the mirror gang - part V

They announced 'the six' and when I got up, D. and Maggy woow'ed *he winked and smiled*, S. made a 'come on'-fist and I felt the radiating pride of my mum brightening the room.
I looked to D.  *healthy stress - or butterflies? - knodding up my stomach*, pulled up my eyebrows out of an 'I'm just a liiiiiiitle bit nervous'-impulse, sighed and went down

I experienced the rest of the episode intoxicated with joy, a victorious high, or like I was alone in the room... or more like "Oh MY GOD, signing up for this quiz was one of the best decisions of my life!"
I do remember the show host asking me questions about my job and my hobby to massage people   *O_o  really? that's what you wanna know?*   and me focusing on repeating all questions in my head to remember the answers for the finale...

*the finale... would I get there...?

Somewhere along one of many short breaks I heared the entertainer asking the public who was there to cheer me on. Besides my parents obviously, I saw in the corner of my eye Maggy's arm shooting up in the air   *OMG! how unbelievably sweet is she!!! <3 :="" a="" br="" feeling="" fussy="" gave="" gesture="" good="" like="" me="" nbsp="" silly="" such="" that="" warm=""> I felt like being a match for the entire world
*I smiled... there the happy butterflies showed up again :)  ...I'd really love to keep her as a friend*

The suspense was building up; some questions I missed, others' I knew the answers to, yet for others I had to try my luck or they were subject to faith
*oooooh... will I make it? I felt confident, the feeling in my stomach told me it would be fine... but still... oooooh the excitement*

And then the redeeming words: "And the finale will be: C. and Jo!"

:D  ^_^  :D :D
*OW YEAH*

Surprisingly calm I heard the applaus, the "come on, C.!"'s, saw thumbs and crossed fingers and felt how my newborn friends sent me all their good vibes and hopes and how they granted me this victory.
*again, would I make it?*

I had met Jo. once before at the preselections. And I remember thinking 'he's a potential winner'. Don't know why, but I was quite sure back then... actually convinced!
*no worries, C.! You ROCK, you go girl!!   you can and WILL make it*
I could feel the sweet taste of victory...
I was all smiles
I would make it :)
I would make myself and all of my family and friends - who I would order to watch - soooo proud (or happy cause I would really have to buy them a drink)

The lights came *more about 'the lights' later on* and the finale started....

TO BE CONTINUED

the mirror gang - part IV

"Don't you hate it when people ask you 'how come you're still single'?' I asked S. "Like the show host yesterday with Maggy..."
"Oh! Unbelievable! Like being single is supposed to equal being sad and lonely," S answered.
"Uhu! I'm a happy single and I feel great!"
"Yeah me too!"
"What about that guy?" *no, being a happy single doesn't equal not checking handsome fellows ^_^
"No, he was with the married men yesterday. So that's absolutely NOT done. And he has one too many tattoos. Besides I'm going for the Eddie Vedder-lookalike behind the camera." S. chuckled.
"He girls!"
"Hey Maggy :)"
"What's up?"
"S. found her hero! The Eddie Vedder-lookalike."
Maggy looked up, checked the guy, waited one second and said with a smile: "he's all yours..." :D

Just in case you're wondering: no we weren't allowed to talk during the recordings - we did of course but that's for the editors to worry about *hehe* - there was a short break - something technical...

D. wasn't in the running anymore (he dropped out right before the finale) *aww, pity D.! :(*
Maggy had started socializing with N. - the biology student that got a reputation as 'boobs man' in the first episode (there had been a question about real and fake boobs and co-show host, famous radio-DJ and embodiment of talent Sam had come to interview him: "N., why am I standing here with you?" - "Don't know... probably because it's about tits?" he had answered, leaning on his right elvow, with a big smile on his face and his eyebrows going up and down :) *hence the reputation*)
And I was signing to teacher Da. and Bj. how they were doing...

