Wednesday 19 September 2012

Eclipse August 2012

It was another 24hr turnaround and this time was made easier as Marie and Sam flew out to Tallinn with me from Gatwick and with bad traffic jams on the way to the airport we were lucky to be flying at all, but as we had Billy from Executive Cars www.executivecarswales.co.uk we did some serious detours to get to Gatwick, thanks Billy.
We had a great meal in the Weatherspoon pub at Gatwick South and I of course couldn’t resist a pint of London Pride. We were soon on the plane for our 2hr 45mins flight to Tallinn and Sam was so good and enjoyed the plane very much, well the fact we have an IPad helps, he don’t half know his way around it too! We landed on time and got ourselves to our lovely hotel the Radisson Blu, we didn’t have the best nights sleep due to not great pillows and Sam having a night terror and the breakfast wasn’t up to much either. We got ourselves to the ship and this time it’s the beautiful and out of this world “Celebrity Eclipse”. Later on that afternoon I had a phone call from Dee the Production Manager, telling me they had a problem, the another act that joined that day was due to be on that night but his luggage and props hadn’t arrived at the airport so couldn’t do his show, he’s a magician and it turned out to be a really good friend of mine, someone from home too, Taffy Spencer, so it was my pleasure to go on at last minute to help him out. The Eclipse Theatre is an amazing Theatre with an all singing and dancing array of sophisticated technical toys, an amazing 7 piece band and 1300 individually air conditioned seats, take a look at this picture, how cool is this theatre! Both shows went well and it was lovely to have Marie and Sam in the audience too! We next called at the beautiful city of Copenhagen and the weather was fabulous, so photo heaven! Taffy was on that night and he absolutely stormed them, it was a pleasure to watch him work. Today we are at sea and it a hit and miss kind of day with the weather, but I hear we are going back into some lovely sunshine when we get home, so lets hope for the best. Another day at sea and it’s a tad choppy but the Celebrity Eclipse is sailing beautifully. Last night we all went to see an amazing production show called “Ovations” which was music from both Broadway and the West End and what a fantastic show it was. I stayed up late last night with Taffy Spencer and we went to see an amazingly funny guy called Steve Womack, he did a great job and certainly stormed that crowd, he performed in the 200 seat Celebrity Central which is a brilliant comedy club that kind of looks like the Comedy Store in London. Tonight is the Farewell Variety Show and Taffy, Nicole (the violin entertainer who did a wonderful show the other night) and myself are on giving a 15min spot, I’m not a fan of the 15min slot but no doubt it will be a great show! We all had 2 great shows and we were all sad to leave the Celebrity Eclipse. Thank you to Hotel Director Sue and F&B Manager Mark and Stewart Turnble the Cruise Director for looking after us, my Sam just loves this ship! I have 4 days at home now with so much to do, I have to buy a garden shed, empty the garage as we are turning it into another room in the house, and make a hundred phone calls. I am also recording some new ads for Trade Centre Wales and meeting up with my son Tom for a chat on some future shows I have coming up. I have the Panto Press Launch next month so best get used to wearing some women’s clothes and high heels, yes I’m playing an Ugly Sister just incase you think I have gone completely insane! Oh today is an eventful day in Bridgend, we now have a golden letter box outside our local shop as we have an Olympic Gold winner living just around the corner from us and in his honour they have painted our post box gold, how lovely!