Part 5 - Comedians and Condoms

Hi everyone :-)  Glad your still enjoying this!!  FAO: Sandra - one of the ladies I queued with totaled up the amount of hours she had spent in queues.  Bearing in mind she did more gigs than I did, her grand total was 168 hours - so there you go!!  Today at work was a flippin' nightmare which means it can only be better tomorrow can't it??  Anyway to cheer myself up I shall write Part 5 of my contuining saga ;-)

PART 5 - COMEDIANS AND CONDOMS

When I was re-reading yesterdays entry I reminded myself that before I went down the steps in Manchester seperated from Trina I almost started crying.  I couldn't believe I had been up before 6am and was having to put up with this crap.  I had no idea how many rows back I would be and that wasn't why I had got up!!  I think that was just my tiredness creeping up on me!!  Anyway back to todays entry.......When I looked at the spot where we had been standing the night before Trina was there at the barrier spread out wide saving me a space.  I was so relieved to find her!!  I managed to crawl in but the silly place was making everyone sit down.  The bloke next to me gave me an evil glare  and Trina asked the woman next to her to move up a bit.  She explained that we'd been queueing all day, this woman however reckoned she had been too.  Right whatever love!!  Didn't recall her face from the queue - silly cow!!  Main thing was I'd got in and managed to find Trina and the barrier, which I desperately needed being so tired!!  I'm really glad I have a mate like Trina :-)

The gig was good but up until a point I don't think I was enjoying myself.  The tiredness wasn't helping but neither did some other factors which will be mentioned in a min!!  The set list was basically the same as Newcastle.  Here are the highlights:  At the end of Can't Get Enough, Roger and Brian just stopped and were waiting for the next chord, it looked hilarious as Roger was ready to crash the cymbals but just stood there like someone had taken a picture :-)  Eventually they gave up on the idea and carried on playing it so they could finish properly.  Paul did some weird dancing to the crowd in the seats and they repeated it back to him LOL.......When Roger came to the front for Say It's Not True he asked if anyone had any condoms and we chucked 'em all onto the stage.  His eyes nearly popped out of his head, we could tell he loved that.  They were flying at him from all different directions.  Jamie and Danny bent down and picked some up and pocketed them ha ha ha........Roger's girlfriend, his wife and eldest daughter came out in front of the barrier at one point, (they weren't on my side thank god but they were in my eyeline!!!  It was the first time I'd ever seen his wife in the flesh, I couldn't get over how small she is!!  The main thing for me though and to keep my jealousy below surface he didn't sing to them.  Apparently he had done at other gigs!!) During Crazy Little Thing Brian's guitar packed in, (i think!!) and it sounded quite strange listening to the track with no guitar, just accoustic played by Jamie.  During Bri's solo spot he kept getting interference, which apparently was the local cab's radios.  You could tell by his face he was not amused about this.  During the beginning part to Hammer to Fall it sounded like everything was ok and no more interference so he sang along to the tune 'so far so good.'  It was quite funny.

I was about to put this gig down as the worst I'd been to so far, (obviously couldn't stand the pace), when they went off.  After an encore two blokes were walking out singing accapella style.  I suddenly realised it was Peter Kay and Patrick McGuiness and they were singing 'Road to Nowhere'.  I went mad...........(regular journallers may remember I've mentioned them a couple of times when they mentioned Queen in the programme!)   I couldn't believe it!!  Also I find Patrick McGuiness rather cute :-)

  They made their way down the catwalk and sung a little bit of 'Amarillo' (this had quickly become the 'official' queue song) so we looked at Sarah who was also going mad for this!!  Peter Kay then introduced the band and said they were gonna do Under Pressure.  This was the first time it was played on the tour and the band came out and Brian said 'It's better to do Under Pressure badly than not at all so that's what we're gonna do now.'  Roger just told him to 'put your guitar on' LOL...........They did it rather well I thought and felt proud I'd witnessed it :-)

At the end of the show Peter and Patrick came out again and ran down the catwalk.  Peter also commented that in two weeks time they would've been at number one the same amount of time as Bohemian Rhapsody (ie: 9 weeks)!!  Roger put his finger up to them and said that there was no way that was gonna happen.  He also hugged Patrick (I liked that bit :-).  At the very end they walk down the catwalk, Roger kicks Spike to make him move.  He also counts when they bow before the encore.

