Duncan's Album Launch (copy from GJ)
I'd set my alarm for 6.30am, knowing I'd have a good fifteen minutes to wake up to Duncan (sadly only the album, but hey, a girl can dream) before I actually had to get out of bed. Thirty seconds into the first song, dad's out of bed, banging on my bedroom wall, scaring the bejesus out of me. First plan of the day ruined. I dragged myself out of bed and realised that all I had chosen to wear last night was a pair of jeans. Certainly, if that was all I was to go in, I'd be remembered, but then I thought I've got a whole day to spend in London first, I'd better choose something a little more covering. Finally settled on my favourite t-shirt, and packed another top to change into for the evening. Unplugged my now fully charged iPod, Pip, and my phone, a bit of last minute packing and I was ready to go. Halfway down the stairs, Mum's shouting after me "Zoe!!" Here we go, I thought. I have a train to catch, let me go! So I answer and she says "got your album cover?" Well, obviously.
Dad gave me a lift to the train station and was unusually chatty in the car, asking what I was actually going to London for, who I was meeting etc etc etc. Ten past seven, we arrive at the station and I get on my 7.18 direct train to London Euston. Managed to find a table to myself, at least for five minutes before two women came and joined me. One was deaf, so was rather loud and I decided it was time for Pip. Listened to Future Past all the way down to London, and had Letter To God on repeat for the last half hour. Called at five stops on the way down (why can no one get on the train at Watford Junction?!), arrived in Euston at 9.44am and headed straight for the Tube.
Joined a rather long queue for the ticket machine; not surprising really considering a few long trains had just arrived, but I was in no rush and had a good fifty minutes to get to Liverpool Street. Got myself a zone 1 & 2 ticket after trying and failing to use the cash only machine. Headed for the gates, only to go through too fast after the person before me, meaning that the gate didn't open for me, I had to put my card in again, which was then refused because it had already read it once. Tried another couple of gates before just going to the security guard who let me through the disabled gate.
With reference to a tube map that was almost two years out of date, I found my way to the Northern Line (at which point I started singing Run For Your Life) and got on the southbound line. Decided to go past Kings Cross St Pancras and change at Moorgate. From Moorgate I went onto Liverpool Street, got outside and looked for McDonald's (where Sam and I had previously agreed to meet up). Found it easily (kinda hard to miss actually), but Sam wasn't due in for another ten minutes or so, so I went on a wander around the station for a few. I'm not sure who spotted who first but we definitely recognised each other straight away. Sam got the giggles before I'd even said hello, which is always a good sign, isn't it? We hugged and decided on finding the hotel first. We had directions copied down and tubed it to Tottenham Court Road, walked up Oxford Street and called in at McDonald's to go to the loo. Found a cockney in the toilet complaining that the men's loos were locked, until he realised that this meant he had to use the women's. Had trouble trying to figure out how to use the taps before leaving.
Carried on up to Dean Street and Richmond Mews, following the directions. There were some pretty rough buildings, followed by a rather posh one. We turned the corner to face a backstreet and thought this isn't the kinda place we'd want to be walking down in the evening. Sam looked through the window of the posh place to see if it was actually the hotel. Seems she missed the rather large lettering on the pillar by the door saying "THE SOHO HOTEL." Ok, we both did. Hotel found, it was time for a wander around London.
We went back to Oxford Street, walked the entired length of it, and most of Regent Street before we wondered if we were ever actually going to go in any shops. Went back to Oxford Street and called in HMV, Virgin, WH Smith (the important places) and then to Starbucks for a White Chocolate Mocha and Banana Caramel Frappucino. Managed to drop my lens cap in whipped cream. We wandered more and eventually decided on Subway for dinner. Went for the greedy option of 12" subs whilst discussing how much of a pain it is to delete 1'000 emails from your inbox. After Subway we visited Leceister Square (where they were setting up for the UK premier of The Breakup), Trafalgar Square (where I took random photographs of pigeons and ducks), Harrods (£9.50 for a butty?!?!?!), and generally wandered in Westminster, talking about the Monopoly board. Piccadilly Circus was also visited, where I filmed a pile of pigeons fighting over a crumpet and a half eaten apple.