I was scoring surprisingly well! It was nice to be good for once :) *ok, I know, second episode and all... but still :)
I looked at D. and saw the disappointment in his eyes. I smiled at him and mimed: "you'll have another chance to win! I'm sure of it!" - "Thx! Let's hope so :)  How did you do?" - "Quite OK!" I said, with a feeling of relief.  We both smiled.  I saw Maggy looking our way and waved at her.  She grinned.


Next theme would be: film and TV   *yihaa*
Categories: how to spend an evening out (dancing, going for a beer, TV-night, reading, movie...)   *we should be daaaaancing, yeah! (DUH)*

After dinner (quite OK, but not too warm institutional-kitchen-food), I went to change my dress.
In the bathroom I heared some screams and little applauses. 'Good timing, C.! Disappearing right when they announce the new 6'   ... typical...
When I entered the waiting room again, Maggy caught my eye, jumped up and screamed: "C.!!!! YOU'RE ONE OF THEM!!!"

O_O

.... :D

I think I remember the earth stopped turning for second: *me??? one of the 6??? camera on my face??? finale maybe??? about film and TV???   ON NATIONAL TELEVISION?!!!! *

^_^

So I went up and got my hair styled, my make-up done *heaven :)*
*For once I'll admit, I looked pretty darn good (maybe a bit too much red on my lips, but still)*
My red dress was approved (by one of the most famous stylists of the country)   *yeah!!*   as were my green earrings   *particularly happy and proud about that :)*   and I went to get 'miced up'.
"Lose the earrings," the technician said though, "they'll disturb."
*aaawww :(*

A glimpse of pride of my parents - especially my mum :) though they didn't really know what to expect - and I went in ...
"Little applause for a pretty red dress"   ... o_o
*The entertainer was warming up the crowd - or trying to... Dude, really... you need a red dress to have people applaud? Are your jokes that bad? Why don't you tell a good one? ...Oooh, C., you shouldn't have thought that (a bad joke would be the best he would tell all month...)*

I sat down in front of D.
"Hey C.! Lots of good luck!!! You'll rock!" he smiled.
*aaaawwww... what a teddy bear ♥ :) *

There we go...

TO BE CONTINUED

the mirror gang - part III

MY GOD!!! that was fun!!!
All the way, I drove home with a huge grin on my face and when I arrived (ca. 00.30 AM, I think) I wasn't even the tiniest bit tired.
Too much adrenaline... O_O   - another cue for the rest of the month
That was Thursday... tomorrow I would take my parents to cheer me on.

Friday morning already I was eager to go back... 5 more hours
... okay, I'll survive...
Although... I was irrevocably addicted... already :)
I started to pick out my outfits for that day... since my quiz resolution had been 'a different outfit for every episode', that is: 19 different colourful outfits *Hell YEAH!*
Choice of the day: a green and a red dress

let's go fancy ^_^

At arrival I checked the list for the 6 lucky bastards of the day - that as well already had become a habit, almost kind of a biorhythm... like checking your mail when you get home, or rolling over in bed 3 times after your alarm went off -   and   *OMG! yihaaa!*   I smiled instantly when I saw D.'s name   :D
Funny actually how you can be that happy for a person you've known for two days. But then again, I was screaming out my joy when Maggy won... and I had known her for only one day   ^_^
*wow... 'our table' is off charts!!!*
I went to our table and out of pure happiness I cried out "hey!! you're here!"
Despite the fact she won the day before and didn't have to come back, Maggy was there to cheer us on!
*aaaawww... how sweet!*
I ditched my parents in the waiting room and went back my newborn friends - hey... there my parents... I can see them more than often :)

When the gay stylist-for-the-common-people came to check on all of us -colourwise- Maggy and I started wondering how the gay stylist-for-the-TV-people would dress up D., since he's a kind of prototype for casual
- t-shirts, hoodies, sweaters... not at all sloppy, but definitely not suit-up Barney-style...
When Maggy asked "did you put D. in a shirt?" and the gay stylist-for-the-TV-people said "of course", I still couldn't imagine what that would look like...
*I only pictured D. as a full-size doll being played with and dressed up by the stylist :D
Still... I was pretty curious...