After the gig we all met up and discussed the gig.  Sarah, Gavin and Cat had managed to blag their stay with James in his hotel, so they decided to head back and have a few drinks.  I was knackered, so I declined the offer to go with them but Trina and I waited for Roger and Brian to leave.  Brian was first and waved again.  Roger left not long afterwards and waved.  Trina and I said goodbye to Matt and Michelle.  (We'd met Matt years ago but had never kept in touch and it was lovely to see him again!!)  We made our way back to the hotel with me singing Road to Nowhere all the way and looked forward to some sleep and a day off :-)

 

Oh I forgot to mention my ticket!!  Trina went to get some back and I said I wasn't that bothered.  She got two and gave me one anyway - when I looked at the name I started going mad...........she'd given me Mr Taylor's ticket LOL.......................... see :-)!!

05/05/2005 - DAY OFF - travelled from Manchester to home

06/05/2005 - BIRMINGHAM NEC ARENA

 As we had, had the previous day off Trina and I didn't manage to get to Birmingham till about 10ish.  There was quite a few people in the queue by this point.  All the regulars, plus two people I know from QOL Pam & Susan otherwise known as funster and fairy.  They had been to Newcastle and Manchester.  In Manchester they had had seats so didn't bother to queue, but the bug had bit them for Birmingham and had joined us all :-)  Trina and I had debated whether to get up at 4am and get there earlier but decided against it as we would have to do that for Cardiff as it was being held on a Saturday.  We made ourselves comfortable for the long wait!!  Madness set in during this queue coz we started singing (rather badly and quite out of tune!)  I can't remember too much about this queue except Vern went all the way back to Peterborough and got back in time for doors opening.  Michelle who had been drinking JD nearly all day jumped on me and we both ended up on the floor.  I was just extremely grateful that nobody in the queue didn't laugh out loud when she did it coz it was quite embarrasing.  She also got everyone in the queue to sign her arm, and got more condoms.  This time they were flavoured etc.......LOL........

Not much of a cliff hanger but I don't wanna bore you too much ;-)  Look out for tomorrow's installment, who would turn up in Birmingham?  Would security be any better than Manchester?  Would I lose Trina AGAIN??  Stay tuned :-)

Best wishes

Jen xx

Part 4: The revenge of no sleep!!

Well it's a beautiful day I have no friends that live nearby that I can call on, can't drive, have no money and can't really be bothered to do anything.  So I'll give you another update instead ;-)

PART 4

I made myself comfortable as I was feeling very tired and not very energetic.  Sarah went off in search of food and not long after she'd gone a tea trolley lady appeared from the lift.  (There were many steps to get to the doors and someone had installed a lift for disabled people, I guess!!) Anyway she said she'd seen us from the window and thought we may like some food :-)  Top woman!!  After a while everyone played charades using Queen song titles.  It was quite good - here's an example........Gavin pinched Sarah's plastic fork broke it and threw it!!  I bet you can't guess what that was.....well break and throw - breakthru' LOL.......This gives you a clue to how tired I was, I was thinking breakforks??  Silly girl!!  I wanted to do hammer to fall but didn't have a hammer LOL..........Not long after this game was in full swing we were informed that if we wanted to be nearer to the stage we had to queue by another set of doors so we moved!!  At this other set of doors (which were actually in the train station, which meant it was warm and shelter :-) there was only a ribbon type barrier between us and about 10 different set of doors, still we formed an orderly queue and waited!!

Gavin, in this time came up with a fab idea.  Roger had been doing his 46664 campaign song 'Say it's not true' and asks if anyone is wearing any condoms.  Gavin suggested that when he does that we should throw condoms at him.  Everyone agreed it was a fab idea!!  So Michelle and someone else went shopping and came back with about 3 boxes each with 36 condoms in each one.  Apparently Boots were doing buy 2 get one free offer LOL...........They handed them out and we decided the best moment to throw them.  This was gonna be funny!!

