Look Whos Blogging

Hello, Long time No blog I can't believe October is upon us.. already.. like where did the year go??!! 

So with October comes a little something called Blogtober, This year I have mean reading many great blogs and thought to myself What if? What if i could challenge myself to at least try and take part in Blogtober a challenge where 1 blog a day until 31st October, not 100% sure i can promise commitment and do 1 a day but it is worth a try, if I don't try I would never know and would be left wondering What If?

Got quite a bit of fun stuff this month, Yes this blog may not be the Quality many other greater bloggers out there, but we all have to start somewhere right? So lots of fun stuff happening this month and my hope is to document it.

I don't want the blog to be the mundane stuff such as I got up, I went to work, i came home, watched tv So I have some varying content in my mind. I have planned what I will be blogging about tomorrow so Tune in to find out! 

Short and sweet Now but its just the start of a journey

Happy Blogtober
Claire x

Happy New Year 2014

This time last year I had just had my first christmas in my lovely new home and i was getting ready to head out to see in the New Year with the Fireworks on the quayside to mark the first year of living in Newcastle. Despite have initial reservations about the move I have absolutely loved it.

As i saw in the new year i wondered how 2013 could ever match 2012 but do you know what? I think it has! Living in Newcastle gave me the opportunity to start volunteering at Newcastle parkrun and i have loved every minute and have never looked back since starting in May 2013, met a whole new group of friends and gained more experience

June saw me interviewed with Seb Coe and volunteering at European Athletics Team Championships

July saw me do something that this time last year i could never have imagined, running 5 miles in the olympic park finishing in the olympic stadium an experience i will never forget.

I am so lucky to have the friends i have and their support, i feel so humbled and lucky.

May i take the opportunity to wish my friends a Happy and Prosperous New Year and all the best wishes for 2014. I look forward to what 2014 has in store

2014 will see me and many other volunteers volunteering in Glasgow at Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games I look forward to the adventures that lie ahead.

Once again thankyou for valued friendship and look forward to what is in store.

All the best for 2014 xx

Do you think i should blog more regularly in 2014? let me know  

Susan Boyle I dreamed a dream musical review World premiere Newcastle Upon Tyne 23rd March 2012

Tonight I got offered the chance to attend the world premiere of the Susan Boyle musical I Dreamed a Dream. Newcastle was chosen as the location to start the UK tour of this production

Without giving too much away the musical follows the story taking a look back at Susan's life with Elaine C Smith (Susan) at the front both Narrating and playing her part in the story, through the lows at the start of her life through to the highs of becoming recognised due to Britains Got Talent and the fame, success and increased media attention that followed.

The story began with her parents being told not to expect much of Susan due to complications in the pregnancy and being starved of oxygen at birth, she was bullied at school for being different at the rest and was the only one in her class who had a talent and joined a choir.After singing in a Karaoke Bar, and following on from her parents death an opportunity came about to audition for Britains Got Talent an audition which would see the path of her life change. The Musical also showed the lows that susan faced after coming second, but then also showed her rise again recording her first album which was a bestseller.

At the end of the Story Elaine C Smith gave way and took a bow with the rest of the cast before the big moment where the Theatre erupted as Susan Boyle was introduced to the audience, the atmosphere was electric as she sang I Dream A Dream before the finale song of Who I was Born to be, an apt song to end the show with and was sang with so much emotion and had me welling up.

Fantastic production and I would well recommend it to anybody. There was even comedy and funny parts shown in the story (susan and Elaine making jokes as well as other BGT auditionnees being portrayed ( a bagpiper, a clown some examples)

National Television Awards and my trip to London

So where do I begin 

Well it all started on Wednesday 25^th January when I left the house and headed towards the train station in Newcastle. There had been an accident ahead of us causing a few tailbacks. Really didn’t think we were going to make the train at Newcastle central station, but by some miracle I don’t know how we just made the train with literally a second to spare.