About 5pm we went back to Soho square and sat on the grass in the park. I emptied my entire bag twice and someone walked past asking if we had a cigarette. No, but we've got pretty much anything else you could ever want. Watched more pigeons and left the park when a rather crazy looking guy started throwing what looked like flourecent confetti around. Decided Subway was not a good place to go to the loo, so we went back to the original McDonald's. Still only two working toilets, which Sam and I blocked up while we got changed. Back to Soho square where I made myself look presentable, choking two passing guys in the process with my Impulse. Saw more pigeons, and at 7pm actually walked back to the hotel.
There was a bit of a queue, which we were fine about because we had decided that we didn't want to be first there, but we were still quite close the the front. We talked to two women in front for a while; one was complaining about travelling from London to Birmingham for a signing, so I told her she has no excuse because I had come down from Preston. Waited a while outside and got our wristbands. The doors still aren't open and I'm still not the least bit excited. Taxis keep turning up, dropping people off, driving away, nothing interesting though...
Until Simon Webbe appears, walking casually past the front of the queue. At least, I thought it was him, only no one said anything. I nudged Sam, and completely calmly said "Simon just walked past." Of course she didn't believe me until she looked through the window and saw him, when she went squeaky.
Finally, we were let in and we walked through the reception, waving at Simon on the way, to a small room where we got a free drink (white wine for the two of us). I got the giggles and Sam wanted to go to the toilet and see Simon. We went back out to the reception, went to the (very posh!) toilets, then back out, standing around while Simon talked to everyone in general about how he's been oh so busy and why it's never a good idea to go into a woman's handbag. I took a photo of him and Sam before he went into another room and we went back to the alcohol room. Someone said he had come back, so we went back out to reception a few minutes later and I got my photo taken with him (he's a skinny bugger!), asking if he was going to come to Preston. He said "yeah... sure..." Uh huh, Simon, don't lie to me. He disappeared again and we went to the toilet again. Back to the alcohol room, and then a third visit to the toilet (at which point Simon had moved to the door and we had to squeeze past him to actually get to the loos). The alcohol room was far too hot now so we waited outside with the girls we had met in the queue, before finally going into the room where the actual thing would take place.
We sat three rows back, close to the end with one seat to spare. Someone official there said that the seat was reserved. This could be interesting... but no, it was reserved for a girl on crutches and her friend. So no "chicken on spit" syndrome, as Mum would call it. Fiona Inglis sat dead centre and I failed miserably to get a photo of her.
A woman came out onto the stage and told us what was to happen. Duncan would come out in five minutes or so, do a twenty minute set, which would be followed by a short break and then the webchat, firstly with questions from the website, then questions from people in the room. I looked at Sam and said "I'm gonna miss my train!" It was already 8.50pm and the last train I was comfortable to catch left at 10.25pm. The woman said that after that we would be taken through to another room, where we would have our photos taken with Duncan. "SCREW YOUR TRAIN!"as Sam so nicely put it.
Duncan came out onto the stage looking rather nice (note extreme under-exaggeration), talked to us all and introduced his band. The first song was Amazed. My camera didn't focus at first so I missed the first line. Apart from that I recorded the whole set on my camera. Amazed was followed by Can't Stop A River, Guilty and Sooner Or Later. It took Duncan around five attempts and eight minutes to get through Guilty because he sung the wrong words, completely forgot others, and in general just screwed it up. Will be interesting to see how much of it they put on the website next week. Everyone in the room was all for getting Simon to help with Guilty, but it never happened.
Duncan left the room for the break, and Sam went to the toilet while I called Mum to ask her if she could find me a hotel - this was definitely going to overrun. She said she'd look. Sam came back, saying she was still getting dressed when she'd come out of the toilets and Duncan had walked past. Turned my phone off as the woman had come back on stage ready for the interview. Got the camera going again and recorded close to half an hour of it. After that, microphones were passed around the audience for questions. I plucked up courage too late to ask my question - "We had to be 18 to get in here, are you going to do something X-rated for us?" - so I missed my opportunity. After the questions were over, we got organised for photos. The fact that we were three rows back meant we had a bit of a wait, so I called mum again. No hotel will take me. Sam had offered before to call her mum and ask if I could stay at hers for the night and go home in the morning (either that or a half past one train and a 9 hour journey home including a three hour change at Milton Keynes Central at giddy o'clock in the morning). She called and everything was fine, so I was relaxed after that. My half decent train was due to leave in five minutes anyway; there was no way I'd get it.
