PB and I spent Tuesday and Wednesday filming the BBC show "To Buy or Not to Buy." It's essentially the British version of Househunters. PB and I both had fun but we were a little disappointed in the house choices they found for us. We ended up not buying any of the properties but we did find a really cute town that we've arranged to view a few houses in. I'll try to make this recap brief as to not bore y'all!
DAY 1
We were picked up around 8AM on Tuesday by Avon, who would be our driver for the 2 days. He drove us to this historic area where we were to film the intro to the show and have our first chat with the two presenters, Ed and Rani. We filmed it at this John F. Kennedy monument which apparently is on a little section of land that is technically owned by America. It was interesting, to say the least. The presenters were both super nice. I felt awkward taking pictures on the first day, but I took a few as we were leaving to go to the first house.
*Ed is on the left, and Avon is on the right.
Up ahead is Steve the director and Tom who is a cameraman.*
*Noel, another cameraman, and Paul, the sound guy*
I didn't take any pictures of the first house. It was cute but in a questionable area. It was larger than I've seen and under our budget but had very little character. It did have a huge stove and a utility room with a full size washer and dryer, which is almost unheard of in England. The backyard or "garden" as they call it, was HUGE and full of sunlight. I really liked it but PB was worried about the area. We might go back and look at it again when we have more time. The annoying part of filming this show is that we didn't really get a chance to look at the properties, but just had to do takes and film this and that. It didn't really give us free time to look at the property and really take it all in.
After this we had lunch at a cute pub en route to the second property. I had a "tuna mayonnaise and spring onion" baguette. Apparently here they call tuna salad "tuna mayonnaise" and they call egg salad "egg and mayonnaise." The good part is they put hardly any mayo, so those are actually pretty healthy choices, unlike in America where tuna salad is like 4 pounds of mayo! The second property we LOVED. It was built in 1750 and was this precious cottage in Odiham.
*I managed to snap a shot of the fireplace in the living room.*
It was STUNNING. It had dark wood beams running across the ceilings in every room. There was a fireplace in the dining room. It was very well maintained but absolutely TINY. The staircase to the 2nd floor was like climbing a ladder. The bedroom was spacious and had a huge built in desk/drawers along one wall. We really really REALLY loved it but it was lacking some of our musthaves: It only had one bedroom when we need at least 2, It had a seriously tiny kitchen with a mini-fridge, it had no garden and only a tiny patio in the back and there was absolutely NO closet space. In fact, there was not really any closet! We both agreed that if we were never going to have children this would be perfect. However, with visitors from the US and PB's daughter visiting, in addition to wanting babies in the next 5 years, it simply was too small to work.
They then apparently loved me, or so claims PB, so they had me and the host Ed go into the village and interview some people about the town. We talked to about 6 people and one older man was SO sweet. We asked him where a new American moving to the area should go and he told us that I should go to the local pub because I'd be very popular. He then told Ed on camera that the BBC would be lucky to have such a "smart, pretty, well-spoken" young woman. After that he told me that he was recently a visiting professor in Boston and again mentioned that "such a pretty girl would be a big hit" in that town. I loved that man. Apparently the Brits like chubby, short brunettes! Ed thought he wanted to take me home with him! I was VERY flattered and blushed (which is rare for me.) Both Steve, the director, Paul, the sound guy, and Ed said I was a natural. HMMMM! Maybe I should be a TV presenter!!!! hahahaha
After my interviewing segment we called it a night and headed home. PB and I were exhausted so I made us salads for dinner, we watched some TV, I worked on my project a little, and we hit the hay.
DAY 2
Day 2 started off with Avon picking us up again. This time he drove us directly to the "Mystery Property." PB and I both had super high hopes for the mystery property. We were in a cute area and all the homes were beautiful... and thhheeennnn they walked us over to these apartments. Um. Apartment? Cauuussee I kind of thought I said that we were looking for a house. I was skeptical but the outside looked nice. I was more comfortable with everyone and it was a little less rushed so I took more pictures.
We HATED the apartment. It was a weird shape, completely medicinal and over our budget. They also made us do this ridiculous dream sequence about our meeting in a coffee shop. It was the stupidest thing ever. They also made us salute and do all these ridiculous things in front of the blue screen. After we nixed the 2nd property we got to "test drive" a property that we liked, which meant we got to go back. We chose the adorable cottage in Odiham. We went back, looked it over, tried to think of any ways we could change it to make it work, and finally decided that no matter how much we loved it, there was nothing we could do to make more space. We then filmed a ridiculous segment about British food... all because I mentioned how much I loved sausages... and then we called it a day. They gave us mugs as a gift and took us home.
*Most of our camera crew. The tall blonde guy was Tom. He fancied me. Teeheehee*
*My fuzzy mike inside my shirt*
*The set up of our ridiculous coffee meet "dream" sequence we had to act out. Annnnd this was about the point where we began to get annoyed with the BBC*
*The camera after out acting debut.*
*PB before we had to act. This look about sums it up! hhhaaaaaaa. He'll kill me for putting this up but I was taking a picture of me but he started to blink. Hilarity*
*Me after I had to flirt with the wall... Seriously. It was ridiculous.
As a side note- I look like SUCH a fattie! It was the SHIRT! We had to wear the same clothes both days and my shirt was a little too big and kept falling into those wrinkly folds. It didn't help that it was linen and we were sitting a lot. Anyway. Don't judge.*
*Me and Tom the hilarious cameraman that adored me. PB was jealous.*
*Paul removing my mike for the day.*
Overall it was a really fun experience but not was not particularly helpful. Who knows, maybe someone important with see me or PB on TV and want to cast us for something! We are unsure of when we'll be on, but I'll certainly share the episode when we get it!
Now, going to get ready for SATC 2!!! I can't WAIT!
