Convention Part 2

Before I continue with my convention write up - have you seen the pic of Paddy on the welcome screen??  He's one of the stars that's posed naked for testicular cancer and OH MY GOD!!  That was a nice round off to the day ;-)  For those of you that missed it I shall paste it at the end of this entry xx

Day 2 - Saturday

It started off fairly well – although we were still fairly tired from the night before!!  Trina and I were sharing a bedroom, Pam and Sam were in the other one and Jamie was on the sofa.  Trina and I were awoken to voices in the living room, so we went out to find out what was going on.  Sam was saying about how she’d been woken up by two beatles in her bed and did anyone else have any??  The response was no!!  As we were all up Trina (being mother), started breakfast, bacon sarnies all round, except for Sam who had Philadelphia on toast.  The conversation stayed on Sam and her beatles (which she would eventually chuck over the balcony).  It was a pleasant start to the day.

First item on the agenda was the market place.  Fans bring their records, merchandise and anything else that they don’t want or even make, to sell.  I had a set limit and started off well.  The jumper I wanted was being sold for a reduced price of £15.00.  I kept teasing Trina about this as she paid £40 for hers lol…….*evil laughter* my other main objective was to find some tour programmes or something like that.  Getting a bit frustrated coz I couldn’t find anything I wanted, we went to have a look at the official merchandise stall, whilst we were having a look Trina bumped into old friends Margaret and John, and stood gossiping for nearly an hour.  Jamie had joined us by this point and we were stood waiting for Trina to finish her conversation.  Eventually she did but apart from raffle tickets from the MPT stall there was nothing else we wanted so wandered back to the main market place.

Margaret and John had followed us there and Trina stood gossiping to them for another half an hour.  By this point Jamie had disappeared and Amy had turned up, she was new to the market place so wanted a bit of advice.  She soon disappeared too, and when Trina finished talking we wandered around again.  I brought myself a Fat Bottomed Girls t-shirt which was also reduced and ended up splitting the cost of some DVD’s and Cd’s which were buy 3 get one free J  I also ended up getting a really early tour programme but the bloke we brought it from first said £15 then as we were handing the money over he changed his mind to £20 grrrrrr………  After that we gave up and went back to the chalet where we found the rest of the group watching one of the DVD’s Jamie had purchased earlier.  As soon as I entered the chalet Sarah said ‘Oh my god you’ve got to listen to this’ and they played the most loveliest Roger moment of the weekend so far J  They were all trying to get it onto their phones as a ring tone or message tone.  Unfortunately my mobile is useless and won’t do high-tech things like that!!  We all sat around having sarnies etc deciding what we were gonna do for the rest of the day.  The problem is that unless you are taking part in some sporting event the day can get quite boring.  Although the chalets do have QTV most of it you’ve seen before or own so you don’t feel like watching that.  With no money you can’t afford to spend all your spare time in the arcade.

Eventually we all started to wander over for the showing of ‘Return of the Champions’ on the big screen (I was chuffed I would get to see myself on the big screen lol), at the bottom of the chalet steps, Becky, Dave, Rosie, her boyfriend (who I can’t remember the name of), Roz, James and possibly Dan (my memory is terrible), were painting their tram for the fancy dress later that day.  So after a few photos of that were taken we headed off to the ballroom to watch the dvd.  Trina managed to have a word with Jackie about the fancy dress though, coz we were all under the impression that they used to have a Queen themed one then the other theme on a different night, but there had been no mention of this in the programme!!  According to Jacky that was wrong and they had never done that (yeah right!!)  Trina went on to explain to here that we hadn't bothered with the Xmas theme and gone for Roger's Believe in Yourself.  At the end of the song he mutters loads of things and items and people andwe had to pick something from the list to dress up as!!  Jacky laughed and said she was gonna point us out for being stupid and wearing Queen dress instead!!  Trina and the rest of the gang thought that was hysterical - not me though I hasten to add!!  I couldn't think of anything worse lol!! 