When it was our turn for the photo, we both went out of the main room and into reception, where we were directed to another door, gave our bags to someone outside and went inside. Duncan was sat on the middle of three chairs, and I sat to his right while Sam went to his left. We all had our arms around each other and had our photo taken three times by a professional photographer before we each gave Duncan a kiss on the cheek (I may never wash these lips again), thanked him and left (I tripped over a chair on the way out). We got our bags, verified Sam's address for the photos to be sent out, and went straight outside, rather giddy now. Headed straight for Tottenham Court Road Tube station to get back to Liverpool Street and a train up to Colchester. Got a drink at the station and decided on the 11:18pm train, which we got onto early and watched bits of the videos we had both shot during Duncan's performance.
Arrived in Colchester soon after midnight, got picked up by Sam's dad and went back to the house. Straight on the computer to trade photos and videos, and finally decided to sleep at 3am.
I forgot where I was when I finally woke up. Shayne Ward singing That's My Goal at whatever time made me think I was at home and had forgotten to turn my alarm off. I sat up, waving my arm around and wondering why I couldn't see my stereo. Then I remembered where I was and went back to sleep. Shayne was quiet for a while and then started up again later on. Sam's mum came in at half six to make sure she was awake, and then eventually the other alarm went off at half 7.
That's My Goal was in my head all morning, at least until I got to Liverpool Street. There's no train from Colchester that goes North so I had to spend an hour getting down London, only to spend another few hours going back up. Got the 9.18am train from Colchester to Liverpool Street, then Tubed it to Euston, missing two direct trains. My next direct train was an hour later, so I caught the train to Manchester Piccadilly with plans to change there and continue back to Preston. Listened to Keane's new album most of the way, and made notes for this update:
Got into Manchester at 1.45pm, twenty minutes late, and just as my connection was leaving. My phone was dead by this point, so I found a payphone and called mum. I had asked Christian to meet me in Preston, but as I had missed my connection I was going to be another half hour. Asked mum to call him and tell him I'd be in at three pm. As I hung up the phone and headed to my platform, I realised I could catch the Edinburgh train (one stop) instead of the Blackpool one (about 10 stops). Tried to get my phone to work and sent two texts telling mum and Christian that I'd be in at 2.45pm. Visited Lynsey at work and eventually met Christian. Showed him my photos and videos, traded presents (a tankard with the Tube map on for him and multiple welsh things for me).
A pigeon in Trafalgar Square:
Me and Simon:
And me, yesterday afternoon, in Starbucks with Christian, feeling extremely rough and refusing to take off the wristband:
Fingers crossed that the Duncan pictures arrive soon. Tomorrow would be preferable then I don't have to wait if they arrive while I'm in Egypt.
Dad gave me a lift to the train station and was unusually chatty in the car, asking what I was actually going to London for, who I was meeting etc etc etc. Ten past seven, we arrive at the station and I get on my 7.18 direct train to London Euston. Managed to find a table to myself, at least for five minutes before two women came and joined me. One was deaf, so was rather loud and I decided it was time for Pip. Listened to Future Past all the way down to London, and had Letter To God on repeat for the last half hour. Called at five stops on the way down (why can no one get on the train at Watford Junction?!), arrived in Euston at 9.44am and headed straight for the Tube.
Joined a rather long queue for the ticket machine; not surprising really considering a few long trains had just arrived, but I was in no rush and had a good fifty minutes to get to Liverpool Street. Got myself a zone 1 & 2 ticket after trying and failing to use the cash only machine. Headed for the gates, only to go through too fast after the person before me, meaning that the gate didn't open for me, I had to put my card in again, which was then refused because it had already read it once. Tried another couple of gates before just going to the security guard who let me through the disabled gate.
With reference to a tube map that was almost two years out of date, I found my way to the Northern Line (at which point I started singing Run For Your Life) and got on the southbound line. Decided to go past Kings Cross St Pancras and change at Moorgate. From Moorgate I went onto Liverpool Street, got outside and looked for McDonald's (where Sam and I had previously agreed to meet up). Found it easily (kinda hard to miss actually), but Sam wasn't due in for another ten minutes or so, so I went on a wander around the station for a few. I'm not sure who spotted who first but we definitely recognised each other straight away. Sam got the giggles before I'd even said hello, which is always a good sign, isn't it? We hugged and decided on finding the hotel first. We had directions copied down and tubed it to Tottenham Court Road, walked up Oxford Street and called in at McDonald's to go to the loo. Found a cockney in the toilet complaining that the men's loos were locked, until he realised that this meant he had to use the women's. Had trouble trying to figure out how to use the taps before leaving.
