It's not the kinda of 'I don't have words' weekend where we did amazing shit every second of the day and it was the most incredible time anyone has ever had in any life time, evar. It's more the 'I don't have words because my memory disappeared half way through Saturday night.' It was an awesome weekend. Like, genuinely amazing. But it was the down to earth kind of amazing. Not the kind of amazing where we make ourselves so busy that it's hard to find time to pee.

So Saturday, my best friend from University came down to my 'backwater' town to stay for a few days. We spent most of the first few hours on Super Smash Bros Brawl, and House of the Dead: Overkill. I like that I have Chris as a friend because he's the only person in my life who will shout at me for shooting Zombies that he wanted to kill.

Then I got ready to go out on the town. Then Simon and James got to my house. And then we went to get the bus, the bus was there, Simon ran, he probably didn't need to run, but he bounced a little when he ran, and it was adorable. And Gaz was on the bus. I introduced everyone to him, and then it was a fun bus ride that Laura joine

d in about 15 minutes later. And again, I don't remember all that much, but I do remember nearly choking Chris with a straw with my bottle of Emerge and Vodka. Me and James laughed at the straw. It was an Ashfield Show memory. And I drank a wasp. I shit you not. There was a wasp in my drink. I didn't like, swallow it, but I would have died so quickly if I did.

That would have made the weekend a little less fun, gotta admit.

After we got off the bus, we decided to walk to Pit and Pendulum, and we ran into Claky, who had a Nathan Leone -- which is Vodka, Water and Lime. I had some, it was so good. We had a drink in Pit and Pendulum for the first time in forever. And then we went to Ride, which is where things get really hazy. I remember we played Never Have I Ever, which didn't last long. And me and Chris worked out the next day that we'd had like 10 or 11 Jagerbombs a piece, which is ridiculous and explains why my stomach hurt so badly later on. So I know we had Jagerbombs, and shit loads of them, and then I just stop remembering things until later, when I ran into my oldest friend in the entire world, Cassie, who I haven't seen in forever. That was a good catch up actually.

I remember dancing, I remember seeing my Rock City Buddy, Simon F, and talking to him about Akira. I need to watch Akira so I know what the hell people are talking about when they assume I've seen it. I remember meeting someone and telling them that I've met Brad Swaile, and they actually knew who he was. He's my facebook friend now, too ;D

I make a lot of facebook friends at City.

Oh, and I also remember Ainsely and Ryan turning up, and Ainsely kept telling me I was awesome. That just popped back into my head xD

That's all I remember until we're stood outside, eating chips at half 2 in the morning and enjoying the ever loving shit out of them. Then we were at the bus stop, and I don't know where Claky, Ryan and Ainsely went, but I never saw them again. I meant to say bye. I just don't know what happened. And the bus ride, where people sobered up, and a fight broke out, and the bus driver just carried on his merry way. That was awkward, but funny.

Then I put Chris, James and Simon to bed and it was the end of the day. At a lovely time of 4:30am.

I don't actually remember getting up, or going into the guest room. I just remember lying on the floor looking at old baby photos of myself and I'm not even sure why I did it. The weather looked crappy, so we called of the Picnic we'd planned, Simon and James went home and me and Chris had egg and facon, and the weather got better. After we'd had a Sunday dinner with my family -- including my sister, who, get this, is engaged! :D -- we went on a walk up to the top of Diamond Avenue, which was shit, and then went back home and played on games for pretty much the rest of the day. We completed House of the Dead: Overkill, I played on Starfox Assault, and was actually shit at it, and then Chris went to play on Zelda, and I fell asleep. I tried to stay awake, but it wasn't happening. I'd had like, 3 hours sleep the night before.

I can't remember why I woke up, but I watched Chris play Zelda for a while, which was better than it sounds, because him getting annoyed at his 5 or so attempts to get the Megaton Hammer was amazing. And I enjoy watching people play on games, whatev. Then I had to do a crap load of work for club because I had an impending meeting. Which kept us up for a while, I must say.

