Dancing on thin ice

It all started with my sisters new year resolution to 'try new things'. Katy asked my sister, Emma, if she would like to go to see Dancing on Ice. She also invited me. It is not a show we watch and TV recordings can be a bit tedious, but I was happy to go along and spend time with Emma and Katy. And Emma had that resolution.

Katy had got the tickets from her friend in Swansea. Annmarie had offered them on FB but had been really particular about who took them. She wanted to be sure they would be used. Katy was a bit nervous about impersonating Annmarie. She never told us that one of us was also supposed to be Annmarie's husband! She said Ouwain is such a welsh name, nooone would know it was a mans.

So on Sunday 12th Jan Emma drove over to Katy's with me. She took her time because 'Katy would be late for her own funeral'. Now I am not a great passenger, so I seriously regretted not driving myself when she told me Katy was a terrible driver. My fear was compounded when we arrived. Katy and her step daughter Sinead were in the car with the engine running and Katy said 'We have to be there in 35 mins or we will not get in, I'll have to bomb it'!!!

Katy had read that the doors shut at ten to five. On arrival, and after some parking fun, we checked in at the ticket desk to be told that we were late and our tickets had been given away at ten past four. (She hadn't read that bit). Still in character, and in her beautiful welsh accent, she gave Martin puppy dog eyes and claimed 'We've driven all the way from Swansea'. Martin was a short smiley camp guy and he took pity and told us we could wait and see if there were any seats after all the guests had arrived.

We waited and poor Katy looked close to tears. The rest of us were not that worried about getting into the show but we felt for her. About 45mins later, Martin said there were no spare seats but we could wait and see if the any of the other audience members dropped out when it got down to splitting people up for single seats. He said we had next to no chance and it was up to us. I told him he had a lovely manner so he cuddled me and said 'but I'm sending you home darling'. I said 'yeah, but you are doing it so nicely'.

Emma and Sinead really did not want to sit separately and we had a long talk about whether or not to wait, as the rest of the audience were seated in batches. But I had a feeling Martin might make an extra effort for the gorgeous girl who had driven 'all the way from Swansea' (actually 30 mins from Chingford to Borehamwood').

Eventually were the last four standing and I took a picture of their sad faces.

Emma gave her details over for compensation tickets and we walked to the door to wait for Martin to come back and apologise. He did come back, but without words, just a crooked arm and we all skipped off up the yellow brick road and into the studio.

Once inside we were sent to three different areas. Katy and Sinead were in VIP next to the contestants. Katy thought she was sitting next to Les Ferdinand but it was actually ??? Emma was in Celebs with all the familes of the contestants and I was behind the cameras with the best view and no airtime, the Chavs area! It was small enough that we could all see each other quite clearly.

The show was great fun and we laughed loads. Katy got some airtime. But Emma was the star of the show!