Going On Tour

I'm sorry but there's nothing else for it, I have to leave home and run away to join The Circus (do you see what I've done there? Take Thats' tour and album, huh, d'you get it?).

First I will say I had a fantastic night, I was not sick, I did not pass out, I danced about a lot and I stayed up way past my bedtime. Oh and I didn't even have a hangover this morning!

The weekend was looking a little dodgey for a mo' there, as I said eldest boy was looking extremely ill and I wasn't sure I could go off gallivanting and leave him. Luckily he had improved sufficiently that I felt ok to go. My friend picked me up at about half eleven saturday morning, we had our supplies of food and water and enough munchies to keep us going when fuelled with alcohol. I had made my choice of what to wear and I stuck with it (most unusual and decisive of me....) we were definitely prepared.

The journey there was going well but sadly instead of following our instincts, we followed the sat nav, and after programming in "fastest route" it took us a good three hours to get to the hotel. Oh and I really should have made that toilet stop before we set off. Still we forgot all that as soon as we reached the hotel and realised that yes, that was Wembley Stadium directly behind it, result! My fears that all the parking at the hotel would be taken, were unfounded and we wandered on up to the reception desk. Uh oh a queue, never mind it was clearing at a good rate. Sadly when we got to the front a nice polish receptionist lady apologetically let me know that the room wasn't quite ready yet. We were directed to the bar and given a free drink while we waited approximately fifteen, twenty minutes. Ok, not incredibly impressed but we went and waited. When we re-approached the desk the same nice polish receptionist looked stressed as she revealled that nope the room still wasn't ready. Off we toddled muttering about how we wanted to go and get ourselves sorted. Not too stressed at this point but as we wandered back after another twenty minutes I was starting to get annoyed. It was a total of two hours before this room was ready, I was irked in the extreme and did something not in my nature at all, I asked for compensation.. in the form of free overnight parking. I think I should have asked for more as the manager gave in far too easily!

Still we got to the room sorted ourselves out, resisted the call of alcohol until I had eaten aforementioned food supply, then make up (before a drink, always do make up before a drink!) and then a little tipple and we were off.

It took literally 30 seconds to get there woo hoo, the location of this hotel is perfect for concert going. I have to say at this point I have very fond memories of the "old" Wembley stadium and was curious about how this new look stadium would be, not particularly impressed I'm afraid, we were herded through our gate. You weren't allowed to deviate from your course at any point, no mixing and mingling around the outside of the pitch anymore, we had to go up about four or five escalators and I was starting to worry about exactly how high up we were going to be sitting. When we finally reached our level I did notice a ton of toilet facilities and loads of food and drink stands. I was also surprised to see that at this gig you could, if you so wished, purchase fish and chips (with or without mushy peas), pizza, popcorn and aero bubbles choccy... I'm sorry I didn't realise I was going to the pictures! How weird, I had visions of people standing there with their edibles and watching Take That in full flow, not my idea of what happens at a concert. Of course there was also alcohol, I neatly avoided wine and went straight to smirnoff ice, not ideal but I couldn't face bloating out with a hundred and one lagers.

Our seats were pretty good, a nice overall view and not too high, I wasn't actually in the clouds which is a good thing.

The start of the show was very impressive, almost theatrical, the clowns and acrobats were fabulous and interesting, the music was haunting and the whole thing was an impressive spectacle. When Take That actually appeared from within a cluster of balloons, the crowd (as they say) went wild! It was non-stop action from start to finish, as someone who was never a fan back in the day (I thought they were a bunch of posey lads with not a lot of talent sorry boys) I was wowed. The music was great, the sound was impressive, the lads look amazing (blimey I must be the future Mrs Owen!!!) I was totally blown away, and I'm not afraid to admit that I may have got a little emotional, before beer number four, honest not alcohol induced.

Sigh, the downside of course is that it is now over, I am even more gutted at missing the previous concert through my self induced coma! I now need to go and follow the boys in a stalkerish manner around the country, oh blimey I hope this obsession fades soon, I suspect Other Half will get slightly aggravated with me mooning about the place .

Talking of which (Other Half that is, not me mooning about the place) I just have to say he coped magnificently, things got done, kids got fed, I got updates (unprompted) as to the health status of my lad, kids got put to bed on time, breakfast was made this morning and he even got eldest girl and youngest boy to judo!!! There were no panicky phone calls, or cross phone calls declaring I hadn't given him enough information, all in all it was more of a success than I could have imagined.

Mmmm, wander when I can make my next outing?

Got to work tomorrow, booo, so I will get off now and try and get some kip .