Then he went to bed, I watched Tokyo Underground, and then that was Sunday over. I know that I make it sound incredibly dull, but it was a really nice time. Like I said before, it was the down to earth amazing time. Which is something I have been seriously lacking over this summer.

Then it was Monday, where we had to travel to Birmingham for the aforementioned meeting which I was cacking myself over for no reason whatsoever. Since there was this guy in club who was trying to get me kicked out of my chairman position, I've felt intense pressure to be good at my job. But there was nothing to worry about. I put my opinion across where it was needed, and everyone seemed rather impressed by the amount of research I'd done about animes that we could possibly show (I'd got the title, the genres, the episode number, and the episode length). We sorted out everything that needed to be sorted out ASAP. And we had a bloody good time doing it, I think. I approve of Bourgeois Nero for meeting places.

It was actually 4 hours of meeting time, so I feel like it was worth the trip up.

Then it was left with just me and Chris to say bye to one another. I didn't like that. We've had this weekend planned for about a month now and it's gone by so quickly. I really hope that I get to see him sometimes while I'm at uni.

And basic point of this whole thing - I had a good time, and I love all the people who made it such a good time. I'm going to end this blog with a picture of the three chairmen of Anime, TCG and J-Soc.

Now I'm going to watch more Tokyo Underground. That anime is far too underrated.

Best film I've ever seen in a cinema, ever.

So it's my 400th post.

I was thinking for an age of something really deep, and profound to put in here, but it eludes me. So I'm just gonna just put a picture of Brad Swaile. I have 100 more posts before I have to think about it again.

But I have to say, Rock and Dutch are pretty much perfectly cast. And I'm not biased because I've met and hung out with Brad, who voiced Rock, I'm saying it because I genuinely mean it.

I'm feeling an anime marathon later today. But what to watch? Hm.

But I had a lovely day today. My mum took me shopping and it was lovely. We went with Derek and Nana Birkett. We had lunch, I have Doc Martins now, and went mental in the Debenhams sale. But compared to Amecon, it was lame.

I have reasons to be happy. I see Chris soon, and that's something I need because I fucking miss that man. We plan to drink, and play games and such. Sounds like a good weekend in my opinion. Not to mention the whole Pit Tip thing. Hopefully the weather will get better before then.

That's all I have. I hate post con blues though.

I went to see my grandma in hospital, and she was less than impressed that I haven't been in touch since June. Like, really, really unimpressed. In fact, she ignored me for a good while, but my grandad was rather happy to see me again, which was lovely of him. I'm back to being the least favourite of the grandchildren now that Louise is back on the scene. I'm not sure I'm entirely too bothered, because I love having her around again. But I know my grandad loves me, and I love my grandad. I'd only intended a two hour visit, but it turned into a hectic 6 hour outing, where my grandma was discharged that day, so we could take her home and all that. She has gall stones. My mum had them, so I'm not that worried about it. She goes in for her operation on Wednesday, so that's all good.

I saw my dad too. We got into a discussion about Gundam, and how he got me into anime and video games when I was around five. That was pretty interesting to be honest because I barely remember my childhood. Apparently my dad bought me Pokemon Blue because he thought I needed a proper hobby. Well played, sir.

So I've started playing on Mario Sunshine now that I've finished Mario 64 again. That's about all.

Okay, this will be a long post, I think. There's a lot I won't write here for many reasons (for example, my dignity would keel over and die if I did, and people told me not to write about some stuff). So we'll start at the top.

Me and Claky met up and just about managed to get on the train to Stoke-on-Trent. While we were on the train, we listened to music and highlighted what we wanted to do on the timetable for Amecon that had literally been released the day before - awesome planning there. I had a few demands, but Claky didn't seem too phased by that. My demands were all the voice actor panels and the Beez panel, because I was very excited about their announcements (and even managed to get one right ;D)

So we got there, got stuffed into a mini bus with 14 other people and their luggage, and I ended up, kind of oddly, sat next to one of Cam's friends (I can't really remember his name). It took like 20 minutes to get to Keele University, and I was glad to get out because that seatbelt I had hurt. Then we registered, got our con-badges and con-bags and I picked up my pre-ordered Amecon t-shirt, and then we went to try and find our rooms.

