Al Fresco Boys ............

I had a last minute opportunity to get my hands on some 1/2 price tickets to see my fav boys Westlife again, and this time it was going to be only 30 mins from me and in an outdoor performance. Could I? Should I? No question, of course I should, and even Maintenance Man said I should go. Within an hour I had bought 2 tickets and my best friend Ali (Lady List) and I were set to go. July 17, Broadlands outdoor arena in Romsey. A bit of girl time and a much needed time out for both of us.
Now, me being just a bit excited, spent the next 10 days googling everything from the weather to what strategy must be put in place to make sure we had half a chance of a front row place. Last time I saw them it was too far away for my liking and I was going to have to make a plan for success this time.
It was decided we would leave home by 2 pm (only 3 hrs to wait for gate opening) and then hopefully get a good place in the queue.
July 17 - 12pm I am ready and raring to go but 2pm was the sheduled set off time so I had to keep busy for a wee while yet.
2pm, Ali and I are off, coffee and bottles of water, biscuits and chocolate for the queue, garden chairs and umbrellas just in case.
2.30pm arrive at destination - OMG how did all those people get there already? So much for being first - Note to self - camp out the night before maybe? In fact there were only about 60 - 70 others in front of us. We put up the chairs, got out the coffee and biscuits and settled down for the wait.

The atmosphere was great and everyone was chatting and laughing, listening to bits of sound checking coming from the massive arena stage and trying to guess who's voice we could hear and how to get a sneaky look through the gates. 4.30pm - Ali and I decided we needed a plan cos when the gates opened it looked like it was going to be every man for himself to get to the front. So, Ali would take the chairs and I would run as fast as possible to the front of the stage and she would find me. All good.



Arena / Stage

Gates open and we are off. Well, it must have looked hilarious. Hundreds of  more mature (in years only, as we had regressed back to teenagers by the end of the evening), mainly female, fans racing like their lives depended on it, to get the best place to see the boys. No holds barred, and I was thinking that any minute now I am going to fall flat on my face and get crushed in the stampede. The last time I ran like that it was in the Mums Race at school sports day and I pulled a muscle in my leg, but it seems the gym work had paid off cos we made it - right to the front row, bar one person. Ali finally located me and we took a breather. Now, having never been to on outdoor concert before I was trying to be guided by what everyone else was doing. Behind us people were setting up camp again to wait for the start of the show, so we set up our chairs again too. Interesting views of the backs of peoples knees (I now remember what it feels like to be 4 years old). Well, there had to be one group of women who were not happy with this, probably because they didn't have a chair and the grass was wet, and they decided to moan and bitch very loudly about our seating (which were taking up less space than the people sitting on the floor etc all around the place. My initial thought was "Hey, stop moaning we all just want to enjoy ourselves" and Ali even reassured them that we would most definitely be putting the chairs up when things got going, but they continued to gripe and stare blackly at us. I was at this point feeling intimidated and quite anxious (these were scary women, who knows what they were capable of in an environment bubbling over with hormones and emotions..... and WESTLIFE !!)
Anyway, we held out til about 1/2 an hour before the support act were due on and then decided to put the chairs away and get ready for the show. Support acts were very good, but unfortunately I was getting concerned that the beer I had drunk was now taking its effect and I would most certainly need the loo before long. I decided to take my life into my hands and make my way out to the toilets before the boys came on. Getting out was not too much of a problem, although I was a little taken aback by the girl also going out behind me shouting "I am coming back in, take note of my face, no arguing on the way back". Toilet stop accomplished, now to get back to my spot with Ali. I now began to realise why the girl had shouted that stuff on the way out. How can, I assume normally quite pleasant people, turn into such agressive and animal-like beings in a millisecond? I was growled and sworn at, pushed and deliberately obstructed in my attempts to get back in (who knows, I may have been lying about my already having a space, God forbid). I made it back alive and decided I would have cross my legs if I needed to go again. Thank god it was only 1 beer.
The moment was approaching and the crowd was getting hungry for some action. We had been here for the best part of 6 / 7 hours now and we wanted what we had come for. Where were they? What were they doing? You look fine, stop faffing about in the dressing room and GET OUT HERE.

How to go from 44 to 17 again in 2.5 seconds. Lights up, music LOUD, and they were on. Even better than before and now within 6 feet away from me. In all seriousness (just for a second) they are really good live, they sounded brilliant and looked amazing. Definitely no airbrushing there I can assure you.  

We sang, we danced, we screamed and cheered. The park was electric. Half way through the show, Nicky did the banner reading - some very funny and others hysterical but too rude to write on here. They then decided to get people onto the stage. A girl who's 18th birthday it was, and her friend, another random girl and the couple in front of me who were obviously avid fans. The lucky few were helped onto the stage where they kissed and hugged all the boys (GRRRR) and then chatted a bit with them all. An amazing thing then happened, when Nicky asked the couple if they were married, the guy started to say he wanted to say something to the lady, was handed the microphone and proposed right there in front of everyone. Of course she said yes. How amazing to take an impromptu opportunity and make such a special moment even more memorable. Hats off to him and well done Westlife for helping make that happen.

