I dragged and dropped the cartoon masks and belts, hearts of gold and the swishing loveheart, representing their love for us all, onto a picture taken of them at Freddy's birthday party. I then wrote a short piece explaining how they are such a big part of our family life and how they have organised a stay in a fancy manor house in the Lake District to celebrate their 55th wedding anniversary.
A few days later I was emailed and asked to submit a video that showcased our family and showed our personalities. With the help of my favourite partner in crime and sister QWERTY mum, we held a family get together celebrating the return of our nephew Tom from Alabama, where he'd been working at a Summer Camp for disabled adults and children. It was a perfect opportunity to video snippets of our family doing what our family does! The footage was then edited by my sister using her new toy...her Apple Mac with imovies. The result was an emotionally charged film that showcased Nana and Grandad and their relationship with the family at its best.
There was another wait but then I received an email inviting me to a telephone interview. I waited on tenterhooks for the phone to ring, knowing that phones are my least favourite media for communication! However when the call come, I spent over 30 minutes chatting to a very enthusiastic lady from a media company in London. She wanted to know about the whole extended family, what we do, what hobbies we have, how Nana and Grandad are involved etc. When I was talking to her I felt so proud. The grandkids are all amazing...I always knew that, but explaining it to a third party and hearing what I was telling her made me see just how special and unique they are. There is our 6ft 4" rugby playing, Summer Camp volunteering, Social Work studying, University going Tom. Liberty is an Honours Graduate with a Masters PGCE and a new job as a secondary school teacher, and is also a pianist and singer. Kate runs a bar singlehandedly. Joe is a support analyst who has won the title of Best Newcomer in his company's Annual Awards. Ivy is a second year Media student who plays guitar and piano and sings and gave her time freely to work in a charity shop for the summer. Meg is a second year Business, Management and Marketing student who went up to University a year early and finished in the top 5%, and still found time to walk 26 miles for charity. Taylor is in 6th form college after getting brilliant GCSE results and is an all round musician and drummer. Ella is a guitar playing,singing songwriting maths genius. Caz is a brainy, amdrams songstress. Kizzy is a comedian and amazing big cousin and sister to the babies. Addy, Freddy and Dylan are three late in life rays of sunshine who fill our days with joy!!! The family band Her Bandana Dreams were discussed and raved over. However, I felt we were probably too good and not "challenged" enough in our everyday life to really warrant going any further!
Wrong...a phone call yesterday told me we are in the final three, which means a camera crew are coming to film us while we host a party. We also get the use of a brand new car to help with the party preparations, which has an in-car video camera to record us whilst in it! AAAARRRGHH!!!!! The film crew will capture us doing our thing and produce a short film which will be put to the public vote. Wish us luck!!!