We got to Claky's room first, and then I decided to wonder around by myself to try and find mine, got lost within the first minute, and then a very lovely bus driver found me and picked me up and took me to my halls. Though even he couldn't find it at first. But I got into my room in like 5 minutes from leaving Claky thanks to him and his lift.

Then it wasn't too long before Claky came over (apparently he could find my room absolutely fine >>) and then we decided to head to the games room. I can't remember if we actually went in there, but if we did, we would have only played on this drum game and perhaps DDR before going on a wonder, and finding someone who I'd met at Kitacon called Moley and he was hosting an RPG. So we stuck around for his 90-minute-mayhem.

At first, I didn't get it, and I was sure I was going to want to leave half way through the thing, but we stayed for the whole thing and became kinda badass at it. We actually beat the game about a minute before the alarm went off. I'd pretty much made Neo from the Matrix and my skills were Martial Arts, Guns, Tech Use, Drive and Dodge, and my Shtick was Bullet Time. So I ended up breaking into a car show room, driving a car through the wall, using the left over pieces of the car to build a mech in Bullet Time, and then crashing that in my next turn. I loved that couple of hours, and I'm sure that it would be another one of my hobbies if I had the friends around to do it.

Then was opening ceremony where we saw the guests for the first time, and Brad Swaile was such a crowd pleaser. He jumped off the stage and started asking people their names and shaking their hands. This lasted like a minute before he had to jump back on stage and when he managed the rather large jump, everyone in the room started cheering at him. I love Cons. Also, Wendy Powell dropped the F-Bomb. I love 18+ Cons.

After this, it kind of gets a bit fuzzy. I can't remember what happened really. I know I went to Claky's to get drunk, I met some guy called Dan, and I remember bits of what happened, but I'm censoring it for my dignity's sake, but I will say that it ended with me saying I could feel the earth move, it was too fast, and then me being sick into my bin at about half past midnight. First day, over.

There were far too many panels for me on that day. We started off by going to the Dealers Room and I spent pretty much all my money on the Darker Than Black manga, which had been my one planned purchase. We saw the queue for the bring and buy, and there was no chance we were gonna get in there and make it to all the panels that I wanted to go to.

So 12:30 was my first voice actor panel - Monica Rial. She was the 'secret squirrel' that no one was supposed to know about, but somehow, nearly everyone did. It was a pretty fun panel. I didn't really know where I'd heard her before (it turned out to be Ouran High School Host Club and Fullmetal Alchemist) but VA panels are pretty much my favourite things to go to at Cons.

Then I think we may have gone to the games room or dealers room for an hour before the Beez Panel. This was something I couldn't miss because I needed to find out what anime they were going to announce, and I was not disappointed. The ones that are really, really important are Lucky Star (FUCKING FINALLY), Sora No Woto (Happy Ebbie is very happy by this point) and Durarara (which is licensed in the UK before USA~!). So it was a good set of announcements really.

Then there's like an hour and a half and I don't remember what happened then, bu

t the next thing that started at like, 5, was the best panel of the weekend - the Brad Swaile Panel. There were like seventeen questions that I wanted to ask him, but I didn't because I couldn't manage talking in front of that many people. But it was fun, and he played us some songs at the end to wrap up. He is a very, very talented man, I must say.

Then after that, pretty much everyone went to the Masquerade which I had pretty much no interest in, so we went to the Games room, played on Rock Band, played on DDR, played on the drum game, played on Soul Calibur, and I had a game of Super Smash Bros Brawl with Drew, Cam and Lee.

