Notes of Life

Apart from some blood tests at the beginning of the week, all in all it’s been a quiet week. Even the Wii Fit hasn’t seen me for a couple of days.

Yesterday I took a trip in the car with Dad as we needed to mark the mileage on the directions sheet for the motorbike run next weekend. We started in Montgomery, headed over the Long Mountain, up through the Stiperstones, onto the Long Mynd, down to Bishop’s Castle and across to Lydham. There are some fantastic views from the Long Mountain, Stiperstones and the Lond Mynd (as I’m sure Mountainear will agree), but unfortunately we had to time it too, so there was no time for stopping to take photographs. It was sunny over the Long Mountain, but rained for the rest of the way so some of the views were a bit “moody”. When I’ve got a free day (and maybe when the price of petrol comes down!) I’ll take a drive following the route, but stop for photos, then I can share the magnificent views. I feel lucky with all this countryside practically on the doorstep!

Other than that, I’ve been writing reviews on DooYoo. I’ve got enough DooYooMiles to redeem a 2nd £10 Amazon voucher, although I’m nearly halfway to a 3rd, so may wait to redeem £20 in one go.

Anyway, I’ll leave you with a photo of a flower from Mum’s garden (I haven’t a clue what it is). Again, it’s a white flower on a black background… although I’ve just noticed it’s off centre!

Following on from (last) Friday…

Saturday morning Chris & I got up early and hailed a taxi to Euston to catch one of the few trains to Milton Keynes that morning. We caught up with Erykah, Sathy, Nicky, Cryssie, Lyvvie and Sylvie on the train platform and all piled into one carriage with our tonne of luggage.

Once at MK Chris & I made our way up to the Jury’s Inn Hotel to see if we could leave our luggage there until we could sign in. Thankfully, they’d got a room ready and we were allowed to sign in so we could take our bags up to our room. We then headed up to MK shopping centre and Collectormania.

At some point, while dodging the crowd, I nearly walked into Leslie Phillips! A little while later Chris got his autograph and a photo taken with him. June Whitfield was signing next to him.

Chris & I got James Marsters’ autograph (again!) as well having our photos taken with him. He wasn’t feeling good as his arm was hurting, but his day wasn’t about to get better… Apparently he got groped sometime after that.

In the afternoon Chris & I headed back to the hotel to rest our sore feet. We watched some TV and talked before going to look for something to eat.

We ended up at the Chinese restaurant up the street from the hotel. The service could have been better, but the staff were polite and the food was lovely. We then went back to the hotel bar for a drink where we bumped into Nicky & Erykah. After a chat with them we ended up at a party in a hotel room on the 2nd floor with them and a few others! There was drink, food and lots of talking. We were quite loud so everytime there was a knock on the door I half expected it to be the manager! Chris & I departed a bit before midnight as we were expecting another early start in the morning.

Sunday morning the alarm went at 6.20am, but I reset it for 7am as I was far too tired to get up. We made it up to Collectormania just after 8am where there was already a huge queue just for virtual tickets for John Barrowman & Eve Myles (Gwen in Torchwood). My virtual ticket for John Barrowman was #280-something and I know at least 1200 were given out… possibly more than that!

A bit later on Chris’ husband Ron met up with us having driven down especially to give us a lift home. We went for a drink in Costa Coffee and while sat down Kai Owen (Rhys from Torchwood) walked in. He recognised Chris & Ron from the previous weekend and had a quick chat with them before dashing off.

Throughout the day we had our photos taken with John Barrowman, James Marsters (again) and Eve Myles (Ron also had a photo taken with Eve as a treat for his birthday). I also got Kai Owen’s autograph as well as John Barrowman’s. This time James was sat on a stool for his photo sessions due to being groped the previous day. As I saw first hand, he was also groped on Sunday. James was getting upset at this and who’d blame him! I’d be surprised if he agreed to do photo sessions again, unfortunately for him, he’d got more photo sessions on Monday (I assume they went ahead, but I was at home by then).

After a bite to eat and collecting our photographs we headed up the motorway in the direction of home. Unfortunately, the weather seemed to be getting worse the closer to Wales we got!

By the time I went to bed it wasn’t just the weather that was bad… I didn’t feel too good either. Still, I did have a great few days away.

Following on from Wednesday to Thursday…

Friday morning I made my way to Euston to meet up with Chris at midday. I decided to take the shorter route from Wembley by using the overground train to Marylebone station. After we’d sorted out a train ticket for Saturday morning we made our way to the Farringdon Travelodge to book in early. We wanted to have a rest and take our time getting to the gig that evening.

We joined the queue outside Union Chapel in Islington for James Marsters’ gig around 4.30pm. The queue wasn’t as long as I thought it would be at that time (possibly due to the threatening rain clouds). We said hello to those we knew in the queue and settled in for the wait (at least it was dry this time!).

Sometime later a couple of Italians came and stood by the queue in front of us. I wasn’t sure if they were just talking or if they were trying to jump the queue. I mentioned it to Chris and we asked the people in front of us (I think they were German) if they knew the girls. They said no. Chris asked the Italians to go to he back of the queue, but they refused. The people in front of us asked them too, but still they refused (in Italian), so Chris went to the front of the queue to ask for help (well, imagine if others tried jumping the queue, the rest of us would end up at the back!). Again the Italians refused, so somebody else arrived to translate and the unhappy Italians were ushered to the back of the queue. I guess it’s just us Brits (and some other mad Europeans) who will queue for just about anything!