Around 3ish myself, Michelle and Jamie went round to the back exit which was on the main road, to see the guys arriving.  I had to take Cat's mobile as mine had no money and if anything exciting happened I had to ring them.   After a while of standing round there Jamie complained she was cold and went back to queue bless her!!  We were all pretty cold but she's from California so she must have felt like an ice bucket!!  Michelle and I remained, so we got to talking.  I had read all her on QOL were there was a thread all about her.  Basically she quit college about two months before she was due to qualify and took out a £5000 loan to follow the guys on tour.  To date she had done every gig bar 4 when she had, had to go home and get some more money.  She was a lovely girl and although secretly I was jealous of her I thought she was very sweet.  Paul and his misses had taken a shine to her and Brian recognised her - not sure about Roger though!!

Eventually I called the girls as the security guard opened the gate and kept it open.  Sarah, Trina and one of the Maltese guys came round.  He was really funny and at one point I was quoting a Roger/John interview with him and the girls looked at us as if we should get a life LOL........Waiting for the cars got really annoying coz that particular part of the main road had traffic lights so every time a car was heading for the lights they indicated to turn and it looked like they were pulling up into the venue.  Luckily we knew the bands number plates ( we're not stalkers honest!!)  Brian turned up first and waved and stuck his thumb up.  The Maltese guy held his flag up and got in Sarah's way which was quite amusing!!  I decided to wait on the other side of the pavement for Roger coz I remembered that when he pulled up outside the Hilton he got out of the drivers side.  When his car did turn up, so did the bands bus!  Trina and Sarah almost killed themselves trying to get to my side.  We waved and shouted to Rog and I'm pretty convinced there was hand movement.  He'd blacked out his window so it was hard to tell.

Back in the queue which was now stretching around this sheltered area, Gavin constructed a mock up of the stage using the condoms and explained to James where he would want to be standing for a great view of Brian.  It was really funny!!  (Actually Trina videoed it and that was one of the videos I was trying to save which regulars will remember me moaning about :-)  About an hour before the doors were due to open some prat came and stood near us and said something like "Look I'm here an hour before and I'll still get to the front."  Well that was it MASS PANIC!!  Not just from us but from everyone who had queued nicely earlier as well!!  We all stood up and were suddenly surrounded by randoms, (name for people who don't turn up regularly!)  When the stewards eventually came out they decided in their infinite wisdom to open all the doors at the same time.  The ribbon barrier didn't help very much!!  We'd even told the steward that we'd been there since 8 (well some had!!) couldn't he let us in early and his reply was 'how do I know you've been here since then huh?'  Was not a helpful man grrrrrrr.........

In the scrum to get inside I lost everyone as I got held up by a bin grrr......They had decided to put bins by all the doors that weren't getting used.  So there was one door with a bin next to it if you get my meaning!!  There was another queue formed inside and I couldn't see Trina or anyone, although inside I was panicking like mad I joined the back of the queue!!  I ended up standing next to a guy from QOL (Monty is his board name don't know his real name!) who was absolutely fuming!!  Apparently some bloke had pushed in near him and the Maltese people and because this guy was pushing when the doors were opened they kept their side back until this guy stopped.  In the end this random guy managed to get in before Monty and the Maltese.  Monty had joined the queue during the day just after Trina and myself.  I was fine about being seperated from Trina but I knew she would be worrying.  I couldn't even phone her coz I didn't have my phone on me.......the lady Monty was with offered me hers, but I declined hoping on all hope that Trina would enjoy herself if I couldn't find her again.  The stewards came round and took our tickets and gave us wristbands.  They eventually started letting people in, only a few at a time as the steps down into the arena were so steep with no railings!!  I got down them in one piece and headed straight for the barrier calling for Trina.

To be continued..............More surprises to be had!!

