Sam's PV Road Trip... Norfcuk, Leeds Leeds Leeds, Jonny in Bristol, Cheshire and Londonnnn Baby (oh and Electric Proms!)

October and well this has to be the month of the year for me. I arrange my week holiday without the said hubby.
The tickets get announced for Electric Proms. Running into trouble trying to buy these from seetickets and running into major hassle calling into Customer (Don't) Care, I decide to do one of my blinding emails to the boss of seetickets... Well; I've nothing to lose. Getting a surprise phone call later that day it seems that I had everything to gain - as in tickets! WOOP! After changing my flights and getting a partner in crime (Debs) who kindly steps in with a bed for me, I'm extending my PV Crew week to 10 days!! With a FAB finale!!

1st stop - Renas. Rena collects me from the train station and the fun starts. We head for a lovely boozy lunch and catch up! Gorge grub, thanks hun! Stopping at the alright mate shop we get a few goodies and head back to Renas. XFactor night and Rob is on. Rena has a full cocktail cabinet and lots of nibbles! A good night head methinks.

Totally spoilt by Rena... she runs me a bath with candles and everything. Bless you hun, the spoil-o-meter was on full that night!! Rena's bezzie mate Chelle comes over and it was lovely to finally meet her! We crack the cocktails and after xfactor crank up the music. Dancin around Renas front room we have more drinks and laughs! Not one to be broke, I start with the flaming sambucas. (sorry mate! xx) Rena sat in her kitchen surrounded by the blow up mattress trying to blow it up manually without the pump was just priceless! And I remember the flaming sambucas the next morning - a war wound on my hand (for a week after) to prove what a good night it was!
Sunday and Rena takes me for a right good Sunday lunch. Yummmmmmy! We head to the seaside and the arcades for a while with the kids and then back to Renas to watch Rob do Bodies on XFactor. A couple of Taboo and lemos which are my faves, along with great company and my fave pop star on the tellybox. Great way to end the weekend...
Thanks to all the Cowens (incl Rena's nan!) for having me over and making me feel so at home!
Rena drops me at the train station on Monday morning. Gutted to be leaving, I had such a lovely and fabtastic time! Heading on the train to Leeds and a cpl of hours later I'm there! 2nd stop - Leeds Leeds Leeds. Paula and Den waiting at the train station, and before you can say YAMAN we are at Chez Pineson. Paula got the Rose wine chilling and some lovely Lemon Chicken on the go for dinner. We have a catch up and watch some more Rob on the tellybox. Well you can never have too much of a certain Mr Robbie Williams!
I'm missing Rena thou and this seems to be the theme for the rest of the trip - as I head to one place I miss the people I left behind in the previous one...
Anyhoo back at Paula's I'm being treated yet again. Meet Jane (whos coming on the Xmas do) and have a deelish dinner. Paula gets the Pimms on the go and Keihra decides to whoop my ass at Guitar Hero!! What a laugh!! I'm in the all new PV Crew bedroom which is well nice and cozy - thanks Den, K and Paula for making it so lovely.

On Tuesday morning we get up and have a noice brekkie. Respect to that Pineson. Den takes us down to Morribogs where we get some supplies for Bristol. Well when I say we I actually mean Paula. As I didnt get served any booze because I had no ID. WTF is that about?!?! Seeing as I paid with my credit card aswell I must have been over 18 you crazy checkout lady. Paula was laughing her head off, to be fair it was priceless! (for everything else, theres Mastercard but not if you're under age! )
Den drops us at the train station and we head off to meet Louise in Bristol. Lots of texts and calls. and laughs. And we're not even there yet!!
When we arrive in Bristol Lou is already there. We hail a cab and head to the apartment. What a place. Tis fab and posh and lovely.
We settle in and unpack, filling the fridge with booze. The concierge tells us there are some take away menus in the folder and we order a chinese... YUM!! Chicken Froid Roiiiiice!

