Light it up

It’s quite hard to explain how I feel right now.

The day has been fantastic. It started with taking the wee ones into town to treat them to a few bits and letting them spend some of their Christmas money before we reviewed their purchases over a hot chocolate. (extra)

The Youngest then presented me with a booklet which she and her friends at school had worked on. It was full of drawings, beautiful writing and a number of requests for me not to hang up my bra! It stung my eyes a little to say the least…. (extra)

Not long after that, I was dropping them off at my parents before heading down to Burneside for two panto performances. The first featured a full crowd which included my family (excluding my Dad who wasn’t up to it unfortunately) and they were fantastic - even if they did cheer (it’s meant to be an “ahhh, poor Dame” moment) when I was robbed of my big musical number. I later found out that it was my sister who had lead the cheering.

During the interval we were joined backstage by Bryan and Oliver who played Widow Twankey and Abanazar at BATS’s first ever version of Aladdin 50 years ago! They were lovely and it felt like a real honour to meet them. (extra)

I was a bit choked up when joining in on the closing numbers knowing that they and my family were out there (sad for for my Dad to be missing it) cheering us on and even more choked up when after the show I popped out to say hello and was greeted by a wave of hugs from the family (including niece and nephew who stayed the course and had a big if slightly confused grin on his face) and limpet-like cuddles from the wee ones. M’boy even took a selfie of the three of us!

Brief break for tea at the local golf club between shows and then back to it for the evening performance which was great fun, incredibly raucous, but there too my “ahhhh” moment was greeted with cheers, so I did the professional thing by telling the audience off, removing my wig in a fit of pique and storming off stage to much laughter.

The rest of it was something of a blur, but no less fun for that.

A drink with the cast and crew followed by dishing out of presents followed as we relived our favourite moments from the week and marvelled at how the Emperor’s ukulele had survived the week. Today’s photo captured one my favourite moments from a “guest star” slot we lovingly referred to as Prawn Crackers. Adam (pictured with me) was a great sport when the bit went in a slightly different direction to what he may have been expecting.

I’m going to miss the show and everyone involved in it immensely, but this is tempered by the excitement of knowing that there is younger, fresher blood in the society to whom the torch has been passed.

Really looking forward to watching them light it up!