Waterfall Tour - The Good Bits
Yesterday I got The Bad Bit out of the way, now I want to talk about the good bits. *grin* Some how I seem to have done the thing I said I wasn't going to do... and written a con report!!!
It's because James Marsters fans are awesome!! Forget the idiots who do stupid crap. I'm telling you his fans are awesome! Never let anyone tell you otherwise. Never let anyone unknowingly dump all the bad behaviour onto the whole crowd of us.
At The Borderline on Wednesday we queued in the rain for a couple of hours. It bucketed and bucketed. We had to buy umbrellas and we all ended up as drowned rats anyway. But when we got inside the atmosphere totally changed and everyone asked great questions at the q&a, then sang along with the concert and really enjoyed themselves. It was slightly curtailed by the fact that most people had to leave quite quickly. The wait in the rain had made people too hungry to stay and a lot of people had to catch trains to get home. But we partied with those who stayed and Nicky and I didn't leave that place until midnight (when we were only driven out because the heavy metal music got a bit too much).
James was really good, although perhaps a little subdued. I guess it's possible he still wasn't quite 100% yet. When he played Chocolate Jesus the crowd really went nuts. I think that one's a fan favourite. *wink*
On Thursday Nicky, Cryssie and I went to the British Museum to take in some culture. We ended up taking pictures of all the penises. You would not believe the number of penises in the British Museum!! *grin* We hung out in Leicester Square for a bit and had food. We went to a little pub near Kings Cross and talked up a Torchwood storm! (Scaring the locals *wink*) Then when we got back to our hotel room we stayed up way too late taking daft pictures and chatting about life and everything! It was a brilliant day.
On Friday we got to Union Chapel at around midday and joined the single most civilised queue in the known universe! There was about 20 people who got there ahead of us. Lynnie (with her amazing pink hair) was up front unofficially organising it (she'd spoken to JMLive and made sure we knew where to queue). We put some stuff down to mark our place and popped across the road to the pub for lunch. When we came back there were a few more people but not many (the rain at the previous event may have put people off). We met some lovely young girls who were fairly new fans and held their place while they went off to McDonalds. That set the tone for the whole day. Technically you could say we queued for 7 hours... the reality is that we so didn't. We went off to the pub, the McDonalds and we visited the nearby shops. We hung out in the sunshine. We huddled together during the rainstorm that stopped us from sitting on the ground. We chatted our way up and down the line. The time disappeared in a flash!
There were a few sticky moments when people tried to jump the queue, but Lynnie sorted them. When the JMLive people turned up they made sure that the integrity of the line we'd created stayed put all the way into the building. Nicky, Cryssie and I choose a spot 4 rows back because it put us right in the middle.
This gig was simply the best. The crowd was happy and lively. The support guy (Benmark) was bouncy and got everything going nicely. James played up a storm; laughing and joking with the crowd all along. I really don't know if he's still having trouble with his fingers or if it's the arm problem that became obvious at CM, but his guitar playing didn't seem quite like it normally does. It was nowhere near as fast and he outright missed chords occasionally. With hindsight I remember him flexing his right arm a lot between songs at this gig.
Some girls up on the balcony (who had brought glowsticks and were frantically waving them throughout) yelled out a request for him to play Katie. He admitted he wasn't sure any more whether he knew how to play it but he'd have a quick practice during his break before the encore and maybe play it then. When he went off for that we all started cheering and clapping. Debs (the most wonderfully crazy of the JMLive lot) was down the front encouraging us on to stomp and cheer even more. The lovely French contingent *blows kiss to Sathy and Sylvie* were yelling out his name in time. It was a wonderful thing to be part of! When he came out and launched into Katie the crowd went even more nuts! Everyone was so happy right then. It was a hugely cool day. A perfect memory to cling preciously on to.
Saturday we headed out really early to go to Milton Keynes. *dies again at the memory* There were 8 of us together in the train carriage from Euston. Pity the poor people who decided to go into the same carriage as us because we were really enjoying ourselves! *grin*
In Milton Keynes we somehow got 6 of us, plus our luggage, into a taxi. Cosy doesn't begin to describe it! Thankfully they let us into our rooms immediately and we dumped our stuff and headed into the shopping centre.