So with a certain Mr Robbie Williams on the tellybox (you see a pattern forming here?!?) and also lots of Jonny too in anticipation of tomorrow night (We Will, We Will Rock You!) we have a right good catch up. Plenty of booze in the fridge to keep us going, so we kick off our shoes and relax!

We stick on Man Olympics and it reminds us of our 1st proper PV meet when we did the grape challenge. Laydee Lympics team was formed in honour of Man Olympics and will be back playing competitively in December! WOOP WOOP! Back to the DVD and Mr Jonathan Wilkes is the winner! Which sets us up nicely for the following day.

We head into the City Centre to collect our tickets and find our way around. The obligatory Subway was consumed (Subway, official food of the PV Crew!) and we head down to the waterside and find a lovely bar - on a boat! oh and some fountains for Paula!!! The sun was cracking the flags, I kid you not. October and we are sat outside in tshirts. Brilliant.
After sussing out what we are doing and where we are heading later, we mosey on back to the apartment to get ready. The sound system in the apartment is wicked so stick some MORE Rob on and Paula and I do our own version of Bodies. Proper PMSL moment with the security guy stood outside on his phone looking at where the noise is coming from!!!

All glammed up we head over to the theatre (darrrrlink!)
The show - well what can I say? Fantastic. For all the Jonny haters you should go watch it. The boy can certainly sing. After every song we are wooping and shouting his name and upstairs everyone is looking at us but we dont care! Jonny has a few glimpses up to us and we are going a little bit mental!

At the end of the show we try and head out quickly but the people next to me are not for moving... so we head down some other stairs. Nice work as its right next to the stage door. What a find! Literally 30 seconds after we get outside someone heads out of the Stage Door. Its Jonny. OMG! He looks real cute and still glammed up in his theatre make up!

He is of course heading away... gotta run the car is waiting etc... you know how it is! So we ask him will he sign our programs. No problem duck, pass us a pen then! Cue Paula with her Royal Armouries biro... classic! Then we ask for a pic... ok then girls. So I thrust my camera into this lady's hand and tell her to push HERE! considering I took her completely by surprise and she had never used my camera before we got a top pic. Thanks lady!! Lou then comes out with a cracker of a question- about Soccer Aid next year...

And Jonny gives us the news that we wanted, that there will be a Soccer Aid. Then in one breath as he is running away I shout after him about how great he was, how great the show was, how we loved him at Soccer Aid at Wembley and we were the ones in the corner on the front row with the banner. (and breathe and relaxxxx Marantha!)

He stops, turns on his heels and looks straight at us shouting the date, with both hands in the air, "its Old Trafford, Old Trafford! June 6th!!" Brilliant. Sharing the news with the rest of the crew, we already have plans to get the time booked off, to be sure like... and incase it all comes off we will be there!!!

The next day we say our goodbyes - again I'm gutted to be leaving Paula and Louise behind - and I hop on the train to see my folks. Whilst there I arrange to meet Cary and we head for dinner and cocktails. Catching up on all the advertures so far, I fill Cary in with all the news with gusto.  Looking as great as ever, she orders a few cocktails for us - good job as I was all at sixes and sevens. Tiredness mixed with giddiness! Cary couldnt get a word in thou - sorry hun. Saying that it was FAB to see her as it was the 1st time seeing her since Take That... looking forward to seeing ya again hun!! and well done on your very own Rob moment at Loose Women which was to come only a cpl of weeks after thinking you had missed out! xxx

Hooked up with a couple of old school friends on the Fri night and had a right good catch up. Drinks of course. My liver at this stage is taking a bit of a battering!!!
Saturday I'm heading over to Manchester to meet Hubby and my mates Mags & Jonny from Cork at the Man Utd v Bolton match at Old Trafford. Of course my team get beat but it was a great day. Lovely to see everyone....Sunday brings lunch with the inlaws and some quality time with hubby. Before I head for my final part of the travels.

