Bimbette #1: Well, we weren't, like, BFF, but we were, like... F...?
Bimbette #2, nodding knowingly: Mmm.

Tags: Friends

A long time ago I met a girl called Rosemary through work. I was very young and although she was only a couple of years older than me, she was so much more worldly wise than me and I credit her with kick-starting my grown-up life. She was incredibly important to me for quite a while. She introduced me to her set of friends who were also just that little bit older than me and I started to hang out with them all at parties and get-togethers and then a particular bar-be-que which saw a flame starting between Iain and me (sorry).

Rosemary is probably the oldest friend I have that I am still in touch with.

She has finally found a man good enough for her and is getting married next Saturday. I am doing the photos for her and Stephen.

It was her Hen Party last weekend. Rosemary never did anything the traditional way so why should the Hen Party be anything other than the. best. fun. ever.

She hired a mini bus and picked 10 of her nearest and dearest up along the way and took us all to a place called Todd's Leap for a full day of activities and then a BBQ and over night stay in a log cabin. As official photographer for the event I got loads of great photos which I will post a link to later - these wont be on Flickr but they aren't uploaded just yet either.

We arrived around 11.15am and were quickly handled by the staff. You know how places advertise their staff as "enthusiastic and committed"? THESE people REALLY were. They have a fantastic job and obviously all love being there. The owner, Benny, took control and injected us with some energy and humour, splitting our group in to two teams and introducing us to a Stag Party who were also there for the day. He announced we would be competing for a bottle of Champagne which perked us up rightly!

Once split in to teams we had to pick a team name and theme tune. Rosemary's bridesmaid (and our team leader) is from Australia so we picked "Skippy" not realising that we would be singing it quite so often throughout the day! Chose your theme tune wisely if you go!

Benny gave us a thorough Health and Safety talk and laid down strict (and rather comforting) rules about obeying the staff's commands.

The first thing our mini team of three did was Off Road Driving in a 4x4 on one of the roughest roads I have ever seen. With just a little drop of mud thrown in for good measure. I had done a fair amount of off-road driving, albeit twenty years ago, and totally loved having a go at this again. I drove first so I could get my turn over so I could photograph the others at it. It is really difficult to trust the instructor when he tells you to turn the wheel all the way in the opposite direction you think it should be going. There is a certain amount of buttock clenching and toe curling to be done when you are the first one over the top of a hill and see, before your passengers do, that there is no ground beneath you as you seem to have reached the very Edge of the World!

There was one part where the left hand side of the road was about 6 feet lower than the right hand side! Now THAT was scary. I never lost faith in the fact that they wouldn't build a track which would break their vehicles and - if the instructor said it was passable - it was passable.

After the others had their drives (during which I provided free sound effects) we met up with the others again and I prepared myself for about 30 minutes of waiting around for the instructors to get themselves sorted. Not to be though! They were spot on with their timings and we never waited more than a couple of minutes between events.

Next up, all the girls went to the clay pigeon shooting area. It has been pointed out to me that I may have previously declared a wish to try this out sometime and I was really excited to see how much fun this would be. There was a possibility it would kick my weak shoulder too much to be fun.

The instructor guy here was different and I was glad to see that he seemed to have been employed for shooting skills. He gave great instructions but made one fatal mistake. He never asked if anyone had ever shot clay pigeon before. Rosemary has done it competitively and I can't remember how far she got with it but I know she was working towards the Olympics at one point met Suzie (her Australian bridesmaid) through shooting too so I knew SHE must have done a little too.

They asked the rest of us not to say anything to the guy - they wanted to see what his patter was like.

We all got two shots each and I hung back for as long as possible to see how the others were doing it. To my very great delight I hit both of my targets! can you imagine my grin? Suzie went next and hit her two - the guy looked at her and said "You've done this before I think." She just nodded and said "A bit."

Rosemary was the same - two hits out of two and by then he was rather suspicious. She turned to him and said "Suzie is the Australian Olympic Gold Medal winner for this sport!"

We then all had a competition with another four shots. I came third after Rosemary, who had an overall score of 6/6 and Suzie who had 5/6. I had 4/6. That means I was only one below an Olympic Gold Medallist!

Not that I am competitive when it comes to things like that. Much. The gun was getting really heavy by the end of it and I'm not sure how much longer I could have kept that up for.

We gathered for coffee and scones and then straight off to Archery. I got some great shots there too and enjoyed having a go at that. I had a flukey start to it but when it came to the competition I failed to hit the balloon that I cockily thought I would bag without any effort at all.

After a bit of a hike we ended up on the top of an exposed hill looking at a JS70 JCB machine. I had never ever ever thought I would be inside the cab of a JCB knocking over tyres and digging and then filling in holes. It was great craic and now I can say I have done it. I can't say I will ever need to do it ever again, however!

Somewhere during the day we landed in to the kitchen area and had lunch - meeting up with the stag party, who seemed to be having as good a time as we were.

Our team found ourselves looking at extremely muddy quad bikes next. The instructor there was very funny and had me laughing at her dry jokes. Her jokes were about the only dry things by this stage as it started to pour while we were riding round the track. The quads were great fun. I am glad I did them, I would like another go on them - but by this time my arm muscles were killing me and when I stopped to take some photos I felt the camera shaking in my hands.

Most of the girls loved the quads.

We headed back to the team building to find they had blown up a bouncy-castle based Rodeo Bull. One of the other girls and I decided to sit this one out - I just knew I wouldn't enjoy it and the other girl was getting past her sell by date by this time too.

The first one up on to the bull was the funniest thing I have ever seen. She simply couldn't get her leg over it. She jumped at it. She tried to clamber up. She accepted help - and - then - as - she - got - on - totally - slipped - off - the other - side!

At one point during this I had to consciously disconnect myself from the scene in front of me as I knew that if I laughed for one second more I was going to vomit. I made eye contact with Rosemary who said "All this for 2.5 seconds!?"

Helen stayed on for exactly 2.7 seconds!!

Rosemary put her boots on and walked out the door at this point. I later found out that she had laughed so much she needed to go to the loo!

