My day started at 4.35am, although I did wonder if I ever really slept during the night as the excitement was rising and I kept thinking I must get some sleep otherwise I will be fit for nothing come the morrow. I got myself washed and dressed and made sure that I had all the paperwork that I would need later in the day, packed up some sandwiches drinks and snacks, to help me get through the day.
We (my husband came along for the trip, he wasn't overjoyed by the fact that we had to get up before the crack of dawn) travelled into London on the first train that was available, and arrived in the Capital City at just after 7.15am and made our way on the Underground to Covent Garden, we had been told to go to the Theatre Royal. We arrived and the queue went under the Colonnades, to the end of the Russell Street, round the corner and down Drury Lane, and round the next corner and a good way down Tavistock Street. We joined the queue and had been standing there a little while chattering with other people who were also queuing with us for the same reason. We were hoping to acquire an elusive wristband which would enable us to be on the red carpeted public area for the BAFTA Awards Ceremony later that evening. There were two girls standing behind us and one of them asked "Do you have a number?" to which I replied "No, we don't." We had to go back to the front of the Theatre Royal and get a number written on the back of our hand and then come back and join the queue. What a palaver, there was no mention of this on the website. So we went off and got a number and then came back and rejoined the queue, the girls had saved our places in the queue.
We queued for three hours or thereabouts, we were given our wristbands at just after 10.00am. There were 1000 wristbands handed out that day I was No. 0807.
The number on my wristband didn't correspond with the big black number on the back of my hand - but I didn't care I had a wristband and I was on my way. We were given strict instructions by the Security people who were on duty, we had to be back at the Theatre Royal by 12.00 - 12.30pm to be ready to be led to the public area from 1.00pm onwards.
Having stood in the queue for so long, I was hungry, thirsty and I needed to use the bathroom too. We made our way back through the Covent Garden Market buildings to the Church on the other side of the Square and used the public toilets down the side of the Church - they charge 0.50p to use the loos.
We went to a small cafe in Henrietta Street and enjoyed a good breakfast with copious amounts of freshly brewed tea.
Inside the cafe we found several members of The London Pearly Kings & Queens Society enjoying their first meal of the day too.
The London Pearly Kings & Queens can be seen in the Jubilee Market Hall at Covent Garden on the 3rd weekend of every month.
I asked if I could take some photos in exchange for a donation in their Charity Bucket. One lady asked what I was going to do with the photos and I replied that they would appear on my blog later this week. These lovely people do a tremendous amount of work collecting money for local charities throughout the year.
After an hour, with a good breakfast inside our tummies we ventured back outside into the bright sunshine and made our way around to the top end of Bow Street, which is where The Royal Opera House is situated.
The Royal Opera House from the top of Bow Street, this end was screened off in readiness for the evening's events.
We made our way back to the Theatre Royal where we were told to queue in numerical order with the numbers from our wristbands and not the numbers written on the back of our hands. That bit was a tad confusing, but we sorted it out eventually.
When our numbers were called because we were in the 800's it actually worked in our favour a little bit. We were taken across the road and told to weave our way in around the back of the crowd to the spot where we wished to stand for the rest of the afternoon and evening. We found ourselves a nice spot up under the rain canopy on the red carpet opposite the Worldwide TV Companies.
Below are just a few pictures of celebrities that I took during the afternoon and during the evening.
Dermot O'Leary - Television Presenter
Fearne Cotton - Television Presenter
Lily Allen - Singer
Little Ant & Dec - TV Presenters
Dame Judy Dench - Actress
Circled in Blue.
Emma Thompson - Actress
Leonardo DiCaprio - Actor
Michael Fassbender - Actor
All too soon the evening was over and the celebrities were taking their seats in the Royal Opera House for an evening amongst the "Luvvies". To me it felt like organised chaos, as if they all came by bus and got off at the same time. Some of them rushed up the red carpet and whizzed into the Opera House without stopping for breath, I am sure some of them can run faster than Mo Farah. Some of them stopped and chatted and some of them completely savoured the moment.
There is a time-delay, the show started on BBC1 at 9.00pm. The celebrities were up the carpet and all in the Opera House by 7.45pm, Bradley Cooper being one of the last. This meant that we had a little while to get home by train before the program started - we were home by time the opening credits started rolling around on the television screen.
By the time I got home I was completely exhausted but extremely pleased that I went. My thanks go to my husband for going with me, my Mum, the Celebrities for turning up on the night and especially Michael Fassbender, for my favourite shot of the night, because by that time my camera's battery was nearly dead.
Until the next time,
Berty, Me & A Nice Cup of Tea
xxx
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