The train to London on Monday. Meeting with Debs when she finishes work. Before Debs whisks me back to her place we stop off at Yates for a drink and a catch up. We plan our route to Camden the following day and have a good old chin wag about all the news from the previous week! Debs takes me back to her place and I meet M, who is just as lovely as I thought! My other half was saying the PV Crew blokes have a right rough time of it whilst we are off gallavanting!! pmsl!! They love it really! But it was lovely to finally meet all the fellas who were spot on with the hospitality and taxi service for me too! A big big thanks to you all for putting me up and taking me places!!

So we head up to Camden on the tube. Seeing two queues we find out one is for tickets & bands and the other is for admission. The queue is not that bad although its not moving quickly. We find out later this is due to the checks they put in place due to the scammers who were selling on ebay. They were checking all IDs and it was good to see that it was enforced!!

We meet a cpl of lovely girls in the queue  - Gemma & Sarah - and after a fleeting visit down at the security gate by Rob we finally get out tickets and wristbands! OMG this is really happening!
Heading to the watering hole over the road for a cpl of cheeky vodkas we decide on pizza and head over to the queue to take our place. Vodka in one hand and pizza in the other we find Gemma & Sarah for the 2nd time and start speculating on who is in the blacked out cars that keep flying by us.
We head into the Roundhouse, how small and intimate is the venue? This is really happening, it hits us that in an hour we will be seeing our fave pop star right here, in front of us!!
Whilst we are not at the barrier, we are not far from the front and are dead centre with the main mic stand. Getting excited and nervous at the same time.
EEK!  Electric Proms 2009 at the Roundhouse. The place is filling up, the celebs are taking their spots in the gallery above us. We see James Corden, Will Young, Ant & Dec, Fearne Cotton, Chris Evans, Peter from Dragons Den... we are told in the next days papers that a lot more celebs are there too to see a certain King of Pop take back his crown!

Trevor Horn comes out to introduce Rob. Very low key affair in comparison to other introductions but so perfect for the occasion. And then the fun begins. I cant put into words how or what happened in the next 90 mins but what I can tell you is that it was amazing. The edited version of what was on the Beeb later that evening did not do it justice. The orchestra. The lovely opera singer. Anne Dudley on piano. The familiar faces of Gary, Neil and Jerry. Trevor Horn the legend that is right there. And our fave, Mr Robbie Williams nestled in amongst them. Singing his heart out, looking so relaxed. So happy. Sang the classics the best I've ever heard them. Sang the new ones like he meant them. Lots of interaction and banter with the crowd. And Ayda. Lovely to see him so loved up and happy. The set list was just right, mix of old and new. The full set list if I remember was:

Bodies....Morning Sun....Come Undone....Blasphemy....Starstruck....Feel....I Will Talk And Hollywood Will Listen....Supreme....Deceptacon....No Regrets....Won’t Do That....You Know Me....Angels....Millennium....Video Killed The Radio Star. A bit of do do doo do do do do dooo do do do do do do doo doo dooooo and Rudebox thrown in too for good measure!
Video Killed the Radio Star was awesome. If youre looking for a B-side get that on it! You could just tell that Blasphemy was a Chambers collaberation. The opening to Bodies was sooo good, the orchestra and lights really made it. Starstruck was fantastic with the George dancing... just doesnt sound the same on the album if you get me! IWTAHWL blew me away, I've never heard that one live before and it just made me smile from ear to ear. The crowd were up for it, and I just loved every minute of it. Debs and I were smiling the whole way thru. Met Kriss later on the way out and she said the exact same! Totally fecking brilliant. My 5th time at a Rob live gig, and by far the best. You nailed it that night Mr Robbie Williams and I loved the fact that all the press were eating their words the following day. Simply brilliant.
So heading back home to work the next day was a massive comedown. 4am the next day and I'm on my way to the airport. Big thanks to M for getting up and running me to Stansted. Ended up back in work at 8am and on a massive downer. Although I didnt take my wristband off for days!!
What a holiday. I would never have thought it would be so action packed when I first booked it off. And Mr Williams - you have followed me thru it. PV Crew road trips rock - here's to another one soon!