ALI'S MONTHLY MUSING SEPTEMBER 2010  
 
 
BLUECOAT YESTERDAYS  
 
Summer shot by like a speeding train and now autumn is hot on its heels - but it's still sunny and warm as I write this. It's been a scaly few weeks, writing the Amphibian and now Reptile SWITCH stories. Right now I'm trying to think like a lizard (don't ask!).  
 
So, going back to Pontin's was fun and freaky in equal measure. The last time I'd set foot on Pontin's holiday park in Pakefield (just outside the busy fishing town of Lowestoft) I was just 19 and setting out in life - full of excitement and expectation and dreams of stardom, beginning with the fab shows I and all the other Bluecoats would wow the holidaymakers with that summer.  
 
Then they told me I had to be a 'children's aunty' so I screamed and ran away.  
 
Well... actually I only screamed and ran away in my head.  
 
I was horror struck. What? Working with kids? How was that going to help me become a star?!!  
 
I decided to give it a week and see how it went.  
And halfway through that week I realised it was going to be brilliant. She had never known it before but she got on really well with kids.  
Working in the children’s theatre with Magician Uncle Brian and fellow Bluecoat ‘Aunty’ Nettie, I had in fact landed the job from heaven. We put on magic shows, ran kids’ bingo, hared off down the beach for games and just had a fantastic time.  
 
 
(Pontin's bear-baiting in 1985)  
 
In the evenings we shared the usual hosting and performance duties with all the other Bluecoats in the main ballroom, and I brushed up my cabaret singing too. I even ended up being the sequin-clad assistant to a juggling unicylist!  
 
It was fantastically good for building my confidence and rapport with all kinds of people – and that’s something I still draw on today.  
 
So - when Frozen In Time won the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award (as well as the Book I Couldn’t Put Down Award ) back in March, one of the national newspapers carried the headline ‘Former Pontin’s Bluecoat Wins Blue Peter Book Award’. Pontin’s management spotted it and dropped me a line to say ‘Come back again, as our guest’.’  
 
We went - me and my husband Simon and our sons Jacob, (16) and Alex (12) - on the last weekend of the August summer season.  
 
It was freaky. It had hardly changed at all! Obviously a few licks of paint over the years but so much THE SAME that it was like a ghostwalk through my past. Even freakier was that my old boss, Graham Henry, was STILL THERE! Still Entertainment Manager, guiding all the 2010 Bluecoats, and still with a full head of hair and the same wicked laugh. It was amazing and great fun to catch up.  
 
 
(Jacob, me & Alex at Pontin's)  
 
We stayed in adjoining apartments close to the sea, which lies flat and golden under the rising eastern sun beyond a short cliff drop at the edge of the park. The spookiest moment was when we wandered past the entertainments office, where I would go every morning in that summer of 1985, with 11 other Bluecoats, to get our duties for the day from Graham. The warm sun in the lobby heated up the paintwork and carpet like it always used to and it smelt EXACTLY the same... EXACTLY. In a second I was back in time by 25 years.  
 
Anyway! We had a fun day out to Fritton Lake, just over the Norfolk border, on the Saturday and that evening I got up on stage in the big ballroom with the Bluecoats to plug my 'Meet The Author' special event the following morning. I grabbed that microphone, let me tell you, like I'd never been away!  
 
And the next morning I was amazed at the crowd that turned out to hear my story and get signed books. Holidaymakers LIKE authors!!! Even those getting heckled by Bluecoats and their old boss!  
 
So - a fun time was had by all! THANKYOU, Pontins, for a freaky, spooky, hilarious treat that I won't forget...  
 
 
And what's next? Well, I'm about to get started on COLA FILES 3 - the working title for the third in the COLA spin off series. Some of it is set at sea and I'm really excited about getting on board some very posh yachts soon and doing some research. And I'm off to Fife in Scotland this month, for the Fife Festival.  
 
Might be a few tickets left for some of my events - go HERE to check...  
 
So maybe I'll see you, if you happen to be in Fife on the 20th or 21st?  
 
Have a great September and hey - I haven't mentioned going back to school ONCE! (Ah - but now I have - sorry!)  
 
 



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