Being recognised?!

THERE IS SOMETHING NEW IN MY ICELAND STORE....
A PICTURE OF ME STUCK ON THE DOOR.....
NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD SEE THE DAY.....
ROB SAYS IT’S TO SCARE BURGLERS AWAY!!!!!!

Hello again.

Sam asked me this week “how long will it be until we have lots of people all crowding round us and pushing to take photos of us when we go out shopping?” I just laughed and said “Well hopefully never Sam. I don’t think I would like that would you?” He told me that he thought it would be “cool” so I advised him that if he wants all that, he should stick with his own dream that he will one day be in a boy band and win X Factor!

However, having said that, there have been some changes to our regular shopping experience in Iceland. Now when I walk in I am greeted by the sight of my own face, larger than life smiling back at me from a poster on the door advertising the new autumn adverts!

My first impulse when i saw it was to acquire a black marker pen and draw on a moustache and glasses, don’t ask me why?! Luckily it’s an impulse I have managed to suppress. The other “Iceland mum’s “ starring in the autumn adverts with me also have their photos up in their local Iceland stores and several have had their photos taken next to the poster so that we can all see.

I wanted to do the same but was terribly wary of trying to get the shot and blocking the door and being told off by another shopper just trying to get their trolley home for being in the way! In the end we decided to go up on a Sunday when it was quiet and I asked the boys to stand and pose by the poster of their mum instead. As I have mentioned in previous blogs whenever a camera is pointed in Luke’s direction a number of interesting faces get pulled. At least this time, as I had asked him to point, he didn’t have free hands to pull his ears out as well as go cross-eyed! The result is definitely one for the family album!

I have also had several well-wishers popping into the opticians where I work asking “how does it feel to be famous?!” and many people coming to tell me that they like the adverts. This is really nice to hear, as none of us had any idea of how well the new adverts would be received by people, but were hoping they look as natural and fun as they really were to film.



Me with the Girls!

 Unfortunately for Sam though, and fortunately for me, I am not recognised everywhere I go now, and have so far not needed to hire bodyguards and wear dark sunglasses both indoors and out! It was quite funny when I went for a meal with my friends in Bristol a man tapped me on the shoulder and said something to me whilst we were eating. My friend Zaheera saw this and said to me “did he recognise you from TV? What did he say? Did he want your autograph?” I told her that no, in fact he was just pointing out to me he had accidently spilt some of his drink on the floor and not to slip when I stood up!

As if that wasn’t enough fame for one week we were also lucky enough to have our pictures in “The News of The world”. There is an X Factor special each Sunday in the paper from now up until Christmas and the “Iceland Mums “ will be featured in it. This week was the first one and Eve, Sue and Amira were all there with me. Several of us are making scrap books now of all the news coverage of this special time to look back on in years to come. I always buy extra copies of everything to send to my Grandpa who is in his 80’s now and very proud of me. I only wish my Granny was still here to see it all as well as she was a great inspiration to me, and a firm believer of “If you put your mind to it you can achieve anything”.

I enjoyed being a VIP for the day!

I also attended a big Iceland conference for the store managers this week. I actually found it very emotional as one part was all about the new adverts including the Christmas campaign, and about the whole “New Face of Iceland “competition. They showed some previously unseen first audition clips and some of my new friends talking about what filming the adverts meant to them. There was a huge cinema size screen on stage and I was very privileged to see the Christmas advert for the first time. This is the advert that took us 4 days to film. I have to say the end result was worth all the blood sweat and tears that went into making it! I now can’t wait for everyone to see it and really hope that all the other Iceland shoppers think that we did them proud!

I had another “un celeb” moment at the end of the conference when some of the Iceland store managers came over and said “Ellie can we have a picture please?” “Of course, I said” taking the camera from them ready to take their picture all together. They looked a little confused and said “No, we don’t want you to take the photo; we want you in the photo with us to take back to the store!” That did make me laugh, and I felt a bit daft but I really am not used to people I’ve never met wanting a photo of me!

I think I need Sam to teach me how to behave as he and Luke both seem so much more ready for super stardom than me!

Thanks for reading, and special thanks too for the nice feedback my blogs have received.

Ellie
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