Strictly Me!

It's not often I make an appearance in this journal. I save it for momentous days: our wedding day, Miss E's first day at school......
And the day we went to Strictly Come Dancing!!
What a fabulous time we've had!
We got to the studios at noon to get our tickets validated. They send out more tickets than they have space for in case people don't turn up and I didn't want to risk not getting in so we got there for 12pm which is the time BBC staff started validating tickets apparently. For entry at 3.30pm.
We joined the end of the queue and queued for an hour and a half.
We got two of the last fifty seats. Gulp!!
Apparently there had been people there since 6am!!
Then we went next door to Tescos and sat in Costa. Along with lots of very overdressed, excited people!
Then we sampled the delights of Borehamwood High Street.
Of which there are none!
We had a quick Subways and then went back to Tescos to get changed. Along with most of the rest of the audience!
I felt like I was on Stars in Their Eyes going into the toilet in jeans, t-shirt and sandals and coming out in a long dress, high heels, sparkly necklace and earrings and a not inconsiderable amount of hairspray!!
One shopper stopped me on the way out to ask why everyone was so dressed up. Not your average Saturday afternoon get up!!
We queued again to get through security and then went into a studio with a bar, a cloakroom and too few chairs for too many people. I had to take my shoes off as the 50m walk from Tescos had crippled me and we were stood in there for about an hour.
It was so nice all day talking to people in the queues - everyone was so excited to be there!
At last we got called to our seats, fifty people at a time. We were the second last group before the standby tickets.
It was amazing walking into the studio. So familiar and so exciting!!! I may have squealed a bit!
We got front row seats on the balcony right by the staircase where the dancers came down. Having now watched it on TV I can see that we make the odd fleeting appearance!!
What can I say? I loved every second. The warm up man, Bruce Forsyth singing, dancing and chatting before the programme started, clapping along to the theme tune, seeing all the dancers that I've watched for years in the flesh. Lots of flesh!!
Seeing the band, the dresses, the glitter ball, the judges, the autocues, the hair and make up people dashing on to touch up the judges, Tess interviewing the couples after they danced, the men running on and off with the props, the family and friends of the celebs, the other couples watching and chatting, all the millions of fascinating behind the scenes details.
Fab-u-lous!!!!!!!
What a day!