The X Factor hits Cardiff today for the last day of auditions in 2012 and the judges will be jetting in from far and wide, to watch their last batch of hopefuls.

Louis Walsh will be flying in from his Dublin home, while Tulisa Contostavlos only jetted in from New York late last night, where she was enjoying a bit of a break with her personal assistant Gareth Varey. The brunette beauty enjoyed a few crazy nights on the town during her trip by all accounts and even caught up with Rita Ora, who she first met at the London X Factor auditions last month.

The N-Dubz star tweeted her followers last night, sharing a picture of her in the cockpit of her plane, just before takeoff and added the caption:

Welcome aboard tulisa airways, hold on to your seats its gonna be a bumpy ride.

Meanwhile, Nicole Scherzinger is also hot footing it back from America for today’s tryouts, having returned to her home country for an early birthday celebration and performance in Las Vegas.

The Pussycat Dolls star turns 34 later this week (29th June) and shared a picture of her birthday cake with fans last night, tweeting:

‘Love my @herbalessences birthday cake!! Can’t wait to share with everyone @taobeach! #HerbalLovesNicole’

Meanwhile, after all the Diamond Jubilee, Commonwealth, Andrew Lloyd Webber and X Factor madness of the last few weeks, Gary Barlow has been enjoying a break with his heavily pregnant wife Dawn for the last few days. He will return to the real world later this afternoon, but it seems the dad of three thoroughly enjoyed his time off and tweeted:

‘Finally getting a few days to relax just dawn and me #lovely’

Gary won’t have much down time for the rest of the year, as after today’s final tryouts, the Take That star will be planning for bootcamp, judges houses and then into his second year of live shows.

The X Factor team are already in Wales and setting up, in preparation for the judges’ arrival and the official account tweeted an hour ago, saying:

‘Bore da! Sut mae? Yup, The X Factor juggernaut has hit Cardiff. Holler if you’re as X-cited as we are… #WalesRocks’

‘Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah! The sun is out today in Cardiff… #RainCanBoreOff’

Will you be in the audience? Are you looking forward to seeing your favourite TV panel back together again? Leave your comments below…