Red Carpet Adventure

OK... A little bit late but as promised here is the story of mine and Nickers From Work's trip to London Town to attend the Tamara Drewe film premiere and the following day, the Accessorize Cosmetics Launch.

After a distressing financial episode involving public transport arrangements, I ended up catching the Megabus first thing in the morning and meeting Nickers when her train got in later that afternoon.

Following an amazing discovery in the Spar, I purchased two Cadbury's Spots V Stripes Challenge Bars (for true Cadbury Connoisseurs, they are like the short lived "Top Deck"), ate them, and promptly fell asleep for 5 hours on the bus.

Once in London, I met my friend P, had a spot of lunch and then made our way to Paddington to meet Lady Muck, AKA Nickers and get changed in the toilets before heading off to Leicester Square.

We arrived to find crowds of people already gathered by the barriers in anticipation of spotting some genuine celebrities. I felt pretty important myself, going to collect our special tickets from the press officer that I had secured only a few days earlier with a little help of this blog.

I gave him my name and wondered whether I should have perhaps referred to myself as The Un-Working Girl to help him find them. Alas, there was no need as he smiled up at me and asked, "Are you the competition winner?"

I felt like something of an idiot explaining that I was, in fact, an unknown blogger with ideas well above my station but breathed a huge sigh of relief when he found my tickets and handed them over. Yes, this was really happening... The moment I've been waiting for most of my life, rubbing shoulders with the stars, sauntering down the red carpet, flash bulbs going off like a firework display....

It was quite a lot like that actually - except of course, nobody was remotely interested in me and my friends dicking about taking photos of ourselves on the red carpet (whilst simultaneously trying to look cool. FYI Mission: Failed) and we were moved along before we even got within touching distance of any stars.

They were there though, Gemma Arterton, looking tiny and beautiful with virtually no make-up on, Dominic Cooper, Stephen Fry, Lily Allen (showing off for the first time her cute baby bump), Tim Minchin, Sherlock Holmes... For such a huge fan of Celebredom, it was SO exciting and such a brilliant experience.

However, in the absence of any contact with the aforementioned personalities, we did manage to spot Lisa and Mario from Big Brother who were more than happy to pose for a photo with me and Nickers (I'm not entirely sure why my hair looks like I've stepped out of the film Hairspray in the picture, it certainly didn't look like that in real life). 

Once inside the massive cinema we were ushered to our seats and treated to some complimentary chocolates and drinks... Except my chocolate was missing and I wanted to take it home as a souvenir for Mr G. With all the discretion of a rhino having an epileptic fit in a glass factory, I managed to locate it right underneath my seat almost in the row behind. Nickers and P ducked down in their seats giggling "Jesus, you can't take her anywhere" as I whispered "SORRY!" to those in our general vicinity.

Chocolate safely retrieved, I settled down to watch the film, which was genuinely hilarious yet a bit silly in places. Set in a tiny rural village, it centres around Tamara, a girl who moves away but returns to find herself caught in the middle of a rather messy love triangle (or more like a square really). There are brilliant comic performances from the two teenage characters, Jody and Casey, and Tamsin Greig perfectly captures the part of a downtrodden wife just trying to get on with her thankless life.

So, worth a watch for a bit of light, British comedy and a bit of a giggle....

Sadly we did not manage to secure invites to any celebrity parties afterwards so headed to a bar for some vino before bussing it back to P's house via McDonalds... Oooh the glamour.

The following day Nickers and I headed to the Accessorize launch where we were treated to make-overs, manicures and a sneak peak at lots of lovely cosmetics, feeling like we could definitely get used to this lifestyle. But alas, before we knew it, the time had come to head back to the Megabus and home to Plymouth, and reality, with a bang.

I perhaps wasn't anticipating being reminded of my ordinary life with quite such a fright when, an hour into the bus journey I attempted to go to the toilet and opened the door to be greeted by a bare bottom, but at least it gave me and Nickers something to laugh at uncontrollably like a pair of school children all the way home.

Here are some pics, and a Youtube Video (skip to approx 6 mins 35 and look out for the Three Amigos in the background...)