Lol, this is where I lose track of the order of things! I remember us buying photo shoot tickets for Eve and Kai. I remember walking through the dealers tables. I don't actually remember the queue for the photo shoot itself. Did we get autographs first? Damn my memory. Anyway, my piccie from that shoot is really lovely. Relaxed is a good word. No wait, I now remember that I was with Cryssie and I remember watching her getting her five poses (a belated birthday present to herself) with James and her earring fell out because it got caught on him and she had to retrieve it from under his foot! lol I remember laughter. I do remember this from the autographs... I got my autograph and was heading off and I'd forgotten that James likes to hold your hand again for a sec after he's signed. I was almost off and round the barrier when I noticed this arm sticking out. I ended up sort of leaning back around with my head tilted to one side to look back at him as I shook his hand and we grinned at each other stupidly. lol
Ran into Davey - the only Jedi Chef in uniform this weekend - when he was hanging around trying to see which of the guests would go for joining up. He got James!! *grin* We were watching from a distance and he looked adorable in the hat! Davey let me see the piccie on the camera and I'll post a link when it's up on the site.
That night Lynnie hosted a room party. And oh that was fun! She laid on food and drink... Nicky and I brought wine (naturally). Loads of the regulars showed up. Unfortunately our wine had corks and we'd forgotten an opener, so we each took turns at smiling very sweetly at the bartender downstairs. Neither of us paid the £2 corkage fee they claimed they should have charged us. *wink* Looking around the room at one point I joked that it was like being back in the queue! The party broke up at a late but reasonable hour (everyone wanted to be fresh for the next day).
Sunday was Torchwood day! We did a crazy thing... we walked straight past the James queue! It was almost nonexistent and we felt a little sad, but then we headed off to the John Barrowman/Eve Myles line. It was around 7:30am and we were still quite a way back! The queues this weekend all seemed to melt away time-wise. In a flash we were picking up our Virtual Tickets (I was number 100 for John and 97 for Eve) and then we skipped around the other side to get Nicky and Cryssie ones for James (I didn't get one on Saturday).
When the time was right we joined the line for John and he was really nice. Very professional but still friendly. He took the piss out of pronouncing my name! lol. We immediately went around and joined the Eve line. She didn't remember us at first... then I pulled our Nicky's cake (she'd given it to me to give even though she was standing right there!) and the tiara I'd promised her at the Rift. Her yes lit up and she jumped up to shake my hand. Then grabbed the tiara and put it on. That girl rocks!
Then they were so late getting John into and through his photoshoot that I went in and had my picture taken with Kai Owen before they got anywhere near my photo ticket time with john. Kai was sweet. The shots before me had all been very "straight" looking, so I thought what the heck and asked him if a hug would be out of the question. He grinned and so I have lovely huggy picture. *grin*
After that there was still time, so Nicky wanted to go through and get her stuff signed by James (and give him a piece of her birthday cake). Cryssie and I tagged along with her in the queue to keep her company (and because we can all yak for England). When we got towards the front Cryssie and I stood aside as much as we could and we damn near made it out... except that James looks up when he's finishing with Nicky... and holds out his hand to me. I cast an apologetic glance past him at Marion because it really hadn't been my intention but by then it would have actually been impolite not to shake his hand. So I made it brief and then scampered out embarrassed. Sort of nice but also sort of oops too! *frown*
Finally, we joined the John Barrowman photo queue. I saw Aly in the line and we spoke for a while. I wish I'd managed to catch up with you again later babe but things went wiggly this weekend. I saw Andy as well, but missed Max and Karen entirely. :( :( :(
John was again very professional but they were having to rattle through them at quite a pace and I was convinced my pic would look terrible. It's not as bad as I expected.
After John was the James photo shoot and we went through once "straight" and held back one ticket each so we could all go through again with our tiaras on. On this occasion the tiara girls were me, Nicky, Cryssie, Lyvie, Sylvie and Sathy. The piccies are lovely! Steve (Himber, James manager) asked if we were on a hen night(!) and Nicky explained that it was her birthday.
The tiaras stayed on after that for the Eve shoot. Honestly, John was so quick that there was no time to say anything, Kai I asked for the hug, James I was so careful with... and then there was Eve!! I was the first one in the line with Nicky behind and, as I walked up, Eve goes "oh no, here comes trouble!" and then throws her arms around me! lol! Have I mentioned how great Eve is?!
