My (almost) brush with fame

Last Wednesday Matthew and I visited Highclere Castle, the home of the show Downton Abbey.  Upon our arrival to the castle, this sign greeted us at the front gates.

I could have the chance to interview with the today show!!  I was excited at the premise of being on TV and talked Matthew's ear off with different things I could say.  :)  Matthew and I continued to walk through the gardens and the house.  After looking around the house, we met up with the rather large group (50+) of Americans ready for their chance at fame!  The film crew was getting set up and began to interview, asking questions like; 'What brought you here?' 'What do you think of the way the show portrays Americans?' 'What is going to happen in Season 3?'  It was amazing to watch how people would act when getting around a camera.  I saw several elbows flying as people tried to get their way to the front of the line, and others jumping in front of someone else to try and be interviewed next.  Here are a few shots of them interviewing...

After a few interviews Lady Carnarvon of Highclere Castle showed up as well!! 

The film crew decided then to do a group walk up to the castle and then give us a chance to shake the hand of the Countess of Carnarvon.  I knew the chance of getting to do an interview was slim so I made sure I was prominent in the group walk to the castle....AND you can see me for two whole seconds in the actual piece for the today show  (check out 00:34 - 00:36)  I'm in the purple jacket!!

After getting to shake the Lady's hand and walking into the house, we came back outside.  The main reporter (who had just showed up) then asked some in a group where they were from.  I didn't get asked but the man in front of me did so again you can see me from the nose up behind the man in red (from North Carolina) at (00:46) .

This whole process has taken over an hour and they were going to continue with some more interviews.  Matthew was being very patient and it was getting rather chilly so we decided to go home.  I think we made a good move.  We watched at least five interviews being done and they only used one interview that we saw (the one with the two ladies at the end).  So even if I did stay and interview I would most likely being on the cutting room floor at this point.  It was still fun and this my first time being on national TV...if you call 3 seconds being on!!  :)  Check out the link to watch the video as try to look out for me:
(00.34-00:36 and 00:46) 

http://theclicker.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/11/11139523-the-real-downton-abbey-housed-its-own-drama?lite

Quiz Night

Two weeks ago Matthew and I participated in a quiz night at the community centre our church has moved into.  This was my first quiz night ever and I was really excited about it.  We had four people on our team, the Jolley's and Macintyre's.  We named our team  'Bravehearts' since the Macintyre's are Scottish and because of Matthew's recent health trouble.  Throughout the evening we went through 9 topics with 20 questions each.  The topic we did the best in was 'history' with 16 out of 20 correct.  Our worst topic was music and only got 7 out of 20 correct.  There were a total of four teams participating and we came in.......2nd place!!  Overall I enjoyed the evening although I was not a great help to my team.  I was only able to help answer a handful of questions throughout the evening and most of those were related to cartoons...not sure what that says about me?  In my defense, many questions would have been hard to answer if you weren't British!!  As a whole, a good, fun evening and I look forward to the chance to have another quiz night in the future!!
Here is a sample of some of the questions we had to answer: (good luck!)
1. What is a baldric?
2. Morpheus was a Greek God of what?
3. What is given on 13th wedding anniversary?
4. In what century was tea first brought to England?
5. In a pack of cards, which was does the king of spades look, his left or right?

How did you do?