One Adventurer Returns and Another Leaves

SAM CAME HOME AND I BURST INTO TEARS,

I WAS THEN OFF AGAIN TO CONQUER MY FEARS.

I'M GETTING MUCH BETTER AT FLYING ON JETS,
MORE FILMING IN MANCHESTER, IT WAS THE BEST SHOOT YET!

Hello and apologies for missing a week’s blog. I have a good excuse I promise!

Luke and I got through a very quiet week without Sam and soon Friday came around and I sat eagerly waiting for his coach to return from camp. I promised myself I would not embarrass him by hugging him to death and crying as soon as he stepped of the coach. I had not anticipated the present he had bought me though!

As he walked off the coach I was sure he looked taller, and older and my stomach jumped to see him. He then finished me off completely by producing a present from his bag, a fridge magnet that said: ”If mothers were flowers you’d be the one I would pick” That was it then, it was lucky I had my sunglasses on as the tears were streaming! I hurried him home quickly so his friends didn’t see an over-emotional mother and then started on the enormous bag of wet muddy washing. It turned out once the clothes were clean that most of them didn’t actually belong to Sam! I thought I was going mad at first thinking, oh I don’t remember buying that top, I don’t remember buying those trousers, but then I realised that was because I didn’t!

He had a fantastic time and took part in every activity such as abseiling, raft building, zip wires, canoeing and lots more. I felt very proud of him and told myself if Sam can do all that aged 10, I should be able to sit on an aeroplane without having a panic attack every three seconds and convincing myself the propellers are about to fall off!



Me & Bev

 It was with my new found bravery that I set off to the airport again for my next adventure with the Iceland mums. We were filming the last series of adverts to sponsor the programme “I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here”. As usual the childcare and work arrangements were complicated, but as we are all mums with busy lives this is always the way, and the same for everyone. It was a tight schedule. I flew up to Manchester on Sunday afternoon, then filmed Monday, flew back Tuesday, went to work Wednesday, flew back to Manchester straight after work, filmed Thursday, and caught the train back to arrive home Thursday evening, in time to go to work on Friday and Saturday!

Hence no blog, well you have to admit it’s a better excuse than “the dog ate my homework!”



Kim, Victoria, Bev, Eve, Me and Charlene

Every time we “Iceland mums” meet up it is more fun and more relaxed. We are no longer strangers that just find ourselves sharing the same extraordinary adventure. We are now friends who keep in touch almost every day in between filming. We have shared life experiences and found we have a lot in common. This means that every shoot we do is easier than the last. Imagine getting together with a group of friends and staying in a nice hotel together every few months. Even on set now it is easy to forget we are actually being filmed. When our instruction from the director is “just start chatting and laughing amongst yourselves”, if anything the problem is getting us to stop, not knowing how to start. It carries on back at the hotel as well! These last adverts were filmed on location rather than in a studio which meant we got to see some amazing houses.



Charlene, Amira, Sam, Me, Sue & Alissa

The second day’s filming was at another beautiful house and this time I had a screen daughter for the day. It was lovely, and I would have been happy to keep her but I think her real mum was quite keen to have her back after the filming! I really did feel so much more relaxed than filming the first advert when everything was new, and although exciting, it was quite intimidating too. It will be interesting to see if this shows as the adverts are aired one by one. It was an emotional goodbye to the mums this time as it was our last official assignment to film. I have no doubt that we will all keep in touch and we actually already have a date lined up to meet quite soon. Even so, I think I speak for everyone when I say we have all absolutely loved making these adverts and we are all hoping the Iceland shoppers like them, and want to see more of us next year!



 One thing this whole experience has taught me is that you never know what will happen next in life so anything is possible.

Our first adverts are now live on TV so it’s been a very exciting time. Please come back next week when I can tell you how we celebrated my screen debut! I wonder if the Shake and Vac lady was watching......

Ellie
X