London, Louisa and lots of alcohol

Louisa is one of my best friends; unfortunately, she decided it’d be a good idea to go to university. Yeah, okay, she’ll get an education, but she’s SO much further away now! So, Keya and I decided that it’d be a really good idea to go to London and visit her. And it was.

                We left on Friday, after we’d both finished work, got some beers and got on the train. We sat down at a table, only for some really posh, pompous, stuck up woman and her husband to join us. She actually ended up being alright and joined in on our game on 20 Questions  (probably not voluntarily though, more because Keya was essentially forcing her to join in).  

                After 2 hours and 40 minutes, we finally arrived in London Waterloo, and navigated our way round to the correct station to get on yet another train that’d take us to the station where Louisa and her new best friend, Dermite, would be meeting us.

                This would be the first time that Keya and I would be meeting Dermite. He’s Irish and likes Regina Spektor almost as much as I do (okay, not almost, but he likes her a lot), which instantly made me like him. This illusion was not spoiled when I actually met him.

                Regardless, we got to the station, and as soon as Louisa saw us, she screamed and ran towards us. Keya jumped on Louisa and they ended up on the floor, one on top of the other, almost hysterically crying, and Dermite (or Malarky O’Leary, as I so kindly renamed him) and I greeted each other like adults. We were all super excited for seeing each other.

                We got on a bus and went to Louisa’s flat. On the way, we bumped into a few of her friends, who would then end up joining us for pre-drinks in Louisa’s room. We got into her room, dumped our stuff and carried on drinking and getting ready for going to the student bar. Keya, promptly threatened Louisa’s flatmate for “making her cry”, and after that, we set off to go.

                We got in, got our drinks and went outside for a cigarette. Dermite, got almost immediately pounced at by some young ragamuffin, who looked like a junkie slut, and she was all ‘in his face’ about this douchebag Josh. What was the exact problem, I’m not really sure, because I spent most of the time turning his friends against him rather than listening to what they were saying. I do, however, remember a girl asking Dermite if he was okay, and whether or not he liked her dress. He said it was lovely, and when she went he muttered “she’s a tramp” to me. We promptly renamed her ‘Trampy Jade’ and avoided her like the plague.

                We got MORE drinks in, and were already pretty drunk. Bad Romance came on, so Keya and I danced, but it was on for literally about 30 seconds! We were OUTRAGED! I wanted to get my GaGa on! My thoughts of disappointment were soon dissolved by stroking this girls coat because it, in my drunken state, ‘felt like a bear’.

                We ended up back outside, and, as Keya and Dermite were kissing each other, I decided to talk to some guys that were stood by. I asked what they were doing at uni, and they said they were doing engineering. They then asked what I was doing, and, instead of telling the truth, I said that I was doing “a degree in Psychology” and made up some bullshit reason as to why I was doing it.

                Trampy Jade and I kissed, Trampy  Jade, Keya and Dermite had a three-way kiss and we all left substantially drunk. Louisa, at this point, was back in her flat after canoodling with Colin.

                We went to sleep, but then a short while later I awoke to the most horrible, repetitive shrieking noise! I attempted to block it out with my pillow over my head, but the fire alarm was far too loud to even attempt to be ignored. We wandered outside like zombies along with the rest of the people from the nearby flats. Louisa, with her duvet, curled up into a ball on the floor. Keya joined her. In MY sleeping bag! Now, if the fact that he was rubbing my sleeping bag against the ground, he was also completely NAKED. Gross, right? We trundled back to sleep after the alarm of death finally was silenced.

                In the morning, after we were all ready, we decided to go into central London. After a delightful breakfast at McDonald’s we went to somewhere in London, where there was a ‘Big African Weekender’. As we were glancing around, we noticed lots of posters and people gathered round looking at some sort of protest. John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ was playing, and Keya and I put our arms around each other and sang. We realised that it was about the injustice of the Iranian governments views on homosexuality, and how people get hanged, stoned to death and ostracised, simply for being something they cannot control. Whilst looking at signs saying “her only crime was love” next to pictures of people being publically executed, I felt myself get to the point where it took a lot for me to draw back my tears. I’ve never been so moved by anything so quickly in my life.

