Jan's and John's Peripatetic Adventure: Countdown Celebration

We're in London, continues...

Last night I went to the "25th Anniversary Celebration of Countdown" at the Dorchester with my best friend Kirsty.

What is "Countdown"? Well, it is a hugely popular U.K. television quiz show. The best U.S. analogy I can come up with is Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune but it's really not like either; Countdown seems to be very intelligent.

We were invited to the gala because Kirsty's father wrote the theme music. Awesome! He and Kirsty's mother were not able to attend as they are away, so Kirsty invited me. Kirsty's husband Tom was not able to go either unfortunately and neither was John. Wah! But a good friend of theirs, also Tom, did come and he was hilarious and really nice. I'm so glad I got to meet him.

Although I live in London, I am completely clueless about television and U.K. celebrities. I don't have television here so I have never seen this show or any of the others they talked about. I had no idea who anyone was, even though in the U.K. they are super-famous. LOL. But, of course, Kirsty and Tom did, so it was a fabulous, star-studded evening for everyone in attendance.

Since Kirsty's dad composed the theme tune for the show, all the stars knew who she was so we got to meet them all. Yay! At last, I finally got to meet famous British celebrities, even though I had no idea who they were. But that didn't matter because they were all gracious and delightful and I loved it.

Eventually I figured out that the people I met are the equivalent in the U.S. of Regis Philbin, Vanna White and Bob Barker. Wow! I was very impressed, particularly by how nice they were. Between dinner courses Kirsty and I ran around the tables celebrity-hunting and I took photos of her with everyone. Since they know her father, they were delighted to see her and were truly charming, I really liked them. We spoke with the show's host Des O'Connor who was really nice, as was his lovely wife Jodie. Then we ran into Carol Vorderman who is also incredibly nice and who kindly agreed to photos with each of us, yay. We also talked to the charming Marcel Stellman (photo with Kirsty), who started the show 25 years ago. Then I pounced on Noel Edmonds because Kirsty wanted a photo with him. LOL. The event was MC'd by Tom O'Connor who I thought was actually very funny.

Dinner was also excellent; the Dorchester is a gorgeous hotel. The event was one of the best I've ever been to. Thank you once again, Kirsty, for inviting me to an amazing evening!