Part 3 - Up North

Welcome back everyone!!  Thanks for the comments, hope your all having a lovely weekend :-)  Here's Part 3.  (I'm thinking about doing two entries tomorrow - I'll see how I feel :-)

After the show ended the queueing group met up, got back some tickets and a few of us decided to find the bands hotel.  Michelle (who I shall tell you about later), found out they were staying at the Hilton.  (Remember in the first part I mentioned it - see I was right LOL.......) Apparently they had been staying there for the last 3 days (whether that's true or not is another matter - but if they were then they were there when I pointed at it!!) Anyway back to the topic, Sarah had her car and 6 of us managed to pile into this fiesta.  We hid Michelle under my coat so the police wouldn't stop Sarah for having too many people in her car!!

It seemed like ages that we had been driving round Newcastle.  All I knew was that if we headed towards the bridge we wouldn't be far away - but trying to find the bridge was a nightmare.  Eventually Sarah asked some random people and we managed to find it   By this point it had started raining again grrr.......but there was shelter so we got out of the car and went and stood under it.  There were other fans there too, such as Jamie and Alessia.

The first to turn up was one of the Beat-the-street buses and Jim Beach (manager) stepped out.  He looked at us and said "Don't get cold." LOL......Next Roger's car turns up.....aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh, I had in mind I wanted a photo - well the last one was taken in 1999 time for an update, this was my moment !!  He got out of the car with his girlfriend and PA.  His girlfriend went inside and a couple of people, including Sarah said hello to her.  I didn't coz I was too busy concentrating on Rog!!  He stood by the boot of the car just talking to someone for ages, then he was mobbed by us lot.  Sarah showed him some photos I think, and at some point he said jokingly but with meaning, "I don't like photos."  So that put an end to my idea then!!    Sarah tried to have her pic taken with him but he wasn't looking up and smiling underneath his hat, it's quite a funny pic!!  I was determined to see him and kept switching ends to get a better view.  In the end I gave up but Trina thrusted a ticket at me and told me to get it signed.  So I went back and ended up standing in front of him and said "Roger pleaaaaasssssseeee" I don't know why I said that lol.......I handed him my ticket and kept hold of it as he signed it.  Whilst he was signing it he also held the ticket so our fingers were touching the whole time  aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh.......Then when he finished he looked at me for what felt like ages (lookin back on it I could've said something to him but I was dumbstruck and just stared into those gorgeous eyes :-)  He then said, "This is the point where I'd usually say 'Oh look there's Brian'".  I fell for that and glanced round to see Brian's car LOL........Doh!!  I felt like such a muppet.  Anyway he started to make his way inside and was saying goodbye to everyone.  Gavin and Sarah said 'see you tomorrow' so I copied them and he put his thumb up and said 'take care.'  He was so lovely and sweet, I expect the person whose ticket I have is kicking themselves right now LOL.......

 

Another beat-the-street bus turned up next.  An American guy got out and said that Paul would give autographs if we formed an orderly queue inside.  So that was good coz it got us all out of the cold with a promise of something.  Paul got out of the bus and made his way down the queue.  I wanted a piccie, not an autograph so Trina took one for me and got herself an autograph.  Paul was lovely and seems very sweet and genuine.  Wasn't sure about his entourage though, they appeared quite mean, but at least they get the job done I guess!!

  When Paul was finished the rest of the band got out of the bus eg: Spike and Jamie (no idea where Danny was!!)  Jamie was pissed and quite a laugh watching him and Sarah have a chat then have his pic taken with her.  He was literally grabbing hold of her so he didn't fall down I think LOL......then when he spotted Cat he pulled her into the pic too.  I touched Spike on the arm and asked if he was enjoying himself.  He said he was, bless him!!

We made our way back outside and eventually Brian turns up.  He says he doesn't want to give autographs or photos.  That was until Gavin started a conversation about the bloke who was videoing earlier.  That softened him up and a few of the people there managed to get photos.  Unfortunately Trina didn't!!  :-(

 

Trina and I then said goodbye to all our new found friends and walked back to our hotel which wasn't that far from the Hilton.  We decided to get up by at least 5ish to get to the queue early enough the next day.  Yeah I know we're mad!!

