News from Gigi at the Chelsea Flower Show ...

I've just had a nice 'newsy' e-mail from Gigi at Chelsea.

We also had a short skype conversation at about 01h15 last night but both of us were so fast asleep that the conversation wasn't very animated!

You can see some pics of the Chelsea team preparing the South African stand on Monday 22 May on the SANBI web site here

The pic of the team above is from the SANBI web site.

The next day, Tuesday 23, was the official media day at Chelsea.

An extract from Gigi's e-mail reads, "Yesterday's media day was quite fun, with a fair bit of coverage for the exhibit. Our best opportunity was when Emma Thompson (movie star) agreed to come and pose with us. Lots of cameras in our faces. The best about Media day is that by 14:00 most crowds have left and we had the opportunity to see and photograph Chelsea Flower Show with practically no people around.

The pic above showing Emma Thopson chatting to the team
is from the SANBI web site.

Then the evening was the Gala Preview that followed the Royal visit. Basically a MASSIVE cocktail party, with dozens of different corporates hosting events with lekker snacks and champange. David, Ray Hudson, Collette and myself all went. Afterwards we went out for a thank you dinner for all the volunteers.

Today (Tuesday that is), was the first day the Show is open to the public. Huge crowds. We started off the day of course with press photographs for the medal. Then open for business - doing duty at the exhibit to interact with the public. We've essentially got daily 3-hour shifts till the Show closes on Saturday when the flowers are sold. Then Sunday and Monday it's breakdown when the hard landscaping is disassembled and crated to send back to SA, for the next event in Jo'burg when the exhibit goes on display in SA. We finish on Monday, then it's all over."

You can see other pics of the media day on the SANBI website here

Gigi says that from Wednesday she should have some time off each day and be able to catch up on some sleep and visit some of the sights of London.

Anyway, keep poping in and I'll keep you up to date with Gigi's news. She certainly hasn't had any time to update her own blog as it seems that she has been busy until after midnight every day.

See also my previous post about Gigi at Chelsea here.