Anyway we settled down to watch the dvd, after my bit ;-)  I got bored - well I have seen it before and I was feelin' tired so I went back to the chalet on my own and lied down for a bit, had some convention water (aka Vodka - I can hear your audible gasps - naughty jenny ;-)  and went back to join the girls.  As I did I missed Sam and Funster and I think Jamie going back to the chalet, so I had to walk all the way back as I had the key *tut* We all went back to the ballroom and watched Pheobe (aka Peter Freestone, Freddie's personal assistant) do a Q & A session.  After that we all had to run back and get changed before the auction!!  During my time alone I had convinced myself I did want to do the fancy dress, so with Sam's help (cutting me some eye holes) I was a ghost!!  I would post the list if I knew where it was lol!!

When everyone was ready we went back to the ballroom and sat waiting for the auction.  Before that though they had the mime and Sarah and Jamie decided to enter against these blokes all in Freddie costumes.  Jamie had her blow up hammer, and Sarah used her tree part as a guitar (Wendy/Helena gave them the blow up guitar that they had :-)  It was so funny and I wish I could share the video with you It's the best!!  Sarah actually won in the end and was given a certificate and what I like to call a Jim'll fix it medal - you'll see what i mean in the photos ;-) 

Next was the auction.  Trina sat with Julie and Vern!!  Julie has money and if there's something she wants she will bid on it, so Trina had to negotiate with her, what she wanted to bid on, so they don't bid on the same things - if that makes sense.  Trina won a shirt owned by Roger (which Vern has something to tell her about it but what that is we don't know yet!!  I've not actually seen him wearing it and it smells musty lol - not that I've sniffed it you understand ;-)  Julie and Vern walked away with tons and I think their last total was between £4,000 and £6,000 pounds *shock*  I wish I had the money to do that!! 

After the auction we prepared ourselves for the fancy dress :-)  Our tram had arrived, there were several ghosts including a roger one, a vet, a waste spacing journalist, pirates (not actually mentioned but hey!!), a decidious tree, a lawyer with fees, these were all mentioned at the end of the song.  We looked great but wandering around the ballroom floor with everyone else dressed in xmas gear we looked stupid.  The pontins photographer took our photo and we passed our sign to Jacky so they would know what we were!!  Alas we were robbed!!  We didn't get a number and therefore didn't make it to the finals :-( 

Next came one of the greatest tribute bands ever!!  They played the convention last year and everyone raved about them so Trina and I knew we were in for a treat.  Their argentinian and their english name according to the fanclub is God Save the Queen.  We managed to get near the front and they were awesome.  When I post the pics you'll see the Freddie was meant to be in a tribute band - it's so scary!!  Trina was practically drooling on the stage, she loved him so much.  When they walked off I got him to touch my hand and teased her about it afterwards lol........mean jenny!!  They came back on to do an encore though and he touched her hand afterwards she was very happy.  The roger is funny as he has blond hair and bushey dark eyebrows but in certain angles from behind he did look like him!!  He also touched my hand :-) 

After going back to the chalet for some unknown reason, we came back as the Arena team said they were doing something to mark the 21st anniversary!!  The arena team are fab and usually do stuff like that!!  This year they were going through the last 21 years and marking out things that happened in history and what Queen were up to.  Then some of the team members would come on and mime to a song, for example we had bob the builder complete with Jamies hammer ;-), the cheeky girls or should I say men, etc etc..........They then played Christmas tunes and that was a good laugh :-)  After a few of them and linking arms etc we had the disco.  Apparently Dan went up and requested D.I.S.C.O and YMCA but they wouldn't play them lol.........

After dancing the night away, we decided to head down to the beach.  The majority of us went with some staying behind to get more sleep.  I had never been to prestatyn beach before - how pathetic is that??  Still it was quite an adventure with drunk people walking with us and not being able to see a thing when we got down there!!  We didn't stay long and headed back to go to bed as there was no available chalet to carry on the party!!  That was to bed again at 4am .................... would we ever get some sleep?? 

Part 3 sunday possible tomorrow!!  But for now a treat for the ladies ;-)  or perhaps just for me lol

  mmmmmmmm...............