                We carried on traipsing round London, went through Chinatown,  were there were lots of delightful whole cooked ducks hanging in the windows, then made our way to Soho. On our attempt to find G.A.Y, we passed a ‘Peep Show’ for £2. We were all plucking up the courage to go in, but then the woman in the next place wanted us in her whorehouse to see a live show, have drinks and stuff for ‘only’ £20. In all fairness, she said entrance alone was usually £50, but we’re poor! Two students, an unemployed bum and Keya, who spends the majority of his money of alcohol! We said we’d “think about it” and went off to G.A.Y. There was an immediate transition between London, and the gay part of London. There were SO many bears outside all the cafés, drinking coffee and Louisa and I definitely saw Brüno.

                We went to G.A.Y, had a drink and then went back to Louisa’s, after stopping off to get more alcohol and some food. Apparently, I’m not as young as I used to be because I couldn’t even get through half a can of beer that evening as I was still hungover, sleep deprived and feeling sick. Keya and I, unfortunately, had to leave, and it sucked. We then went to get our train, and for some stupid reason, I got a coffee to drink on the train and didn’t sleep at all, unlike Keya, who looked like a homeless guy with his chavvy hoodie on. I went home, showered and slept until I had work, then I slept lots after work.

                It was an amazing trip, and I miss Louisa so much. I’m really glad she’s made such an amazing friend (Dermite), and that she’s having such a good time. I just have no idea how she has the stamina to drink every night AND attend lectures!

The day I met Regina Spektor.

I literally can’t express my emotions into words right now, but I’ll have a go at it anyway.

            For the second time, I was going to see Regina Spektor. You know, that amazing singer who I utterly adore and have her name tattooed on my back…? Yeah, that one. This time, we had to travel all the way to Cambridge. Despite booking in advance, it definitely wasn’t without its difficulties…

            Georgie and I had arranged to meet at 10:30 in Southampton, so I got up at 9, got ready, put my Regina Spektor hoodie on, found out mother had stained it with hair dye, almost killed her, then left to get the train. Being the douchebag I am, I forgot the bloody tickets, so managed to miss the train, forcing me to get another one! This was like, super bad, because we could only get one train up to London or we’d have to buy tickets and would miss our coach. Luckily, I was actually on the train we were getting, so I just stayed on it instead of meeting Georgie early.

            Anyway, we arrive at London, and have to meet Georgie’s cousins flatmate so she can give us the key to their apartment, so we’d actually have a roof over our heads that night. We had 25 minutes to get from the train station to the coach station. I thought that was ample time, ‘cause Google told me it took 10 minutes! Apparently, that didn’t include getting the key, and walking from the underground to the coach station, so we may or may not have missed it… Luckily, I’m super rich, so we stood in a queue for about an hour and I bought us new coach tickets for a coach that’d get us in at about 6 o’clock. This was annoying. Why? I wanted to get to the front, like, the very front of the concert and the doors opened at 7, meaning, there’d probably be loads of people already there and we wouldn’t even get close!

            However, we got to Cambridge Corn Exchange and there were only a handful of people in front of us. Probably about 20-30 people. As soon as we got in line, a guy, by himself, stood behind us. We felt it appropriate to talk to him, and he was an Australian called Tom. He was utterly lovely, and we spent the rest of the evening with him. He was also going back to London that evening and informed us of a coach back at 12:45. Our tickets were for the 11:30 coach back, and we thought that it wouldn’t finish before then so we’d miss it, so, I phoned up Daddy and he booked two tickets for the later coach. He did.

            At 7, the doors opened and we rushed to get in. Bags had to be put in the cloakroom, so we ran up to it and tried to be as quick as possible! We ran back down, and hurried to the stage. We managed to get to the second row from the front. I, unfortunately, was behind two really, super, gigantically tall people, and I could just about see over their shoulders. I did ask them to move slightly at one point, and there were as helpful as they could be, but there was literally no space, but, whatever.