I should point out, it was really great seeing them all again. I hadn't seen my uni friends since I went to see Derren Brown and I really tried to make the most of it. And I hadn't seen Drew since Kitacon which was about 6 months previous. I probably won't see him until next Kitacon too.

Then we decided to go the Charity Auction, and I'm glad we did, because I got to see some more Brad Swaile. And it was a pretty wicked atmosphere and amazing to see how much some of the stuff actually sold for. In the end, the Charity got about £4000 from the Con. Oh, and there were also buckets going around for this guy to put pants on, or keep them off. Lee and Cam saw him running and were like "there are some things that just cannot be unseen." And I also saw Scottish Dave make out with a Kaito cosplayer. It ruined me, ahaha.

After that, we got food and started drinking, but I don't think either me or Claky were feeling it really. But regardless, we went to the J-Rock Party, felt incredibly awkward, and I left during a GACKT song. Wtf? We decided we wanted to go for a nap, but instead, Claky's phone died and the alarm never went off, so we missed the party. Such a let down.

After walking back to my room at five in the morning and catching a couple of hours sleep before the grand breakfast I had before con things started, Claky went for a shower, and I went to an anime showing of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and it was so good. Then it was the Wendy Panel straight after, and she was hilarious. She talked about how she loves Poofy Pies in England, and then in Envy's voice said "Edward Elric, eat your poofy pie!" and it was amazing. It got pretty deep towards the end though. Like, really deep.

Again, I think I spent some more time in the Games room with Claky and Drew. I owned Drew at Soul Calibur 4, and we played on Rock Band and we did the Thunderbirds song by Busted, and it was hilarious. Cam, Lee and Paul showed up at some point, and that was pretty much the end of our super band.

After that I picked up my stuff from the Bring and Buy (managed to sell quite a bit which made it so I could buy cigarettes and Ciel Phantomhive ring) and then it was to the signing, which was amazing. I definately saw Brad walk past, and I said "Squee!" in what I thought was a quiet voice, but Brad turned around, looked at me and replied "Squee!" Oh my god xD

I got to meet all three voice actors. Monica and Wendy signed my Fullmetal Alchemist calendar, and Brad signed Badge's Death Note and my Death Note DVD. And he also had pictures taken with me and Claky. I wish I'd remembered that I wanted a photo with Wendy too. When I asked Brad for the picture, he said "Of course, I thought you'd never ask" and I swear to god, I fell in love right there and then. Ahaha.

Then we dropped stuff off and hung around until the Closing Ceremony which was less than impressive apart from the voice actors making another appearance, and my arms hurt from the clapping by the end. Then I went to get ready for the ball which took far too long. Then I went to Claky's, we had pizza, got drunk, and headed to the party.

We only danced to like, one song. Which was Don't Say Lazy from K-On, but then it was the bar and balcony for the rest of the night. I don't think I have words to describe how incredible this night was. When I think about it, I feel sad and happy at the same time. I feel sad because I may never relive it, but happy because I had the chance to experience it in the first place.

When Brad first walked past us, all suited up and looking a little Italian, but very good, and I was like "Hi!" and he stopped for a while to talk to us. And I asked him for a hug, and he was like "Alright then" and just gave me a lovely hug, and then said that I was "looking gorgeous tonight." No one has ever said that to me before in my life, let alone a fucking VA. He had to dash afterwards. But that's not the end of my voice actor tales. Oh no.

After I saw the Anime Club guys for a while, I decided to ask Wendy Powell for a lighter, so she lit my cigarette for me, and that was it. We hung out with her for ages. I asked her about the cast listing for Black Butler, and she seemed about as pissed off as me when she told me a certain voice actor is not playing Grell. She told me how to get voice actors to cons, and how some voice actors just will not come to conventions in England for more reasons that I don't think I'm supposed to divulge. And similarly, she told me that if there was any actors that we wanted to come to the UK, she'd get them here. Personally, I'd be happy if she and Brad made another appearance. That is a con I would go to. Then I asked her about her holiday in Hawaii, and she started crying. I hated that. I won't say why, again, because Wendy is a rather private person from what I can tell, and she deserves that in my opinion. But we gave her the best comfort we could by giving her hugs and rubbing her back, and she'd stopped by this point, but it was very emotional.

