Tried to get up but felt bad so gave up and went back to bed. Finally woke up at 11 and managed to phone in sick (although it would be quite obvious by now!!) and spent the rest of the day on the sofa under the duvet. When will I ever get better?!!! I do not recommend no sleep and lots of travel for 2 weeks followed by the flu!

Made it to work again today and thought I was feeling better but oh no! By 10am I felt so bad- I couldn’t stop shaking and had to go home. Even got a taxi back from the train station. Went to sleep on the sofa all afternoon and when I woke up I had some very strange pains in my foot. Hope they go away!

Second day of the Word course today- It was very helpful and had taught me loads but I expect I will forget it all soon!

Made it to work as I have a course on Microsoft Word today which I have been waiting for years to do!! Felt bad and even fell asleep at one point but I made it through!

Got up at 5am and drove Gavin to the airport to fly back to Glasgow. Got there by 6.15 and I was at work by 6.30. Sat at my desk for 10 mins and decided there was no way on earth I could make it through the day. I was going to have Friday off anyway so left them a note saying I was having today off instead of Friday or I might die! Home by 7.30 and I slept all day!

Awoken at 5am by Jamie, James and Matt who thought they had lost me. I can say that this was the worse I have ever felt in my entire life. I couldn’t stop shivering and needed to sleep for about a week and was wearing dirty minging clothes! They went to get breakfast and I ate a packet of crisps I bought the night before in a shop in Dublin at 2am! We sat there all feeling minging for an hour before heading off to check in for our flights. Gavin and I had to leave the others who were flying back to London. I actually fell asleep on the flight for the first time ever! Arrived back into Cardiff at 8 and got a text from the other guys saying they met Pete and the red special on the flight back to London- Cool!!!! Dan also rang and said that he didn’t realise that the bridge didn’t take cards so had to go to a service station on the M5 to get some cash so was 45 mins late. Sat in the airport dying and noticed not just the bottoms of my feet were black anymore- the tops were also black and disgusting! Dan eventually arrived and when I got home at 10am, I went straight to bed and so did Gavin. Dan woke us up at 2 and we had a bbq in the garden- it was lovely and sunny but I fely very ill and tired. Back to bed after a nice bath and 10 mins of scrubing my feet with a pumice stone and I felt nice and clean again! Got up for an hour in the evening to see what was happening but soon gave up and went back to bed!

Gavin and I crawled out of bed at 6am- actually had a really good 5 hours sleep in a massive bed each! I would recommend the Jury’s Doyle to anyone! Caught a cab down to the station and got the 6.50am train to Dublin- met a guy who on the train who we had met in Belfast- I felt like total crap on the train and managed to get a bit of sleep. There were engineering works on the line so we all got kicked off the train and onto a coach after about an hour for the last bit of the journey and I managed to get a bit more sleep! Arrived in Dublin about 9am and dropped our stuff off at left luguage and were told that the station stayed open until 3am so we could get it back. Grabbed a sandwich from Subway and walked to the Dublin Point which was about 20 mins walk. Vern, Julie, James, Matt and some of the others were there already- it was cold and there was nothing nearby- no shops or toilets!

This photo taken by Jamie sums up how awful I felt! I look like crap!! Spent some of the day in a pub which we finally found about 10 mins walk away and the only thing in sight and missed them organising the queue so when we got back everyone had gone!! LOL! Had our bags searched on the way back in to join the queue once we discovered it had moved to the front of the building which was briliant because when they opened the door, we just went straight in! As we were running in it was all madness and Matt stepped on the back of my flip flop making it come out and then go back on but inbetween the wrong toe. Managed to sort of fall on to Vern andgrab hold of him to keep me up until I swapped toes then legged it inside. Luckily we were all still at the front when we got the bit inside the hall where they stopped us. Flips flops were off then as I wasn’t risking that again and I ran so fast when they let us in and we all made it to the front of the cat walk! James on one side complained this toe was hurting, Andy was on the other side of me! I was on the energy sweets to try and stay alive!

The crowd all squashed up which was unlike any of the other gigs and it rocked!!! Paul waved at me again during the slow bit of Hammer to fall when he was walking down to the front and Brian looked at us all again! He must have known it was us lot again! Could not get Roger to look at me again though!! LOL!

