TWO GAMES EACH AND A BITE TO EAT...
WE PILED INTO CARS AND STARTED TO RACE.........
REALLY SHOULD HAVE CHECKED EVERYONE KNEW WHICH BOWLING PLACE!!!!
Apologies for missing a week’s blog but what a jam packed two weeks I have had!
Since I last wrote, Luke has turned 7 and lost his two front baby teeth. He had a great birthday and amongst other things got the dreaded “Mouse trap” game, he had been asking for, for ages. I understand now why you always see this game in pieces at every car boot sale you ever go to. By the time you have assembled the numerous little plastic pieces, the children have lost interest completely and gone off to do something else!
We have decided the time of big birthday parties on bouncy castles has ended, phew! So instead, we invited a few close friends to come bowling. As usual I was totally disorganised and as we all jumped into our cars shouting “last one there is a Barbie doll”, it did not occur to me to check that everyone knew which bowling alley we were going to!
After waiting outside for 15 minutes the slow realisation dawned that our friends in the third car were on their way to a different venue 20 miles in the opposite direction! I was just about to phone them when I also realised I had left my phone at home on charge. Panic set in as I didn’t even know their number to use someone else’s phone. However, when you are used to regular minor disasters like I am you become very good at problem solving. In the end I got Rob to phone a friend of his, who lives next door to a mutual friend of mine and they lived next door to the people in the lost third car, to tell them to turn around; genius! The best part of living in a small town is that there is always a connection with everybody. And we only had to wait an hour while they drove back from the other side of Bristol in the rush hour.
Once we were all in the same place we had a fantastic night, the children were much more mature and sensible on their lane whilst the adults enjoyed getting very competitive and laughing at each other; happy days!
Christmas also came early this week as I went off to London to film the Iceland Christmas advert, over 4 days with the other “Iceland Mums”. You may remember me saying that I was amazed at how long it took to make a 30 second ad. Well now I know that was a walk in the park compared to filming a full minute Christmas extravaganza! There is so much to say I might have to fit it into two blogs.
Let me start by telling you about the “Iceland mum’s”. There are 17 of us in total and we will all be appearing in the main Christmas one. I can’t say too much about what we were actually doing as I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but I will just say a lot of sweat and tears went into achieving the end result, so it will be well worth watching! As a group we have become extremely close but are all still unique in our own ways. There is;
Amira, who kept me sane throughout the whole experience and stopped me from jumping the fence shouting “I’m NOT a celebrity get me out of here!” in the mad moments! She sees the best in everybody and never complains.
Lizzie, who has just become a very proud granny or “glammy” as she will be known. She speaks her mind and has a strong moral sense of right and wrong. She also has the biggest heart and is very protective of the people closest to her.
Eve, a great friend with a fantastic sense of humour. She can see the funny side of every situation in life, where some others might feel self pity and give up!
Alissa, always looks beautiful, even first thing in the morning after 3 hours sleep, great company and always with a story to tell; the most amazing accent of Dutch mixed with Liverpudlian.
Sue, the brightest eyes I’ve ever seen, always full of sparkle and life, and constantly looking after all the others.
Bev, beautiful and very talented although she doesn’t realise it. She overcame nerves and I hope she feels as proud as she should be for doing it.
Charlene, better than any prescription medication for cheering people up! A complete ray of sunshine, always full of energy and constantly laughing and making everyone else laugh too.
Victoria, very tactile and caring to others, has a dry sense of humour that saved us all in the exhausted moments.
Lisa, like a beautiful little china doll, her feet are so small she could have swapped her shoes with one of the children on set!
Sam, so down to earth and easy to talk to, a real gem, one of those people you meet and think you have known for ages, with a tiny waist approximately the same size as one of my thighs!
Natalie, the organiser; confident and in control, and calm in a crisis. You can depend on her and she puts others before herself.
Lorraine, you could write a book about her! As the oldest Iceland mum, a retired professional dancer and cabaret performer, she put us all to shame with her amazing energy and fitness. She could do the splits; dance for 18 hours and still want to go out afterwards! She had stories about everything and everybody, including Tom Jones, and kept us all entertained for hours. If only we could all be like Lorraine, she was an inspiration!
Melanie, Babs, Kim, and the other Bev came for one day of filming too.
Melanie was one of the other 7 finalists in the original competition and she and I have become very close, so it was lovely to see her. You just know when you “click” with people instantly and are on the same wave length and that is Melanie for me.
Babs is the only other mum who comes from my part of the country so it was lovely to hear an accent from home. Kim and Bev were lovely too but I sadly didn’t get much time to spend with them and am hoping to get to know them better as the “Iceland mums” phenomenon gathers pace!
And as for me.....well you’d have to ask the other Iceland mums!
So, now you know who’s who, please come back next week so I can tell you about the amazing, incredible, surreal, exhausting, invigorating roller coaster ride of highs and lows we all experienced making the Christmas advert. I would never have believed I could have done some of the things we did, and am so grateful to Iceland for pushing me right out of my comfort zone and proving to myself I have much more mental and physical strength than I ever knew.
Ellie
x
No comments:
Post a Comment