The bull was the only thing all day which gave us any injuries - about three of the girls hurt their hands holding on to the rope and one finger was badly bruised and cut.

All day there had been talk about the ultimate prize not being the Champagne but a ride in the "V8". It took me a while to work out that this was another open backed 4x4 with 6 bucket seats in the rear with rally style straps. It turned out that Benny gave us all a go on this - not just the "winners".

Those of you who know me well, will know I don't like roller coasters - I don't really like amusement park type rides with sudden jerks and stomach wrenching momentum. I make an exception to all this for the V8. I want to do that again. And again. And again! I want to DRIVE THAT TOO!

Imagine the off road track we had driven earlier - at 0.0005 miles per hour - and then think about it whooshing past you at 60-80 miles an hour. It was absolutely the most fantastic drive I have ever had.

When we got back to base one of the guys pointed out the dents in the roll cage. Seemingly they rolled the V8 last week. EEEEEK.

Rosemary got a ride of her dreams when Benny got out his Lotus Elise and gave her doughnuts and spins and speed and hand-brake turns up and down the yard for quite a few inches of rubber. She was having a ball.

That was more or less the day of adventure over. Now for the FUN!

We retired to the log cabins to compare bruises, the one on my upper arm was the best! Oh, who am I kidding? We retired to start into the drink. And we did. And I did. And I was. And two days later I am still suffering.

Seemingly I became very lovey and declared that this was the best fun I had had for 15 years. I am not sure what the last best day was but this was obviously the best since then. I hit it off with quite a few of Rosemary's other friends. I only knew one other girl there, having known her for as long as Rosemary - we all worked in the same place. For some reason this other girl (also called Rosemary) and I never hit it off and when we bumped in to each other at 'Rosemary get-togethers" I always found her to be a tad aloof. Not this time! We had a great time chatting away.

Rosemary's best friend from school, Dorothy, was there and she is now on my list of "Funniest People I Ever Did Meet". Some of Stephen's sisters were there too. Who else? Oh yes, Rosemary's accountant was there and I really liked her. I talked to her quite a lot, she lives in the town I was born in which gave her instant status. There is a whole story to be told there and I may finish that for you some day - not this time though. it will be about how everyone in Northern Ireland is connected to everyone else. It is, by far, the scariest story I have ever heard, lived through or had to tell.

All in all, we were a great bunch. Rosemary wasn't quite as drunk as me but she still managed to tear up a little when she started to thank us all for coming. Suzie got us all to do a toast to Rosemary and most of the girls managed this admirably but it was all too emotional for me and I ended up having to just start the words that were in my head, gulp and then say "you know" and allow it to pass on to the next not-so-emotional person.

Oh - somewhere during all that Dorothy managed to organise a BBQ for us all. It was pretty damn fantastic. The last lights were finally put out around 2am. For some reason i dreamed of tattoos (Suzie has Olympic Rings tattooed on her ankle which I think are pretty damn cool and some of Rosie's friends shocked her by showing their tattoos that she knew nothing about!). I suddenly had six on my right arm which were being blurred by my bruises!

At 6.00am I woke in a real panic thinking that someone had come in to the cabin and stolen my phone (I was lying on it all night - so *A*dele is lucky I wasn't phoning her the whole night!) and that lead to a panic that they may have stolen my camera too. It took me ages to get back to sleep again. By 8feckingo'clock every fecking person decided it was time to get up. Feckers.

By 9.30am we headed down to the kitchen again for our Ulster Fry and by 11.00am we had paid our bill. Rosemary left everyone home again except for me. I went home with her and Suzie.

The rest of the day was spent with Rosemary, Suzie and Stephen, going round their big-day venues and sussing out where they would like photos taken.

Not the normal, run of the mill Hen Party huh? As my first ever, the next one I go on has a lot to live up to! Mind you, the way things are going, this may be the only Hen Party I ever go to!

So, here's what I would have said to Rosemary had I been able to. I wish I could have said it out loud to her. I know she will read this.

Rosemary, you were a unique friend to me. There is no other person quite like you. You came into my life at a crucial point and made me realise that life could be fun and, more than that, SHOULD be fun. I always tell people that you "woke me up". In recent days we have joked about cheese: not only did you show me there were different types of cheese but you showed me that the cheese existed. You know?

And. No. I am NOT going to photoshop 600 photos for you. I. Do. Not. Love. You. That. Much.

Tags: Fun, Weekend Break, Laugh, Todd's Leap, Rosemary

We had Jacqui to stay over the Easter weekend. I think she came to see Bailey! And that will serve her right because all he did was cover her in fluids, between licking her, sitting beside her while decidedly damp and then peeing all over her bed in the excitement to see her - he was obviously a big hit!

We went to The Outlet on the Saturday, buying the kids their *heelies* contraptions that they have been whining on and on and on about for the past 3 months and as soon as we got them on their feet David declared they were "all right" and Jessica that "they were too big for her shoes" and both sets were put in the boxes and they are still in the boot of the car now. I am so glad we didn't go for the more expensive versions!

We managed to hold their interest long enough to get a takeaway Starbucks before heading for home. We had a lovely meal in an Indian that I have been dying to go back to since the time Lorna and I went but no one really eats Indian in our family and it is hard to get anyone to go out for a decent grown-up meal these days so I jumped at the chance of going somewhere other than the diners the kids love. The meal was grand although, if we had been another ten minutes later I doubt they could have found us anywhere to sit.

Then on to the cinema to see "300". Hmmm. Actually, I really liked it. Can't say why I liked it better than the likes of Sin City, which I don't think I ever managed to finish but it just seemed a lot more believable to me in a backward kind of way. Being about a war - there was a lot of killing and beheading and general death via swords and spikes - all very gory but quite entertaining none the less! It got a thumbs up from me and yea, I would see it again. So long as the venue had their sound sorted - much of the early dialogue was lost to me - I reckon these narrators are all MUMBLERS.

On Sunday I desperately wanted to go to Jessops and a couple of other shops. Imagine my horror when I drove past them all to see every single last one of them had their shutters down. Tut. It wasn't Christmas Day you know.