Brian was thanking the crew and I shouted Jim Beach very loudly and Brian said ‘What?’ then Gavin and I both shouted it and he heard. Then Gavin shouted out ‘His amazing pullovers’ at the top of his voice and Brian laughed!!

Set list:

Reaching Out
Tie Your Mother Down
I Want To Break Free
Fat Bottomed Girls

Wishing Well
Another One Bites The Dust
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Under Pressure
Say Its Not True

(Me totally in love with Roger during Say its not true!)

39
Love Of My Life
Hammer To Fall
Feel Like Making Love
Fire And Water
I’m In Love With My Car
Gtr Solo
Last Horizon

These Are The Days Of Our Lives
Radio Ga Ga
Can’t Get Enough
A Kind Of Magic
I Want It All
Bohemian Rhapsody
——————-
The Show Must Go On
All Right Now
We Will Rock You
We Are The Champions

Decided to leave after the gig and not wait which turned out to be a good idea as I know someone who went to the hotel and had to wait until 4am until Brian turned up and there was no sign of Roger at all!! We walked in to town to the station to collect our bag but it all seemed to be totally shut, we walked round looking for a way in until we finally found the car park and managed to get in there and rescue our bags (including passports so we could actually get home!!). Went to find some food and bumped into the Germans in Burger King!!! Grabbed a taxi and got to the airport about 2am. Found a spot on the floor and put on 3 layers of dirty clothes as it was freezing. I was shaking and feeling very ill and minging- woke up at 3.30am and went to brush my teeth to try and feel better then found a nice bench to go and sleep on and left the others on the floor!!!

Photos: www.girlonfire.co.uk/photos

Dan droves us to Bristol airport after getting up at 5am! The flight was ok but I drove Gavin mad in the airport by quoting ‘Say its not true’!!

We arrived in Belfast at 9am and got some old local bus to the city centre via a village where lots of locals got on- it was all very strange! Managed to find or hotel and dumped the bags then walked to the Odyessy and Michelle was the only person there at 11am! Two other guys turned up so we went and made a queue! We were next to a cinema/shopping/eating place which was brilliant- toilets and food all next door! It was a long hot day and we chatted to various people in the queue who were from the forums! I went round the back for a hour but then got a call from Gavin to say they were putting up the barriers at the front so we had to go back and sort out the crowd- that was 4pm and there were still only 40 people max in the queue! Queue got sorted but I mananged to miss Roger arriving and he actually signed things! I was gutted but oh well!! Eddie from the queue met Brian which was his life long dream and he was over the moon! Between 4 and 5.30 I went to the toilet about 4 times just in case!! LOL! I was also sunburnt and so tired but the queue was great and we were right at the front of it! It was all so organised. At 6.30 they asked the first bit of the queue to walk forward which we did, bag checked and ticket taken in the most organised fashion and Gavin and I walked first in to the hall and walked to the front and stood at the front of the cat walk in the centre. Nothing to worry about at all. In fact they were even letting people in blocks a time and it was fantastic! The hall didn’t really fill up until 8pm and even then it was still only 2/3rds full as that was all the tickets that were sold! We had loads of space and noone pushed- Great stuff- the best venue of the tour I think! The set list was:

Reaching Out
Tie Your Mother Down
I Want To Break Free
Fat Bottomed Girls
Wishing Well
Another One Bites The Dust
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Under Pressure
Say Its Not True
39
Love Of My Life
Hammer To Fall

Feel Like Making Love
Fire And Water (for the first time!!!)
I’m In Love With My Car
Gtr Solo
Last Horizon
These Are The Days Of Our Lives
Radio Ga Ga

Can’t Get Enough
A Kind Of Magic
I Want It All
Bohemian Rhapsody
——————-
The Show Must Go On
All Right Now (Brian’s guitars kept breaking so he ended up playing a black Guyton!!)

We Will Rock You
We Are The Champions

Paul stands at the back of the stage in the dark when Brian is at the front doing the first bit of Hammer to fall and I spotted him and he waved at me!! During the slow bit, I shouted ‘You rock Brian’ and he looked at me and gave me a great, approving smile!!