Anyway... theme of the day: money *crap, don't have any... this will probably not be my best game*, categories of the day: employment status
"He, we're again almost right next to each other!" S. said.
I smiled... fun was guaranteed   ^_^

In the recording room S. and I were having fun - again separated by statue of silence (another one this time)
*I gotta say, it's a challenge, an animated conversation with an obstacle in between the conversationalists...
Anyway, the 6 lucky bastards came in - a cue to start - no, wait 5... D.'s missing
*strange... not exactly the type of person for whom make-up and hair styling takes a lot of time...
Ah! There he i....

... aaawwwww...

THAT's    what he looks like in a shirt!!!
... with his sleeves rolled up...
ô_ô
... hmmmm...

I signaled him good luck - quite an understatement, cause I probably looked a bit retarded holding my fingers crossed in his direction, squeezing my eyes and with a huge grin on my face - and went back to chatting with S.
When we were waiting for the recording to start the excitement was burning a hole in my stomach *wow, seriously addicted to this quiz... or was it something else...?*

TO BE CONTINUED

the mirror gang - part II

*bad auditive quality intro of Paradise by the Dashboard Light (aka my cell phone ringing)
a girl from the crew calling me a couple of days later to ask about my experiences of the first recording day
... "awesome!!!" had been my response :) "that test run was a hit!" - "that's nice to hear, we enjoyed it as well"


a month had passed since then
one including Christmas, Christmas shopping and even snow (and an awesome selfmade snowman, with fancy tie and hat), and of course New Year's preping
and I almost forgot... the Maya-2012-New Age-earth's gonna go boom-fuss...

but nonetheless the only thing I was looking forward to were for the real recordings to start
I was looking forward to the quiz, the settings, the atmosphere, the colours (since we had to brighten up that boring decor - of course I was highly pleased... finally a place to exploit my knack for colours *yihaa) and obviously... the people :)
Da., the all dialect speaking teacher; BJ., the funny West-Flanders dude; Soph., the pretty pregnant girl; Mi., the cute, oh so sweet 17 year old gay (one of many)...
... and of course Maggy... and D.

at arrival I checked the list of potential winners of the day (six of 100 people who could win a sum of money and a ticket to the finals) which   *OMG O_o :D :D :D yihaa*   included   *no, not me*   MAGGY!
*all right babe! you go girl!*
I didn't quite know her back then but even so, I was really excited for her!

Btw, theme of the day: sex and relationships
Categories of the day *oooow ^_^ interesting* relationship status...
Quick check on my seat of the day (we moved a lot!), when I heared "ah, we're almost right next to each other!"
That was the moment I met S., a witty, sharp girl and equally awesome gal!
I gotta say, it was a pity we weren't actually sitting right next to each other; we'd have even more fun than we already had. Unfortunately there was another woman in between us... or better a silent barrier... could have easily been a statue... quite boring... -_-

Anyway... the relationship status
One of the first announcements of the producers had been: "This will probably be more than just a quiz. Friendships will be made, alliances will be forged and who knows, maybe even love affairs or babies!"
Wiley minxes! Clustering single men and women! Put-up job! That was their intention! This is better than a dating agency... definitely more efficient :D

So single ladies S. and me started "judging". First of all the counting: 10 single women, 16 single men...
... Math was in our advantage

... only theoretically though...
... a quick count of the gays turned our odds...
... A LOT!
... only 8,5 left   *gay radar alarm for one guy, though he denied firmly*   :D

... a further elimination of "too short", "too old" and "too young"   *no, we're not picky, we know what we want*   left us with... 0

O_o

"I guess we'll have to look for our companion somewhere else, C." S. said.
"Guess you're right," I answered.

ok... a less severe elimination left me two PC's (Possible Candidates): a guy with a beard and black glasses...
and D. ...

