Strictly me time - well, for 24 hours!

I finally had some time away from home; time away from being just a just a mum, time for me, time to forget about everything that has been stressing me out lately. Whilst working on Project Run Fat Girl, Run last Monday evening I received a text from a friend with a last minute invite to the Strictly Come Dancing filming at Wembley Arena. Fantastic timing! I was due a break and was in desperate need of some time away from the mundane role of SAHM. There were preparation hiccups and I had to go out and buy a dress - see here for that momentous occasion! But Saturday came around quickly and at 12 noon I was sat in my friend's huuuuge 4x4 diesel guzzling Mitsubishi car thing and cruising up the A350 towards the M4. Sat nav on and we reached our 5* posh hotel Travelodge on an industrial estate in Wembley - well the pennies are tight at the moment and all we needed was a place to crash.

The Travelodge was clearly full of people heading off to Strictly for the night; pairs of 30 something ladies, mums and daughters and wives with husbands that looked so excited about 5 hours of dancing - mind you if they are anything like my husband the sight of Ola in the flesh in her skimpy catsuit would keep them smiling for a couple of months!

Once dressed up we were ready to go. We arrived at Wembley Arena in style in a Ford Galaxy minicab and headed in looking for a bar and bite to eat. Mmm-mmmm, oh the choices! A wealth of culinary delights awaited us. Would I opt for the rubbery hot dog in a dry roll or the 'chicken' pieces with chips?? I played it safe and parted with £2.50 for a cone of 7 chips and £4.50 for a lukewarm plastic bottle of Bulmers (330ml!). Welcome to London!

At 5.45 we had to be in our seats and stay there until the live show was over - better join that queue for the Ladies first then. Our seats were facing the stage, quite a way back but still with a great view - and a huge screen above to catch all the close ups. First up was the the pre-record of the opening dance number for the Saturday night and Il Divo's fantastic performance. Tess Daly also did her little trailer bits. All very confusing for me, I didn't know if it was Saturday or Sunday! Finally it was time for the live show and it was fascinating to see how it is all put together - the super fast circle running cameraman was a-mazing, how he didn't go arse over tit I don't know.

Once the live show had finished broadcasting we had a 30 minute interval before shooting the Sunday results show and we now know how that all finished. Bye bye Russell - your cannon stunt was very funny! I'm now back home and it doesn't feel like I've had any break at all. So I'll leave you with some pictures hastily taken on my phone, as I left my camera in the hotel, and occasionally without a flash so I didn't get shouted at - so the quality is not great.

 James Morrison waiting for Jessie J

 The fantastic live orchestra and singers entertaining the crowd between shooting

Filming the Sunday night group dance

So until next time - keeeeeeeeep dancing! x x