            So, the support act, Nicole Atkins, came on and sang. She was really good and really sweet, but she kept ending every single song with a slow chord. Literally, every single song. Regardless of that, you should most definitely YouTube her. Like, right now. Well, after you’ve read this. After Nicole Atkins (or Catherine, as Tom called her) finished her set, it was Regina’s turn…

            Now, Regina came on stage and looked really depressed. Why? Her cellist, Dan Cho, who she’d be touring with for at least 8 months, had drowned two weeks previous. Understandably, she was upset. In fact, I wouldn’t have blamed her if she cancelled the rest of the tour. However, she still sang, incredibly, but there was little audience interaction and no encore. It was still amazing, bar the two tall people.

            The set finished at around 10:30, and I didn’t cry, but I was slightly depressed once it was over. We got our stuff, and then started talking to Nicole Atkins for about 10 minutes, who was lovely! Oh, and we totally hugged her. Then we were asked to move, ‘cause they had to close and stuff. Georgie and I realised that we could have got the coach we intended to get, but decided to stay with Tom and get the coach with him. We went to a pub and got a drink. Then they were hungry, so we walked back in the direction of the Corn Exchange towards a really cheap, ganky takeaway trailer we passed on the way. After getting our ‘nutritious’ meals, we thought it’d be fun to wait by Regina’s tour bus, on the odd chance we could meet her.

            Nicole Atkins came out and we talked to her some more. She asked for a ‘smoke’, but I’d literally just ran out, so after delving in her bag and finding one, she used my lighter. Yeah, that’s right; I’m in with famous people. Anyway, there were only about 7 other people there. Regina’s violinist was there, and we told him how good he was, and then talked to Nicole Atkins some more. Then, we heard ‘See you later, Regina’ and I literally froze. She walked round the corner, and it was like I was paralyzed. All I could do was slightly lift my arm to point at her and say ‘Th-th-that’s… That’s Re…’ Luckily, Georgie asked for a picture and we got one, I had to quickly calm down, so I could actually talk to her. I said ‘Um, can I have a hug, please, cause that’d probably make my life complete…’ and she gave me a hug. Then, feeling slightly more brave, I said ‘At the risk of sounding super creepy…’ then turned around and pulled my top down exposing my tattoo. She held my top down, stroke my tattoo and apparently, as soon as she saw it, she had a massive grin on her face like she was stupidly happy to see it. She said it was ‘amazing’, and then I told her that I saw her MySpace blog on Prop 8 and gave her one of my ‘Homosexuality is NOT a choice, but homophobia is’ wristbands. She said (regarding Prop 8) ‘I fucking hate that shit.’ She then had to go, and we walked off. About 10 seconds after, I started hyperventilating, tears in my eyes, and we were all completely shocked about what happened. We were walking through the streets of Cambridge with Tom shouting ‘WE JUST MET REGINA SPEKTOR!’. It truly was one of the best moments of my life.

            We got on the coach, looked at the picture, talked about how surreal it all was, then slept. We arrived at London, left Tom, which kinda sucked and went back to Georgie’s cousins ridiculously huge apartment. I’m talking, water features with mosaic tiles inside and a lounge bigger than a normal students apartment.

            In the morning, we met up with Becky, our friend from college who stupidly decided to move to London so we’d like, never see her again. We had a really great catch up, and had a great time with her. Then, it was time to go home. We got the train, then Daddy picked me up from the station, and I told him all about it.

            It’s never going to feel real to me, that I met Regina Spektor. I’ve literally imagined it so many times; it just feels like another fantasy. I’ve told so many people exactly what I’ve written down, and no matter how many times I’ve said it, or how many times I look at the picture, it still hasn’t sunk in. Hopefully, I’ll see her again soon. Oh, Regina Spektor, how I love you so.

Seven hours in London.