04/05/2005 - MANCHESTER - EVENING NEWS ARENA

Managed to get up fairly early and caught the 6.15am train to Manchester.  Was not amused that we could see the Hilton from the train.  I just kept thinking how Roger was probably still in bed fast asleep, it wasn't fair!!  Eventually we got to Manchester just after 9ish I think!!  Trina managed to sleep on the train, but as we had no idea where the stop was I felt inclined to stay awake.  This did not bode well for the rest of the day!!  We got into the taxi and it took us to the Stays Inn.  I had booked this online twice.  Once through multi map and once through another site which I received an email from a fellow Queen fan (regular journal viewers may remember that!!) So I cancelled the booking through multimap and confirmed the booking with the guy on the email.  When we got there they had a different version of events and that I had cancelled it altogether!!  I was not amused, probably coz I was tired!!  Luckily though they did still have a room and if we wanted breakfast we had to pay extra again!!  (Where and when did hotels get the idea ofcharging for breakfast??)  Dropped off our bags in asmoking room, the only one available to check into at that time and walked to the venue.  Got there at 10ish.  All the people who were there in Newcastle were already there apart from Alessia.  There was also 3 Maltese people and a young lad by the name of James and his mates.  James was lovely, he's only about 17/18 and he's obessesd with Brian, plus it was his first Queen gig so he was really excited.  We all wanted to mother him...........

So do we??  Will Manchester be any better than Newcastle?  Will I EVER hug Roger??   Find out tomorrow............

Take care peeps.......

Part two: Newcastle cont........

Hi Everyone - it appears you liked what you read and you want more :-)

So here's part 2 - newcastle cont...........

As there were 2 sets of doors to the venue, Sarah, Gavin and someone else (can't remember who!!) had a chat to the security person and told him we'd been there since 8ish (although alessia and jamie had been there way before that!!).  He agreed that he would let our set of doors open about a minute before the other doors.  We then started panicking about where we were gonna stand.  Julie drew a picture of the stage.  Basically there was a main stage where all musicians were based then a long catwalk, which ended with a smaller jutty out bit where they would do their acoustic parts, and Brian and Paul came and stood there quite frequently.  Around this part was the best place to stand because you can see the main stage and be close to whoever comes up the end.  So we all decided what we were aiming for once inside.

The venue people stuck a piece of paper on the doors telling us when the soundcheck was gonna be etc........silly people!!   At around 3.30pm Cat, Sarah and myself decided we needed exercise and wandered round the back to catch a glimpse of the band.  When we got there, two other girls who were waiting informed us that we'd just missed Roger going in - Sarah and I were not amused !!  Eventually the bus turned up though, drove in through the gates and dropped Jamie, Danny and Spike off.  Brian's car turned up and he waved at us :-)  Once he'd gone inside we made our way back to the other side of the pavement and had to get out of the way of this van.  We had jokingly been saying 'oh perhaps this is Paul' to pretty much every vehicle and this van was no exception.  So we said it, turned round to look at the van and it read "Hire Me £25 per day"  This was so amusing!!  Obviously you had to be there ;-)  In the end we gave up waiting for Paul and went back to queue!

Cannot remember what time they let us into the venue (Sarah's journal reads 6.30pm so that will do :-)  but the security bloke was true to his word and let our side in first.  He told us we had to get to the end of the corridor where a member of staff would be waiting.  So some of us went right and the rest of us went left.  When we reached the member of staff we were told we were early and he was not letting us in!!  Panick!!  Nice security man had followed us and explained the situation to the staff member.  So we were held there for a few minutes - we all thanked nice man for sticking to his promise!!  Wasn't that nice of him :-) ??  They then let us into the venue, we had to give them our tickets as we went in but all the front of the queue managed to get where they wanted to be :-)

Setlist

Reaching Out, Tie Your Mother Down, I Want To Break Free, Fat Bottomed Girls, Wishing Well, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Say It's Not True, Year of '39, Love of My Life, Hammer To Fall, I'm In Love With My Car, Guitar solo, Last Horizon, These Are The Days, Radio Ga Ga, Can't Get Enough, A Kind of Magic, I Want It All, Bohemian Rhapsody ------------ All Right Now, We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions

The gig was brilliant!!  Trina and I got to the left hand side of the jutty out bit (which from now on I shall name the platform :-).  We had a good view of the stage and when they did their acoustic parts!!

