I’m back – and boy has jetlag hit me hard! After an amazing couple of weeks in LA it was back to london and back to business, clearly no rest for the wicked… It’s been another week of go go go, but at least filled with really fun things.
I arrived back late on tuesday, but it was straight up on Wed morning to have a long overdue catch up with Coco about everything that had been going on while I was away. Of course that took up most of the day, and then after a quick trip to the hairdressers I was off to the 02 to host this year’s Newsroom’s Got Talent. My fellow judges were none other than Anton Du Beke and Christopher Biggins, and I can’t begin to describe what a hilarious night it was. Congratulations to all the Newsreaders that took part, and especially to the ITN team who won with a fabulous version of Chicago’s Cell Block Tango, brilliantly re-written about current events. A very late night did not make for a pretty start early the next day as I headed over to This Morning to talk about my new book with Holly and Phil. It’s always lovely to see them, although I think Phil is going to take a little more convincing that Holly to give the book a go! I think it will be a struggle to ever get Phil onto a dance floor… It was also lovely to bump into Mel C at the studios, she’s such a sweet girl and I can’t wait to hear her latest single, and wish her the best of luck with it! After my chat on the sofa I filmed a short piece for the Daybreak campaign about donating coats this winter. I gave two, and you can do the same just head to their website. The day ended with a meeting about an exciting new idea, but that’s all I can tell you about that for now…
Friday was a long but fun day, starting very early at the QVC studios, where I was launching my new dance book with the gorgeous Matt Flint to demonstrate. It was so funny as while they were showing clips of the dance DVD that the book comes with, we were all dancing away in the studiowith the presenter who was trying to follow the moves, completely unaware the studio camera was cutting away to us dancing (or should I say bopping around!) and we didn’t realise! It was a short but sweet appearance and my books were flying off the QVC shelves, so thank you to all of those that called in. If you missed the show you can still get one of the exclusive signed copies here… http://www.qvcuk.com/ukqic/qvcapp.aspx/view.2/app.detail/params.item.700115.cm_scid.KeywordSearch
Once we’d finished our morning workout, I went off to a press call to open the Big Dance, a new campaign for the London 2012 Olympics, and a discussion with the Arts desk about the future of dance in the country. You can join in the debate here http://www.theartsdesk.com/dance/theartsdesk-debate-dances-question-time and I know they would love to hear your views. A quick trip back home to catch up on some important work, then it was off with Abi to the Galaxy Book Awards at the Mandarin Oriental in Knightsbridge. I had such fantastic evening – despite it being a standing event and me turning up in super spike heels – the shoes were off and a good time was had by all!
The weekend was spent catching up on more work, and of course having family time, something I had enormously missed whilst I was away. I had my family, and the Leeds part of the family all round for brunch on Sunday, and then in the afternoon a late lunch with friends spend talking until it was time for dinner – yes another weekend again revolving around food!
Monday was a really exciting day as it was finally time for my official book launch! The day was spend doing radio interviews and preparing for the event, and come 6:30 the doors were open and it was time! It was a wonderful turnout with all my friends and family there to support me, you can see all the pics and catch up on the gossip from the event here http://bit.ly/u8gqJZ It was lovely to see everyone, and I’d like to thank everyone for being part of the event, and most of all I hope you love the book as much as I enjoyed putting it together.
Tuesday started off with a very important top secret meeting, but what I can tell you is that it went very well and the news is to be revealed soon…. and then it was off to interview my dear friend Louie Spence on his new autobiography. Having read the book I can tell you it’s very endearing, and you get to know a side of Louie away from the high kicks and and boundless energy, and I found it a very touching read. Of course interviewing was nothing short of hilarious, and I’ll let you know when it’s gong to be aired. I had an exciting evening, the first stop being an event at William Vintage in Marylebone, where I very cheekily purchased a beautiful black Jean Muir dress that was nothing short of divine. It really is a treasure chest in there, and would highly recommend it for that perfect one off piece. After that it was over to the BBC to film a special edition of Never Mind the Buzzcocks for Children in Need, that was so rude I’m not sure how much of it they’ll be able to show – if any! Myself and Harry from McFly were on Phil’s team, and Claire from Steps and Shaun Williamson aka Barry from Eastenders made up Noel’s team, hosted by the very naughty Katy Brand. Make sure you tune in on the night of Nov 18th to see it, and more importantly make sure you donate! Children in Need is such an amazing charity that needs our help year round, and I am so thrilled to be involved, so look on the website to see how you can get involved too.. Did anyone manage to catch me on the TV yesterday first on Drop down menu making a hilarious attempt to cook Welsh cakes, and the on the Alan Titchmarsh show with my new book and having a great gossip with the lovely Alan.
I hope you all enjoy the rest of the week, I’ll be at the Royal Academy this weekend with my Alana Dancing Star books – http://www.alanadancingstar.com so make sure you come down and say hi!
Until next time…
Love A x
arlenephillips 