After we were done we caught up with Jo, who had just come up from seeing Gareth the night before in Cardiff (woah girl! *hugs*) and we all went off for food. The exhaustion of the day and the realisation that we hadn't actually eaten anything at all hit us and we practically crawled to the Wetherspoons near the hotel. Time ran away again and so we had to hussle to get ourselves dolled up for the party.
As it happens we could have been a hour later getting there and still be at the front! lol! Oh well, we got to see James arrive! :) And it's fun just hanging out with the girls (especially dolled up in tiaras *grin*).
Oh but it was stupid the way they let us in. Saying we could go in through both doors was dumb! The Gold pass people should have gone in through one and the queued people through the other... at least at first. That might have kept control of it! Loads of people just ran for the stairs! I walked. :) And wow, I never normally raise my voice. There's a reason why it's usually the divine Heather and Michael running around at Starfury cons telling people what tickets we're up to whilst I'm quietly *giggle snort* putting people in lines. But this time I just saw people rushing stupidly past me at break neck pace up a reasonable steep flight of stairs and it just boomed out of my lungs "For god's sake people, don't run! Are you trying to kill yourselves?!" Of course no one actually listened. Idiots. And I ended up right at the front anyway, without risking my neck... so why bother is beyond me!
And when I say right at the front... I mean right at the front. One line in front of me and a big gap straight though to the mike right there. Although I was getting jostled into a smaller and smaller space. Then I looked behind me and saw Lisa's daughter Jade (she's 11) standing a ways back behind tall people with no view at all! This was the first time she was going to get to see James sing live. It had to be done frankly, I got her to push through and come stand in front of me. Jade's adorable! *grin* Lisa you are so lucky I didn't just kidnap her and not give her back! *wink*
We had a reasonably long wait standing there between the opening and James coming out. I was desperate for a drink by the end! *wink* But when he did come out it was pretty damn cool. His first song was Not a Millionnaire and it was a touch stilted. I'm guessing it was because it was weird gig and he needed time to settle into it. They steadily got better as he went on. Can't actually remember what he played second but third up was Chocolate Jesus and I swear he was looking around at the fans clocking faces through the whole of that song. Everyone got a moment.
I was fan watching myself. Partly because dead centre and right up at the front turns out to be a bad spot. What was I supposed to do? Stare right at him? Too close quarters! Too weird. Every time he looked up from the guitar I was basically in his eye line. I had to keep looking away! I only raised my camera when he was looking somewhere else because it just felt weord. I don't like to use my camera much anyway because there are so many others with better views and better cameras and why would I need so many pictures of him anyway and I'd rather just watch him in the flesh (and dance and sing along) than watch the whole thing on a postage stamp sized screen!
Lastly he rocked the place with a cover of All Apologies by Nirvana. There were wolf whistles and cheering from all around (not just the obvious James fans). It's obvious how much he loves that song and really comes through when he sings it. Of course, we all sang too. *grin*
Then it was done and we could party! We had cake and we danced and we had a huge balloon fight (at which Jade totally obliterated me! *rolls eyes* *grin*). The stupid bar ran out of alcohol and closed early. The lighting was so dark we couldn't see a thing. There were no tables so we had to sit in a big circle on the floor! They didn't play any con dances until gone midnight and then it seemed that me and Nicky were the only ones left who knew how to do them! We ended up spending a lot of time chatting in the bar because it was the only place we could see each other! We sang Nicky Happy Birthday. We had lots of tiara girls in the end. *grin*
At 1am, it was really all over and we went down to wait for our taxis. On the way down Jo and I were singing show tunes! She has a beautiful singing voice. I do not. lol! I have video of her singing... Thankfully for everyone, there is none of me!
