DANCING ON ICE FINAL

Drama, as ever, at Dancing on ice FINAL....

Three contestants - Hayley and Dan, Gary and Maria, Kieron and Brianne. Three routines...

FLYING - Gary managed to look lighter and graceful and had more content than Kieron - who did what he was given with arms that were stronger. Flying favours the girls and Hayley's presentation with Dan as the base worked brilliantly. I had a Hayley, Gary, Kieron placing.

FAVOURITE ROUTINES - Hayley with Bollywood superb, Kieron with Punk great energy but a trip, Gary managed to communicate and express his routine relating to Maria and skated well with lots of ice coverage. I had a Hayley 6.0, Gary, Kieron placing.

BOLERO - Hayley and Dan skated first. Presentation super as expected but hardly any skating from Hayley and slow over the ice, a door had been left open. Robin didn't mention this in his comments - the rest of us were given no time to comment! Gary skated out and covered 'miles' more ground with very good presentation and a flowing routine. Gary's was undoubtedly the best Bolero for me on the night.

RESULT - I sat watching and thought.... Hayley should have won because of her contribution to the entire series, Gary should have won because his Bolero was better - and that would have been what we, as judges, would have been expected to judge irrespective of what had gone before. So I sat in the space of each of our two final contestants could rightly lay claim to the title.

PUBLIC VOTE - Hayley won.... and, on Bollywood alone, she and Dan deserved it. Congratulations to them and to Gary as well - he and Maria did a great job.

CHRIS AND JAYNE - Awesome! Learning and performing a flying routine with ribbons that had danger, finesse and power for the final. I have heard it said as a show business mantra - start brilliantly, finish brilliantly and/or leave the best to last... This was their best performance of the series and a reminder that - an Olympic mentality says - Be The Best, keep pushing and improving. Golly they were great and the backing band wasn't ad either.

TUXEDO - It was the final, we should all have had Dinner Jackets on - the ladies had long gorgeous dresses - what happened to the guys? Well I wore mine because it was the final... Normally that's the form. Perhaps some of the other chaps got the tuxedo out of their system on movie week?

MY AWARD - I got an award from The Friday show for nearly causing the show to crash it's ending because I wouldn't shut up... Just one more thing. I'm quite proud of it in an anarchic type of way... I wasn't trying to crash the break - I just had more to add.....

PICTURES - pictures to come... wrap party was fun but a mix of 1 Guinness, 1 red wine and a tequila shot with Pavel along with bed at 3.30am have left me with a thick head so I'll take a break and do pictures later.

Love

Nicky

SENSE SHOP OPENING

Great fun to help SENSE open a new shop in Whitton in Ipswich yesterday - here are some pictures courtesy of Ipswich Evening Star. All Rights Reserved.

Radio interview link http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p006ys6 at 2hrs 50 mins on Radio Suffolk. I was also on Heart with kelly - Emma Bunton's station which was fun.

The shop was brilliant, great bargains and superbly preented. How do they offer such great choices at great prices in a professional environement - it's about you bringing qulaity itens you don't need or use any longer and they enabling others to buy them - recycling plus reusing and the charity benefits - a win all round....

12 Meridith Road Ipswich is the store....

Here's a photo of me skating with Lucy Adeye from Barnet last year. I helped her have some fun on ice at Sense's City ice Skate. She had never skated before - let alone with a strange man! After thirty minutes she wanted to stay on and do more. I think we had around 45 minutes on the ice. Brilliant when she was very scared when she first went on. A wonderful example to me of how we all can give to hep someone less fortunate than ourselves and that they give back back a smile that melts your heart.

Love N

www.sense.org.uk to see more and support

DANCING ON ICE SEMI FINAL...

Well a dramatic evening and difficult to judge. It's Chalk and Cheese - two types of abilities - one where the presentation is excellent the other where the skating ability is higher. The challenge for me, as a judge, is that the two elements of skating ability and high presentation skill are not in any one couple.

Skating was the lead factor. I had Gary and Maria first in the main show - Hayley and Dan second - superb presentation but slow skating over the ice when Hayley is solo (it is much easier to do moves when one goes slower rather than at speed) - Kieron third, who skates fast but run out of steam half way through and was a bit messy, Daniella fourth. Daniella has superb acting skills and very good presentation but the weakest skating ability.

The skate off saw Gary and Daniella facing each other. I expected Gary to be the winner. He skated, missed his spin, wobbled and generally had a much poorer performance than in the main show. Finally he fell at the end of the programme. Daniella skated and presented well - the same level as the main show performance. Daniella was ahead for me.

Robin - as head judge - called the fall of Gary and Maria as being after the routine had finished. Honouring that call meant that - for me - Gary just squeezed ahead of Daniella. Had the fall been included then Daniella would have gone through on my marks.

I am sad that we will not be seeing Daniella fly. She would have given a strong performance as less actually skating ability is required and I hope that gary can have a breakthrough with his acting and presentation ability for the final.

Love

N

FACEBOOK / TWITTER - OH MY GOODNESS...

Website updated and starting to look into Facebook.

I could be on it for days and never stop talking.... and have no life... and miss Dancing On Ice Semi Final today - because I'm on Facebook....

Great to be starting to see peoples picture, and their sites, and try to work out how it all works and then there's Twitter.

On Friday a friend was showing me Twitter - and how to see what's going on online.

It was 10.30 in my local coffee shop - a post had been put up at 10.20 "At a business meeting in coffee shop, Nicky Slater, Dancing On ice Judge sat on next table!".... and he had gone... spooky....

I picked an Evening Standard up off the tube last week and on the back page it said 'Fabio Capello appoints - Nicky Slater of Dancing On ice - new talent to defence - Nicky Slater being in black pen - it took me a moment to see someone had written on the paper and shown this to a friend - and I had picked up their left paper.

The world is becoming rather strange!

Off to the semi final.

It will be exciting and challenging to judge no doubt.

Love

N

Photo © Copyright Ken McKay REX FEATURES - All Rights reserved used with permission

A WEEK!

Car crash, keys lost, locked indoors, red carpet, Grosvenor Great Room celeb fest, Pause for Thought - yes really - 3 minutes to time, hotel from hell with three room changes ending up in a suite you could play cricket in and still the taps didn't deliver hot water at more than a trickle. Two year old turning into a terrorist with incredible negotiation skills "I'm frustrated daddy" at two! iSkate column, papers following storied - no comment... Walking across a street thinking it was one way - it wasn't - and surviving, This Morning fun, a new song saying 'I Love You' on Logic and a home personal workout coach - not what you you may think... lunch with an old schoolfriend who has Archbishops call him on a regular basis - they should pay for his advice. Still not meeting for lunch with my brother as he jets off as I get to his city base. Locks renewed, car being sorted, a glass of red wine and it's Friday... a busy week then... Roll on a quiet relaxing weekend of Dancing On Ice.

Love n