She said sorry for crying, quite a lot actually. Not like she needed to be sorry, because she was the sweetest lady, and very adorable. Then we went to the toilet together, and we were shouting over the stands about Chris Patton, which was a definite high point in my life.

Then we went back outside and Brad was there, so I decided to talk to him for a while. I started by asking him if he was drunk yet. He wasn't. That was disappointing. I don't really remember all that much of the night, but I remember getting a lot of hugs off of him. He gave me a high five for something, I just don't know what. I remember him doing a Nottingham accent. Or a "No'in'am" accent and it was amazing. We praised him. He spoke Japanese at some point and I was in there like "swoon." We talked about Canada, because I said "Canadia" at some point and he was like "Everyone says that and I don't know why." He told us that his name was said like "Brad's Whale" because I kept getting it wrong. I found out he smokes, and I was like "HOW IS YOUR VOICE SO NICE AND YOU SMOKE AT THE SAME TIME!?"

It was all too soon that the night was over and they had to leave because they had an early start to go to London which bloody broke me. We had another four hugs a piece from Brad, I swear to god, and a group hug, and when I said I didn't want to say goodbye to him and Wendy, he said "Let's just say it's...To Be Continued" which I liked a lot more.

And then I said goodbye to Wendy, where she gave me a kiss on the cheek and gave me the biggest hug ever and I said "It's such an honour to meet you, thank you for coming" and she said "Oh no, it was an honour to meet you," and then she gave Claky another long hug and she was gone.

So after that, we stood around with our newly made friends, Joe, Clare and Natalie feeling very sad that they'd left. Then I saw Brad running through groups of people towards us (which is so flattering that he came back to see just us) and was like "Hey, guys, I decided to stay!" so we cheered and yayed, and then he just went "Psyche!" and that was horrible. But I'm glad he came back, either way. He came to give us business cards and another 'round a hugs' and then he was off again and that was pretty much the night over.

It was so fucking surreal, it's unbelievable. If someone told me this story, I'd be like "pft, yeah, right." I got Wendy Powell's freakin' Skype address. Who ever gets a VA's Skype address at

a con, ever? I loved that night with all my heart, and I miss it already.

Another breakfast, and a long train ride back where me and Claky reflected and played games. That was pretty much all there was to it.

Roll on Ayacon. Please.

But Laura's was so much fun! We played drinking games, and DDR and Guitar Hero on the first night and there were an insane amount of people there. I don't remember all that much, but I definitely went off for girly ass chats with Claky and Ryan at various points in the evening.

I was still stumbling around the house at like 4 trying to find somewhere to sleep. I was going to stay in Jono's room with pretty much everyone else, but that didn't happen. I watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Elodie, Hazel, Adam and Jono, then it finished, and we planned to watch Mamma Mia but it wouldn't load so we just listened to the soundtrack on Spotify. It would lull us off to sleep with songs like 'Thank You For The Music' but then wake us up horrifically with 'Take a Chance' or 'Money Money Money.'

What a horrible soundtrack.

I must have fallen asleep at some point though because I woke up in a bed with four other people feeling like I was about to suffocate because IT WAS SO WARM. So I went downstairs and slept on a sofa where I was freezing for like the rest of the night until Claky and Ryan gave up their duvet and left. Then James left.

Then eventually I got my ass off the sofa so people could sit down, we watched Jeremy Kyle and then took Elodie to the train station and I had a wonder around Lincoln with the others, minus Laura because we'd forced her to stay in and revise for her impending resit. We weren't out too long, but it was nice to walk off the rest of the alcohol that was still having a teeny tiny effect on me. Plus Lincoln is a beautiful city.