The evening was fantastic. They finished all too soon but we left feeling so lucky to have managed get right to the front this time, even if we did have to be a bit hard core and strategic about it, but it was so worth every second. We had fun, we had a lot of laughs and we had a great girly day out just being girls again.

Cant wait for the next time and I would do it all again.

 

Westlife ................ the new Youth Serum.

I have decided that there is nothing like a bit of silliness to make you feel younger. Last weekend was the weekend I had been looking forward to for months. Yes, I am an unashamed massive Westlife fan. Sorry, but there is nothing wrong with a little boyband fantasy - even at my age !! Maintenance Man offered to be on kiddy duty for the weekend so I could go and indulge my fantasies with my sister, (we shall call her Spa Chick), who had also planned a day of retail therapy to follow. So a real treat for me, a weekend away.

The drive was spent visualising my idea of the forthcoming concert - you see, although I am a little over 25, I have only ever been to see 2 other music concerts and one of those was when I was 19!!  The silliness had started a few weeks ago when I happened to say to Spa Chick that I thought we should take some pants to throw on the stage during the show.. as is customary I believe? The conversation went on to figure out how far a pair of thongs might actually travel (not far we reckoned), so maybe a tennis ball in the gusset was the way to go. Now, at this point our sons, both teenagers, had decided that this was definitely not the way for their "respectable" mothers to behave. Of course, this was now a great game of wind-em-up, in repayment for all the years of tantrums and bad behaviour we had suffered from them. Talk of which kind of thong we should buy, whether we should write our phone numbers on them and of course the impending posting of the photos onto facebook and you tube ensued, much to their total disgust. Worried looks and requests for us to behave properly were quickly followed by comments about "middle aged women" caught on TV behaving badly. As we told them, we intend to grow old disgracefully.!

Well, having spent the afternoon trying to decide which outfit Shane (W) would like the most, with Spa Chick making comments along the lines of it not really mattering if it was going to end up on the dressing room floor anyway, (you see how things were getting very silly now), we ventured off to meet the boys - Westlife of course. After locating the bar at the O2 for some pre-show drinks, we decided this was the time to take the photos of ourselves with the thongs. Of course we had no intention of launching them - our seats were unfortunately too far away from the stage, even with a tennis ball, and we figured the people in the rows in front of us may not appreciate thong hats. Even so we had brought them in our bags to continue the charade, not realising there was going to be a security bag search on our way in. A little embarrassing for Spa Chick as hers were discovered by the doorman..... worryingly he didn't seem shocked or fazed at all????

Into the arena, find the seats, sit down, take a breath ---- who are all these people? Shane didn't mention he had invited 19,998 other people. Gutted!! Don't want to share. I feel like a sulky teenager. A voice somewhere in the back of my head reminds me IT'S NOT REAL!!! Shut-up, it's real tonight and I am going to block all these others out, just for a couple of hours. Converstaion continues between Spa Chick and I, trying to decide who will have who for the evening (cos we really DID have the choice you know), and whether Shane (W) would like the younger or slightly more mature model between us.

So, the lights go down, the anticipation is high, I feel like I am going to burst with the prospect of an evening with Shane, Nicky, Kian and Mark (well not so much Mark - sorry), and there they are. OMG -- they are small....... Oh well, look at the screen and they return to normal size, although it could be fun to have a pocket version. Well the show was amazing, we danced, we sang, we screamed like never before, and when the boys came out over the audience on a floating steel girder, bring them so so close, just a little closer, come on, come on..  Oh Bugger!!  Still too far away for my liking.  I really must get front row seats next time GGRRRR.
It was about now that Shane decided to say hi to his wife and kids who were in the audience too. You are joking right? You cant say that Shane. I paid good money for this and tonight you are all mine  -- not married (like me too). The sound of 20,000 hearts sinking was BIG. You can kinda go off someone you know, although this feeling went away real quick when I reminded myself there was always Nicky or Kian (prob also married but don't think about it).

Carry on singing and dancing, the mood is high again, peoples banners are being read out by Kian and I have to say I totally agree with the one that stated "The Tighter the Trousers, the Better the View". AND THEN... someone threw pants!!! Not skimpy thongs like ours, oh no, these were big. Very very big, and had a message scrawled across them not fitting for posting on this blog. I'm sure as Kian was reading this he was thinking "I would much rather have Liesl's thongs"??? Next time Kian, cos I will be getting front row seats for sure.

By the time it was all over, I was feeling like a 17 year old again -- (I know its not that long ago, ha ha I wish ). Do we need creams and potions, nips and tucks or jabs of botox to be young again? No - a little fantasy and an evening of complete silliness is without a doubt the way to do it. Well it worked for me.. just for a while. xxxx

                                 "Middle-aged" my A****





                        

     The "wannabe launched Thong"                                  Spa Chick with her missile

 

                                                  
                                                     Who needs L'Oreal? 

                                                      A dose of these boys

                                                    will do me xxx 

C'mon boys over here ...