We put Jay, Cryssie and Jean into the first taxi but then a second one didn't turn up for ages. We messed about a bit and were happily chatting with others left out front, but then one of the drunken guys steals one of Nicky's balloons. We tried to be cool about the silliness, then the bastard came around and tried to do it again (bursting it this time and hurting Nicky's hand). We had a go at him and he replied "who gave you the right to all the balloons?" and we're like "um, we brought them with us!" at which point he called us names that I'd rather not repeat! One of the security guards told him off and then came over to stand with us. He was really angry with the guy and protective towards us. Good thing for that guy he stopped when he did because the guard looked far tougher than he did. Jo was ready to belt him one as well! lol! The guard gave us the next taxi (which amusingly had actually been meant for the prat who stole the balloons!! hahahaha!!).
This should be the point when I say we then went to sleep like good tired little girlies. Ah no. We might have stayed up chatting for just a little while (about three hours!). Putting the world to rights, as ever. I think we were on the nature of fandom this time, possibly frightening Jo with our world weary cynicism. *wink*
Thankfully Monday wasn't a stupidly early one. Although it was good that we got up when we did because we arrived at 11:15am to find James was only signing until 11:30am. We legged it across the centre just in time! I got my tiara photo signed and Nicky got the picture of John and James that she'd remembered to get John to sign but had forgotten about getting James for!
Then it was pretty much straight on to the last photo shoot with James (yep, we went through AGAIN! lol). Which was a touch weird because we'd basically said goodbye during the autographs, so it's like, um, hello again, goodbye again! *grin* It was reasonably chilled this time because it wasn't many people and a lot of them were regulars.
It was a couple of hours before that morning's photos came back so we went out and ate junk food in the sunshine and chilled. That was nice. Winding down gradually. We saw a lot of people to say goodbye but, of course, you always seem to miss some people at CM because of the sheer size of it. Nicky and I finally wandered off back to our hotel to pick up our bags but we got stuck in the sunshine in the chairs out front chatting for a while longer. Good thing we did because it turns out that someone may have stolen a load of money from Jo's account. She went to get out money for a taxi and found her account drained! Naturally we gave her money to get her home.
Unfortunately we hadn't realised that there were absolutely no trains that day! Nicky and I waited ages and ended up going on different buses home. I was told it would take 3 hours to get to Euston! I knew I had 2 hours traveling still to go from Euston! Thankfully they laid on a bus going directly there and it only took 1 and a half hours. Still it was quite a while before I stumbled into my works car park to pick up my car. I may have hugged it. *wink*
Lovely to travel and hang with friends... but so good to be home. :)
It's because James Marsters fans are awesome!! Forget the idiots who do stupid crap. I'm telling you his fans are awesome! Never let anyone tell you otherwise. Never let anyone unknowingly dump all the bad behaviour onto the whole crowd of us.
At The Borderline on Wednesday we queued in the rain for a couple of hours. It bucketed and bucketed. We had to buy umbrellas and we all ended up as drowned rats anyway. But when we got inside the atmosphere totally changed and everyone asked great questions at the q&a, then sang along with the concert and really enjoyed themselves. It was slightly curtailed by the fact that most people had to leave quite quickly. The wait in the rain had made people too hungry to stay and a lot of people had to catch trains to get home. But we partied with those who stayed and Nicky and I didn't leave that place until midnight (when we were only driven out because the heavy metal music got a bit too much).
James was really good, although perhaps a little subdued. I guess it's possible he still wasn't quite 100% yet. When he played Chocolate Jesus the crowd really went nuts. I think that one's a fan favourite. *wink*
On Thursday Nicky, Cryssie and I went to the British Museum to take in some culture. We ended up taking pictures of all the penises. You would not believe the number of penises in the British Museum!! *grin* We hung out in Leicester Square for a bit and had food. We went to a little pub near Kings Cross and talked up a Torchwood storm! (Scaring the locals *wink*) Then when we got back to our hotel room we stayed up way too late taking daft pictures and chatting about life and everything! It was a brilliant day.
On Friday we got to Union Chapel at around midday and joined the single most civilised queue in the known universe! There was about 20 people who got there ahead of us. Lynnie (with her amazing pink hair) was up front unofficially organising it (she'd spoken to JMLive and made sure we knew where to queue). We put some stuff down to mark our place and popped across the road to the pub for lunch. When we came back there were a few more people but not many (the rain at the previous event may have put people off). We met some lovely young girls who were fairly new fans and held their place while they went off to McDonalds. That set the tone for the whole day. Technically you could say we queued for 7 hours... the reality is that we so didn't. We went off to the pub, the McDonalds and we visited the nearby shops. We hung out in the sunshine. We huddled together during the rainstorm that stopped us from sitting on the ground. We chatted our way up and down the line. The time disappeared in a flash!