Then the rest of the day was a kind of none event until I went for a nap and woke up and me and Laura started drinking. We watched The Wombles, and a lot of old Ray William Johnson videos on YouTube. We were incredibly drunk by the time we left for Sugarcubes, which I'd been told was just a rape den. But it was wicked. I danced on the stage for most of the night, I pulled, and that is all I will say on that situation because I regret that happening with everything ever.

But, in good old Laura style, she invited strangers back to hers. This wasn't as bad as the last time this happened, where she invited four guys back, and there were biscuits down her toilet and one of them woke up the next morning cling filmed to the table. Two of the three guys jumped over the fence when I said I wouldn't sleep with one of them and left, never to be seen again, and the other time was a sweetheart. He was called Ross. He stayed up with us all night, played the guitar, and watched an entire season of The Inbetweeners with us before he left at 7 the next morning.

Once I woke up the next day, my cold had gotten lightyears worse and I didn't actually get dressed for like 6 hours so I could leave. There was a lot more Ray William Johnson in this time. And Jeremy Kyle. And a lot of lounging.

Then I left and I felt sad. All in all, a really good break.

_________

Now, a message from Chris.

I could tell you all about the stuff that we did, but instead, I'm going to sum it up with a picture that makes me smile far too much.

Okay, so my late blog about London, here we go!

I won't write about meeting up with Kirsty and the painfully dull train ride to London. I'm not even going to write about the fuss that happened with the tube tickets, which took up a massive portion of the day.

But when we'd finally got to the tube station, we managed to navigate our way to White City, which was the nearest open tube station to our hostel (is it typical that the tube station we actually needed for the trip was undergoing engineering works while we were there and we couldn't use it?). It took us a long time to try and find our way there, but we stumbled upon some awesome stuff.

Firstly, a building caught my eye, and I was like "is that the BBC?" and Kirsty was like "No, it can't be." But it was. I never thought that I'd accidentally find the BBC Studios in London while lost. It turns out it was a 5-10 minute walk away from the hostel. Before we even got to the hostel we managed to accidentally find the Westfield shopping centre which was very badass and a fantastic looking shopping centre.

Eventually, we find our way onto the street where the hostel is, and then have to go into this cafe called Cafe Torelli to ask which way it was, and they didn't know, so we just had to amble around again for another 10 minutes before we found Shepards Bush Market and we knew we were there. Thank God. My bag was packed full of shit that I needed for 3 days and it was painful.

We got the keys for the room from the newsagents which we were staying above, they showed us the room and it was fine. Rather basic. As in there was a TV, a bunk bed and a fold out wardrobe and that was pretty much it aside from the pictures of Mini's adorning Union Jacks and red phone boxes on the wall.

We decided after that to do some sight seeing because we'd paid over a fiver for all day travel, and I was insistent that we abused the shit out of it because it had been so expensive. Plus I'd developed a taste for Tube Travel after London Expo last October. So first we decided to go the the Westfield centre around the corner. We looked around for a while, ended up in a little village inside the centre with shops that intimidated me, such as Jimmy Choo, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Burburry. So we left after that because it made me feel far too uncomfortable for my liking.

Then we had to walk back to White City. I convinced Kirsty that we should go to Piccadilly Circus because without a doubt, it's my favourite part of London. So we went there. We went to the London Trocadero, which is awesome. I wondered around Tokyo Toys a little, then we walked through the arcade and saw the most insane guy playing on DDR and we just watched him for a couple of songs because it was amazing how much this guy was moving. But we left right after that because arcades are rather dull when you don't have a lot of money to blow on nothing.

After that, we saw the neon lights, wondered down to Leicster Square, where I got a slice of Pizza and felt a little lost. There's not a lot there apart from cinemas and expensive places to eat. Then we walked back to Piccadilly Circus and found a donut shop that I'd been to before. We bought a donut a piece, and then decided to walk to my second favourite place in London; Carnaby Street. We must have spent a good 20-30 minutes in the David and Goliath shop, where I bought a Zombee's t-shirt, which is yellow and has these zombie bees all over it, and a lanyard that says "Spooning Leads to Forking." It was such a funky little shop.