Michelle had to sit down during the last few songs and ended up being taken out by the security guards. I was feeling quite bad too because of the sunburn! At the end of the gig, Gavin managed to get back stage to find Michelle while I had to wait outside in the cold and met a few more people off the forums! Gavin finally came out and then Roger came out of a side door and was signing a few autographs, I spotted him and Gavin ran up to him and gave him a condom! Roger and Serena laughed then I shouted Hi Roger and he looked at me and waved. Serena got in the car and I shouted ‘I love you Roger, see you in Dublin’in the most pathethic voice ever and he laughed! Wish I had recorded it!! Went back to the hotel and slept for 5 hours!

Gavin and I had a nice lie in this morning which was well needed and I started to feel a little better! Left London and took a detour to places that I can’t tell you about and arrived in Croydon at 2 to park at Andy’s so we could get drunk later! Got the tram from Sandilands after Gavin managed to break the ticket machine with his £5 note then jumped on a train at east crooydon into London bridge. Got the tube up to Wembley- trying to get there for 3 but didn’t make it. Only half an hour late though- went the wrong way out of the tube station but bumped into Jeff Scott Soto and had a quick chat with him! Finally headed off in the right direction and got to the pub. Met Thomas and Phil plus some other people from the board. There were already lots of Queen fans in the pub so they put on Greatest hits one. Unfortunately this was the only Queen CD they had!! Gavin got me a pint which was a bad idea to start with but on my round I got us double vodkas and lemonade. Vern, Julie, Alessia, Jen, Trina, Michelle, Brigitte and Jamie all turned up during the afternoon and Gavin and I got more and more drunk! I remember singing very badly to Fat bottomed girls at one point! Loretta was there wearing his crown!!

Vern and Julie headed off earlier then us and I got a phone call from Vern saying there was a catwalk and I knew then that our tickets would be right next to it!
The rest of us went down to the venue at around 6.30 screaming at the Freddie mosaic on the wall and shouting at a random bloke we met in Birmingham whilst singing the tour song ‘Is this the way to Amarillo?’!!

Arrived in the venue and got to the seats and I was right. There I was right next to the right hand side of the catwalk. I knew this was going to be a good gig! Vern came over, turned out Julie’s mum had a ticket in row 16 right in front of the catwalk so Julie had booted her out and swapped seats so she was sitting on the front row of the side block. Vern joined us as he was also on the side block as was Michelle so Gavin, Matt, Vern, Michelle and me all sat in our 3 seats when they told us to sit down! That didn’t last long and we were all up along the barrier with a few others but most people chose to stay in their seats. The security guards didn’t let anyone through so block A had the barrier all to ourselves!
Paul arrived on stage through the curtain this time and I was off!! I don’t think I stopped dancing once!!!

The set list was:
Reaching Out
Tie Your Mother Down
I Want To Break Free
Fat Bottomed Girls
Wishing Well
Another One Bites The Dust

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Under Pressure
Say Its Not True

I shocked Roger by shouting at him!!

39
Love Of My Life
Hammer To Fall
Feel Like Making Love
I’m In Love With My Car
Gtr Solo (sorry Brian, went to go to the loo and get a drink at this point- had to ask a random man to give me £1.50 as I didn’t have enough for some vodka!!)
Last Horizon
These Are The Days Of Our Lives

Radio Ga Ga

Can’t Get Enough
A Kind Of Magic
I Want It All
Bohemian Rhapsody
————————–
The Show Must Go On
All Right Now
We Will Rock You
We Are The Champions

After drinking 7 double vodkas and a pint of beer, I was a little loud and over the top to say the least!!! Here are just a few of the things that I remember or have been told about:
-Paul looked over at me when walking to the front of the catwalk to join Brian for Hammer to fall
-I managed to try and throw a box of condoms I got from Alessia at Roger but missed!!
-Must have screamed so loud when Roger walked past me at one point that I scared the life out of him
- I have been told that I shouted ‘Roger I want your babies’ at him!
Roger’s daughter was on stage next to the drums for a bit at the end of the show. At the end of the show as Roger was walking back along the catwalk he leaned down and touched my hand. I almost died. I collapsed on the floor screaming about it and wasn’t making any sense. The next bit was a bit of a blur. I remember seeing Rick Parfitt from Status Quo and was about to go and ask him about Roger Taylor as they are friends but got distracted by someone saying they knew Paul Rodgers- I burst right in and told them I had met him at some of the gigs and I loved his trousers. Looking back on it now, I think his son and daughter might have been in the group as it turns out they were sitting near us! How embarrassing! Went to meet everyone by the sound desk and had just missed Roger’s ex girlfriend and daughter but managed to say hi to Jeff Scott Soto again!