We woke up, showered, ate what food we had left (okay, that part was just me), and left the hotel room for 12. We then walked to a tube station, and went to the main part of London. We kinda had to spend the day in London ‘cause our coach back didn’t depart until 7 in the evening. So, to use up time, we went to the Alexander McQueen shop, for Keya (where he signed McQueen’s tribute book), Hamley’s for me and Selfridges and Harrods for David (he liked the idea of saying he’d bought things from those shops), among other places. We also went to McDonald’s for lunch, and Folding Chair by Regina Spektor came on!!
We also went to the Disney store where I bought Ella a Finding Nemo cup, Keya bought his nephew a really soft cushion and we all chipped in to buy Louisa a Monsters, Inc. toy, as it’s her favourite film and she didn’t come with us. She was incredibly happy with her Mike Wazowski soft toy.
We then found an attraction called Pasaje del Terror. Now, I am a total wuss. I absolutely hate any scary films, in fact, I have to watch Buffy with the lights on, I’m that much of a wuss! Keya, however, enjoys the fear factor, and David watches horror films purely to laugh at them. Bearing this in mind, I was sceptical about going in, we all were. It was £14 to get in, and we thought it might be a disappointment. However, the lady dressed up in a ridiculous Victorian style outfit was very convincing, so we went in, all ready to be scared. It was based on Jack the Ripper, and started with a 3D film in which really bad acting was followed by even worse CGI. None of us could take it seriously because of the actors they had probably picked up off the street and paid them a fiver. However, this did not stop David screaming like a woman when ‘Jack the Ripper’ jumped out. Keya and I looked at each other, disappointed, giving an expression like ‘Meh’, then looked at David and laughed.
Then our group was led (by a policeman) into a stupidly dark room, where the scariest thing was the fear of bashing into something and hurting yourself. He then stopped us, went through the safety part of the tour, and then pointed at Keya, and told him that he had to lead our group! David and I laughed, especially since Keya looked confused and scared! He then had to walk up a corridor to this door, and knock on it. Him flinching as a hunched over man in a brown hooded cape flung the door open was hilarious! The caped guy then said some stuff about Jack the Ripper and blah, blah, blah and then tried to make me jump by randomly lunging and stamping his foot right next to me. It didn’t work. We then carried on the tour with Keya leading, me next and David behind me. Keya was clutching onto me, scared to take another step into each section, so I shook him off and told him to ‘man up’. Then, the unexpected happened. I felt something on my arm, and it was in fact David grasping onto me! I told David to ‘stop being such a pussy’ and pushed him in front of me. We went through all these dark rooms with actors jumping out at you in each one. I didn’t even flinch. David screamed quite a bit and made hilarious comments such as ‘Hello, Mum.’ to the woman strapped to her bed screaming like a mental patient. Keya, however, jumped back, lost his footing and collapsed to the floor! Three times! It was hilarious and very Taylor Swift when Ellen jumped out at her! (If you didn’t get that, YouTube it… It’s amazing!) We arrived at the last room, and I, again, didn’t jump, but the foreign woman behind me who had been shrieking throughout, ran and pushed past me trying desperately to get out, which was rather amusing.
We then decided, after Keya and David had recovered, to go to Hamely’s, the giant toy store, which was pretty cool. After that, we decided it’d be a good idea to head off, so we started to, getting a Subway on the way. From this point and the majority of the coach journey, we actually got pretty deep! We were debating cosmetic surgery, size zero, and the effects this has on young girls (and boys), then we started talking about children, and what we’d do if we won the lottery. Then Keya and I, whilst waiting to be picked up, started talking in French accents to each other.
All in all, it was a really good couple of days, and despite the lack of sleep, epic trekking, and whatnot, if I was asked whether I’d want to do it again, I’d say hell yeah! So, thank you guys for making it an amazing trip.