We went back to the cinema on Sunday afternoon to see our second choice - Blades of Glory. Oh my good grief. I thought this was the funniest film for a long time. It was just so silly - all you could do was laugh at it. So I did. Yea - it might not be everyone's cup of tea but it made me giggle A LOT. Usually 'too-silly-for-words" films leave me un-tickled but this one worked for me.

Unable to find Iain and the kids, to hook up with them for a walk, we went on back to the house to watch another dvd. Iain and the kids were actually IN the same cinema we had just come out of! Back in the sitting room, we sat eating our (and the kids') Easter Eggs and watching one of my favourite films About Last Night with Demi Moore and Rob Lowe. It's basically about two people who love each other but break up anyway, then after a while one of them realises they have made a big mistake. Gets me every time.

This was just a flying visit for Jacqui so we were back at the airport on Sunday night saying goodbye.

Iain and I are both off work today and Tuesday so I am hoping to head out tomorrow and get some more photos taken. I got some today in the park using a borrowed LensBaby lens which I REALLY enjoyed - it was loads of fun and I would love to add one to my bag. As I walked back to the car I had to fight the urge to retake every singe photograph I have ever taken with the LensBaby. . . . it's good to be interested in taking photos again.

Yesterday I visited the new shopping outlet centre near Banbridge, Co Down Northern Ireland called The Outlet. It isn't dissimilar to Junction One near Antrim and if you have been there, there wont be too many surprises for you at The Outlet in these early stages. However, the future plans for the area will expand it to be one of the largest such centres.

The Banbridge Chronicle reported in March 2007:

The £70 million retail outlet centre, which comprises 80 retail units arranged in a curved design stretching one third of a mile, is being jointly developed by GNL Estates, its parent Orana Group, and land Securities. The outlet is the first phase of the 1.2 million sq ft (111,480 sq m) Bridgewater Park scheme. The second phase will include a 430,571 sq ft (40,000 sq m) retail park which already has planning permission. 2,000 more parking spaces to server the retail site, a 60 bedroom hotel, drive thru restaurant and petrol filling station, bringing the completed investment value to over £200 million. Once completed, Bridgewater park will total over 100,000 sq m (more than one million square feet) of built area on a site over 100 acres. In addition to the retail park and leisure accommodation, the site has full planning permission for over 50,000 sq m of business accommodation, which will be retained by Stoney Properties Limited to be developed to occupiers requirements in future. Exchanged Tenants: Replay, Mexx, Principles, Warehouse, Oasis, Armani stockist The designer Studio, Joseph, Ghost, Marks and Spenser, Olsen, Nitya, Designer Room, Pilot, Gap, Regetta, Puma, Mountain Warehouse, Nike, Billabong, Fila, Tog 24, Ravel, Pavers, Shoes, Daniel Footwear, Chappelle Jewellery, Clare’s Accessories, Sungalss Time, Sanderson, Samsonite, Toyworld, Banana Books, Whittard of Chelsea, Julian Graves, Thorntons, Deanes Deli, Burger King, Costa Coffee, Starbucks, Subway and Jaeger. Land Securities is the UK’s largest property company quoted on the London Stock Exchange. With total assets of £11.5 billion, Land Securities owns and manages over £6.9 billion of retail property throughout the UK. The retail portfolio includes shopping centres, designer outlets, retail arks and central London retail accommodation. Land Securities also owns and manages the Gunwharf Quays Outlet in Portsmouth and is co-owner of Livingston factory outlet in Scotland. It has also recently acquired The Galleria outlet in Hatfield. GML Estates LTD is a Northern Ireland registered development company, wholly owned by the channel Irelands based Orana Group in turn controlled by John Farmer. John has 25 years major property development experience and was formerly chairman of the Wyncote Group Plc in the UK.

I went with Becky, her four year old and her one year old twins in their twin buggy. It is a long time since I looked at shops from a pushing-a-buggy point of view and I have to say, although I basked in the congratulatory smiles and nods from other mummies on producing such handsome looking babies - and TWO! - I was less than impressed with other peoples' attitudes to getting out of the way when I was negotiating through the aisles. Most of the shops we went in to had provided wide enough (main) aisles for the twin buggy but not for *people* AND *buggy* so I had to stand patiently waiting for them to notice me before I could navigate past me. In one shop I went round about ten different parts of the shop floor to make it to the front door where as a single person walking would have made the manoeuvre through just four of those.

Just one afternoon of pushing the buggy made me stroppy - so if someone bangs in to the back of your heels with a double buggy, please forgive them, it wont be because YOU were slow to move out of their way, but rather that the other 23,000 people before you have worn down the Mummy's patience to the point where she just has to get out of there NOW.

I loved the atmosphere of the place, but that may have had something to do with both the lovely blue skies and the fact I was playing truant from work - having nipped out for "half an hour" to look around the centre. I do have concerns about the totally cobbled walkways - I think this will become very tiring if you are wearing anything more dainty than yer Cats. Surely they could have had a portion of plain paved walkway too? The car park looked fairly empty but the shops were busy.

Thankfully there is a Burger King there, we have been crying out for a BK in our general area for a long time although they were severely caught short when opening their store with only ONE high chair for all those babies that descended upon the place at lunch time. We got the chair but it must have been stolen from another outlet as it was far from new and the harness was broken.

We went into Marks and Spencer, Mexx, Claires, Toy World and Banana Bookshop and saw Subway and Starbucks - all of which are at J1 - it will be great to see the other shops which are signed up to arrive soon.

I saw quite a few people walking around with cameras - some were slr style digital cameras and I just couldn't work out if they were shoppers or staff. I took a couple of photos anyway on the camera phone but can't wait to go back with at least the compact camera on Saturday and take some more photos for the new Flickr group I have started for the centre.

And do more than glance at Starbucks this time.

For I AM Air Hockey QUEEN.

I AM. I have the bruised knuckles and muscle ache to prove it.

After ten games in a row there are two quotes of note.

Jacqui: "I don't like this game very much any more."

Jacqui: "Your goal mouth is much smaller than mine."

Huh uh.