Carried on up to Dean Street and Richmond Mews, following the directions. There were some pretty rough buildings, followed by a rather posh one. We turned the corner to face a backstreet and thought this isn't the kinda place we'd want to be walking down in the evening. Sam looked through the window of the posh place to see if it was actually the hotel. Seems she missed the rather large lettering on the pillar by the door saying "THE SOHO HOTEL." Ok, we both did. Hotel found, it was time for a wander around London.
We went back to Oxford Street, walked the entired length of it, and most of Regent Street before we wondered if we were ever actually going to go in any shops. Went back to Oxford Street and called in HMV, Virgin, WH Smith (the important places) and then to Starbucks for a White Chocolate Mocha and Banana Caramel Frappucino. Managed to drop my lens cap in whipped cream. We wandered more and eventually decided on Subway for dinner. Went for the greedy option of 12" subs whilst discussing how much of a pain it is to delete 1'000 emails from your inbox. After Subway we visited Leceister Square (where they were setting up for the UK premier of The Breakup), Trafalgar Square (where I took random photographs of pigeons and ducks), Harrods (£9.50 for a butty?!?!?!), and generally wandered in Westminster, talking about the Monopoly board. Piccadilly Circus was also visited, where I filmed a pile of pigeons fighting over a crumpet and a half eaten apple.
About 5pm we went back to Soho square and sat on the grass in the park. I emptied my entire bag twice and someone walked past asking if we had a cigarette. No, but we've got pretty much anything else you could ever want. Watched more pigeons and left the park when a rather crazy looking guy started throwing what looked like flourecent confetti around. Decided Subway was not a good place to go to the loo, so we went back to the original McDonald's. Still only two working toilets, which Sam and I blocked up while we got changed. Back to Soho square where I made myself look presentable, choking two passing guys in the process with my Impulse. Saw more pigeons, and at 7pm actually walked back to the hotel.
There was a bit of a queue, which we were fine about because we had decided that we didn't want to be first there, but we were still quite close the the front. We talked to two women in front for a while; one was complaining about travelling from London to Birmingham for a signing, so I told her she has no excuse because I had come down from Preston. Waited a while outside and got our wristbands. The doors still aren't open and I'm still not the least bit excited. Taxis keep turning up, dropping people off, driving away, nothing interesting though...
Until Simon Webbe appears, walking casually past the front of the queue. At least, I thought it was him, only no one said anything. I nudged Sam, and completely calmly said "Simon just walked past." Of course she didn't believe me until she looked through the window and saw him, when she went squeaky.
Finally, we were let in and we walked through the reception, waving at Simon on the way, to a small room where we got a free drink (white wine for the two of us). I got the giggles and Sam wanted to go to the toilet and see Simon. We went back out to the reception, went to the (very posh!) toilets, then back out, standing around while Simon talked to everyone in general about how he's been oh so busy and why it's never a good idea to go into a woman's handbag. I took a photo of him and Sam before he went into another room and we went back to the alcohol room. Someone said he had come back, so we went back out to reception a few minutes later and I got my photo taken with him (he's a skinny bugger!), asking if he was going to come to Preston. He said "yeah... sure..." Uh huh, Simon, don't lie to me. He disappeared again and we went to the toilet again. Back to the alcohol room, and then a third visit to the toilet (at which point Simon had moved to the door and we had to squeeze past him to actually get to the loos). The alcohol room was far too hot now so we waited outside with the girls we had met in the queue, before finally going into the room where the actual thing would take place.
We sat three rows back, close to the end with one seat to spare. Someone official there said that the seat was reserved. This could be interesting... but no, it was reserved for a girl on crutches and her friend. So no "chicken on spit" syndrome, as Mum would call it. Fiona Inglis sat dead centre and I failed miserably to get a photo of her.
A woman came out onto the stage and told us what was to happen. Duncan would come out in five minutes or so, do a twenty minute set, which would be followed by a short break and then the webchat, firstly with questions from the website, then questions from people in the room. I looked at Sam and said "I'm gonna miss my train!" It was already 8.50pm and the last train I was comfortable to catch left at 10.25pm. The woman said that after that we would be taken through to another room, where we would have our photos taken with Duncan. "SCREW YOUR TRAIN!"as Sam so nicely put it.