I *heart* Lady Gay Gay

At 1:10 on Friday morning, I left. Not to return again until 10:30 on Saturday evening. Why? Because I was going to see Lady GaGa with Keya and David. How was it? Amazing.
So, as I said, I left my house at ten past one in the morning, as Tina, Keya’s sister was taking us both to the 24 hour ASDA where we met David. Armed with a video camera to document the trip and various other items, we set off, blasting Lady GaGa out from the CD player in the car. After meeting with David, and spending over an hour in ASDA buying £40 worth of food and drinks for the journey and searching for glitter for Keya, we went to get our coach which left at 3 AM. After boarding the coach, we all fell asleep within half an hour.
At 6 o’clock we arrived at London Victoria. We navigated our way to the o2 arena, and arrived there to see about 10-15 people there already waiting. It was only 7 in the morning, and doors didn’t actually open for another twelve hours! We then found out that the actual arena didn’t open until 10, so we waited, cold, tired and bored for three hours outside, and attempted to keep our spirits up by playing with our Kinder Egg toys.
Finally, we were let in the arena, and by that time there were about 30 people there. As we waited by the doors, we started talking to a woman who had been waiting there with her daughter since 4 AM!! The security guards finally let us in and there was a mad dash to get to the appropriate bay. Everyone wanted to be first! David and I dawdled, watching and laughing at everyone running past us, as we let Keya sprint ahead, to secure our spaces. When we got their, the woman who worked there told us that, as we were the first 100 people, we got to have priority spaces, which meant we got let in before everyone else (bar the people who paid hundreds of pounds for a ticket just to line the front barrier!) so we could get better spaces! By this time, it was around about 10 o’clock. We still had to wait another 8 hours before there’d be any sign of even getting in. We then got told that we might be getting wristbands which would secure our places in the priority queue meaning we could go off, book into the hotel, grab some food, and other stuff that didn’t involve sitting on a cold, hard floor. We never got these wristbands.
Throughout the day, we took it in turns to get Starbucks, pizza and go to the toilet. David and I also invented a game called ‘Where’s the Straight Guy?’ in which we had to point out the heterosexual males in the queue. We found 2 or 3, and they were with their girlfriends. Whilst we were waiting there, we met two lovely girls called Katie and Pixie. Then, at around 11:30, David and I went off to book into the hotel, taking everything we wouldn’t need with us. We then arrived back, only an hour later… We still had so much time to kill!
Eventually, the woman came round offering out wristbands to the ‘first 100’. Unfortunately, throughout the day this bastard group of people at the front had been letting their friends in. This, obviously, angered a lot of people who had been waiting there since the beginning, especially Keya, and as a group of 3 people walked in front of us, he kicked off. Now, what you have to understand is Keya kicking off isn’t like any normal person. He will belittle, bully and verbally abuse them with the first thing he can see physically wrong with them. He’s like an extremely bitchy girl! So, as these three people walked in front of us, Keya stood up and shouted ‘They pushed in!’ and he kept shouting that they had pushed in, with other people around us agreeing. He also claimed, very, very loudly, that because the guy was large he was ‘basically eating his Coke bottle’. The wrist bands were not revoked from them.
After the bands were issued, we were permitted to go off to wherever, but had to be back at 5:30. The three people who we accused of pushing in came up to us, and we actually found out that they were there even before us, it’s just; they had got changed during the day so we didn’t recognise them. We chatted to them, and everyone was fine about it and friendly (actually, the Asian guy next to me was getting a little too friendly, if you know what I’m sayin’! Damn my ‘easily mistake for a boy’ style!).
At 5:30, everyone was eager to go in, as we all presumed that’d be the time we would enter. Unfortunately, after already waiting for 10 and a half hours, we had to wait another hour for some unknown reason! Then, at 6:30, they were finally ready to search our bags, and let us in. Giddy from excitement, we all anxiously waited for them to let us in, as Keya worried about how he would hide his bottle of vodka from the bag searchers. Passing through the bag searchers, and power walking ahead of everyone else, I was thrilled to finally reach… Another fucking queue. This time, it was in a nice, freezing cold, dull corridor.
After literally half an hour of waiting there, bored, cold and constantly checking to see whether or not we were moving, we finally were let in. Keya, David and I ran to get to be the third row back from the front, on the left hand side of the stage! The arena filled up and the vast amounts of seating and floor space were all crowded up due to the concert being sold out!
Finally, after literally 14 hours of being in London, Semi Precious Weapons came on. They were a rock pop band, and I must admit their tunes were catchy. The front man was very ‘GaGa’, and he wore fishnet tights, with a strip to cover his crotch area, and was constantly showing his nipples. He controlled the crowd really well; especially considering his band was only the support band. At one point, he basically climbed onto the crowd, used someone’s willing arm as a support and almost dripped sweat all over us! Saying that, he did say that ‘this is rock and roll’, to which David and I both looked at each other, and said ‘Like fuck it is!’. His band mates, however, were complete tools. What they were wearing and the way they acted was like a young teens attempt at being a heavy metal band. It was cringe worthy. Oh, and the drummer kept spitting, which was kinda gross.
Then, on came Alphabeat, who were really good. I’ve never really been into Alphabeat, but they put on a really good performance. The lead woman was wearing high waist shorts, so David and I kept looking out to see if she had a camel toe so we could take a picture.
The curtains went down, and we then knew the next artist performing would be Lady GaGa. For some reason, she took ages actually coming on, and apparently we were also at a Michael Jackson tribute concert…? Literally, throughout the whole of the interval between Alphabeat and Lady GaGa, they played just Michael Jackson! I don’t even like Michael Jackson!!
Then, curtains up, and GaGa appeared on stage. Now, I couldn’t possibly write down everything that she did, but what I will say is that the choreography was incredible, the stage, the props, were amazing, the electric violinist, backup singers and other musicians were astounding and Lady GaGa herself was in a whole different league. I actually had to stop singing halfway through because my throat hurt so bad! The stage had a runway coming out of it, and the entire show was based on a Wizard of Oz like story. Keya was screaming the lyrics and singing all her songs, in the way she sings her songs live and shouting ‘Oh my God!’ at every possible moment. There were blow up trees, really attractive women, a giant fish monster, screen projections and so, so much more!
After she finished her performance, we left to get back to the hotel. David’s entire body hurt. Keya was on a massive high. And I just wanted to curl up in bed. We got back to the hotel, watched some TV, chatted a bit, ate some food, and then went to sleep, so we could be ready for spending 7 hours in London the next day.