Sweet dreams peeps xx

Wireless Alert Thingy

Thanks to Jeannette (Travels) who informs me that a wireless alert went out for my last entry - figured that was gonna happen........so heres one of those entries for no particular reason to draw your attention to the entry I've just done ;-)

 

Thanks peeps xx

Convention - Friday

hey peeps - long time no hear huh??  Well ok, it's only been a week but I bet you missed me all the same ;-)  I was hoping to get this update of the convention finished tonight but I've been distracted so I'll break it up into 3 parts and on the 3rd part you can have the photos ;-)

 

So let's get on with this and tell you about the convention.  It's set over a weekend in Pontins holiday camp in Prestatyn North Wales.  Trina and I have been attending them for 9 years and this was to be our 10th.  We've missed two due to not having any money and wanting a break (naughty us!!)  In the past we've always found that we have one good year, one not so good, one good, one not so good etc etc........I had my reservations about this one but I was to be proved wrong.

 

Sarah and Dan had organised a gang of about 18 people to stay in 3 chalets all next door to each other.  They had also organised what I like to call the Fun Bus, which was really a people carrier, for the people travelling up from the southwest.  As you all know I had Thursday off work to prepare myself and then had to get up early to meet Trina the next day.  We caught the 8.23am train to Bristol and met Dan, Sarah, Becky & Dave at the train station.  Once they saw Trina's bag, no-one was impressed.  The problem with people carriers is they can carry people fine but luggage is a no-no!!  We all jammed ourselves in with luggage on our knees, between our legs and in every space available.  We then headed over to the airport to pick up Gavin.

 

Eventually after a stop at Halfords we were on our way :-)  Listening to Queen most of the way and having a good ol' gossip it was a good journey.  We stopped off at the services a couple of times, and we even stopped off at Dan's gran's.  Bless her she had a whole spread ready for us to feast on :-)  She even gave us a cake to take with us!!  We left Dan's gran's and we were getting closer to Prestatyn.  It was funny at one point we were stuck behind one of those powered wheelchairs.  Anyway when we were getting closer we opened the windows and turned the speakers up and played Roger's Man On Fire Very Loudly and sang along.  It was starting to feel like the convention to me :-)

 

We pulled into Pontins and Sarah and Gavin went to check in.  Eventually they came back and we drove round to find our chalets.  Right on the other side of the camp - typical lol.......Luckily though we did have 3 altogether, so we set about getting our luggage into the chalets and settling in, waiting for the others to arrive.

 

Funster, Sam and Andy (aka Vivid), turned up.  At the same time people from our chalets were choosing who was going shopping and what we needed to get.  (Very organised)!!  After the hello's were done, the gang went shopping, and I met Richard who'd I'd heard a bit about.  Funster told him I was lovely and his response was, 'apparently your lovely, I shall be testing you on that over the weekend' lol......Great not a lot to live up to then!!  Eventually Jamie arrived too so our chalet was complete :-)  The guys took ages with the shopping but eventually called to say they'd found a fish and chip shop, did we want any?  Of course we did!!

 

When they came back we were all chatting in Sarah's chalet.  Theirs was on the end, us girls were in the middle and the quieter group were on the other side.  The chalets were all on the top row, which was cool.  After having our fish and chips and all changing into our 'In Love with a Rock God' t-shirts we ventured over to the ballroom.  It looked as though we were sharing with the netball players which they had done the previous year too.  We had arrived to see the last of the kareoke, which Jamie was depressed about but she was in luck.  The call went out for a couple of lads but they didn't turn up.  Jamie offered to do their song for them instead.  She sung Don't Stop Me Now and I was very impressed :-)  She's been training to sing properly and it's paid off!!

 

Next was the welcome from the legend that is Keith Harris - he is the leader of the Arena Team and has been doing conventions for as long as I can remember, there was one year when he was ill and couldn't make it - it wasn't the same!!  I think Jacky came on stage after him (she run's the fanclub) and showed Brian's message, apparently Roger didn't do one coz he had a cold!!  I had a feelin' we weren't gonna get a message from him :-(  Then we had the first of our tribute bands - The Queens.  To be honest I wasn't impressed but it was the start of the convention so we did try to get into it!!  The disco was next and that was ok.  They've changed that since we last went and now have a DJ who takes requests.  Amy, (who we met), an Amercian, who was in England studying, waited all night for the DJ to play her request but alas he did not.

