OK a fair bit of jiggling has gone on over the last few days and the remote for the TV and video has come in for a lot of usage. Quick tape on Christmas Day of a programme about the Bolshoi and then as soon as it was finished, sashayed across to BBC2 to press the button again for Romeo and Juliet with Acosta and Rojo. Once they were safely whirring away I could relax until the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special that evening which I was determined to tape for all posterior and which has now been tagged onto the end of the Strictly Come Dancing final. I tell you it has been all go here with me cha cha cha-ing in and out of the kitchen with remote controls in each hand, not sure Arlene would have liked my arm movement and my steps were definitely not synchronised but managed to get everything sorted.
The Strictly final was terrific, simply nothing to choose between Alesha and Matt until the show dance when I felt Alesha had the edge and that was enough to do it. If Gethin could not win the title then Alesha was next on my list. Daughter No 1 and I watched it cheering her on and then later on that night lying in bed we designed a fantasy list of who should be invited to appear next year. We spotted Jeremy Paxman in the audience for the final which made us think - was he checking it out? We have decided that he should take part, then the sporting husband and wife of the Logans this series could be Jamie and Louise Redknapp next time. Jamie an erstwhile footballer and I believe his wife an erstwhile singer. We both feel that David Beckham would be the star of the show and should defo agree to do it, then there is the seemingly obligatory member of the cast of Eastenders, but who? After a quick mental two step we came up with Dot Cotton as the show is all about glitz and sparkle after all and she certainly has the personality to match... then a glam newsreader of some sort (I am excluding Jeremy P from this as he doesn't do glam) so perhaps Fiona Bruce. She seems to have spent a lot of time recently prancing around in fishnet tights on the Children in Need show so there is obviously a dancer in there fighting to get out; Gary Lineker would be great or his pal on Match of the Day, Alan Hansen. Kathryn suggested Wayne Rooney but I told her this was a serious conversation and was she trying to be funny?
Of course the real reason we all watch this show is not only for the dancing, but for trying to work out who fancies who. First series, won by Natasha Kaplinski and Brendon Cole, ended the engagement between Brendon and Camilla Dallerup; Lesley Garrett (the Diva from Doncaster) was seen kissing Anton du Becke but this was explained away as Lesley just being Lesley and she kisses EVERYONE... now there's a thought; last series Mark Ramprakash had to admit to an affair when his mistress flogged her story to a tabloid, now we hear that Matt fancies Flavia his partner of this year, Vincent, Flavia's long term partner both professional and personal has dumped her as he hated the closeness she had with Matt and has accused them of being an item; Matt in his turn has said, most ungallantly, that though he fancies Flavia she is 'too old for him' (he is 20, she 28) and then is strongly rumoured to fancy Alesha, the ultimate winner (she is nearly 30 by the way) and it seems they are more than just good friends....
So it is all good clean fun and family entertainment as you can see.
' won't you change partners and dance with me...'
Delighted to see that the Christmas Special competition between Darren Gough who won in 2005, Mark Ramprakash who won in 2006, and four couples from this year, was won by Darren who has now 
won not only the title, but the Christmas special twice. He came on with his partner Lilia, grinning from ear to ear and simply enchanted the audience with a stunning Amercan Smooth and engaging personality. This bloke is well over six feet, is not exactly slim and yet he twinkle toed his way around the dance floor. Sheer delight from beginning to end.
Lovely day with Kathryn and though it sounds as if we spent the entire day watching TV, we didn't. Taped as much as we could to leave us free and nipped out to Bourne Mill round the corner which has a lovely pond to feed the ducks and moor hens while the lunch was cooking. They all looked very sluggish and disinterested and Kathryn asked 'Mum, how are we doing to get their attention?'. As an old hand at this, I just started chucking chunks of bread in the water and within second they started screeching towards us with their feet peddling like mad and then we were dive bombed by a flotilla of yelling snapping sea gulls who appeared from nowhere. Felt like a scene from The Birds I can tell you. Five minutes of mayhem followed and then as soon as the bird kingdom saw that we had run out of bread they just turned their backs and flew/paddled away.
Ungrateful little beasts.
Hope you all had a good day. More tomorrow.