The second best day of my life.

I am currently in a deep depression. Why? Last night I saw Regina Spektor. Okay, to you that sounds like a paradox, to me, it’s an oxymoron.

Friday 4th December:

1AM – Sleep.
6AM – Wake up.
6:30AM – Piss parents off by playing Regina Spektor as loud as possible.
8AM – Leave house to get train.
9:15AM – Get into drama and see Georgie’s face beaming up at me.
10:33AM – Get train to Southampton to then get the 12:30PM coach to London with Georgie.
11:10AM – Start taking pictures of EVERYTHING with disposable cameras.
12:10AM – Get on the coach to London with food, drink, cameras and most importantly, an iPod full of Regina Spektor songs.

Georgie and I arrive at London Victoria at approximately 2:30, and it still hadn’t hit me that we were going to see Regina Spektor. We navigate our way to the tube station (by we, I mean, I followed her) then eventually, after over an hour, we got to Hammersmith. It was almost 4 as we got to the Apollo, and we feared we weren’t going to be the first there, but, we were. I saw the Hammersmith Apollo in all it’s glory, and in red letters with a white background it said ‘Regina Spektor’. That’s when it hit me. At that point it actually hit me that I was going to see the woman I have been obsessed with for years. I again got a bit too camera happy at this point and looked like a ‘tourist’.
There we are, at the very front of the queue, at 4 o’clock… Doors didn’t open until 7. For the three hours we had to wait, we listened to Regina Spektor, then sat on the floor, then were completely silent as we had our hoods up, sheltering us from the rain and attempting to retain as much heat as we could.
Seven o’clock drew nearer; we stood up, getting ready to run in so we could get the best seats! They checked our tickets and we were finally inside, in the warm and dry, almost running through the building to get to Regina. Then, we were stopped. Apparently, they were still doing sound checks, so we had to wait at the doors for at least 20 minutes as they tortured us with occasional noises from the stage that was Regina singing, and a small window in which we caught glimpses of her drummer. The time finally came for us to go in; there was a stampede as all the eager fans rushed through the doors, trying to get to the front of the stage. Luckily, Georgie and I found a perfect spot. We were right in the centre at the very front.
We were waiting for Jenny Owen Youngs (Regina’s support act, who also did a duet with Regina called ‘Voice on Tape’) and directly in front of us was one singular microphone, slightly to our left, Regina’s piano, and to our right, her keyboard. It really was the most incredible spot.
Jenny Owen Youngs came on with just a guitar, and played it whilst sung. I have to admit, she was actually very good, as have proceeded to illegally download some of her music today. There’s only one criticism I have about her, and that’s she looked occasionally like a psychopathic serial killer, when she lowered her head and looked straight out. Other than that, brilliant!
There was like a 15 minute gap in between Jenny and Regina and behind us were the most annoying Irish people ever!! Okay, I used to love Irish accents, but not anymore. I can’t physically write down how infuriating they were. They were talking about the most ridiculous things, and what felt like an attempt at anal rape with their bags.
Then Regina came on and it felt like nothing in the world mattered. It was amazing. She started playing The Calculation and I couldn’t control myself; I burst into tears. I saw her, sitting there, playing her piano and singing. She looked and sounded so damn beautiful, and I realised that it was all real.
