MBC UK Auditions - The Aftermath!

Yesterday was the MBC Auditions in London, and I have to say I can't remember the last time work was so much fun!

As a big K-Pop fan, I was delighted when I was asked to help out with the project. It's been a bit stressful at times; calling people around the UK and Europe making sure they're still attending, writing e-mails, not hearing back from people, trying to sort things out a.s.a.p, organise some filming... it's been one hell of a ride! I thoroughly enjoyed helping out with all the organising though - a massive thank you to Martin who trusted me enough with the job and gave me the chance. I hope I did you proud!

August 6th seemed so far away when I was asked to help but all of a sudden it seemed to come round in a heartbeat. Excited, I jumped on a London bound train and arrived at Westminster Central Hall at quarter to nine in the morning.

There was hardly anyone there and for a while I was the only English person around! More Korean workers came in after some time and Martin gave us a tour around the building...all in Korean I might add! After the tour he explained a couple more things in Korean while I just kind of stood there trying to stifle my giggles. I really had no idea what was going on! Eventually he went silent and looked around the room, so I assumed that the last thing he said was "Are there any questions?" so I sheepishly put my hand up and said "Can I have a translation in English please?" which made quite a few people laugh! Thankfully some of the Koreans knew English!

It was exciting watching all the cameras being set up, and looking around me I couldn't believe I was part of such a big production. Bit hard to believe I was working for a Korean TV channel and that all of this was going to be aired in another country! And the fact that I helped organise a few bits too. It was just really special to work behind the scenes and see it physically come together, and come together so well! 

Some of the crowd outside

My post was on the registration desk where I would sign in the English and European contestants. We had an excel sheet on our laptops that had a list of all the contestants who applied; we had to find their application, staple their consent form to it and then give them a number. I'd like to say it was easy,  except that we often had trouble with the application forms! Sometimes they weren't in a folder so we had to print it off instead, or sometimes their application wasn't on the system at all so they had to fill out a new one. I think a lot of pens mysteriously went missing...

Anyway, after a short while everyone was gathered onto the top balcony so they could film the contestants chanting in Korean. (Martin was great at getting everyone's attention -  considering he's so little it's surprising how much his voice can BOOM. Mind you, it was a bit echoey...anyway...!)
Shortly after they gathered everyone into the waiting room so they could watch Shayne and Hyung Woo-Cho perform a duet together. They were both contestants on the previous series; Shayne's from Canada and Hyung is from Korea, although he did live in Surrey, England for about 4 years if my memory serves me right, so his English was very good!
I watched some of the performance and a camera man clocked me. He said he knew who I was, which was very bizarre! Turns out he knew of the videos I took at Abbey Road Studios when SHINee came, and said he'd like to interview me! He gave me his business card so I need to get in touch with him at some point...very cool and very weird at the same time...In fact, I had a couple of Korean TV camera crew people saying they recognised me. I'm really not sure how! One said he thinks he saw me on TV...I did appear on Korean TV for like a split second once, but that was it! Very, very bizarre!!
After that the signing in commenced! It was a real buzz, really loved it. Everyone that was working on the desk was so lovely and friendly too which made the whole experience that much more awesome, so thanks everyone! It was fantastic to work with you all.

Spreadsheet!

Folders upon folders...

Contestants on balcony!

Contestants in waiting room watching Shayne and Woo-Cho sing

Shayne and Hyung Woo-Cho

Soon it began to die down as most of the contestants had gone into the waiting room. We decided it was time to grab some lunch so we went to the staff room (Shayne warned us that the vegetarian sandwiches were "horrible", haha! Thanks Shayne. Maybe next time you should try the non-vegetarian variety as you're not a vegetarian?! Funny boy! I personally thought the ham sandwiches were quite good...)
The MC - Sang-Jin Oh - was in the staff room at a table on his own playing his guitar (although I didn't know it was actually him until I saw the orange jeans. I was teasing and saying to the girls how he was just attention seeking because he was playing guitar - jokingly of course - and then I saw it was him and realised he understood English perfectly. I hope he didn't hear me and think I was being serious...!) Eventually Hyung came in and sat down with us to have a chat, and then the camera man who knew of my videos came in too and joined us. Turns out he actually got my videos from SM ENTERTAINMENT THEMSELVES?!? I think I nearly died!

After that it was more work time! More signing in...and after a while there wasn't really anything to do at all. Shayne came to reception and sat next to me, laughing at all the British expressions I kept coming out with and used a laptop on the desk to surf the internet!

I began to wander around to see if there was anything to do elsewhere. I found some co-workers in the waiting hall, where I also saw Hyung and Sang-Jin. The girls convinced me to have a picture taken with both men (I was shy - can you blame me?!) so I did! Sang-Jin put his arm around me and did the peace sign, and Hyung lent in and put his head close to mine as we posed for our photo. Many thanks to the girls that took the pictures for me!

Me and Hyung Woo-Cho

Me and Sang-Jin Oh

Major LOL at the Korean dudes behind us!

Soon after I got to chat with Sang-Jin for quite some time, about 15-20 minutes! He's a very nice, approachable man who loves his job - he's been to the UK about 4 times hence the good English skills! He said I should have auditioned...well, maybe I would have if I could sing in Korean!!

After more milling around, more banter with Shayne and more snooping at all the behind the scenes stuff, it was time to clear up!!