Duncan came out onto the stage looking rather nice (note extreme under-exaggeration), talked to us all and introduced his band. The first song was Amazed. My camera didn't focus at first so I missed the first line. Apart from that I recorded the whole set on my camera. Amazed was followed by Can't Stop A River, Guilty and Sooner Or Later. It took Duncan around five attempts and eight minutes to get through Guilty because he sung the wrong words, completely forgot others, and in general just screwed it up. Will be interesting to see how much of it they put on the website next week. Everyone in the room was all for getting Simon to help with Guilty, but it never happened.
Duncan left the room for the break, and Sam went to the toilet while I called Mum to ask her if she could find me a hotel - this was definitely going to overrun. She said she'd look. Sam came back, saying she was still getting dressed when she'd come out of the toilets and Duncan had walked past. Turned my phone off as the woman had come back on stage ready for the interview. Got the camera going again and recorded close to half an hour of it. After that, microphones were passed around the audience for questions. I plucked up courage too late to ask my question - "We had to be 18 to get in here, are you going to do something X-rated for us?" - so I missed my opportunity. After the questions were over, we got organised for photos. The fact that we were three rows back meant we had a bit of a wait, so I called mum again. No hotel will take me. Sam had offered before to call her mum and ask if I could stay at hers for the night and go home in the morning (either that or a half past one train and a 9 hour journey home including a three hour change at Milton Keynes Central at giddy o'clock in the morning). She called and everything was fine, so I was relaxed after that. My half decent train was due to leave in five minutes anyway; there was no way I'd get it.
When it was our turn for the photo, we both went out of the main room and into reception, where we were directed to another door, gave our bags to someone outside and went inside. Duncan was sat on the middle of three chairs, and I sat to his right while Sam went to his left. We all had our arms around each other and had our photo taken three times by a professional photographer before we each gave Duncan a kiss on the cheek (I may never wash these lips again), thanked him and left (I tripped over a chair on the way out). We got our bags, verified Sam's address for the photos to be sent out, and went straight outside, rather giddy now. Headed straight for Tottenham Court Road Tube station to get back to Liverpool Street and a train up to Colchester. Got a drink at the station and decided on the 11:18pm train, which we got onto early and watched bits of the videos we had both shot during Duncan's performance.
Arrived in Colchester soon after midnight, got picked up by Sam's dad and went back to the house. Straight on the computer to trade photos and videos, and finally decided to sleep at 3am.
I forgot where I was when I finally woke up. Shayne Ward singing That's My Goal at whatever time made me think I was at home and had forgotten to turn my alarm off. I sat up, waving my arm around and wondering why I couldn't see my stereo. Then I remembered where I was and went back to sleep. Shayne was quiet for a while and then started up again later on. Sam's mum came in at half six to make sure she was awake, and then eventually the other alarm went off at half 7.
That's My Goal was in my head all morning, at least until I got to Liverpool Street. There's no train from Colchester that goes North so I had to spend an hour getting down London, only to spend another few hours going back up. Got the 9.18am train from Colchester to Liverpool Street, then Tubed it to Euston, missing two direct trains. My next direct train was an hour later, so I caught the train to Manchester Piccadilly with plans to change there and continue back to Preston. Listened to Keane's new album most of the way, and made notes for this update:
Got into Manchester at 1.45pm, twenty minutes late, and just as my connection was leaving. My phone was dead by this point, so I found a payphone and called mum. I had asked Christian to meet me in Preston, but as I had missed my connection I was going to be another half hour. Asked mum to call him and tell him I'd be in at three pm. As I hung up the phone and headed to my platform, I realised I could catch the Edinburgh train (one stop) instead of the Blackpool one (about 10 stops). Tried to get my phone to work and sent two texts telling mum and Christian that I'd be in at 2.45pm. Visited Lynsey at work and eventually met Christian. Showed him my photos and videos, traded presents (a tankard with the Tube map on for him and multiple welsh things for me).
A pigeon in Trafalgar Square:
Me and Simon:
And me, yesterday afternoon, in Starbucks with Christian, feeling extremely rough and refusing to take off the wristband:
Fingers crossed that the Duncan pictures arrive soon. Tomorrow would be preferable then I don't have to wait if they arrive while I'm in Egypt.