There were a few sticky moments when people tried to jump the queue, but Lynnie sorted them. When the JMLive people turned up they made sure that the integrity of the line we'd created stayed put all the way into the building. Nicky, Cryssie and I choose a spot 4 rows back because it put us right in the middle.
This gig was simply the best. The crowd was happy and lively. The support guy (Benmark) was bouncy and got everything going nicely. James played up a storm; laughing and joking with the crowd all along. I really don't know if he's still having trouble with his fingers or if it's the arm problem that became obvious at CM, but his guitar playing didn't seem quite like it normally does. It was nowhere near as fast and he outright missed chords occasionally. With hindsight I remember him flexing his right arm a lot between songs at this gig.
Some girls up on the balcony (who had brought glowsticks and were frantically waving them throughout) yelled out a request for him to play Katie. He admitted he wasn't sure any more whether he knew how to play it but he'd have a quick practice during his break before the encore and maybe play it then. When he went off for that we all started cheering and clapping. Debs (the most wonderfully crazy of the JMLive lot) was down the front encouraging us on to stomp and cheer even more. The lovely French contingent *blows kiss to Sathy and Sylvie* were yelling out his name in time. It was a wonderful thing to be part of! When he came out and launched into Katie the crowd went even more nuts! Everyone was so happy right then. It was a hugely cool day. A perfect memory to cling preciously on to.
Saturday we headed out really early to go to Milton Keynes. *dies again at the memory* There were 8 of us together in the train carriage from Euston. Pity the poor people who decided to go into the same carriage as us because we were really enjoying ourselves! *grin*
In Milton Keynes we somehow got 6 of us, plus our luggage, into a taxi. Cosy doesn't begin to describe it! Thankfully they let us into our rooms immediately and we dumped our stuff and headed into the shopping centre.
Lol, this is where I lose track of the order of things! I remember us buying photo shoot tickets for Eve and Kai. I remember walking through the dealers tables. I don't actually remember the queue for the photo shoot itself. Did we get autographs first? Damn my memory. Anyway, my piccie from that shoot is really lovely. Relaxed is a good word. No wait, I now remember that I was with Cryssie and I remember watching her getting her five poses (a belated birthday present to herself) with James and her earring fell out because it got caught on him and she had to retrieve it from under his foot! lol I remember laughter. I do remember this from the autographs... I got my autograph and was heading off and I'd forgotten that James likes to hold your hand again for a sec after he's signed. I was almost off and round the barrier when I noticed this arm sticking out. I ended up sort of leaning back around with my head tilted to one side to look back at him as I shook his hand and we grinned at each other stupidly. lol
Ran into Davey - the only Jedi Chef in uniform this weekend - when he was hanging around trying to see which of the guests would go for joining up. He got James!! *grin* We were watching from a distance and he looked adorable in the hat! Davey let me see the piccie on the camera and I'll post a link when it's up on the site.
That night Lynnie hosted a room party. And oh that was fun! She laid on food and drink... Nicky and I brought wine (naturally). Loads of the regulars showed up. Unfortunately our wine had corks and we'd forgotten an opener, so we each took turns at smiling very sweetly at the bartender downstairs. Neither of us paid the £2 corkage fee they claimed they should have charged us. *wink* Looking around the room at one point I joked that it was like being back in the queue! The party broke up at a late but reasonable hour (everyone wanted to be fresh for the next day).
Sunday was Torchwood day! We did a crazy thing... we walked straight past the James queue! It was almost nonexistent and we felt a little sad, but then we headed off to the John Barrowman/Eve Myles line. It was around 7:30am and we were still quite a way back! The queues this weekend all seemed to melt away time-wise. In a flash we were picking up our Virtual Tickets (I was number 100 for John and 97 for Eve) and then we skipped around the other side to get Nicky and Cryssie ones for James (I didn't get one on Saturday).