Had a smooth journey down to London before heading down to the 02 as at 2pm they were going to start to hand wristbands out for people to go and stand on the red carpet to see the stars arrive. So we joined the queue at the 02 at 12:45 and got talking to some lovely young girls who are big fans of Caroline Flack. 2pm eventually came and we were led through to an area where there were barriers so we could queue up and wait for wristbands. Eventually got wristband at 15:15 so was able to go and check in at the hotel and leave our bags there before getting ready to go and get our place back in the queue at 4:30 so we could be taken out onto the red carpet. We were led out in numerical order and managed to get stood in a spot just past the end of the red carpet but could still see where the stars got photos taken as the photographers were in an area in front of us. 

Due to the location where we stood on the red carpet only a few of the stars came to our area to sign and have photos taken: Jack P Shepherd, Russell Cain, Chris Fountain and Michael Le Vell. At 7pm we decided it was time to head in the arena so we could take our seats. We were closer to the stage this year (went last year for the first time).  

Little Mix and Military Wives were fantastic performing live inside the arena, a great atmosphere.  Closest to where we were sitting the EE cast were sitting in front of us on the floor area of the 02. Loved every moment of the awards ceremony. After the awards had finished Jacqueline Jossa and Tony Discipline (Tyler and Lauren from EE) came round with her award and were kind enough to let people have photos taken with them (including me), Most of the stars just headed towards the exit at opposite side of arena so it was nice of a couple of them to come round to see some of the audience. After the awards we headed to the hotel for a nights sleep, my feet were in agony after wearing my boots and standing around for so long all night but it was worth it. 

On Thursday morning I went to the 02 to meet up with a twitter friend for the first time (@currentmartin) for a chat before heading into central London for sightseeing well wanted to take photos mainly so went to see London Eye, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace where we came across a man who is from Durham who had just been inside the palace getting an MBE. Then we went to Harrods to have a look at the crazy prices and saw the harry potter shop/exhibition that was inside it. Then headed to Bloomsbury where we went for afternoon tea (Christmas present from uncle). 

We had time to kill so we headed to Trafalgar square to take a picture of the Olympic countdown.

We then headed to the Cambridge Theatre via Leicester Square (which looks a mess as they are doing construction work to improve it). Arrived at theatre to see Matilda the Musical which was recommended by a friend on twitter (@sharonbarbour) would have never known about it if it wasn’t for her! Matilda the Musical is amazing and is a must see show. Great Cast and production, the young girl who played Matilda was so talented. Upon leaving the theatre we saw Miranda Hart and Sarah Hadland from her comedy.  We then headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep.

A great trip to London was completed with a trip to platform 9 3/4 . 

Sarah Millican and Friends Work in Progress Tour

Hi Everybody HAPPY NEW YEAR and all the best wishes for 2012 to anyone reading this, I spent new year in Edinburgh and saw in the New Year recording a fantastic fireworks display please feel free to watch my footage Edinburgh Fireworks New Year 2012 Edinburgh Castle Sorry it has been a couple of months since i last posted I have had a great couple of months since my last blog One of my resolutions is to Blog/Vlog a bit more so I will try my best. Yes.. you read right Vlog- I am becoming a little more confident after each Youtube video I do though I am still finding it hard and not sure how i come across- positive comments mean a lot to me and I appreciate each comment I get! Here is a link to the video I recorded just before going to see Sarah Millican and Friends last night (2nd January) Sarah Millican and Friends Vlog.

I went to the new Stand Comedy Club in Newcastle to see a Sold out Sarah Millican and Friends Show. This show was a Work In Progress show where she tried out her new material ahead of her upcoming TV series  that she is about to film. Every moment of her comedy was fantastic and as I was sitting right in front of her on a few occassions through the show Sarah interacted with me- don't think she recognised me from when I was on stage with her in Edinburgh though which I totally expected. I am just so lucky that she interacted with me about 3 times during the whole show.

Sarah was supported during the evening by Mick Seargant, Andy Fury, Gary Delaney and Jonathan Mayer (hosted the evening)- all fantastic. 

