Day 168

What a day!!!! It was AWESOME!!!!!! How it ended...just made me laugh. That's where I'm going to start tonight's blog.

We pull up in Toni's car, and there are no lights on outside. Nice. She parks beside Tim's car, and the inside light is on. That can't be good for the battery. I go to the front door, put my key in, unlock the top part and open the door. It stops. What the heck? They put the chain on! Luckily Toni saw that I couldn't get in, and she stopped to make sure everything was fine. Because it was 1:15, I did not want to have to call them. I shoved my arm through the space between the door and the wall, and bent it in a strange manner in an attempt to get the chain off. It wasn't working. I shut the door to tell Toni what had happened without making too much noise as I didn't want to wake them...and then I tried my 2nd attempt. It hurt, but I got the job done. I somehow unhooked the chain (which doesn't make me feel too safe up here), and I opened the door...Only to walk into bags of garbage. It was like an obstacle course. I put my things on the stairs, stuck a pear in the fridge *Thanks for the idea sis* for morning, grabbed Tim's keys, and headed back around the garbage and out the door to turn the light off in the car. Who knows if it'll start in the morning. I left him a note, and came upstairs to jump in the shower. Then I crawled into bed to write this.

Before the house mishap, was one of the best nights ever! A great day as well actually. I woke up earlier than I wanted, to Josh screaming - I think at a video game - perhaps cheering, but whatever it was, it was loud and high pitched. That was around 9. TOP NOTCH! I was too excited to go back to sleep. I tried a couple of times, but it didn't work. Up I got. I showered, got dressed and did my makeup before venturing downstairs. I thought I looked rather nice when emerging from my room...I really liked the way I'd done my makeup, but I didn't want anyone seeing that I had put such a nice top on, so I threw on a hoodie. (Kinda silly to have to hide things like that, but it's better than being made fun of). I went down and got my breakfast, and went to sit on the couch with Zach. There was a lot of screaming going on, so as fast as I sat down, I stood back up, and came up to my room. Such a hectic house.

It was peeing down with rain so Toni and I decided we wouldn't be going on the London Eye this weekend...we'd go on a sunny day. Today, we'd go for a Starbucks, and to a movie before going into town. She was picking me up at 12:30, so I went downstairs around 12, and sat with Heloise and Zach as they finished lunch. Then Zach was asking me all kinds of questions about Robin Hood, then Pirates of the Caribbean, and then about the wooden birds he was using to peck my legs. I was debating what coat to where, and also what footwear. The rain was coming down hard...but I'd feel like a tool if I was in London in Wellies and the rain had stopped. I voiced my opinion out loud, and that's when I realized, Heloise clearly does not like them. She turned to me and said "Just wear your trainers. NO ONE in London will be wearing wellies, there probably aren't people who even own a pair in London". Well then...running shoes it was. Although I think my wellies are quite fashionable. Anyway, Toni picked me up, and we drove to Braintree. We had to get the car through some pretty huge puddles that we weren't sure we'd make it through, but we got there safely. Once we arrived, we went in to get our tickets and popcorn/chocolate/drinks, and then went into the theatre. We were seeing "Leap Year". The two of us absolutely loved it, and wanted to go back in to watch it again. Heloise had made a comment yesterday, about how she doesn't want to see it, it's meant to be crap, and only got one star. Well, I'm not the type of person that's going to let a critic tell me whether or not to see a movie...and I'm glad cuz I thought it was great. We came out of it with warm hearts, smiles on our faces, and madly in love with the main character.

It was 10 to 4, and we thought Starbucks closed at 4, so we drove to the entrance closest to it, and ran in. We later found out it didn't close until 5...but anyway. We ordered our drinks, and after a few spillages, we headed off to Billericay. Once there we bought our train tickets, hopped on and went into London. I was SO excited by this point. In fact, it was hard for me to not think about it during the movie. Toni still felt like it was a dream, like she wasn't really going, so she had yet to get excited. We got off the train at Liverpool Street, and jumped on the Tube to Hammersmith. - We saw some very interesting people throughout our transportation process...one of which was wearing a cowboy hat type sombrero, and sat with his legs stretched out and spread in front of us. The two of us could hardly hold in our laughs, I almost lost it a couple of times and was wishing Stephen was with us...the comments he would have come up with would have been priceless - When we got off, we double checked where we had to go, but weren't sure if we understood the man at the Newspaper stand, so when we stopped in Starbucks, we asked there. The girl we asked wasn't sure, so we took our food and drink and ventured out. We asked someone who was able to assure us we were in fact going in the right direction, and we continued on our journey.

We were walking fast at first...then decided we should slow down because we wouldn't be allowed in with our drinks...then decided to speed up again once we saw the line up outside. It was huge! Luckily we weren't waiting in the cold too long before they started letting everyone in, and it had stopped raining, so it definitely could have been worse. In we went, and the first thing I did was stop at the merchandise counter. I bought a really nice shirt, and a great coloured hoodie. I'll get made fun of for wearing it tomorrow...but I really don't care. I love both. We headed into the washrooms, and after quite a long line up, did what we had to do, and came back out to find a spot on the floor in front of the stage. Our tickets were standing tickets, so it was a free for all for those of us on the bottom level of the Apollo. It was a great venue.

We made it to the side and were about 6 people away from the stage. Not too shabby at all. The opening act was a 21 year old - Erik Hassle - from Sweden, and his band. While I was really looking forward to Mika, and couldn't wait for him to come on, that didn't stop me from enjoying this guy's voice. He hit some notes that really impressed me, and I really liked the lyrics to some of the songs. Not to mention how hot his drummer was...that was just a bonus. He's from Brighton - one of my favourite places -

9 o'clock rolled around, and what we had been waiting for - knees aching - began. I didn't think he'd be able to top the last concert I saw him in, but My GOD did he ever! It was absolutely amazing! I love the fact that you can see how much he truly enjoys what he does. The smile on his face while he performs, the intensity in his actions, and the emotion in his voice and eyes just made you smile ear to ear. The costumes were amazing, and he proved that he is no Diva. Something happened to the equipment not even midway through the concert, and instead of complaining about it, he turned to the audience and said he guessed it was just them, and us. He said we'd have to help him out, and said he didn't want to cancel the show. That's when you know it's not just about the money for some people. He still gave it his all, even though you knew he was nervous. He commented on how scary it is to come back to where he started...and then to come back to where he started and not have the equipment work...he really wanted to put on a good show, and he did just that. The visuals in the background were unbelievable, the gold paper, confetti and big balloons that floated around in the crowd added to the atmosphere, and when he stood there in "snow", it was magnificent. Toni and I had the time of our lives, and I had brought 2 cameras to capture it all. It's a good thing I brought 2, because the first one died just before the encore. We looked at the pictures on the tube and the train because neither of us could wait until tomorrow, and I can't believe how some of them turned out. I'm really pleased, and Toni was impressed. We're going to go to Boots and get some printed off in the next week or so.

When we arrived in Billericay, we jumped in Toni's car, and about 30 minutes later, arrived to find I was locked out. Now it's 2:30...I have to be up at 6:30, guess I should get some sleep. Good Night :) xx