Then I found the Japan Centre and bought Remonade (I think I picked that up off Lee on my last London trip) which is Japanese Lemonade and so much better than English Lemonade. It tastes like candy floss.

Then we walked to Trafalgar square. I saw Buckingham Palace from a distance before we got there which was cool, because I'd never seen it before. We sat there for a while sort of taking in what we'd done so far that day, and saw a massive ship in a bottle. Then I text Chris and Todd because it was one of those moments when I wished I was with people who I knew well, because it would have been a laugh.

We noticed that there was this massive maze in front of us and decided to go in and see what it was all about. It had signs of all the major places in London and information about them. It was pretty cool, if that's okay to say about something completely nerdy. We got our picture taken with the Piccadilly Circus sign, but I'm still waiting on those photos. We spent about half an hour in there before we decided to find our way out and then headed to the tube station to go to the embankment.

We walked past the IMAX which is something I'd love to experience again if I ever get the chance. I went there with my dad when I was little to see a couple of 3D films, and every other 3D film I've seen since has just been shite in comparison. Then we found our way to the River Thames, and the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament and such. We got food from the McDonalds that overlooked Parliament and it was a rather surreal experience.

We took pictures, saw a wedding happening in the street, and by the time that we were approaching Big Ben, we both decided to make our way back to the hostel because it was starting to get dark, and although we were in London, we had no idea where else we could go. So it was back on the tube and back to White City.

We got back and abused the free wi-fi, then watched 15 minutes of a TV show before we both decided to go to sleep because of the next day, which was so amazing.

So we were up at 5 and on the first bus we could manage. We'd decided again the tube because it was £2 more expensive than the bus, but I'm sure it took longer. By the time we got there at about 7am, there were already 4 people there. One of them happened to be Adam, one of my best river people.

I'm not going to write about the day, honestly, because all in all, it was the same as any other time I've queued up for hours for a Madina Lake show, apart from it was in Camden. I saw my friends that I've only ever seen at ML shows, and made new friends who I won't see until the next tour which will be over a year away.

It was odd that we were waiting for two different shows in the same day. The queuing time didn't seem that long because there was the Matinee show at 1pm, with no supports, just my favourite band, minus their bassist. It was odd seeing them without Matthew there. They'd set up his microphone so that Mateo could run between either side of the stage, but for a lot of the gig there was empty space in front of me.

And I cried at two points. Nathan was saying how amazing the Madina Lake family is, and how we've banded together to help someone who needed it and such, and how he could never thank us enough for everything we've done, but he would die trying to make it up to us, and I couldn't help but well up at what he was saying. I've never seen a band with more passion before in my life, and that's about 50% of the reason why I can line up for hours and not bat an eyelid. There's 10% my friends, and 40% because of the music.

I also cried during One Last Kiss again, and I'm not sure why. It wasn't as bad as at Birmingham

where I was sobbing. I just leaked a bit xD

The one highlight from the matinee show was Nathan grabbing a bottle of water after the first song, standing in front of me and then balancing the bottle of water on my head and shooting me a cheeky smile. I did not understand this. But I am now the Madina Table because literally everyone of my friends were like "What did Nathan DO with that water?"

Then it was queuing for another four or so hours. How we managed to get front row for both shows, I will never know. I spent this gap of time drinking with a girl called Claire who I'd met at Birmingham. I didn't like her at Birmingham, but after I spent time with her in London, I realised she was a lovely girl who genuinely cared about the band and how they were doing.