Roll on April when I see Sarah on her new tour where she will have different material than she did last night (material from last night to be used in TV show)

Thanks as ever for reading and any blog/youtube comments are appeciated as ever

Next blog will no doubt be after my trip to TV Awards

Over and Out
Claire x

A mad day trip to South Pacific

The day started at 7:30 when I headed to the Train Station to catch the 8:25 train from Newcastle. The Journey ran smoothly until before York when train came to a standstill due to a tresspasser. In York the noise levels went off when a lovely big group of guides heading to the Big Gig got onto the train. In Doncaster however football fans boarded and stood in the end of our carriage smoking inside the train and shouting and swearing whe children were on board grrr, surely they could wait until they got off the train at Peterborough. Whats worse was that when they got off the train at Peterborough (Peterborough were playing at home to Doncaster) the football fans scaled the fence and climbed over it and ran just before the police caught them as they hadnt paid for their train journey.

We arrived at Kings Cross only 10 minutes later than scheduled and 15 minutes later we arrived at Barbican, went to a cafe for lunch before heading to the stage door.

I arrived at the stage door at about 12:45 and there was some other fans waiting who had brought an Albert Square sign for Sam to sign

At about 13:30 Samantha Womack arrived with her husband as he came to help clear stuff out her dressing room as it was the last day that the show was going to be in the west end before the show moves on to tour. Samantha will be touring with the show until Christmas.

When Sam arrived she said she was running late for warm up and didn't have time to sign autographs and have photos with people as she was running late and needed to warm up, however she did promise she would be back outside as soon as she had warmed up, which was lovely of her. While we were waiting for Sam to come back out i watched her husband take in Sam's gandbag (pretty) and then carry out items from her dressing room and put them in the car (cushions and a little duvet cover).

15 minutes later Sam came back out and was more than happy to give me an autograph, we asked her how her broken toe was doing and she showed us the toe and said it was a little bit swollen. She was more than happy to allow me not one but 3 pictures to be taken with her (different cameras lol) ao kind of her.

One of the other fans asked Sam if she had any plans to return to Eastenders and she said No not for the time being but maybe in a few years.

I told Sam that I had travelled all the way from Newcastle for the day and she said thankyou :) I took a couple of other photos of Sam while she was talking to some other people.

I then went to take my seat in the Barbican a lovely venue and i loved the way each of the rows had seperate entrances with doors that closed once the performance had begun to form the walls of the auditorium. The seats were lovely and comfortable too.

The first half of the show was simply fantastic. I went into the show not knowing what the story was about as I had never seen it before. Prior to going I had only heard a couple of songs (Bali High, Happy Talk, Wash that Man right out of my hair) I love all these songs.

 By the interval I was so hot so we got an ice cream and headed outside to stretch my legs. Found some lovely fountains and even for 4pm it was so boiling outside. The fountains looked tempting to jump into lol and people were sunbathing beside them.

After the interval we headed back inside to enjoy the rest of the show, which in its entirity was fantastic and Samantha Womack was amazing and played her character so well brilliant dancing and vocals.

After we left the theatre i overheard some theatre goers saying how Sam didn't have a strong voice- completely disagree with this.

After a great day at the theatre we headed for Kings Cross, i was boiling by the time i got to the station so i just had to go and get an ice cold drink which did the trick ahhhh :)

Great Journey home with no delays.

The Hills are alive with the sound of music

Hi to everybody reading, or indded anyone reading as I am not sure anyone reads my blog.

I have decided to do a little write up about my trip to the newly refurbished Theatre Royal in Newcastle yesterday to see the production of The Sound Of Music.

I first heard that there would be a touring version which would be coming to Newcastle back in February before the theatre closed for 6 months to be refurbished and since then I had a ticket.

Connie Fisher was originally in the cast for the touring version however a few weeks before the show it was announced she had to pull out due to a throat problem. I was looking forward to seeing her but when it was announced Verity Rushworth would be stepping into the role i just knew she would do well in the role.

I went into the theatre not really fully sure what the story was about and was gripped at the production and the story throughout. Came out of the theatre with the songs in my head and Verity Rushworth was a great Maria.

As for the newly refurbished theatre I like it and it has a great feel to it the seats have more legroom but are not as comfortable as the old ones.

I can't stop singing Do Re Mi lol

Next week I am going to London to see South Pacific so I will blog about it on my return.