When the time was right we joined the line for John and he was really nice. Very professional but still friendly. He took the piss out of pronouncing my name! lol. We immediately went around and joined the Eve line. She didn't remember us at first... then I pulled our Nicky's cake (she'd given it to me to give even though she was standing right there!) and the tiara I'd promised her at the Rift. Her yes lit up and she jumped up to shake my hand. Then grabbed the tiara and put it on. That girl rocks!
Then they were so late getting John into and through his photoshoot that I went in and had my picture taken with Kai Owen before they got anywhere near my photo ticket time with john. Kai was sweet. The shots before me had all been very "straight" looking, so I thought what the heck and asked him if a hug would be out of the question. He grinned and so I have lovely huggy picture. *grin*
After that there was still time, so Nicky wanted to go through and get her stuff signed by James (and give him a piece of her birthday cake). Cryssie and I tagged along with her in the queue to keep her company (and because we can all yak for England). When we got towards the front Cryssie and I stood aside as much as we could and we damn near made it out... except that James looks up when he's finishing with Nicky... and holds out his hand to me. I cast an apologetic glance past him at Marion because it really hadn't been my intention but by then it would have actually been impolite not to shake his hand. So I made it brief and then scampered out embarrassed. Sort of nice but also sort of oops too! *frown*
Finally, we joined the John Barrowman photo queue. I saw Aly in the line and we spoke for a while. I wish I'd managed to catch up with you again later babe but things went wiggly this weekend. I saw Andy as well, but missed Max and Karen entirely. :( :( :(
John was again very professional but they were having to rattle through them at quite a pace and I was convinced my pic would look terrible. It's not as bad as I expected.
After John was the James photo shoot and we went through once "straight" and held back one ticket each so we could all go through again with our tiaras on. On this occasion the tiara girls were me, Nicky, Cryssie, Lyvie, Sylvie and Sathy. The piccies are lovely! Steve (Himber, James manager) asked if we were on a hen night(!) and Nicky explained that it was her birthday.
The tiaras stayed on after that for the Eve shoot. Honestly, John was so quick that there was no time to say anything, Kai I asked for the hug, James I was so careful with... and then there was Eve!! I was the first one in the line with Nicky behind and, as I walked up, Eve goes "oh no, here comes trouble!" and then throws her arms around me! lol! Have I mentioned how great Eve is?!
After we were done we caught up with Jo, who had just come up from seeing Gareth the night before in Cardiff (woah girl! *hugs*) and we all went off for food. The exhaustion of the day and the realisation that we hadn't actually eaten anything at all hit us and we practically crawled to the Wetherspoons near the hotel. Time ran away again and so we had to hussle to get ourselves dolled up for the party.
As it happens we could have been a hour later getting there and still be at the front! lol! Oh well, we got to see James arrive! :) And it's fun just hanging out with the girls (especially dolled up in tiaras *grin*).
Oh but it was stupid the way they let us in. Saying we could go in through both doors was dumb! The Gold pass people should have gone in through one and the queued people through the other... at least at first. That might have kept control of it! Loads of people just ran for the stairs! I walked. :) And wow, I never normally raise my voice. There's a reason why it's usually the divine Heather and Michael running around at Starfury cons telling people what tickets we're up to whilst I'm quietly *giggle snort* putting people in lines. But this time I just saw people rushing stupidly past me at break neck pace up a reasonable steep flight of stairs and it just boomed out of my lungs "For god's sake people, don't run! Are you trying to kill yourselves?!" Of course no one actually listened. Idiots. And I ended up right at the front anyway, without risking my neck... so why bother is beyond me!
And when I say right at the front... I mean right at the front. One line in front of me and a big gap straight though to the mike right there. Although I was getting jostled into a smaller and smaller space. Then I looked behind me and saw Lisa's daughter Jade (she's 11) standing a ways back behind tall people with no view at all! This was the first time she was going to get to see James sing live. It had to be done frankly, I got her to push through and come stand in front of me. Jade's adorable! *grin* Lisa you are so lucky I didn't just kidnap her and not give her back! *wink*
We had a reasonably long wait standing there between the opening and James coming out. I was desperate for a drink by the end! *wink* But when he did come out it was pretty damn cool. His first song was Not a Millionnaire and it was a touch stilted. I'm guessing it was because it was weird gig and he needed time to settle into it. They steadily got better as he went on. Can't actually remember what he played second but third up was Chocolate Jesus and I swear he was looking around at the fans clocking faces through the whole of that song. Everyone got a moment.