We all left to try and find a pub but failed and ended up in McDonalds instead then went on the long journey back to Croydon!!

Photos: Various, Gavin and Cat

Arrived at 9am ish to find a few of our lot there already and a couple of randoms. I began to feel more and more ill as the day went on. The sun kept coming and going as did the wind - this only added to my general feeling of unwellness! I starting shaking around 11am and it didn’t stop for a good few hours. I had to borrow Jamie’s socks and blanket and just tried to keep warm. I look as white as a sheet:

We played the line game and sharades again to pass the time and I tried to sleep. The big red trucks the band use kept driving past so we keep waving at them! Gavin’s jumper got a hole in it so he went to Primark and got a new one for £5 (and it lasted the rest of the tour!!).

We got moved down to the bottom of the steps to queue on the pavement which was a nightmare and I felt so bad- I just collapsed on the floor again on a blanket. An old man walked past on the other side of the road who ‘looked’ like Roger so Gavin shouted out Roger then the whole queue starting cheering and waving at him!

Before the doors opened, they split the queue into boys and girls. Luckily our group managed to keep the front of the queue. We spotted Jim Beach in the door way and Gavin shouted ‘Love the jumper Jim’ and he laughed and waved!! As we went in, we got searched (the reason for the sorting of the queue!). Fairy nearly fell but was caught by Jen and we all made it in ok and took up the front of the catwalk. had to sit on the floor once inside for the hours waiting for the gig to start because I felt so ill. I was getting worse and worse all the time and decided to ask for water. The mean sercurity guard said no. It all turned into an argument between Gavin and her, then Pam joined in and told her to stop acting like a Nazi. She went to get her supervisor and eventually I got some water! The security guard then asked to be move as we were being hostile!! She was replaced with a guy who sang all the through and it turned out he had been at the knebworth gig!!!

Just before the gig started, I had some energy sweets (my life saver on tour!) and spent the whole gig going mental- I was surviving on adrenalin and energy sweets! Brilliant gig. Someone held up a banner saying ‘Roger, bang me like you bang your drums’ and he spotted it as he walked down the catwalk. He spotted it, pointed and said ‘That’s disgusting’ and laughed! Bless him!!! Wish I had thought of that! Pam shouted ‘Roger you sexy bitch’ so loudly that we all heard, not sure about Roger though!

Reaching Out
Tie Your Mother Down
I Want To Break Free
Fat Bottomed Girls
Wishing Well
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Say Its Not True
39
Love Of My Life
Hammer To Fall
Fell like makin’ love
I’m In Love With My Car
Gtr Solo
Last Horizon
These Are The Days Of Our Lives- Oh yeah!!!!!!
Radio Ga Ga
Can’t Get Enough
A Kind Of Magic
I Want It All
The show must go on
Bohemian Rhapsody
————————–

Another one bites the dust
All Right Now
We Will Rock You
We Are The Champions

We managed to get a group photo of us with the cool security guard and Pierre’s drumstick he had managed to catch from Roger during the gig.

We then all rushed round the back and Gavin, Matt and Becky went off to get some chips for us all! On their return, Becky managed to get one security guard to go and get her a set list in return for some chips! I walked a few metres away to throw my chips away and told everyone they had to call me back if Roger came out. As I put the rubbish down, they all started shouting and I was like ‘Yeah right, I don’t believe it’ but it actually was!!! His car was nearly out on the main road so I legged it and leapt out next to the car shouting ‘Roger I love you’ whilst waving and blowing kisses. I actually saw him turn round and wave to me through a small gap in the side of the tinted window!! AHHHHHH! Paul drove out and stopped the car when he saw us and called us over. I told him I loved his trousers with the stripe on!!! AHHH )(*£$%&*(&)^(^&$&^*&(^(

More photos of us and the drum stick were taken then we left!

The drive home was so painful and bad. Gavin did a bit then we swapped and as I was driving in to Bristol, I got flashed by a camera but it turned out to be a trail one so I didn’t get a ticket!!! Now to rest until Sheffield!