So then it got to show time again, and nothing spectacular happened. While they are getting better every time I see them, it wasn't the same without Matthew, and it would have been foolish to expect it to be. I did have the most obnoxious little bitch next to me who angered me throughout the whole thing. Yeah, I'm all for not hating people at gigs because we're all there for the same reason; I understand and usually embrace that philosophy. Hell, I've been to enough gigs to know that. But when there's this 16 year old first-timer elbowing you in the face through the whole show, and clawing at your arm when the singers holding your hand and not hers, it's far too easy to forget that.

Afterwards, we waited around for a couple of hours so we could meet them. I spent most of this time with Adam who was an absolute sweetheart. We were both ranting because we were both feeling stressed out beyond belief and that gig had been less than pleasant for me. But eventually, Mateo and Dan emerged, and Mateo went to bed pretty much straight away, but Dan hung around.

I told him that because of him, I was close to my 3 years of vegetarianism, and we talked about that for a few minutes, and he said that it was amazing that he'd done that for someone and he was really grateful that I'd told him that. Then we talked about my chickens after we went off on a tangent about vegans. And he said the most amazing this to me, and it made me laugh for no good reason. It was "Yeah, I don't think you should be a vegan. You'd have like, a shit tonne of eggs and no use for them, right?" Then we talked about cheese. Wut?

I just need to chat shit to Matthew now, and that'll be all four of them that I will have had pointless conversations with. Here's my list so far.

Dan: Eggs, Cheese, English colloquialism for the word Cigarette.

Nathan: Doors, pin numbers and youtube.

Mateo: Mars Bars.

I saw Nathan for a few minutes too, but I didn't want to keep him because he was talking how there had been a situation with Matthew and he needed to check up on him, but he was more than willing to have another picture taken with me when my first one came out awfully blurred. I seriously love those guys.

After that was over, we had to say goodbye to a million and one people before hopping in a taxi to White City because we'd missed the last bus by like an hour.

Oh, that reminds me, Kirsty told Dan we'd missed the last bus and he was like "Oh no! Don't do that! Why did you do that?!"

I won't write about the day after because that was a very sullen day. Months of waiting for everything to happen, and it was all over and it'll be an age before I get to see most of these people again, and I love them all so much. We're part of the River People Invasion and I could never be more proud to be a small part in it.

So, we'll start with Thursday.

Thursday was so much fun! Laura's friends from Uni came up and we got rather drunk, hung out in a kareoke bar, went to Rock City, danced, got a taxi home, and I slept on a floor sharing a pillow and a blanket with Jono. We talked for ages about shit like how Laura had boobonic plauge, why people can't have single toasts, toast with lard rather than butter. Then I thought Jono said his sister was getting married at 6 the next morning and we lol'd for ages because he said nothing like that. And then Laura jumped on her bean bag and nearly broke Jono's foot.

Then Friday I left at like 8 in the morning after toast and tea and then slept in my own comfortable bed for the rest of the day.

Saturday was such an exhausting day. As in, it was gay pride, which Claky dragged me to. I saw Lisa Scott Lee from Steps for all of 10 seconds, didn't get any good freebies (aside from my pig magnet) and we played with alphabet magnets. When I get my own flat, I need alphabet magnets. The only good think I said all day is something like "we need to make katamari's. Roll up the gay people, and make a fabulous planet" and I think Claky said it was the best thing I'd ever said.

Then afterwards, we went to Claky's did the K-On drinking game after I'd been a totally Todd fangirl for about 15 hours. Then it was into town to wait on the square with bottles of vodka and coke, see a guy get totally taken down by the police, then it was off to meet Ryan. I bloody love Ryan. We went to Rescue Rooms for a bit, then to Rock City, danced for ages, and had emotional times. It was good, but sad. I saw Claky cry for the first time and that's not something I ever want to happen ever again.

I got a lift home from Dan which saved me so much money in bus fare too, which was nice.

That's about all.

No! Actually, it was Derek's birthday yesterday, and there was a family BBQ, and it was nice. I bought Derek the best hat ever, which I'll post a picture of in a moment. It was good. Yeah, that's actually all.

London, here I come~!