So did you see my nose?

Second Born and I got ourselves togged up in something approaching our running clothes yesterday afternoon and set off for Glasgow for the Scottish end of the Children in Need live broadcast. SB navigated like an expert, reading out the directions I had printed off from the AA website (which I duly ignored and followed my gut instead. Fortunately, my guts were on form). We arrived safely and queued up to get in to the studios. The BBC building in Glasgow is just HUGE - it's a whacking great 5 storey slab of light and glass sitting on the water. Very impressive.

The studio was quite big with rows of cinema-like seats at the back and some round tables and chairs artfully arranged down the front where the stages were. SB and I were gobsmacked, upon displaying our wristbands, to find ourselves described as "featured fundraisers" and ushered to seats at one of those tables. There was a huge amount of activity as you would expect in the immediate run-up to a live broadcast. Scores of people in "crew" t-shirts and headsets running around, warning the audience in the cinema seats not to stand up or raise their arms or they would lose a limb to the crane camera that swoops over the audience getting those fast tracking shots. That camera is seriously huge too - they all are. I was very impressed by how smoothly the operators swished around the studio without hitting each other.

Jackie Bird was practising pieces to camera (she is both taller and skinnier in real life than on TV. Seriously, not only can you see her ribs, I think you can actually see through them). The bloke dressed up as Pudsey bear was led into position (given how carefully he was led around, I surmise he can't see a damn thing in that costume). As we sat waiting, a guy wandered onto the stage nearest us - about 8 feet from where we sat. I didn't pay much attention until the girl at the next table started to hyperventilate. It would appear the gentleman concerned was Shayne Ward. I had no idea who he was (I had to Google him just now to check how to spell his name) thus confirming that I am indeed old. He was quite good though, despite his inability to pronounce "Calderburn".

After what seemed like no time, our little stint was over and we headed out (clutching two stuffed Pudseys - can't leave First Born out unless we want never to forget "that time that not only did I not get on TV but SB got a Pudsey and I didn't and you hate me don't you??"). SB and I stopped in Govan for a McDonalds (for we are brave) and SB was asleep in the car by the time we got home. It was a great experience and I am really glad we went. And if you looked really closely at the audience during Shayne Ward's song, you could see the back of my head and most of SB. So now we are famous.