When we were finally let into Union Chapel, Chris & I managed to get seats 5 or 6 rows from the front an had a gret view of the stage. Although, to be honest, I think wherever you sit in Union Chapel you’re likely to have a good view.

The support act was a solo artist called Benmark. I’d never seen him before, but he certainly got the crowd going. Everyone seemed to like his music (including me) and many went up to the stall to buy his CDs (and meet him) after his set. He’s definitely worth checking out!

James Marsters got a huge welcome when he arrived on stage. He was off-key a couple of times, but otherwise it was a great performance. The crowd was even louder than last year and he even gave us an extra song after a request was made… He’d missed out a popular song on his setlist and the audience wasn’t about to let him forget to play it! No broken guitar strings this year either! All in all, a wonderful gig.

Chris & I headed to the nearest pub for a drink before heading back to the hotel. We had an early start the next morning!

Saturday to Sunday up next!

I’ve been a little busy since my last post, so here goes…….

Wednesday evening I met Mum off the train and took her to the orthopedic hospital to see Nan. My brother and sister-in-law also turned up so the three of them went into see Nan while I waited outside with my surprise. I then went in when my brother & sister-in-law went home. Nan didn’t see my surprise at first (or saw it, but couldn’t believe her eyes), but was delighted when she saw it… which pleased me no end. Nan looked surprisingly well considering the operation she’d had the previous day. She didn’t even have any bruising. She’ll be back to her old self once she’s had her other hip done (which shouldn’t be long now). We all had a good chat and even went beyond visiting time, but the nurses didn’t seem to mind. Nan came home on Friday afternoon, a couple of days earlier than originally expected, so that was great news!

Thursday morning I set off for London. I made it to Shrewsbury train station with just minutes to spare to catch my train. I had a reserved seat from Birmingham to London, but somebody was already sat in my seat so I politely asked them to move. When I finally sat in my seat somebody else came along and asked if I was sure that was my seat as he had a reservation for that seat. I’m not sure if he had the wrong train or if the seat had been double booked, but the reservation thing above the seat had my name on it so I wasn’t going to move!

The tube journey from Euston station to Wembley seemed to take forever and I found out that Wembley Central station was quite a walk from the hotel and Wembley Arena and Stadium. I soon realised there was an overground station right by the stadium!

I stayed at the Hilton Wembley Plaza hotel which overlooked the stadium as well as Greater London. They allowed me to book in a couple of hours early which was great, but the hotel isn’t up to other Hilton hotel standards. Still, the room was warm and did its job (provide a comfortable place to sleep!). I had a bit of a rest before heading down to Wembley Arena. I had a standing ticket to see Matchbox Twenty and wanted a good view of the stage.

When I got to the SE entrance of the arena there was already around 15 people queuing, so I joined the queue and sat on the floor to save my legs/feet for the concert. As the queue steadily grew so did the black clouds above. It wasn’t long before it started raining. Thankfully I’d got a lightweight waterproof coat on so most of my stayed dry (but cold!). It rained on & off so by the time the doors were due to open the queue was restless and eager to get inside. Unfortunately, it sounded like the band were only just doing their sound-check and the doors weren’t about to open.

Half an hour later were were finally let through the doors. Security was tight and everyone was being searched. I got stopped and questioned about my camera (it seems they can’t tell the difference between an SLR camera - which aren’t allowed - and a non-SLR camera - which I’d got!). The girl finally let me through, only for me to be stopped again as I was putting the camera back in my pocket. So I went through the whole thing again. This security guy kept telling me it was a professional camera and I kept telling him it wasn’t. Another security guy came over and looked at it and said it wasn’t professional and it was fine for me to go. Finally, after a hundred or so people had gone past me, I was allowed to make my way into the arena. I wasn’t happy! Thankfully, I still managed to bag a spot by the barrier in front of the left side of the stage.

The support act was a band from Nottingham called Headway. I’d never heard of them before, but certainly enjoyed their set. They were a nice compliment to Matchbox Twenty. You can check out their music on MySpace or Bebo.

Matchbox Twenty came on stage and were fantastic! The entire arena got a notch louder when ‘Real World’ was played (’Real World’ was the first MB20 song I heard and was hooked as soon as I heard it). Standing in Wembley Arena on Thursday night you’d never believe that MB20 aren’t a big band here in the UK. They put on a wonderful show.

Towards the end of the evening there was a bit of comotion in the middle of the front row of standing. A girl didn’t feel too good and the first aid staff sorted her out, but left her in the crowd. Rob (Rob Thomas - lead singer) had noticed this while singing the last verse of a song and as soon as he had finished he called for the lights to go up. Up they went and Rob asked the girl if she was OK. He had a lttle chat from the stage and then asked for security to pull her and her partner out of the crowd and to sit her right in front of the stage for the last song! She looked a little embarrassed, but Rob made sure she was OK. It shows just how much of a nice guy he is.

I came out of the concert much drier than I went in and in my had were a USB wristband (containing a recording of the show I’d just seen) along with a t-shirt and programme (which I can’t help but get when I go to a concert).

I headed to the hotel bar straight after the concert for some much needed refreshment before heading to bed.

Friday to Sunday to follow shortly!

Yesterday was a lovely day weatherwise, unlike today. So after work Mum & I went for a walk and, of course, my camera came along too. The sun was shining, the grass green, the fields full of ewes and lambs (some more camera-shy than others) and daffodils lined the roadside - typically Welsh.

I love living in Mid Wales. It’s peaceful, apart from the sheep baaing and cows mooing… and a neighbour’s dog which never stops yapping. I started my days here and hope to end them here (in many, many years time!), despite my wish to travel. It’s beautiful.