Waiting... and waiting.
We were led away from our gardens, and quite without warning, tears welled up in my eyes. After a brief sob on the shoulder of a warm-hearted BBC crew member, I sneaked off towards a garage to dab them dry with a clean bit of t-shirt. Predictably there was a camera crew to hand. 'It's just the relief of finishing,' I said, truthfully, 'I really didn't know if I would get there on time.' Later, Martin admitted he'd felt tearful too, but he'd kept it from view.We were taken to a quiet garden for drinks and snacks while the judges took a tour. About 10 minutes later, I had a moment of lucid horror - we had left the white protective film on the mirror! A couple of BBC girls ran off to sort it out for us, but I was sure it was too late for the judges and the photographers. From there a whole series of uncompleted jobs kept bouncing into mind - the trachelospermum wasn't tied to the post. The reverse side of the gate was unpainted (we'd turned it round). Then there was the hurried planting. We had needed one more hour to finish properly really, but I have to accept responsibility for that.
While we waited, the 10 of us, plus Kevin from GW Magazine, sat and chatted about the whole experience of GOTY. There was quite a strong feeling that we didn't want one of us to be singled out as winner - we'd all put in so much. There was a real sense of dread about the result. For the final time we were royally fed and watered by Vi and Vi from Smart Cookies. Their fabulous food had kept body and soul complete for five days. But now we were just picking nervously.
The five of us waiting for the result
The two Vis from Smart Cookies. They were fabulous.An hour, two, three hours came and went. We were taken for lunch and then returned to our private garden to wait. There was much laughter and mutual praise at first, but once we'd been waiting for 5 hours we began to get very jumpy. Each time the gate opened we all twitched, expecting to be summoned. By now, we'd run out of things to say and sat more or less in silence, waiting and thinking. Finally, the director stepped in - we were on.
posted by Sue Beesley @ 8:37 PM
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