Highlights for us both were the following:  As Paul hadn't turned up for the soundcheck (or at least we hadn't seen him) Trina and I started worrying, even more so when he came out during Eminem's Lose Yourself, stood a the bottom of the platform with a coat over him.  It was just part of the act LOL...............Anyway back to sanity - Roger's drum solo (although reading the setlist it's not mentioned and I copied that from another site grrrr.......) Just before I'm In Love With My Car he does a drum thingy which is called 'Let There Be Drums' which is a cover I think!!  Anyway I had not seen this before and I stood there with my mouth open in shock gaping at the man!!  Wow was that amazing!!  His hands were moving so fast, it was just so incredible to watch and the ferocity he hit the drums with was just amazing!!  I was gobsmacked!!  During Brian's acoustic part he starts Hammer To Fall slowly, he stopped and said 'I'm not going to continue until the person stops videoing'  (he did swear about it naughty boy!!) He went on to say that it was a special moment between him and us (ie: the people that were there that night!!)  It was also the first time I'd seen them do Wishing Well which was fab, but it was interesting to see that Show Must Go On and Feel Like Makin' Love had been taken out.  After the encore they came out and played a Cream track.  Well only about 5 seconds of it coz then Paul said 'oh bugger should've rehearsed that a bit' LOL...........Roger came down to the platform for his 46664 song Say It's Not True, afterwards he asked if anyone in the audience was wearing a condom and went on to say Danny was wearing one and Jamie was wearing two!!  Ha ha.........Fabulous gig, even if Paul wasn't on stage a lot, but in my mind they had definitely come on leaps and bounds since Brixton, but this gig felt short to me!!

 

 

Look out for tomorrow's instalment........more excitement in Newcastle!!

 

 

P.s Got my shoes for the wedding today - will show you a pic soon!!  :-)

Tour Diary

Hi Everyone :-)  I'm bored so I thought I'd take this weekend to perhaps start my tour diary off!!  I lost it on the computer when I did the reinstall so I'm retyping it for the journal.  By the time I did the reinstall it was already up to 13 odd pages Yes you did read that right and I still had 2 gigs to write about!!  Mind you Brixton was included in this diary and you guys already know about that :-)  - I've taken the decision to do this in instalments so I shall start.  Hope you enjoy it people :-)

NEWCASTLE - 03/05/2005 - Metro Arena

Trina and I went up to Newcastle on the Monday as it took 6 or 7 hours by train.  As it was a long journey we went up by Club Class on Virgin trains.  Never travelled by club class before and enjoyed our free drink and snack pack.  These are great they have mini crackers and cheese in them, together with mini bag of pretzels, fruit bits, mini kit kat, and lots more!!  The journey was fine and we didn't get delayed at all.  Just after Birmingham the refreshment bit put out an announcment that it was closing for a stock take, but we never heard an announcement that it was re-opening.  I was thirsty so we asked the ticket blokie and he said he would check it out and get back to us.  He eventually came back with more free drinks and another snack pack.  We both took the drinks and when asked if we wanted the snack pack I said no, but Trina, who wanted one, also said no!!  She really is a strange girl!!  Eventually we arrived in Newcastle.  This was the first time I had ever been there and we had to find the hotel.  According to multimap it wasn't that far away from the train station.  Hint - never believe in multimap!!  Or maybe it was because we didn't know our way around and couldn't agree with each other ha ha........Eventually (well according to our watches) it had taken 1 hour and 10 minutes to find the hotel, but we got there!!  The Waterside Hotel was going through refurbishment and was a complete tip.  The room wasn't bad and the staff seemed friendly (even if we couldn't understand them lol........ only joking peeps!!) Anyway after a quick settle in, it was off to check out the venue and get something to eat.

The Metro Arena wasn't easy to find either!!  Why is it that when you have a sign with an arrow pointing the arrow is never pointing in the right direction??  We walked around the venue and were both amazed at the size and the amount of doors to get in.  As we got round the back the crew were already there with the buses and lorrys.  We decided to text Sarah (who we knew from the Roger tour in '99 and met again in January for WWRY), and let her know it didn't look promising.  That started her panicking so she texted back to say she was gonna set off at 4.30am.  She was staying with Gavin and Cat at Gavin's in Scotland.  It started raining on Trina and myself and we didn't have an umbrella or anything.  As everyone had started panicking about the queue I decided to book my place, so I stepped in a puddle and jumped to a dry bit by the doors leaving wet footprints.  That was my space saved lol.......

We made our way to Weatherspoons for some grub.  It wasn't too bad in there, Trina ordered lasgne and had to send it back coz it was frozen in the middle.  In compensation they gave us some more wine :-), but when she got it back it was still cold.  We gave up in the end and set out to find a local food shop to buy some snacky stuff.  Jeez, what a task!!  Could we find a shop that was open??  No!!  I was beginning to dislike Newcastle!!  We then decided as we had some time to kill to walk across the Tyne bridge.  We got to the middle, stopped, looked at the view, had a laugh and a joke.  We'd been trying to figure out which hotel the band were staying in as that was probably the only way we were gonna meet them.  Just across the water from the bridge was the Hilton hotel.  I joked to Trina, "I bet their staying there."  She responded, "I doubt EMI would foot the bill to put them up there."  We wandered back to our hotel and watched some TV.  (Whose Line is it anyway - neither of us had seen that for ages so that was good :-)  We agreed what time to set the alarm and tried to get some sleep aiming to get to the venue by 9am.

Got up earlyish!!  Went without breakfast, we'd found out we'd have to pay something like £9.50 for a full english.  There was NO way I was paying that doesn't matter how much I want one.  Got to the venue about 9ish after a stop at the train station to get some food :-)  About 4 people already there.  Julie, Vern, an american girl called Jamie and a girl I recognised from QOL called Alessia (on QOL she's whitequeen)!!  Walked up to them and said "hello".  There was no way I was gonna sit there all day and not talk to new people.  More people turned up for the next 1/2 an hour but no real queue formed until later.  Sarah, Cat and Gavin got stuck behind some sheep so that made Sarah panic about the queue bless her!!  Eventually though they turned up and we all settled in for the day.  It rained and thundered can you believe it?  Everybody in the queue was lovely and we all looked out for one another, getting food, newspapers, saving spaces for toilet breaks etc, it was a good laugh, especially when Gavin read the problem pages from one womans magazine :-)  I had a nice chat to Julie whose been a fan for years and she's seen them at nearly every gig and apparently can be seen on the Live Aid DVD.  Asked her if she had ever met Freddie, but things like that and autograph hunting didn't enter her mind back then!!  She and Vern had done quite a few of the gigs in Europe.

That's a page of what I've written so far..................keep reading for the next instalment :-)  Take care peeps have a good weekend!!

  JEN xx 

Your absolutely sure no-one wants this cold?

Well fellow J-people!!  Much rejoicing to be had in jen's life.  Well alright just a little rejoicing!!  AOL is back to the land of the living and I can see my Gold Welcome page.  How did you do it?  I hear you cry!!  (well all right I can't hear you cry that I just wanted to amuse myself!!)

The sorry tale is that I decided to go for a full uninstall - modem and all, and when I came to reinstall it, the cd didn't wanna know the modem.  So Sunday I didn't log onto the internet at all.  I knew at that point I had to reload the system.  Tried to rescue as much as possible.  Good job I printed most of my stuff out, and woohoo I managed to save those little video things I was telling you about in my last entry!!  I'm so chuffed about that!!  Lost most of my music though - still never mind!!  Worse thing about having to reload Windows is I'm back to using windows '98!!  Yep I can't believe it either.  I should see if I can get a more up to date operating system, just not sure I can afford it!!

Anyhoo........what else is going on in my life?  Still got this dreadful cold.  Today has been the worst - felt sick all day but suffered it and didn't come home!!  Now Pauline's gone off on her hols I should go in unless dying.  Why do I do that??  I'm not gonna get any thanks for it!!  Glutton for punishment springs to mind lol............Printed off the application form yesterday - I must get round to completeing it!!  My time has been taken up with the computer at the mo!!  Still there's a bank holiday coming up - Yay time off work!!

Saturday mum and megan came to see me!!  Megan is talking to me again (can't remember if I told you that she disowned me the last time I saw her!)  Got her laughing a couple of times.  Mum's ok, apparently she's planning to go and see Cliff Richard in concert in London.  Hope she does go, she'll be able to see why I do it so often ;-)  Well ok, she won't have the whole queue experience but still.........

My review of the gigs has been put on a temporary hiatus!!  Mainly because my system restore has lost Word and Excel.  I did print out what I'd written but there's a lot of typing - so I'll share it with you when I can be bothered ;-) 

I managed to get to the gym yesterday.  Not sure if I wanna go tomorrow, see how I feel I guess!! 

I finished reading the josephine cox book 'bad boy jack'!!  If you want light reading I definitely reccommend it!!  I actually enjoyed it :-)  I've now started another light reading novel and it's not grabbed my attention.  I shall perservere for now!!

Well don't know what else to tell you!!  Thanks to Stuart for offering to help with my internet problems.

Take care everyone xx

Jen

 

Oooooooo forgot to mention the ducks!!  One couple have ducklings and they are so sweet.  I've only seen them in the mornings on the way to work and they are sooo small they would fit into the palm of your hand!!  I should try and get a piccie!!  My swan couple have laid eggs and mum's keeping them nice and toastie everyday just waiting for them to hatch now :-)

Wanna cold anyone??

Hello everyone - how are you all??

Don't even begin to talk to me about darn computers.  Basically I've lost my AOL welcome screen!!  To sign in I'm using their Dialler connection which is fine up till a point!!  This is not why I'm forking out my money for!!  I haven't got round to calling them yet.  Mainly because I'm tired and ill and don't think I'm in the best frame of minds to be dealing with it.  I thought I may be able to sort it out myself, you know uninstalling and reinstalling.  It's not made a slight bit of difference. I also wondered if maybe I had a virus but I did a check and everything seems to be ok so I've run out of options which means I think I'll have to do a whole system reinstall.  I'm not happy about this though coz it means all the little video clips Trina and I took over the tour I shall probably lose grrrr......This means I shall have to try and learn how to save these to disc.  Damn it why is nothing in life easy??

I've been typing up my memories for the last few days!!  So far I'm up to Birmingham, but I couldn't remember much of what happened so I've been on the boards reading other people's memories to remind myself :-)  Of course this has slowed me up coz I bump into people I met and start chatting.......

Work is ok!!  I'm quite surprised actually or maybe it's just the calm before the storm.  Pauline is going away for the next week or so, which means it'll just be me and team leader on our section.  I found out today that team leader has tuesday and wednesday booked at the same time as Pauline which means I'll be on my own arrrrghhh.............I'm soooooooooo not looking forward to that lol.........

They have put an advertisement in for a full time position to replace Richard.  Pauline asked on monday if I was gonna go for it but I thought nah I don't wanna.  On Tuesday team leader asked me if I was and I voiced my concerns with her that if I did I didn't wanna end up like Richard.  She was quite sweet about it, so I probably will go for it - well it does mean more money and there's never any harm in that is there lol.......Perhaps it'll fund another tour lol ;-)

I'm lookingforward to the weekend!!  I thought at the beginning of the week about going to see mum and decided I was too knackered to do so (sorry mum) but she's texted me to say she'll come down Saturday if I'm not doing anything - Yay!!  Should be good fun :-)

Well I don't know what else to say!!  Anyone wanna cold?? *snifs* *cough cough*

Take care everyone

I'm Back!!

Hi everyone in J-Land!

So did you miss me?  Well I'm back so don't worry no more!!  :-)

This won't be a great entry I'm still trying to type up my memories of the last two weeks.  It's been such a laugh...............

I'm ill though and sooooooooo not looking forward to going back to work!!  They've offered me another temp contract until August anyway so I suppose that's something.  I'm scared I've forgotten everything but hopefully it will all come flooding back once I've walked back in the room!!  Well here's hoping anyway :-)

I shall post my entries for the gigs but only when I'm happy about them!!  All you need to know for now is I loved every minute of it :-)

Damn that crazy frog and his stupid goddamned advert -  can someone please kill it??!!

Take care everyone xx

Can't wait to catch up with y'all