Let's not mention the 20 games of Tetris that I didn't win - let's just concentrate on the positive eh?

A while back Lorna emailed all her friends with a "If you are interested in going to see Kenny Rogers in concert let me know. . ." Lorna, Catherine, Shauna and I went last night. That's the short story.

It has to be said, I am not a Kenny fan. I maybe know about err one of his songs. . . I was only going along for the fun.

We arranged to go for a meal first and ended up having chicken goujons in Lisburn before heading to the concert in Belfast around 7.20pm. The meal was grand but the craic was mighty.

We motored down to Belfast in two cars as Catherine was going home in Belfast afterwards but hit the traffic at 7.30pm at Boucher Road. It took us an hour to travel from there to the Kings Hall car park. Can't be more than a couple of miles. We kept texting and phoning between the two cars which was funny. There was great consternation when other road users did stupid things like join the faster lane and then cut in front of us - you know the "queue mentality" that goes on.

It was about this stage that I realised my camera was still lying on the sofa at home. Ooops. Good job I had my camera phone with me - I only needed one photo to blog with after all - I wasn't really going to enjoy myself at the concert - I don't know any songs. . . .

Finally finally finally we made it to the car park and high-tailed it to the front door. By the time we found our seats we had been through about 23 queues! The seats were almost at the back row of the ground floor on the extreme right. Confusingly, the tickets said seats 1, 2, 3 and 4 but there were 3, 4, 5 and 6 empty. We spoke to the ushers who said that for health and safety reasons 1 and 2 had had to be removed but that they would re-seat us. They issued us with different tickets which seemed to be on the balcony this time - that seemed better than where we had been originally!

On the way to the new seats we passed a snack bar and I stopped for a bottle of fanta. Yet another queue. There were only about three people before me but the girl serving kept taking people who arrived AFTER me. Catherine included! At this point I stuck my hand in my pocket and became convinced I had been pick-pocketed as my phone wasn't there. There was no way I had left it in the car - I just wouldn't do that! Everyone was concerned for me and I considered phoning Iain to ask him to get the phone blocked immediately but Shauna convinced me there was a slight chance that possibly I might have left it in the car.

We took our seats and were delighted to find we were right beside the stage area. The first thing I noticed was a gorgeous Powerbook on the stage - looked like a 17 inch to me! I didn't actually see anyone using it the whole night - it was just *on* with the lid pulled half way down. But it was there!

We were just in time. The band came on to stage and after a brief wait Kenny arrived too. We were in just the right position to look down his left ear hole all night. He went straight into two songs I had never heard of, making me more sure I wasn't going to be able to enjoy this too much! I was only there for Coward Of The County don't forget!

After that he started to warm the audience up with a few jokes. He pointed out he can always tell which of the men are there under sufferance - they are the ones who are sitting bored looking with their arms crossed. He picked on one guy at the front and asked him if he was A. a huge fan, B. Knew some of the words, C. Didn't know who Kenny was but would kill for that shirt he was wearing or D. Quite liked some of the songs and would go out tomorrow and buy a Garth Brooks cd. The guy at the front was introduced as James and he stated he was an A fan although Kenny didn't believe that and told him he would give him a tenner (he wasn't too sure if it was ten pounds or ten euros he had in his hand - but it turned out to be £10) if James could name a hit of his. James DID and Kenny threw him the tenner. It continued like this all night - Kenny threw James money at regular intervals. I couldn't work out if James knew all the words and was singing along or Kenny was just throwing money for the sake of it.

Immediately after every song the band went into the next song. There was little chance for catching breath between the songs. It turned out I knew a couple of the songs and umm, some of the words too. . . but shh, don't tell anyone.

Coward of the County came on and we sang a long with that.

James continued to have money thrown at him and the people beside us and behind us continued to talk the whole way through the fecking concert. I was getting soooo cross. It was hard enough to listen to what Kenny was saying - we were ten feet away from the speakers for our section and the sound quality wasn't great for hearing speech but the women with their husbands had obviously been re-seated too and weren't too happy with the new seats. Our section seemed to have been kept clear and we continued to gather waifs and strays the whole night long. Every time one of them arrived the two women would catch the eye of the usher and complain about the seats and how they couldn't hear. I don't think the sound was any better anywhere else in the hall but they were not happy.

This went on until one usher came back and offered the couple behind us different seats. Hallebloodyleujah! Away they went after saying goodbye to all their new friends, banging their seats as they left. I sighted a big sigh of relief and settled in to enjoying the concert again.

Then they came back! The woman announced to everyone who wanted to hear (and unfortunately, to those who didn't want to hear too!) that "HE didn't want to move after all!" FFS!

Anyway, the concert was great. It ended up that I knew loads of the songs (I had forgotten that my Dad was a Kenny fan and I had heard loads of these songs in the car when I was growing up) , we had great fun and it was absolutely lovely to see Lorna squeeing and singing along to almost every word!

I spent a lot of the concert fuming that I had no means of capturing any photographs at all. How stupid am I?

When it was all over we made our way slowly out of the building and then back to the car. Of course, my phone was there - safe and sound! Outside there was a huge advert for "Concert in your car at 10.30 on U105.8." That implied to us that U105 was going to be broadcasting the concert after almost in the mode of a drive in concert I thought but when we made it out of the car park and tuned in - it was just a dj playing Kenny songs along with people phoning in as they left the concert. A lot of them were complaining about the shortness of the concert, but we decided that it may not have been very long but he had packed in plenty of songs.

Then James phoned in! HEEeeEEEee! He gave his account of the evening and confirmed he made £120 out of it! He was going to split the money three ways with his wife, mother in law and himself! Yea right - I would have done that too! NOT!

Happily, Lorna had taken three photos on her camera phone and when we were in the car I bluetoothed them to my phone.

"Huh? How'd you do that then?"

"I bluetoothed them to my phone - you can do that if the two phones both have bluetooth."

"Ohh! Do YOU have blueteeth Shauna?"

"No! I brushed my teeth this afternoon!"

I think that sums up the spirit of the whole evening.

I had a great night, thoroughly enjoyed the meal and loved the concert. Thanks Lorna for making me go - cos you know I would never have gone off my own bat! And Maggi - hope this makes up for you not being able to go. Husbands suck huh?

I have been a little quiet over the past week (I hope you noticed!) for a couple of reasons. The first was that I had started that last blog entry and just never managed to get it finished until tonight so it gave me a little mental block.

The second is that when I got home from holiday I booked a surprise weekend to go visit Jacqui for her birthday (a week late) travelling on Friday and I was afraid to open my mouth in case I let the cat out of the bag!

The whole *surprise* was very complicated and ended up involving loads of people, an early morning flight and a meal in *Paris Texas*.

Suffice to say, I was supposed to just turn up at lunch with the girls from work but Mam was leaving me off at the restaurant and we ended up ambushing Jac with two family friends, a niece and a Mam and me jumping into the room through patio doors.

The down side to *being* the surprise is that I can't take a photo of the *surprised* - so no shocked Jac photos here I am afraid. But she was. Very. So much so she just sat and stared for a whole ten minutes only able to ask simple questions like "What?" "What?" "What?" "Did EVERYONE know about this?" and "How long are you here for?".


After lunch the girls had to go back to work (in the loosest of terms) for another couple of hours so I wandered round the town with Mam, Loren, Barbara and Andrea (who IS the funniest person I have ever met!) having another coffee break before heading back to work to pick the girls up for drinkie poos. I was very impressed to find that Jacqui has her name on her door in work. I must organise myself a name on my door . . .

We had a great time and kinda forgot to go home for a little while! It is technically possible that I was a tad too drunk! Gemma and Suzanne were great fun and I really enjoyed their craic and chat.

On Saturday we headed out to take photos but got caught up in traffic and only made it to Whitley Bay where we witnessed an Air Sea Rescue complete with a helicopter. Seemingly a young lad had fallen off the cliff and had a suspected broken neck. I found this about the incident - I wish I had the equivalent of LJ-Cuts on this blog for things like this. . . .

HM Coastguard paged the Brigade after Cullercoats Bay Lifeguards requested assistance with a person fallen from the cliffs at the South side of Cullercoats Bay. The 19-year-old male, who had landed in a cave between Cullercoats and Longsands beach, had suspected spinal injuries and as a precaution a neck collar was placed on him and the Brigade gave him oxygen treatment. Ambulance, Police and Fire units all arrived on scene and assisted in the stabilisation of the casualty. In the meantime Rescue Helicopter 131 from RAF Boulmer was requested and the Brigade landrover was dispatched to the Richardson Road landing site. The casualty, placed on a Brigade spinal board, was winched into 131, flown to the landing site and then taken to the Newcastle General Hospital for further treatment.

We stopped to watch and I recorded loads of video of the incident on the wee digital camera knowing that the the footage would a. be fantastic and b. be worth a fortune when the news station got wind of the fact I had such wonderful footage. . . It was difficult to do this as the screen was too dark in the sunlight and I had to look through the viewfinder. It became apparent that the zoom facility doesn't work when in video mode so I tried my best to just keep the helicopter in the middle of the viewfinder.

Unfortunately when we got back to the car and I went to show Jacqui the evidence. . . it turned out I have loads of sky, some sky, little bits of sky, a bit of the sky over in that direction, oh - a seagull and if you watch realllllly carefully you can just catch the odd glimpse of a rotor blade. Ho hum.

We went to the cinema shortly after that to see Pirates and then to the All You Can Possibly Pile On To One Plate And Still Stagger Back To Your Seat Chinese. Of course you never eat as much as you think you can in these places - but it was still cool to go. Random fact : I have never been to a restaurant where so many plates and glasses were broken in one sitting! I think it had something to do with the tiled floor - no matter what was dropped bounced twice and then shattered.




On Sunday we did a very touristy thing - we went to Hadrian's Wall Country and visited an excavation site at Vindolanda which was hard to get into because we had to fight our way past the guy on the door and had to plead with him to take money off us (in that he talked a lot about the options we had!). We looked round the place and listened to a girl explain to the Canadians in front of us (we know they were Canadians because Americans don't need to sew a flag on to their backpack to get out of the country!) that they had had fantastic finds from the Roman Era in that field - sometimes up to 300 a day in the beginning. The volunteers seems to only work certain days in a week - possibly only 4 days a week. The girl explained that there is just so much to do in that area that they reckon there will be excavations being carried out there for the next 200 years. When Jacqui and I heard that we turned away giggling to ourselves - would it not be quicker for them to call in Time Team? Tony Robinson would have that place licked into shape in no less than one weekend!

Further in to the field there is a museum and garden area. I love this type of history thing and found the museum very interesting. There were loads of the finds on display - plenty of leather items, pottery and even wooden things. A whole crate of broken bowls had been found in a ditch and they were all there on display *almost as good* as the day they were broken. They reckon the batch arrived broken in a crate and the owner threw them all out as unusable. It just tickles me pink that in the act of being broken - they secured themselves a place in the future. Had they been useable they would have been scattered and discarded individually. Well - you get the idea anyway. I was fascinated by this sort of thin at the museum.

We headed home to have Sunday tea and very nice it was too - I adore my Sunday food but love it all the more when it is put on a plate in front of me!

Then we went off to the cinema again to watch Superman this time. I will give my opinion on the movie at another time. It is bloody long though!

Thanks to the wonders of online booking-in we didn't need to be at the airport as early as normal on Monday morning (a 6am alarm call is still far too bloody early though!). Jacqui actually parked the car and came into the airport with me - she must be feeling guilty about the scabs I still have on my elbows from the last time she threw me out as she drove past.

By 9am I was home and back in bed again!

Great weekend! Special thanks to Gemma and Mam for helping out with the plans and for keeping the secret for so long!

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I have to admit. I am just not too sure where to start telling you about the weekend I just had. Here are the links and the headlines.

Have loads of photos to show you and a couple of videos.

Photos: (Some are grand but some are quite shaky but I don't care! I was at a Bon Jovi concert!)

Bon Jovi Concert Photos (Only)

A few general photos from the weekend.

Sunset over Croke Park.

Videos: (Taken with my phone so the quality isn't great. But hey - I don't care! I was there!)

Bon Jovi Concert Croke Park ONE

Bon Jovi Concert Croke Park TWO

Probably the best for the length and sound:
Bon Jovi Concert Croke Park THREE

Bon Jovi Concert Croke Park Four

Probably the best for the atmosphere:
Bon Jovi Concert Croke Park Five

The Headlines:
Jacqui came on Friday night. We went to Dublin on Saturday. We saw the Bon Jovi concert. We came home on Sunday. Jacqui went home Monday morning. We had a blast.

Is that enough?

No? I didn't think so. On your own head be it then cos this could get long winded.

Jacqui came on Friday night but her flight was delayed. Despite her using the new fangled *book yourself in* malarky she still had to hang around the airport for hours.

Saturday morning we thought we had plenty of time - sure it would only take 2 hours to get to Dublin and we had alllllll day - the concert wasn't til later. . . .

Only but. . . We hit traffic around Newry and I think we only stopped hitting traffic on the way BACK from the airport this morning. The traffic was horrendous - you'd think the ferry had just docked! S'good thing we went equipped with sense of humour and a bag of mints.

Oh boy - those of you who remember the days before the motorway to Dublin will love the motorway to Dublin! I flew down it making up for lost time so that we were at least four cars ahead of ourselves by the time we hit more traffic in Dublin! Actually, I took great delight in pulling out of the way TWICE for the same BMW 735 when we got ahead of IT at the Toll Booths! HeeeEEeee little amuses the innocent and that amused ME!

Why oh why oh why would they pick the weekend of the Bon Jovi concert to shut down the main road in to Dublin. *shakes head* Silly silly silly people. We were in that jam for so long my foot was getting sore from all the stops and starts.

We watched in fascinated horror as a coach load of fellas, one by one debunked to the side of the road to have a pee - there must have been around 400 of them on that coach. I am convinced there were asylum seekers creeping back on the bus - am sure more rejoined it than got off in the first place. Seriously though - they were very silly the way they crossed two lanes of traffic and started to throw traffic cones about the place in their high jinks.

Not sure which photo to show you here - this one shows how they over-ran the place (and has a traffic cone in it ) but other ones show them dodging the cars better. Just when we thought everyone must have come out of the bus the girls started! About 50 girls were then running off into the bushes with their wee bits of tissue in their hands. Must admit I felt rather sorry for the whole lot of them but dude - the traffic WAS STILL MOVING! They had to walk along the road to catch up with the bus again.

Jacqui is quite good with that map malarky and from her print off from the hotel website we managed to get ourselves to the hotel in time to have a late lunch. We had great plans of hitting Dublin for shopping and treating ourselves to a lovely lunch but we ended up in the pub joined to the hotel in time to miss lunch and not late enough for tea. They laid on soup and sandwiches for us and I have to say they were the best soup and sandwiches I have had in a long time - you know when you are REALLY hungry and everything just tastes soooo good? Yum. We also managed to accidentally be in a pub that had a massive screen showing the rugby match - the Heineken Cardiff match which Munster won to everyones' delight. It was a great atmosphere and really added to my good mood and the general happiness of the day. The soup and sandwiches that they rustled up for us was just right for the day too.

One thing I noticed is the general acceptance of the Dublin (and presumably the Irish) to not being able to smoke in the pubs. Every single table in that pub had a smoker at it and they all got up and went outside to smoke - all seemingly happy with their lot, came back in and got on with their conversations. The only thing was that I was sitting right beside the door and every time someone came in and out I was flooded in smoke! Certain amount of irony there perhaps! I can not wait for the same rules to come in here. Looking forward to that muchly.

We knew we were only ten minutes from the stadium. We left the hotel not needing to know what direction to walk in as it seemed the whole world was walking in the same direction. It was like some science fiction film. Everyone walking with one purpose. Must. Get. To. Bon. Jovi. Concert. . . . .

The only thing was that the STADIUM was 10 minutes away but our STAND was at the OTHER end of where we were! It took us longer to walk round the stadium than it did to walk TO it. Everyone was good natured and the craic was good. I still had my tickets buttoned away in an inside pocket though! And phone and camera well down in my jeans pocket. Just in case don't cha know?

There were loads of Garda and security staff and hat sellers and bandana sellers and ticket touts along the route. Every couple of yards there was someone else asking us if we needed tickets. I tried not to be too smug and kept my hand over my pocket! As soon as you say "I'm all right" is when something gets lost huh?

You are walking along watching your feet a lot of the time and suddenly you look up and catch a glimpse of the stadium for the first time and it is like "wow!" Wow it is big! Wow I am here! Wow I am in Dublin! Wow I am with Jacqui! Wow I am going to Bon Jovi. Wow, this time last week we hadn't really even thought about this as a possibility! Wow would you look at the size of that stadium. Wow I have never seen this many people all in one go before!

This photo shows the stadium but not the crowds that were waiting just round the next corner for us! I think this is the Hogan Stand which would have been so much closer for us had we but known it at the time. Although I would not have traded our seats for anything in the end!

Sorry this one is a bit squint but I was trying to walk and not get parted from Jacqui and watch the dress of some of the people around me AND take photos - there is only so much muilti-tasking a girl can do!

When we got to the right entrance there were people to point out to us what direction to go in - I was impressed with the amount of staff involved. The only thing was that we were at the highest possible upperest upper tier! Like - the very top. We were about ten rows from the VERY top of the stadium. It took a wee minute or two to walk up the ramp. But boy it was worth if for the view, both of Dublin and of the concert. You wouldn't believe the amount of cranes there are in the skies above Dublin - there must be a lot of building going on in that city. Of course there were many stalls for drink, burgers and band merchandise. There were a few t-shirts we stood and looked at for ages. Longingly. And then moved on to the next stall and stood looking at them at that stall all over again. There was one that Jacqui fell in love with that was just a tad too dear. But she thought about it good and hard. I'm hoping she will find it online soon for half the price! Like our tickets

We were in time to catch the last couple of Nickleback songs - although - we had heard a lot of their other stuff as we were walking around the stadium. The noise from out there was garbled but you could hear them. As well as being very high up our seats were kinda dead in the middle - I would say at the half way line probably. The view was great - albeit that the stage was kinda small. We were 7 sections along from the stage end and honestly we couldn't have asked for better seats. T'was just fantastic.

I guessed the timing of everything really well and sent Jac off to get the burgers in before the main event started. She was just sat down when the people beside us finally arrived and sat down on either side of us too. I have to admit that standing up at that height was a biiiiiiittttt un-nerving. The seating is so good that no one gets in anyone else's way but that means you have nothing in front of you to steady yourself. Or maybe it was just me!

There were a couple of other people in the 80,000 that I knew so texted them to let them know we were there, bleeding from the noses because of the altitude. Then wee David started to text me. "Where R U?" several times over! Goodness knows how much my phone bill is going to be this month as I ended up phoning home in the middle of it all too!

As we finished the last of our burgers the band came on and the place went mad. It was strange to be at a concert, outside, so many people, such a big venue, soo many people, such a massive band. . . . so many people and somehow it was strange to see that it was still daylight. I can not tell you why that is strange. It just struck me as a bit weird - a little like having sex with your socks on - but then - not everyone is going to find THAT strange I suppose - I felt a little happier when it started to get darker!

Now, you wont get me to give you all the songs they sang - I am not into details like that! They sang and sang and sang and sang. The crowd went madder as the night went on. At one point they went off in that pretend-it-is-all-over way that all bands do and then come on for one more song - or three if you are really lucky. Well these boys came on and sang about 9 more songs! As it got darker the lights on the stage seemed to get even better with great effects which we were ideally positioned for. I am sure they must have played 25-30 songs in all. The big screens were great - Jon was just sooo small that it would have been totally crap had we not had the close ups on the screens. There was one big massive screen above the stage but also one on the right hand side that I could see quite well too.

I enjoyed taking loads of photos. Jacqui kept telling me to put the camera down and to start enjoying the concert too - but I WAS. I went through the 512mb card very quickly and then stuck in the 1gb card. I am happy with the photos even though some of them are blurry and not great - but I don't really care - they are a record of the best concert EVA!

The guy beside me was quiet most of the time - then he started taking shots and wee videos on his camera phone. I realised that the three of us all had the same phone so the next time he held his up I got this snap of the three of them together - made me giggle at least.

I know this is going to sound really strange to you. I know I was totally awed by the fact I was there - there were many things that made it special for me - to be at the biggest concert I have ever been at, to see 80,000 people, to be there with my best mate who had done so much for me to get me there in the first place - it was all really special to me - but the BEST bit? The very BEST bit? The Mexican Wave. My first Mexican Wave. It started off as a couple of fellas directly behind us - there was a lot of noise, shouting and whistling as they tried to alert the people further along to our left. Eventually enough of our section were aware of what was going on so that when it started from the very beginning again we managed to force it round further and further every time they started it. EVENTUALLY we got it going RIGHT round about 6 times in a row and I just stood grinning so bad. Nope - I have NO idea what was going on on the stage at that point! I am not sure why this affected me so much but it did! I really really wish there was a movie of one of the waves! One of the girls I was talking to today had been sitting on the opposite side to us and had watched it all starting - I almost wish I had been on the opposite side just to have been able to watch it.

By the time Jon was singing Living On a Prayer the poor folks down on the pitch had been standing for hours! From where we were we could see patterns. The die-hards in the Golden Circle hardly stopped waving their arms in the air - how they managed to keep it going all day and night I'll never know - there is no way I would have had the stamina for that! The ones on the pitch were good but not as dedicated as the GC ones. When it came to Living on a Prayer thought - EVERYONE had their arms in the air. EVERYONE. And EVERYONE sang EVERY WORD! It was absolutely awesome. You could see the whole stadium moving like a sea of arms in time to the music.

When it was all finally over and the last last last encore done and the stage was being cleared we started to head for the exits. I can't believe how civilised it all was. The funniest bit was the thundering loudspeaker announcement about it being a RESIDENTIAL AREA SO PLEASE BE RESPECTFUL OF THE RESIDENTS AS YOU MAKE YOUR WAY PAST THEIR HOUSES in a noise so loud it was sure to wake the residents all up!

We walked past all the same people we had seen on the way in with the exception of the ticket touts who seemed to have given up for some reason by then! There was a certain kind of hush in the crowd - lots of people talking but not loudly.

We made it back to the hotel, carried along by the crowd! The bar was still open but we were seriously tired by that stage and went back to sit and watch tv, eat Whole Nut, Peanut M&Ms and drink Coke! What an end to the night!

I swear we couldn't hear a thing until the next morning, our ears were still ringing.

This just isn't as funny looking here as it was in real life. This is what happens when you go away without yer Mam to help dress you.

There was to be lots to tell you about Sunday too but now I am at it - I can't say what all there was to talk about. We went to a shopping centre after getting directions from the car park attendant, which took us ages to get to and from the outside looked like nothing.

I had a rebellious Jac sitting beside me saying "I don't want to go to a town centre. I want a big shopping centre like the Metro Centre." Bloody Metro Centre. Tut - as if anywhere in Dublin was going to be as big as the WHEEEYYAYYYYY! It was bloody massive! And it had an automated car parking system. I am such a geek! You can type in the registration of your car in the "Find a store / location" machine and it tells you what level you are parked on! How clever is that? You just need to remember your registration number! It also prints your level on your ticket when you pay it to help you get back to it with the minimum of stress!

The first place we headed to was Starbucks. Naturally. It was a wee bit of a surprise for us as we hadn't known there was one there! We sat beside a lovely Dublin couple and chatted about the concert. They hadn't been to it but they were intrigued about what it was like and what the stadium was like etc.

We then went into about three different places that had Apple products for sale RIGHT THERE IN THEIR SHOPS! So cool.

We then went to the Bear Factory and got a few wee bears for the kids and a bigger wee one for Dawn who had been looking after my children for me. Now, the biggest mistake would be to take that one home and let Jessica see it and then try to wrestle it out of her white knuckles. She had her own wee teddy and went and got a second (older) one to lay it on the table. She pointed to the two and said "Give Dawn these TWO for this ONE." Huh uh. . . .

We drove through Dublin on the way home. Strictly speaking I don't think we had to drive through Dublin. It is entirely possible that we may have been able to completely miss Dublin had Little Ms Map Lover actually bought the map she went into the garage to buy instead of coming out with a tube of Pringles. They were a great help when we got lost.

I don't see the point of driving through Dublin and not snapping the Spire. The point - geddit?

You can see in this photo why we wanted to go to a shopping centre instead of Dublin - it was heaving it down all day. Not a nice day to do the normal walk round Temple Bar and take photos against the wall. Actually - I ended up not taking anything other than the compact camera and that was a good decision. I do reserve the right to book a return to buy the hoodie I didn't get this time. Pout.

On the way home we played the "sitting in traffic going so slow that surely I can catch a good shot of a vehicle going in the opposite direction" game. It was a bit hap-hazzard though. Out of 40 shots I think I got about 30 lovely shots of the opposite side of the road! Only a few had any kind of vehicle in it. I even managed to miss WHOLE lorries as they went past. This added to the general hilarity of the journey back.

We had time to sit for an hour downloading the photos and doing my first Automator action before heading off for the final thing on our list of things to do - a trip to the cinema to see Silent Hill. Well, t'wasn't going to be The Da Vinci Code was it? Someone already had plans made for that huh?

That's it. The best weekend of fun I have had for a long time. I am very lucky to have an understanding husband and back up support system in Dawn. I know I couldn't do my gallivanting without that in place. Although, even *I* know that I am pushing it now and that may be it for a wee while. Not a good time to point out that there are more concerts in June then . . . . nah! Quit while you are ahead I say.

Final wee laugh - saw this on a wall. Good to see that it isn't just us lot who get things wrong.

A couple of things have happened.

I managed somehow to hand in the project to college. On time. With a little bit of printing on the college printers. On the second type of paper I got, after getting the wrong stuff the first time at great expense. I could kick myself sometimes.

So - three (or so) black and white prints and three colour prints off to Kentmere in the Student Awards. The prize money is paltry to be honest - it barely covers the cost of the paper - especially if you buy two lots!

Personally, there is one photo in the black and white stuff that I really like and think is one of the best I have ever taken and printed. The tutors didn't like it as much as one of the others - but - what do they know?

I like the colour ones but have to admit that they would not look as good in print had I not had Maaike keeping me right with the printer settings. It would have been very dull with out the boosting. Thanks for the boost.

All handed in. Very much relieved. No more stress.

The other very exciting news is that in a sudden flurry of googling and checking and eBaying and internetting in general Jacqui and I picked up a couple of spare tickets for Bon Jovi in Croke Park in Dublin. We are mighty chuffed with ourselves. Oh, upon checking, it would seem we are VERY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! excited!

I am trying hard not to point out that I liked them the first time round the year I started college (also the first time round.) I had Slippery When Wet in LP - that is the black stuff that you turn over - and managed to tape it for the car.

Jacqui is coming here tomorrow night and we are making use once more of the Top Hat Babysitting Productions (ie Dawn) on Saturday and heading down in time to hopefully do a little shopping before heading to the concert.

I think we managed to bag the very last room in the whole of Dublin. Jacqui's "We can't even get into Wicklow" was a little disconcerting at one point but she did stellar work and found us a cancellation.

I am trying hard to pace myself this week to be able to do all this - there is no way I could have driven there, done the concert and then driven home. This way we get to do a little shopping in Dublin too. I am allowed to take all three cameras with me but only allowed to take one into the concert. Really want to take some more shots of Dublin in black and white.

I was out and about today, parked down a little alleyway right up against a wall but when I came back to the car the bloody thing wouldn't start. Two hours later the RAC (who were in the area according to the lady at HQ) guy arrived, said hello in a cheerful voice, lay down on the ground, kicked under the rear wheels twice and the car started. Faulty fuel pump. I was really worried about how he was going to tow me from where I was parked - but - I needn't have worried - all he had to do was use his boot!

I got a few pointers. Seemingly I should carry a hammer for the next time. It can be replaced but only with two people helping. Don't ever buy a French car with brown cooling water. Replace the timing belt long before it is needed. You think I ought to tick "more helpful than was expected" on his customer feedback form?

That's about it. Am dying to tell you about my son texting me every five minutes now he has worked out how to do it - but that can wait for another time. Am dead beat and having an early night . . . umm . . . 45 minutes ago!

Night.

I am sorry that I didn't take a camera with me to the hospital! She WAS 11lbs! She IS 11lbs! My eyes watered just looking at her. She IS gorgeous and, yes, I found it very hard to put her back in her cot before leaving.

Yea. Yea. Lorna is doing ok too.

There is a slight problem though - it seems that Ethan was given the go-ahead to name the baby and Caitlin Susan is now Velma Dinkley. And Velma Dinkley she will remain to me from now on. Much better name. I think Fred Jones Dunn would be a tad hard on her and am glad Ethan realised that Velma would be better for a girl!

Poor Granny has knitted about 6 gorgeous little cardigans - they are so cute - sitting there with their little buttons all done up in their little pastelly colours and whites and greens and the one wee pink one rustled up quickly just in case it wasn't the expectd boy! Velma will have lots of fun fitting these on her dolls later on - cos I really do not think they are ever going to be on her - with the best will in the world - she is toooo big! Gorgeously, full of health and thrivingly BIG. She is actually the biggest new born I have ever seen.

You may remember a while back I found Jessica's Personal Child Health Record? I have just checked. She was 7lb 3ozs when she was born. She was 11lbs 7ozs at her EIGHT week assessment! Bloody hell Lorna! Well done you! My heartfelt congratulations! Sorry for going on about it - but you ARE some pup!

I hope to see Mum and baby before they go home - but am not sure if I will fit it in now - I have such an active social life now I have my child minder sorted! ;O)