 

I don't remember what time the disco finished, but then it was back to Wendy's chalet for a party :-)  They were in the same block as us which was cool!!  Jamie had gone to bed but the rest of our chalet popped over to the party.  I sat on the sofa next to Richard and Amy who were having a very animated conversation.  We all had to sing happy birthday to Helena's dad Mark, and it was a good laugh.  Eventually though Sam, Pam, Trina and myself decided enough was enough and we needed to reserve our energy, after all it was only the first night!!  So we went to bed.  It was about 4am!!

 

More tomorrow..............................

 

Convention is THE BEST!!

Hi peeps

Convention is a legend, convention is a legend la la la la....hey la la la la la :-)

I've had one of the best weekends ever and I shall give you more details and photos when I feel up to it!!  I've come home with a hoarse voice, which I'm actually quite proud of lol.......

Anyway I've decided not to turn my alerts back on until Saturday - just need a break for a while.

So until the weekend - take care peeps

Hope your all ok xx

Jen xx

Convention here we come.......

Hello peeps - Didn't know whether I could be bothered to do an entry today but as I promised yesterday figured I should lol........

Today's been gorgeous and I was glad I had the day off but I've done nothing exciting but I am packed and nearly ready to go.  Just gotta remember to pack the wash stuff lol.........Just felt like doing this today though >>

So the convention!!  Every year after the may bank holiday Queen fans decend upon (used to be Southport when Trina and I first started going) Prestatyn, North Wales, which is organised by the Fan Club (they've won awards don't you know??!).  This year will be our tenth convention :-) the fan club's twenty first.  It should really be our twelveth but we've had two years off due to expenses etc.......  It's a weekend of fun, drinking, dancing, and general Queeniness!!  You even get Queen TV back in the chalets. 

I am lookin' forward to this year, Sarah and Dan have booked us in along with the rest of their group and from the emails that have been doing the rounds they are obviously a mad bunch ;-) 

Anyway I am gonna log off and have a relaxing evening watching the TV.  I have turned my alerts off - or at least I think I have lol only time will tell lol........

Have a great weekend peeps and I'll make sure I take lots of photos to show you ;-)

Take care peeps xx

Queenly yours

Short happy entry

Well this is a short entry - I'll do a proper one tomorrow this is just to say.....................

We're all going on little holiday

No more workin' for a day or two

Fun and laughter on a little holiday

Do be do be do me & you...............la la la lala lalalala.............

Are you getting the hint ;-)  I'm off of work now for 6 whole days WOOHOO

Yep I'm gearing myself up for the convention but like I said I'll give you a better update tomorrow xx

Till then...............take care xx

Jen xx 

A change of scenery

 peeps - hope you've all had a good weekend xx

 

Well after the excitement of receiving 3 entries in a row I thought I'd treat you all to a break before I wrote again.  Plus nothing exciting or even slightly interesting has happened so I don't really know why I'm doing this entry lol............Except I don't want you all to think I've forgotten you ;-)

 

 

During the week I figured I should go out somewhere at the weekend but the debate reigned as to whether I should or not!!  I can't afford it, even though I got paid at the weekend, yep monthly payments yuk, but this month I had a pay rise and went up an increment woohoo!!  This covered the amount I had gone overdrawn but I think I went slightly more overdrawn on Friday when I went shopping coz I don't think the wages had actually gone in yet *rolls eyes*  So I was debating this all week to go out or not.  The thing was if I didn't go out I would just stay in watch videos and not get anything done productively but I didn't know what the weather was gonna do and this would take away some spending money for the convention.

 

 

On Friday during my lunch break I looked up train prices on the web and tried to find bus prices.  The idea was torn between going for a walk and taking a picnic or a bike ride to actually going to the beach if it was nice!!  Unfortunately I had missed the weather report on GMTV which is unlike me coz usually I do get to see it!!  So by the end of Friday I went to bed still undecided as to what to do but set the alarm for quite early in case I could make up my mind when I woke up.  Plus I thought it would be a good idea to get up early and do the hoovering coz then it would be done and I wouldn't have to worry about it on Sunday.