TO BE CONTINUED


oh btw! almost forgot! Maggy won!!! *you rock, sweetie!!! OW YEAH*
little wave and celebration to Maggy
 _|°__---/°°°°--___---/°°°`---,___,--°°°°-___

also... wondering if there was some "judging single ladies" going on with tha boyzzz...
*of course there was :p *

399... going on 400

a round number... it's just a random number, equally unsignificant like any other, simply another number in line

bullocks!
a round number is something special... a turning point... a milestone for a new start!
Prince sang about it: "tonight we're gonna party like it's 1999"
*just for the record, last week I partied even better! but that's a different story...
*wondering what year that could be compared to... ^_^

... scusi... I'm straying off

a round number...
it's cool
it's exciting
or at least, that's what I tend to think about it

as is the case for my current number of facebookfriends
it's now set on 399...
who will be 400? there are 3 options

1) a celebrity
scenario sketch: tomorrow morning I'll walk out of my door, sun shining on my face, I'll go running, elegantly and sporty -like in the movies- and I will bump into a famous guy
preferably Henry Cavill
he is charmed... no not just charmed... speechless by my dazzling presence, we start talking, go to the bakery together, exchange cell phone numbers and after my shower I'll check my facebook and I'll have a friend request from Henry Cavill... my 400th friend ^_^
*too bad this will not happen...
already after the first comma the probability level failed
... it's Belgium... what are the chances the sun will shine O_°*

2) the love of my life
scenario sketch: Prince Charming... no wait he's a wussie... Mr. Right will wake up tomorrow morning and will turn on his computer to check his facebook
after his second spoon of coco pops a strange feeling will overwhelm him and guided by faith he will take a long shot -like Google's "I'm feeling lucky"- and search for me
I'll accept his friend request, we will meet and fall madly in love
he'll propose to me in the most romantic way imaginable, we'll get married and live happily ever after
*too bad this won't happen either...
I mean... coco pops... really!! please eat something manly for breakfast... like frosted flakes... at least they have a tiger for a mascotte*

3) just another facebookfriend
sadly enough the option with the highest probability
life goes on...

no worries!
I'll have fun with my 4th, 18th, 111th, 215th, 249th, 374th, 376th, 377th, 379th and 395th facebookfriends

and with all others :D

... still curious who'll be my 400th...
*_*

the mirror gang - part I

I've been dieing to blog about this, about the mirror gang... it's over now, so let's say this is a proper time to write the story of January 2013

for a couple of weeks - or weekends, actually - something's been growing inside of  me
I'll be more precise: a nest of butterflies

the last month was one for the archives
one of the most crazy wonderful adventures of my life
a month which I'll NEVER forget!
one that granted me new and most amazing friends

I participated in a new TV-quiz; one with more than 100 participants
the concept is actually of irrelevance... I wanna tell the story behind the scenes

It started in the beginning of December with a test-run. So for the first time all 100 of us came together. Nobody knew anybody; neither did I.
So when I arrived, about 90% of the people were there. I took a long shot and placed myself at a random table; the one with the people I was most attracted to. Faith put me at the table of people from West-Flanders, the completely other side of the - I know, Belgium's small , but still - country.
Nonetheless I didn't feel uncomfortable... au contraire.
Bit by bit more and more people trickled in. Some of them joined another table, others went to sit on the side by theirselves.
While we were waiting for the recordings to start, I was talking with Maggy *awesome gal*, one of the girls at my table, and we both agreed that one guy on the side looked a bit lonely and sad. At the same time - I'm not joking - we both turned around, called him and told him to join "our" table.
That was the moment I met D.; at first sight a though guy, but truly a little teddybear.
*D., if you ever read this, don't believe my words; you're just a though guy, nothing cute about you... you're a strong, sturdy dude ;)

the recordings were delayed - a cue for the rest of the month - so we kept on chatting, talking, gossiping (already ^_^), jabbering - equally a cue for the rest of the month
the foundations for life long friendships were made

TO BE CONTINUED

happy birthday to me

sooooo cool to wake up on your birthday like this: