Going to see an artist whose music you love performed live on stage is always something to look forward to, and usually an event to be remembered, but some rock concerts are more memorable than others.
Is it just the music that made these concerts so memorable, or is there something else that enhanced the whole experience and turned it into an evening to be remembered forever.
Finally I am back in the UK and with my Debbie after more than 3 months apart, way too long for both of us.
After many evenings of packing that frequently went beyond midnight, I finished packing about 1am on Wednesday, with the alarm set for 3:45am to give me enough time to get out and catch my flight in Miami at 8:30am. I had a quick webcam chat with Debbie, showered and packed the last of my things, said goodbye to Tim my landlord with whom I have become very good friends, and drove down the highway to the train station in Hollywood where I had arranged to leave my car to be picked up.
I lugged my bags (2 to be checked in, my laptop bag and a backpack) up in the elevator, across the bridge, down the other side, and then realized the ticket machines were over the other side. Fortunately the platform was almost empty, and the only person close to me asked if I was English – turns out he came over to Florida from Birmingham 10 years ago. So I took a chance and left my 2 big bags where they were and legged it up the stairs, across the bridge, down across the other side, where I purchased my ticket. Then it was back up across and down, by which time I was completely soaked in sweat. Despite the fact that it was only 5:30am, the temperature was in the mid 80′s and it was extremely humid. It took me most of the way to Miami before I cooled off.
The shuttle from the train station dropped me about 1/3 of the way along the terminals in the airport, but of course as luck would have it, United are in the new terminal at the far end, so I had to lug my bags well over 1/4 mile to check them in. It was rather cool in the airport, and by this time I was desperate to go to the bathroom, plus I was nervous in case my bags were overweight and I would have to repack or dump some things out. However, I got checked in pretty quick, was within the weight limit, and got through the security without any problems either.
I had plenty of time to wait for the plane, managed to call Debbie to let her know I had checked in, called Tim as I had remembered I left a drawer of dirty laundry (the result of packing too late at night), and called my daughters before they went off to their swimming lessons.
Under normal circumstances I would have caught an evening flight direct to London, however direct flights at the end of July were about $1,000 and multiple legs weren’t much cheaper. Debbie fortunately found a flight for $406 through Vayama, a company like Priceline, that offers discounted travel but you don’t find out the route until you purchase. Fortunately with Vayama having purchased you have an hour to cancel, which swayed me over to trying this out. I knew the flight left Miami at 8:30am and I didn’t get into London until 6:30am the following morning, but other than knowing it was 2 planes, I had no idea where my connection point would be. The last thing I wanted was to fly to some place out west and have a short connection time, which might mean spending a day in some god-forsaken spot that I didn’t want to be. I was lucky however, in that the flight from Miami went direct to Dulles (Washington DC) where I had a 7 hour layover before my flight to London.
The first flight went very smoothly, and there was plenty of legroom too. In Washington I wandered around the terminals to try and find somewhere reasonable to eat, since by this time (midday) I was feeling a bit peckish. The terminals are connected by shuttle buses, that look like lounges on wheels and drive all over the airport. Having covered the rest of the terminals, I found out that the majority of the restaurants are in the terminal that I hadn’t covered. Of course, the shuttle dropped me at gate 3, and the restaurant I wanted to eat at, Max & Erma’s was at gate 72, a good 1/4 mile hike at least! I was hungry, but I also had a throbbing headache, which could be stress, tiredness and also the humidity. I thought a good warm meal might help that. I opted for a starter of Tortilla Soup, which wasn’t bad, then a Bacon Cheeseburger and Fries. Not the healthiest item on the menu, but I really wanted something warming and filling, and it hit the spot. That and 4 glasses of iced tea, which helped replenish the water I had sweat out so far.
I still had 5 more hours to kill in the airport before my next flight, and saw on one of the shuttles that I could take a bus to the Smithsonian Museum for 50cents, and there was free admission too. On another day I would have jumped at this opportunity, but right then all I needed was to sit and try to relax before the next flight. I found a seat close to the gate where my plane was due to depart from, powered on the laptop, and settled down to watch a movie. I selected “Miracle At Santa Ana” which turned out to be a WWII movie set in Italy with a company of Buffalo Soldiers. Not a bad movie, but it helped kill 2 1/2 hours. I had forgotten to copy any movies onto my flash drive before I packed my external hard drive away, so other than the movie all I had was a 1972 Genesis concert. This got some strange looks from people sitting close, since back then the costumes and stage act from Peter Gabriel were rather odd to say the least.
I did get a lot of amusement from the fact that there was a small glass sided area set aside in the lounge for smokers with about 15 seats. Not only were most of the seats taken most of the time, but often it was standing room only, with the occupants puffing and dragging away on their cigarettes like their life depended on it. Really quite funny, but at the same time sad.
My 6pm flight to London Heathrow boarded on time, and I was very pleased to find that I had an Economy Plus seat with extra legroom. All that for a bargain price, woo-hoo! However, instead of landing 30 minutes early as we were supposed to, we ended up delayed an hour and a half due to bad weather in the Philadelphia area, which caused air traffic control to stop the take-off of any flights in the area for a while. But eventually we got under way, and had a smooth flight. Food wasn’t bad, with curried chicken to eat, and a quick snack for breakfast, and in between a few hours sleep while I listened to some of my favorite songs on my new MP3 player. I also ended up sitting next to a lady from Fort Lauderdale who was originally from Devon and on her way back there for a visit, so we chatted for quite a while before we headed off to sleep.
Since I was supposed to arrive 30 minutes early and ended up landing over an hour late, Debbie was there to greet me, and I got the most wonderful hugs and kisses, two things that she excels at. A little more than an hour later and we were home, where I had a much needed shower and cleaned up, then some yummy bacon rolls and off to bed. We were both really tired, since I had hardly slept for two nights, and Debbie had to get up as well by 4am.
Well two days and lots of sleep later and I was feeling more human and also adjusting to the time difference in the UK. I will update more on my adventures back in the UK in my future posts. If you would like to be receive posts automatically, why not Register with us, we promise no spam and will keep your email addresses private.
I decided (see my last post) that as from today I need to start getting out of bed earlier, and to take a good walk first thing to get me moving and to start the day off right.
So I arranged for Debbie to wake me up around 7am this morning with a phone call, however I woke up on my own around 6:45am instead of my usual 8am. Do you find too that if you need to wake up early, you don’t always need to set the alarm, your body somehow wakes you up at the right time?
I chatted with Debbie for a while on the webcam before she headed out for an afternoon appointment (remember she is in the UK), then checked some of my emails and Tagfoot messages, and headed off for my “hopefully” daily walk around the lake, golf course and nice homes where I live. It’s a 2 1/4 mile route around the block, with 6 flights of stairs down and then up at the end, which takes about 35-40 minutes if I “hoof” it and make it a brisk walk.
Well I spent a bit too long chatting and messaging, so it was 8:30am by the time I left, but it was an almost perfect day, partly cloudy, a nice breeze, and about 70 degrees.
When I walk alone I always take my trusty MP3 player with me. It’s about 3 years old, doubles as a flash drive and only has 512mb of memory, but it’s enough for me, since when I mostly use it, I am either walking or flying, and for both I really enjoy listening to a selection of my favorite tracks. I have it set to play songs randomly, and although it always starts on the same song, flipping to the next I never know what it might play.
This morning I did pretty well, the MP3 player selecting for me a good driving track to start the walk off right, “Highway Star” by Deep Purple. That saw me setting off to a good pace (I tend to change my walk pattern to match the music), and it was followed by a slower track that I love, “No Se Tu” by Luis Miguel from the album Romance. Some of you might remember it as the featured love song from the movie “Speechless” with Geena Davis and Michael Keeton (Romance is a great album of love songs by the way, remade hits of the 50′s-70′s in the style of Nat King Cole, but in Spanish). Then one of my all time favourite songs, “Cinema Show” by Genesis, from the album Selling England By The Pound. They use a section of this on their medley of “really old songs” in concert, but this was the original, and has one of the best Genesis instrumental sections ever. By this time I was 2/3rds of the way around the circuit, and the next random track was also a good one, “China Girl” by David Bowie. Today I recalled the duet of this between Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler in The Wedding Singer – a great movie. Finally, for the last leg, my trusty music machine kicked out “Kill The King” by Richie Blackmore’s Rainbow, which saw me along the straight, across the road, and up the stairs to the front door.
Home, I took a cool shower, made some Green Tea With Lime for later, and grabbed a bowl of Oatmeal for breakfast.
So how did you start your morning today, and what would be on your listening selection if you were taking a walk before breakfast?
It’s now thirteen days since I lost my job and I have been incredibly busy ever since, trying to organise my life and to promote my work more online.
Since my health insurance runs out in less than a week I have been trying to get the essentials sorted out while I can, since I can’t afford insurance without having a full time job.
Last week I went to the Dentist and Doctor, entered the time for today’s Dental appointment into my Google Calendar for 9:30am. Went there, signed in, sat for 5 minutes reading a magazine, and they called me up to the counter. “Anthony, your appointment isn’t until 1pm”. Boy did I feel stupid, but I have so many different threads running through my head all the time, it’s hard to get it all right.
So having mis-timed that, I went to the hardware store to get a couple of things, then to the Farmers Market to do some shopping, as the fruit and vegetables there are usually better and cheaper than going to the grocery store. While I was there Debbie called, and FINALLY she had got her visa approved for travel to the USA. So now after 4 months of waiting she will be able ot travel here again. Of course now I might not have the money for flights… Life just keeps throwing us those curveballs… I won’t say any more, because I know Debbie will want to add things in her own words tomorrow.
Went back to the dentist at 1pm, had a tooth drilled down and impressions fitted for a crown. I think he spent a good hour drilling and filing. My jaw was starting to ache, and as always when I go to the dentist, I drool! No idea why, but my mouth just fills with saliva when I have dental work done, and if they don’t watch out it just runs everywhere. Well finally they got my impression for the final crown done, and also a temporary one made and fitted. I can still taste it though, usually takes days for the taste to go away.
The afternoon was pretty much shot by the time I got home, so I chatted with Debbie on the webcam for a while, then after she went to bed I made a good stir fry with some green onions, boc choy, spices, ginger soy sauce, and egg fried brown rice. Not my best effort, but pretty healthy at least. I love to cook and have rarely had the chance in the past, but now with the weather being a bit cooler I am enjoying cooking lots of veggies. I can’t justify the cost of meat, so that is a real treat for me, but I was always brought up to eat plenty of vegetables and these days I can easily make a meal of them, cooking them in plenty of different combinations and ways, often pretty spicy.
This evening I have been working solidly on blogs, updating my links on Stumbleupon, adding a new page for Tiger Direct Special Offers to my Poddys web site and adding it to the Sidebar here as well. Tiger Direct have always had good prices in my opinion, and I have shopped there a lot in the past.
Initially I thought that there was nothing on television tonight, and after half heartedly watching an episode of Stargate SG-1 and then a Star Trek Next Generation episode, I looked at the guide and saw that on the Palladia channel (part of MTV) there was a 2007 concert with Heart performing Dreamboat Annie and more. This was good, I saw them in 2007 on the tour, and they closed with Love Reign Over Me from The Who‘s album Quadrophenia, one of my all time favourites. That was followed by Genesis in Rome from their 2008 tour which was an amazing concert. I only saw them once, and they were my favourite band from the time I first heard Foxtrot back in 1972. I saw them at Wembley Stadium in 1987 and they were incredible. Even now it’s the best concert I have been to.
So I am caught up on Stumbleupon, most of my email, added all my lenses to a new directory today, but still have so much to do.
Oh yes, before I forget, I updated several of my lenses as well…
I added a new video to my Religious Jokes lens. This is a stand up routine by Rowan Atkinson (Blackadder, Mr, Bean) welcoming new arrivals to Hell. It’s very funny especially if you like Rowan Atkinson, don’t miss it.
I then added two new videos to my Zecharia Sitchin lens about the Annunaki. If you haven’t heard of him or the Annunaki I think you might find his theories quite amazing. They involve the deepest history, going back beyond the great flood and to the creation of mankind. It’s quite an eye opener if you haven’t explored this topic before. I added a video clip below to give a brief introduction to what his books are about, and he has written a number of excellent works on this subject. Thought to be a crackpot thirty years ago, more and more is coming to light about our most ancient past, and pieces are gradually falling into place.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF3yBd9dtyg
Well time for me to head to bed, as a Tom Petty concert takes place on television now. Yes I like him, but I am tired and I have seen it before.
Hopefully in the morning I will have some good news about work or something else. You never know, we had good news today with Debbie’s visa being approved. Now we just need to get me a windfall and/or a job or a chance to earn some good money.