I was fan watching myself. Partly because dead centre and right up at the front turns out to be a bad spot. What was I supposed to do? Stare right at him? Too close quarters! Too weird. Every time he looked up from the guitar I was basically in his eye line. I had to keep looking away! I only raised my camera when he was looking somewhere else because it just felt weord. I don't like to use my camera much anyway because there are so many others with better views and better cameras and why would I need so many pictures of him anyway and I'd rather just watch him in the flesh (and dance and sing along) than watch the whole thing on a postage stamp sized screen!
Lastly he rocked the place with a cover of All Apologies by Nirvana. There were wolf whistles and cheering from all around (not just the obvious James fans). It's obvious how much he loves that song and really comes through when he sings it. Of course, we all sang too. *grin*
Then it was done and we could party! We had cake and we danced and we had a huge balloon fight (at which Jade totally obliterated me! *rolls eyes* *grin*). The stupid bar ran out of alcohol and closed early. The lighting was so dark we couldn't see a thing. There were no tables so we had to sit in a big circle on the floor! They didn't play any con dances until gone midnight and then it seemed that me and Nicky were the only ones left who knew how to do them! We ended up spending a lot of time chatting in the bar because it was the only place we could see each other! We sang Nicky Happy Birthday. We had lots of tiara girls in the end. *grin*
At 1am, it was really all over and we went down to wait for our taxis. On the way down Jo and I were singing show tunes! She has a beautiful singing voice. I do not. lol! I have video of her singing... Thankfully for everyone, there is none of me!
We put Jay, Cryssie and Jean into the first taxi but then a second one didn't turn up for ages. We messed about a bit and were happily chatting with others left out front, but then one of the drunken guys steals one of Nicky's balloons. We tried to be cool about the silliness, then the bastard came around and tried to do it again (bursting it this time and hurting Nicky's hand). We had a go at him and he replied "who gave you the right to all the balloons?" and we're like "um, we brought them with us!" at which point he called us names that I'd rather not repeat! One of the security guards told him off and then came over to stand with us. He was really angry with the guy and protective towards us. Good thing for that guy he stopped when he did because the guard looked far tougher than he did. Jo was ready to belt him one as well! lol! The guard gave us the next taxi (which amusingly had actually been meant for the prat who stole the balloons!! hahahaha!!).
This should be the point when I say we then went to sleep like good tired little girlies. Ah no. We might have stayed up chatting for just a little while (about three hours!). Putting the world to rights, as ever. I think we were on the nature of fandom this time, possibly frightening Jo with our world weary cynicism. *wink*
Thankfully Monday wasn't a stupidly early one. Although it was good that we got up when we did because we arrived at 11:15am to find James was only signing until 11:30am. We legged it across the centre just in time! I got my tiara photo signed and Nicky got the picture of John and James that she'd remembered to get John to sign but had forgotten about getting James for!
Then it was pretty much straight on to the last photo shoot with James (yep, we went through AGAIN! lol). Which was a touch weird because we'd basically said goodbye during the autographs, so it's like, um, hello again, goodbye again! *grin* It was reasonably chilled this time because it wasn't many people and a lot of them were regulars.
It was a couple of hours before that morning's photos came back so we went out and ate junk food in the sunshine and chilled. That was nice. Winding down gradually. We saw a lot of people to say goodbye but, of course, you always seem to miss some people at CM because of the sheer size of it. Nicky and I finally wandered off back to our hotel to pick up our bags but we got stuck in the sunshine in the chairs out front chatting for a while longer. Good thing we did because it turns out that someone may have stolen a load of money from Jo's account. She went to get out money for a taxi and found her account drained! Naturally we gave her money to get her home.
Unfortunately we hadn't realised that there were absolutely no trains that day! Nicky and I waited ages and ended up going on different buses home. I was told it would take 3 hours to get to Euston! I knew I had 2 hours traveling still to go from Euston! Thankfully they laid on a bus going directly there and it only took 1 and a half hours. Still it was quite a while before I stumbled into my works car park to pick up my car. I may have hugged it. *wink*
Lovely to travel and hang with friends... but so good to be home. :)