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My Diary
by Gail Emms
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Friday 24th November
Just Donna, me and Rob Blair in training today! Everyone has gone to the Scottish Open so it
was a bit quiet!
I had to head to
Southampton pretty much straight after for the B&Q recognition dinner at
the De Vere hotel on the harbour. It was
a posh frock do so I had to do my hair and make-up before I went and then take
my dress and get changed there. It was a
really good evening and B&Q really made an effort. There are awards for
people who work at B&Q in different categories and the winners receive
£1000 or £5000 in recognition of their hard work.
Then the ultimate prize is a year off work on full pay
and a grant of £10,000 to fulfil a dream! Last years winner was a guy called Aseri and he set up a charity and
took all of B&Q's old computers and equipped schools in Tanzania. He also set up primary and secondary schools
in his home country and now they are not only the best equipped in Tanzania,
but the whole of Africa! It was really
humbling to meet him and he is still continuing his quest to equip the schools.
This year's winner
is going to run marathons in every continent to raise money and awareness for
Cystic Fibrosis - a condition his nephews have. I think it is a fantastic scheme that B&Q have set up and everyone
there all deserve their awards. There
was one guy that I had to present an award to and I think he had had a few too
many bottles of wine and anything else he could drink!
He was so drunk that he couldn't even walk up
to the stage to get the award and when someone helped him up, it was one of
those embarrassing situations where no-one really knew what to do! He couldn't even see straight to take the award
off me! The chairman Ian Cheshire had to
physically take him off the stage! I
think he will regret everything tomorrow morning! I had a really fun evening talking with the
chairman Ian, Aseri, Tony Williams and his lovely wife Caroline (with who I gossiped
with about X Factor, Strictly Come Dancing and I'm a Celebrity....!!).
Saturday 25th November
Although my sister Lisa's birthday was in October, it was
finally down to her birthday present. We
were off to London to see the Scissor Sisters!!!
I had got a hotel room and so we got ready and headed to
Wembley Arena.
When we got there, the support act was just about to go
on and it turned out to be Lilly Allen!! Unbelievable! I never expected to
see her and it was such an added bonus as I really like her and I have her album
too. She was very good and definitely
got the crowd going. I think she is
going to be a very big star and she was brilliant live which helps!
The DJ was warming up for ages after Lilly and before the Scissor Sisters came on so it gave us a chance to get photos and people watch. Well I knew that the Scissor Sisters are a gay band but I reckon that half the people that had come to see them were in that category! I just wondered that people might think that I was "with" Lisa!! Ha ha ha! Then suddenly, after all the waiting they were on the stage and belting out their songs.
Wow, they were so good and we danced to every song and tried to sing every word (bit hard cos we didn't know all the words so just shouted the rest of the time!). My feet were killing from jumping up and down and dancing around like a mad women! I was wearing some gold sparkly ballet pump shoes from New Look that I had only just purchased but they weren't as cushioned as my trainers unfortunately.
The finale was the best part. They came back on stage and sang "I don't feel like dancing"
with the whole crowd singing and dancing along. Then it was my favourite song "Filthy Gorgeous" which was even
better! Yippeee!! We couldn't do much after we completely
exhausted ourselves except get to our hotel with a can of diet coke and a
Subway sandwich still singing "I don't feel like dancing when the old
Joanna plays...".
Sunday 26th November
Woke up to the sound of the worst thunder I have heard in
ages!! My gosh it was stormy
outside!! Crazy weather. It affected our journey back to Reading -
lightening had struck a signal box and so all the trains were waiting til it
was fixed. We waited in the same place
for 1 hour 30 mins.
It was so frustrating as we could do nothing about
it. The only seats available were ones
by the toilet so Lisa and I were like toilet attendants! So classy! And not fun if you are there for an hour and half. The journey was only supposed to take 30
mins!!
Got back to Ed's and then I pretty much had to
leave. I was off to Stansted and off for
another Danish match. Great. More travelling!! Luckily I managed to catch the 2nd half of
Man Utd v Chelsea before I got on the plane but still, I feel like I have had
the craziest week!
Monday 27th November
Our team played Horsens. I had to play ladies doubles with Anastasia Ruskiskh against 2 Chinese
girls who have not been beaten this season. That is until now..... ha ha ha! We played really well and won 21-17, 21-18. It was really good to play with Anastasia -
she is a brilliant player and I enjoyed the game! I was very red after though!! There were some very long rallies! Nathan played mens doubles with Tony Gunawan
which he absolutely adored!! They won
very easy. We won the team match 4-2 in
the end so 3 points and some pressure off! But we still need to win next week.
Tuesday 28th November
Back to England! It is nice to be home again!