There are no words I can use to describe to total epicness of the concert, but I cried again, at several other points, and I sang and sang and sang. I am proud to say I knew the names and lyrics to all the songs, even Silly Eye Color Generalizations which is a song that has only been sung live. I was singing along to it, and this stupid bitch next to me kept looking at me, I was like, yeah, I know the words to her unreleased songs, and what? Regardless, during this song, she looked at me. Regina Spektor looked and me and smiled as she was singing. That was one of the best moments of my life to date. I was and am so, so happy.
Regina finished her set with Hotel Song which I videoed for my little sister, as it’s ‘our song’. When it was all over, and she was off the stage, I just stood there, frozen to the spot. I felt empty. It felt as if I had gotten pregnant and really wanted to keep the baby. I’d learnt to love it in the womb, and when it was out, it was the best feeling in the world, but before it’s first birthday the authorities had taken it away. It’s a cruel, tormenting feeling. I stood there, not knowing what to do, I could hardly talk. Sentences were compiled of key words, I plodded like a zombie, I was utterly speechless from how amazing the whole experience was for me, and, to be honest, I was most likely exhausted too.
Not much else happened, I bought a beautiful Regina Spektor hoodie, on the tubes I got extremely teary, we missed our coach so had to get the train with all the Friday night drunkards, which was insanely annoying, but I slept for a good hour, so it wasn’t that bad. I then got back home, still in my zombie like state and slept.
I’m honestly still depressed about the whole thing. It really is like mourning the death of a loved one, but I’m holding on to the fact that I will see her again one day. Hopefully soon. And, as Regina says ‘thought I’d cry for you forever, but I couldn’t, so I didn’t’.
Also, to clarify the title, the best day of my life was Ella being born. Nothing and no one can top that.

Less than 20 hours, and it still hasn’t sunk in.

In less than 20 hours I will be at the front of a queue, as the doors for Regina Spektor open at the Hammersmith Apollo in London with Georgie. It doesn’t feel real. I feel like it’s not tomorrow. I can’t physically comprehend that my dream of (at least) three years is coming true. I am going to see Regina Spektor. Oh. My. God.
For you to understand why this is such a big deal, I will have to explain it to you. I love Regina Spektor so damn much. Literally, I love her. For starters, I’ve been obsessed with her music for years. I know all her albums. I own the all albums (bar 11:11 because it was released in 2001 at her concerts only, and there was limited hard copies, but I am trying to get hold of one, and I do have the MP3’s of it all) and I have all her unreleased demos. Not only that but I also have all her covers, duets and unreleased live songs, which amounts to around 163 different songs.
If that’s not enough, I have several radio sessions, about eight live recordings of concerts and all the bonus songs of her albums. I am a self-proclaimed ‘Regina SpektWhore’. I am following her on Twitter, a fan on Facebook, subscribed to her YouTube channel. I know her age, her background, her musical influences… I even have her name tattooed on my back!! Basically, I’m completely and utterly obsessed with her. My iPod no longer has any other artists on, bar Regina.
So, like I said, it still hasn’t sunk in. Well, occasionally I’ll get excitement spasms where my heart starts thumping in my chest and my pulse is about the same speed as a hummingbirds wings, my head starts spinning and I feel faint and I develop this ridiculous grin on my face that I can’t control. This doesn’t feel real.
I have a feeling that when I get there, and she’s standing in front of me, I’m going to faint or cry or just die, right there. It’s going to be amazing. Utterly incredible. There is only one downside; it’ll be ages before I get to see her again!
Okay, I’m getting an excitement spasm, so I should probably leave it here. I’ll blog again after I’ve seen her. Oh my fucking God. Regina Spektor!