Dancing On Ice

My busy schedule meant that last night I was to be found in Nottingham.

I headed off with Mum, Tim & Gladys. Gladys being the name of their all-knowing Sat-Nav.

I sat in the back with my book which I'm rather addicted to, despite it being about vampires, a topic I'd never ordinarily opt to read about. It's not that scary, which is always a bonus as I'm such a giant jessie.

We arrived, found a parking spot and wandered off to find somewhere to have dinner. After seeing a couple of places we turned our noses up we saw Pizza Express and a buffet restaurant. We strolled into Pizza Express, and saw it was heaving with people. We stood around for a moment, were ignored by two separate wait staff and decided that the buffet might be a better option, turned around and left.

We walked into the Red Hot Buffet and were immediately greeted and shown to a table. The tables were a little too crammed together, leaving barely inches between them. Intimate dining is one thing, and I may like to eavesdrop, but this was just too close.

We instead took the option of a booth which was very nice and went off in search of plates and the world buffet promised. My goodness, you want Italian? You got it. Mexican? That too. Chinese? Yeah, that's there too. What's that? You felt like salad? Well what do you know, you can have that as well.

Although my mind is not made up about the pickled mushrooms, that was just weird too weird.

Then, it was time for dessert. Oh my god! There were marshmallows, little penny sweets, melted chocolate, an ice cream machine, a multitude of cheesecakes, tiramisu, vanilla souffle, fudge cake, crumble, a freezer full of more ice creams... I think I may have found my personal heaven. I love cake I do!

After dinner we walked (rolled) to the arena in Nottingham to watch Dancing on Ice live.

We found our seats, row T, which by the way seemed so high up I was sure they'd be providing oxygen in case of altitude sickness. Whilst I'm not that bothered by heights, I do have this weird vertigo that sends me dizzy occasionally and it was a little scary feeling that it was a really, really long way to fall.

Once the lights went down, Torvill and Dean came out and did a wonderful turn on the ice and I momentarily forgot about the mountainous height we were sitting at.

I was also a little distracted by the woman across the aisle from us who appeared to have had surgery to turn her apparently normal hands into a pair of castanets. I've never heard such loud clapping, I'm sure it reverberated around the arena.

The skating stars were introduced, Mum was thrilled to see that David Seaman was amongst their number. This years winner Suzanne Shaw was there too, along with Linda Lusardi, Gareth Gates, Clare Buckfield, Kyran Bracken, Bonnie Langford and Zaraah Abraham.
They all did a turn on the ice, were all judged by the same ice panel as were on tv, then, as the intermission began, the lines were opened and we were able to send a vote via text to choose who we felt deserved to go into the final to dance the famous Bolero.
After the intermission, the professionals came onto the ice to show you how it was all supposed to be done and were really excellent. Although it's worth pointing out that there were only two people to fall over in the whole show and both of them were professionals!

When it came to the end, it was Suzanne against Bonnie in the final and it was rather predictable and I'm beginning to think I might have a psychic ability as, in my head, I predicted each and every celebrity to be voted off as they were voted off. Both were good although my vote would have been for Suzanne, four of the five judges voted for Bonnie, which wasn't at all a popular choice with the audience. I guess that her popularity is waning. We public are a fickle bunch!

On the way out I thought I would surely have a nervous breakdown, whilst making my way down those incredibly steep stairs. I felt my heart rate start to race, then my knee started to tremble - as it does when I feel anxious. Standing on steep stairs is not an appropriate time to have your knee stop working. It was no fun I tell you, but I survived to blog another day.

This afternoon I have headed in to my friend Harriet's shop, tastyvintage so that I can sit out front while she takes photos out back. Although what I'm actually doing is writing this blog entry, thank the lord for dongles and wireless internet.
Harriet came through and tried to give me fizzy water which is just so wrong, so she went in the back to both try on a wedding dress and get me tap water.
A moment later the shop phone rang and I wondered whether or not to answer it.
I picked it up and in my most professional voice said "Hello, TastyVintage".
Harriet's voice greeted me "It's me, I think I'm stuck in the wedding dress."
This is why I love Harriet, I too have been stuck in items of clothing and totally understand her problem. She is now free of said dress following my assisting in pulling its laciness over her head.