Combat to Catwalk by Katrina Hodge

Author:Katrina Hodge
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781843584612
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2011-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

THE SEMI-FINALS

MY PRECARIOUS first experience of trying to combine work and Miss England had shaken me up a little but had ultimately given me the confidence that, with a bit of concentration, I could juggle the two roles. Sadly, I couldn’t magic up a few extra hours in the day, though: preparing for Miss England while holding down such an active full-time job meant I never stopped. Unlike the majority of other contestants, who were mostly students or models, I could not fit my schedule around what needed to be done for the competition so I was rushing home from work to practise my skills, work on my outfits, put together my talent video and to make sure that I had every administrative detail seen to.

I had from April until June 2008 to get everything ready for the semi-finals. My working hours were 8am–5pm and I was being asked to do a lot of press and radio interviews. During those three months, I don’t think I had an hour to myself: I wanted to say yes to every opportunity I had to promote my bid for Miss England, but it left me with no time for anything else. Even on the weekends, news crews asked if they could follow me around. It was complete madness.

One of the biggest tasks I had to sort out was making a ‘talent’ video for the semi-finals. I decided that if I were going to be true to myself, I’d have to do something a little bit different from the usual singing or dancing, which so often seemed to dominate the section. After all, my time at the BRIT School had already taught me that I was never going to be the next Mariah Carey, so my strength would always have to lie in being different from the other girls, not trying to be the best at being the same.

By this stage I had a regular contact at the Army press office because of the number of interviews I was being asked to do. His name is Simon Taylor and he used to be in the Army himself, but now works for the press team. During those first few months he acted as a barrier for me, protecting me from shady journalists of the kind that I was worried that the Sun journalist might have been. Simon made sure that I only did interviews I was comfortable with and were within the right code of conduct for my day job in the Army. He helped me make decisions so I wouldn’t end up with shifty reporters pulling a fast one on me.

What I loved most about the press I was doing wasn’t actually the attention, but the fact that I had a buddy with me throughout: Chloe Marshall. Chloe was another Miss England contestant who was getting a lot of attention that year. In her case, it was because she is an absolutely stunning girl. And she is also a size 16. It was

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