7 July
I woke up in the morning, not feeling quite like P. Diddy. After little sleep, I had to get up and go to the airport to pick up Luke. Him and Niko would come over to my place that day, so we could leave for France the next day, together with Laura.
It was 10 am when I arrived at the airport, although it seemed like I had to wait a million years for the bitch to come out. When he finally did, he had some vague excuse about Mexicans and tacos. Anyway, he was there and we could get our asses back to Casa Ingridia.
After settling down, we decided to go to the supermarket to get some food for our journey. It seemed like Luke had a hard time adjusting to the Dutchness of my country and he was often quite scared and in panic whenever someone spoke Dutch to him. Needless to say, I had to jump to the rescue several times.
After a nice sandwich and a lot of complaining (we only had one bike, so Luke was the unfortunate one to sit behind me on the bike) we went home and waited for the arrival of mr. Niko.
After quite a while (he said he would arrive at 2. It was around 5) Niko finally arrived. I showcased some of my fantastic cooking skills, although the boys were reluctant to try it. I know I should be in Master Chef, now they do too! We then went out to see Bad Teacher, which was cool and then back home and off to bed because we had another early mornin'!
8 July
Got up, got dressed and we were on our way to the airport once again. This time to pick up Laura, who already called us to ask us where the fuck we were. After we collected her, we could finally start our journey to Compiegne!
The driving in itself wasn't quite spectacular, we sang along to songs, chilled out and got bored. After almost 4 hours we finally arrived in Compiegne, but we weren't quite there.
See, we had only decided a week before to go to Compiegne a day before the gig instead of on the day itself, so we were condemned to the only hotel available. Thing is, it was nowhere to be found. We drove around for ages, even breaking all rules (damn the amount of one way roads!). Laura asked people in her best French where the damn place was, but nobody seemed to know. It wasn't until Luke and Laura decided to look for it by foot, we finally found it.
It turned out to be quite a nice place, very appartment like and we even had stairs! Yeah that's right! Naturally the upstairs room was claimed by Niko and myself.
After chilling for a bit, and me finding out I passed my last resit, we went out into the city to meet up with Rose, Treasa and Sharon. It wasn't hard to find their hotel, yet it took a while for them to get out. When they did, we went down to the Palace where the gig was going to take place the next day.
They were already building the stage and we curiously looked around. We weren't the only one. Everywhere, groups of Mika Fans were gathered around, looking or talking to the organisation. After a while, we decided we'd seen enough and went somewhere to get drinks and food. When we were done, Rose and the others went back to the Palace and our little group headed back to our hotel to sleep.
Gig day
At 5.30 Niko woke me up. He just received a text that said there were 15 people there already. Then he checked the time it was sent. 2 fucking am. Not much later he received another text. Almost 70 people. And it was not even 6 o'clock yet. I think I've never sworn as much in my life as I did that morning. We got dressed, did hair and make-up and went down there.
We arrived at around 7, where we got number 82, 83, 84 and 85. Funny thing is, there weren't even 80 people around. Apparently, most just got a number and went back to bed. Which is unfair. It also started raining. It did not make us happy people. Luckily, I met many great people in the queue, so we at least had some fun considering the circumstances.
The more people arrived, the more hectic it became. Security promised to do the number system, but as they were late with opening the doors, they did not. So there was a lot of screaming. And anger. And a whole lot of frustration. Eventually, Niko and I ended up on the right side of stage, second row. Initially I had some girl in front of me, but I switched with Niko as he had no room to stand because the man in front of him was not adjusted to gig etiquette.
I ended up standing next to a very cute French guy, offered him water. He refused though. Although he did ask me later if I wanted a bottle of water. I refused. That's how we roll.
Even though the queueing had been a nightmare, as were the 'support acts', I was very excited for the gig to finally start. It had been almost a year since I'd seen Mika live, and well, I kind of missed him.
So when the last support act got booed of stage, (poor thing had to cry it seems), we were ready for it to begin!
The moment the band came on stage, I already forgot about everything. The first notes of Relax brought back the goosebumps and I screamed like never before. The man in front of me gave me a WTF look but I didn't care. Then Mika came on stage. And I danced. I danced like never before. The man in front of me kept giving me sympathy looks, sometimes even annoyed looks but I didn't give a fuck. The guy next to me barely moved. I did. I don't go to gigs to just stare and go home. I go because I want to dance. And I don't care what others think about it.
Mika was fucking great as usual, and so was the band. Imma, Cherisse and Martin and Ida rocked it, as well as the new band members, although it seemed like they needed a little more time adjusting to the whole thing.
I loved the new songs. I loved the old songs, it was great. It felt like coming home again.
When the gig ended, I was covered in sweat. It was a great feeling for a change. Niko and I went to look for our friends and together we decided to wait for Mika to come out.
It was quite clear we weren't the only one who had this idea. I think more than 200 people were waiting. It was impossible to get closer, but I had the Fairytales Before Dark book I wanted to give him. People mobbed the door of where he was staying, it was a crazy mess.
After a while, he came out and I looked for a spot where I could just hand it to him. I found some short Frenchies and I managed to get myself in between them. I waited for him to come to us and when he did, I tried to hand him the book. He initially wanted to sign it, but I told him it was for him and he took it, quickly looked at it and promised to look at it later. Then he looked up and recognised me and said ooh hi! I said hi back, but everyone just kept screaming his name, so I walked away. Mission completed.
We said goodbye to everybody and made our way back to the car. We had a long drive to Liege to do...
But that my children, will be discussed in the next story.
Wonderful- you must Akways dance- like we did in Edinburgh
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