So let’s just take a couple of minutes out to explain what’s going on.
Tuesday I get an email in my inbox from Applause Store (Y’know, the same people who got me tickets to the Britain’s Got Talent show I didn’t get to go to in the end) saying they’ll give me ‘priority’ tickets to see this new show called Britain’s Best Brain be recorded for Channel Five. How can you turn down an opportunity with the word ‘priority’ in the ticket?
So I asked around and while talking to Timi on Skype decided to go for three tickets – for me, Timi and someone else. John snapped up the ticket, but could later on not go, so it was me and Timi on a train trip to London. Woo woo!
I finally found the tickets in my spam folder Wednesday night, so this whole trip had been put together rather last minute, shall we say. Me and Timi hopped on train at about 2 to go into London and do a bit of tourist-y things before heading off to the Fountain Studios in Wembley.
We arrive and virtually head straight for Trafalgar Square where – as I’m sure you know already – is the home of the Fourth Plinth where I’ll be doing my thing in a month’s time.
Trafalgar Square. on 12seconds.tv
While we were there, there was this girl who took lots of pictures of her time on the plinth. We didn’t stay to watch long, as we went into the National Art Gallery which is just off from the plinth to have a look at some good old-fashioned art (Well, when in Rome… that, and it was free… and that Timi likes that sort of thing)
So we go look at some paintings. Blimey, those artists just love the whole Jesus thing in there, eh? But yeah, we came back out again and had a look at the guy who had just gone on it now. We watched the change-over, and I seem a little more at ease with the whole thing. My mum goes on the website and tries to get a glimpse of us, which you can too. Just go to Craigy’s profile and watch the clip at 10:06 to see Timi get hit by a sweet. I’m the guy in the red. 
So after hanging around Trafalgar Square a bit, we go via Big Ben to Westminster tube station, and take the maze of tube trains to get up to Wembley. Unfortunately, the little section we needed to get to where we wanted to go was under repair, so we needed to go a rather… interesting route. We got there, though, but time was getting on. We had about 35 minutes to make a 20-minute walk to the studios ready for the show.
Using a bit of intuition (and mostly guessing), we did actually make it to Fountain Studios in time. For future knowledge, just get the tube to Wembley Park instead of just Wembley Station. It saves on the whole walking thing. But we got there, and joined the line behind a guy on his lonesome drinking beer he’d just purchased. According to Timi he’s Welsh so, well, there you go…
Obviously, we weren’t allowed to take pictures, so I’ll have to describe what we saw when we went in. Seeing as neither of us had been to a TV recording before, we were a bit amazed by the whole thing. Flashy lights, big expensive pieces of equipment and a strange contraption with a harness on it that looked awfully familiar…
Britain’s Best Brain obviously sets out to find Britain’s… best brain. Hosted by Zoe Ball and Jamie Theakston, five contestants battle against each other for a place on the top five leader board for their ‘brain scores’. They do this by playing games which analyse five different functions of the brain – Memory, Co-ordination, Numeracy, Recognition and Risk – with five different tasks. One, for example, asked them to do sums while numbers and classical music is blasted at them. Another asked them to play spot the difference.
After a few minor hiccups (technically, and with Zoe calling the show ‘Britain’s Breast Brain "with gigantic breasts") the final ‘Risk’ section involved blowing up a giant balloon. They blew up the balloon and contestants gained points for staying in the game. They can chicken out and bank the points they had earned at that point, or risk it to get more points. If the balloon burst before they’d gone, they lost the points for that round. But yeah, we were required to wear ear protectors for that game. Fun times.
All in all, it’s a good show. If you’re looking for something to do in October and you can get Channel Five (obviously, I mean in the UK) and watch Britain’s Best Brain for yourself. We’re on the one with Matt the fireman on, who wins the first game… not that I’m ruining this for you or anything… I’m sure I’ll post a link to the Demand Five page when it’s broadcast. Look out for me and Timi!
Finally, we jumped on the train home with about three minutes to spare. We saw Jack’s friend Dawn on that train too, but it was that sort of moment where you weren’t quite sure if it was them, so didn’t want to say hi, but felt rude not to acknowledge them. Oh, and a drunk guy was sick. Lovely. Fun times.
We’re home now, and we’re hopefully going to the recording of Dave’s Argumental later next month. Here’s hoping!
No Comments on "The London trip."