Britain's Got Talent

Mecca Bingo recently posted a competition on their Facebook page to win a pair of tickets to be in the audience for the Britain's Got Talent auditions and to my surprise I won!!

When arriving in the town centre I was taken aback at just how many people were there, the queues to get in were enormous, it was raining and I hadn't yet picked up my ticket (not a great start). After finding one of the BGT's staff I was given my tickets along with my wristband - it looked like I wasn't going to have to join the general public queue after all as we were considered 'sponsorship guests'!

We got taken into the theatre, making our way through the centre of the crowd with everyone looking at us. I totally felt like a VIP then! The seats we had were brilliant as we were sat in the stalls and had a brilliant view of the stage and judges desk. The show finally began with Ant & Dec coming on to the stage to introduce the judges and to our surprise they came down our aisle meaning we were within inches of David Walliams, Alesha Dixon and the Simon Cowell.

Overall the auditions were fab, from pole dancers and singers right through to dodgy magicians and poetry reading! It's a night I won't forget and was very interesting to see what goes on during the breaks between each act. When you watch it on TV you don't realise how long it can take between acts or just how long the judges can ramble on for - it's all very clever editing!

I laughed, cheered, danced and cringed. What more could you ask for?! A big thanks again to Mecca Bingo for running the competition! :)

'Scribblers'

This week, believe it or not, I managed to drag my other half with me, much to his dismay! I got the impression that he won't be coming again, not that I would be too bothered. To be honest his dabbing technique was frustrating me, I don't even think his dabber touched the paper, it sort of brushed past leaving a tiny lil mark on the number! I like full on blob of ink completely drowning the number as I find it a lot easier to see where I am...maybe I need glasses?!!

The above 'mini rant' brings me nicely on to the subject of Scribblers, well that's what I call them anyway! For those wondering, a Scribbler is someone who uses a felt tip pen to 'colour' in each number. Now, picture the scene, the bingo caller begins with the first number being called, a quiet hush descends across the room with no one making a sound for fear of being scorned by others (it happens), when what do you hear but the 'scribble' of the felt tip pen next to you!

For at least 48 calls you have to listen to the 'scribble' and when a room is that quiet it sounds like the loudest thing ever! It happened to me tonight, the woman next to us 'scribbling' away which resulted in me getting the giggles and my Mother getting angrier by the minute, for the only way I can describe the noise during that time is like Chinese torture, a dripping tap that you cannot stop! Maybe I'm just being petty or maybe I should just join the felt tip crew and be done with it. What's the saying, if you can't beat them, join them!

So, what's your pet peeve during bingo?

P.S. Red 20 is still in my bad books!

Fellow Bingo Head!

I've been a member of Mecca Bingo now for a few months and I've already gotten to know the 'quirky' ways of hardcore bingo heads, heck, I've even started to do some of them myself!

I decided to start this blog to document my time at the bingo hall, my wins, my losses, the laughs I have and hopefully connect with fellow bingo fans.

Sunday's are my preferred day to cross those lucky numbers off, armed with my bingo bag which contains two dabbers (trust me, running out mid game is disastrous), membership card, voucher offers and usually a handful of pound coins. I'm not yet superstitious and find sitting pretty much anywhere in the hall neither gives you more or less luck, or at least I like to tell myself that. Maybe there is a winning seat or lucky board, if anyone knows I'm all ears!

Without wanting to ramble too much about the mundane contents of my bag or what I snack on during intervals, I will say this - bingo can be rewarding, big time! Only last Sunday did I play the link game where I walked away with over £2000 in cash, not bad for a bingo beginner. :)

I'll leave this first post with the one thing I definitely have come to notice from my time at bingo and that is I really do hate the number Red 20!