 

Hyung being being filmed with an auditionee

A massive thank you to all who attended, it was a very successful day! And it was great to finally put a face to a name too with some of you! Thank you to the team for all your hard work and enthusiasm, thank you to Martin for, well, everything!! And a massive thank you the Shayne, Hyung Woo-Cho and Sang-Jin for coming over; it was a pleasure and a privilege to meet you all! I hope to see you again in the future and stay in touch!

Me and Shayne

Congratulations to those who got through, and for those who didn't...better luck next time!! ;-) Hopefully the MBC Auditions will come again next year!!

Happy New Year!

Yaaaah! My first blog of 2010!

What do we call this new decade? "The Tenties"?

That's right folks, it's not just a new year but a new freakin' DECADE. In the next decade I'll be 30. YIKES!
Thank God I'm not there yet! (No insults meant for those 30 and over...)

Well anyway, before I dig myself a very premature grave, I would like to take the time to review last night.

My cousin asked me to attend "The New Year London Fireworks Display" (a very made up title by me) to which of course I jumped at the chance! I've always seen it on TV and now was my chance to experience it.

Being wrapped up in leggings, high socks, boots, 3 quarter length top, 3 quarter length cardigan, coat, woollen scarf and woollen hat was apparently not enough - it was bloody freezing.

Anywho, first stop was Hyde Park's "Winter Wonderland". It's basically a German Market with a lot of stalls selling different things. People in Essex always complain about things being pricey so good thing they don't live in London otherwise they'd have keeled over by now from shock. A tiny cup of mulled wine cost a whooping £4. Four pounds!! I kid you not. My hot chocolate cost £3 and it was gone in sixty seconds.

Anyway, here are some (fabulous) pictures (from yours truly).



(excuse my fringe, it's not meant to look like that...)










The magic you can produce from a 10 megapixel camera, eh? Eat your heart out Jennifer Alice Boydon! ... (I kid. Jen's amazing at photography.)

SO, after spending some time looking around this very picturesque little village, we left and went on our merry way to Westminster, where we could grab a bite to eat (McDonalds, I'll have you know) and then find a spot and...well, wait.

For 6 hours.

I'm not kidding! We claimed our spot at about 6pm. And we were pretty darn freezing! London looked very pretty all lit up, though.





To waste our time we played some music since there was no DJ there at the time and played Trivial Pursuit on Tom's phone. After a while nature called so I queued up for the toilets...and I was in the queue for half an hour. Got to the end eventually and it was filled with vile drunks, there was no toilet roll (they didn't even have any spare!) and there was pee all over the toilet seats. Classy.

I went back and someone suggested going home because of the cold! Nuts! Yes, we were freezing, but we knew we would be and had got this far (it was currently 9pm) plus we came specifically to see the fireworks! I wasn't going home!

So someone suggested we find a pub to keep warm for a couple of hours and come back out again...so we lost our amazing spot. A spot where we were right in front of the barrier and had nothing blocking our view. I was annoyed and upset but also welcomed the walk as it warmed us up a bit.

We soon discovered that nothing was open, areas were blocked off and if we went out we weren't guarenteed entry, which I wasn't surprised about to be honest.
Things just started to pick up; the crowd was getting bigger and music had started to play. Mike and his girlfriend ended up going home while Lorraine, Tom and I stayed to brave the weather and watch the fireworks.

We kept walking up and down amongst the crowd to stay warm and to keep the feeling in our feet, filming a few things along the way. The London Community came together to party!

The London Eye also began to start changing colours round about 10pm.











We claimed a new spot which was actually in the road behind a curb. There were (tall) people on the curb and, being only 5", this was a bit of a pain nevermind the fact that I had a freakin' tree right in view. Oh well.

Anyway, there were times when the DJ ordered us to get our cameras and phones and start flashing the lights towards the London Eye because there was a helicopter near it (I can only assume it was the BBC up there, or something).
Time was ticking away and eventually the countdown started.

I don't know why but it was...a hard thing to do. The seconds were dwindling quickly and we were a few short moments away from entering 2010. Like I said in a previous blog, 2009 was a brilliant year and it kinda feels like...maybe my luck is up now. Last year I was quite free and this year I feel like I have a lot of responsibility and growing up coming my way. Maybe "luck" isn't the word, but...I don't know how to describe it, really. I went through a lot from 2000 - 2009 and I feel like I've been through a lot of bad moments but came out of the decade as a stronger woman and ended it on a high. But now I feel that's behind me. This is a new me. I feel like I have a lot of changes coming up.
There's always a bit of hesitation when entering a new year I think, because you never know what's coming for you. I have no idea what's in store for me and...it's scary. This is my first year as an adult.

As soon as everyone chanted out "ONE!" the fireworks started and Big Ben chimed. There's something about those chimes...it's a sound that defines finality or authority, in my opinion. It was like...2009 is officially over. It's gone. You've no choice but to leave it behind.

I didn't want to wave goodbye to be honest, it was the best year I've ever had.

But you know what? It's not about looking back, it's about looking forward and taking everything you've learned from the past and applying it to the present to help your future.

As apprehensive as I am about this new year and decade, I will try to remain positive.

I'll dance all the way, I know it's gonna be okay.
I'll live for glitter and myself, not for anyone else, because I'm not what you think I am; I am made of Gold.

Spray on the cheese.



Hope it's a good'un, guys!

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