzie, some of the other “Iceland mums” filming this particular advert with me.

We had all been booked into the same hotel and when they arrived it was lovely to meet face-to-face and have time for a chat. For me it is a very comforting feeling to be with the others who auditioned with Iceland as I did. I think they are the only other people who truly understand my crazy dream that has become real. Throughout the New Face of Iceland competition I continually pestered Iceland saying they should use more than just one real mum in their TV advertising campaigns. When I won the competition my view didn’t change. I thought wouldn’t it be great to show lots of real mums, from different parts of the country, of different ages all getting together and celebrating the things they have in common. So far it seems all my dreams are coming true.....

Please come back next week when I can tell you what filming an advert is like from behind the scenes, and how I am getting on with all the other amazing Iceland Mums!

Thanks for reading.
Ellie
X