 

 

So I wake up early and I still can't decide.  The weather report from the local radio station says dry, cloudy and sometimes a shower, but it would definitely brighten up in the afternoon.  I get up, have brekkie, decide which train I'm going to catch if I intend to go out and set about hoovering.  Doesn't take too long as I was in one of my I-can't-be-bothered-with-this moods.  So I'm sat around still undecided but end up getting changed and packing my bag still undecided.  At half 10 I walk up to the train station, which only takes quarter of an hour and so I'm really early.  I sit by the river for a few minutes.  Looks as if I'm going out then I think!!  Well a change of scene will do you good, plus I took the camera so I had my journal in mind you see lol..............

 

 

At 11.13am I'm on the train to Exmouth, according to the web it's cheaper to get there than it is to go to Torquay.  £3.40 to be precise, compared to £8.00 something to go the other way.  Anyhoo the train got quite busy but it was a pleasant journey.  Got there in about half an hour and wondered into town.  Like I said before I have no money so why I went into town I haven't got a clue.  I looked in some places for some new sunglasses and found a pair I quite liked in New Look for £8.00 but I figured that was too dear and so I left them and tried to find some cheaper elsewhere but no such luck.  Did consider going to see Wayne's mum and thanking her in person for the microwave but her stall was busy so decided against it!!  Instead I decided it was time to wander off to the beach.

 

 

Got there and wandered along the beach and figured as it was lunchtime(ish) I would get myself some chips.........mmmmmmmmmm...........chippy lunch :-)  Eventually got them (big queue) and sat on some rocks down by the sea.  A boat went past when I was eating them and it was playing Status Quo quite loudly, how cool is that??  I was waiting for them to play Queen but no such luck!!  After I finished eating I sat there for about an hour, feeling really extremely bored.  I'd taken a book to read and a notebook to write some stuff in but didn't feel like doing any of it now I was there!  It's nice to go out but when you surrounded by families all having a good time it just makes me feel miserable.  I started thinking I should've gone to see mum instead, I haven't seen her since mother's day :-(  It would've cost more but still........................

 

 

I gave up and decided which train to catch home and wandered up the beach and back into town.  I thought maybe if I buy myself something nice, just cheap, but nice.  Guess what??  I couldn't find anything and I decided against those sunglasses.  I went to wait for the train and it was lovely and quiet when I got on.  Then we pulled into the Royal Commander Training Unit and guess what??  The train suddenly got jam packed!!  Full of Royal Marine traninee's - any other day I would've been lookin' at them thinkin' it was my lucky day! (well ok, not really but I can dream can't I? lol) but not today, I didn't really want them on there at all, but one of them had lovely eyes.  Unfortunately he moved away from me :-(

 

 

Eventually got home and rung Trina - I was feeling blah and needed cheering up.  When I got home I decided to crash out on the sofa and watch some stuff on video.  I did put the computer on but I felt really tired so I didn't catch up with journals which is why I'm behind again lol............

 

 

Yesterday I did nothing and today I did nothing, but I did go for a walk.  :-)  This week is a two day working week for me woohoo!!  Apparently we don't go to the convention until Friday so that means I have an extra day in bed on Thursday :-)  Yay!!  Well I have to pack, which I've actually started and for once in my life I know which Queen t-shirts I'm taking.  and I've sorted out a bit of my costume.  I did have an idea about it which I should've done today but I can't be bothered.  May not bother at all shall just have to see lol..........I shall of course give you the full write up next week, probably Tuesday next coz I've got that day off too to recover ;-) 

 

 

Well I don't know what else to drone on about - wife swap is beginning so I should go and watch it :-)  So until next time...........take care peeps xx

 

Oh and I've also added pics of the daffs from Wayne's mum and a crystal thingy which I got from Trina's mum that I've hung in the window and when the sun's shining there are rainbow thingys everywhere :-)

 

 Look it's me in southpark format lol xx

 

P.s if anyone's seen the Tiscali ad the one with the woman and the cheese and the bloke says crackers and she says completely - what was she in?? it's doing my head in now!!  If you know please tell me - Thank you xx