a Spice-y night...

For a show that sold out in 37 seconds, I reckon we were extremely lucky (?) to get tickets to see the Spice Girls!! I know, the Spice Girls are not cool (I know, I know) - but I figured they'd be a bit of fun. For £66 a ticket, they'd want to be packed full of fun!

The concert was last night (sun) and they were awesome! They certainly didn't get this popular by being crap. They started out with Spice Up Your Life, and everyone was on their feet (which is perilous at the O2, cos it's so steep), and did all the faves like Stop, 2 Become 1, Who Do You Think You Are etc etc, and encored with Wannabe. Each did a solo - except Posh who did a solo catwalk (righto). Actually, Posh was continually cheered throughout the show, every time she sang. They absolutely love her here, it's bizarre.

They sang 23 songs, with a live band, and had at least 10 amazing outfit changes. I think they sang live (they certainly sounded a tidge off-key at times) - but it was all great fun. I found it slightly horrifying that I knew most of the words to their songs - they must have entered my head by ozmosis, cos I certainly don't own any of their CD's. Really!

Weather update : absolutely *bleeeeping* freezing. Weather forecasters predict a 6 to 1 chance it will snow on christmas day (I have no idea if they're good odds or not!).

On that note, I want to wish everyone a warm, safe! and very very merry christmas. Have a sunbake for me....

'ich bin ein Berliner'...

JFK said this in his famous 1963 speech, just after the wall went up, in support of West Berlin - and the US (jokingly?) translated it as 'I am a donut'. (silly Americans).

As you might have guessed - I went to Berlin on the weekend!! Anna, Mike and I got up long before the crack of dawn (sunrise is almost 8am these days), took a train to Gatwick, and flew out by 8.30am. Mike joked that Anna was the only person in London to get through airport security with 3 bags (the limit is 1!) - that she was carrying 2 under her eyes!

Someone at the back of the plane had the misfortune to become ill during the flight, so the pilot hot-footed it and we shaved half an hour off a 1.5 hour flight, an ambulance waiting on the tarmac.

I found Berlin to be bleak and modern, but also extremely festive. They had little wooden huts lining the streets as temporary christmas markets. The first thing we did was find lunch, which happened to be half a meter of bratwurst in a bun - seriously! Followed by a taste of garlic mushrooms, a donut to share - and a glass of hot gluwein (mulled wine).

That night we headed down Kurfurstendamm, which is a major shopping street, and it was lit up with millions of beautiful fairy lights. We went back to the markets for dinner where I ate hirtenbrot, which is a thick semi-circle of bread, filled with meat and gravy. De-licious!

Sunday we took a free walking tour, and visited heaps of sights - the Brandenburger gates, Checkpoint Charlie, saw the remaining 100m of the Berlin wall, and stood above Hitlers bunker. We also walked through an amazing memorial to the 6,000,000 Jewish people that were killed. Goosebumps...

We had monday there as well, so Anna went shopping and Mike and I took a tourist bus around the city. It took us 7 hours to get home, door to door, which is alot of mucking about for a weekend away. We even had to run for the last tube as it was pulling into the station. Thankfully I had tuesday off to recover.

drunk and orderly on a hen's weekend...

9 ladies arrived at our place on friday night, ready for a weekend of partying! We donned our matching red t-shirts and packed the mini bus with loads of food and 5 cases of wine and champagne - and with me at the helm, aided by Dana and a sat nav - we headed south to Brighton. 42 seconds into the drive we came face to face with an oncoming truck in a narrow London street - and I was the one who had to reverse out of the way. Loads of fun with a bus full of ladies in the back screaming about parked cars and near scrapes. I was a bundle of mess before we even got out of Chiswick.

We only got lost once (ok, twice), thanks to a sat nav that was slower than me running, and we missed a turn-off off the M25 and ended up going 20 miles out of our way. The ladies in the back were well into the champers by then so no one noticed. Although they were awfully suspicious when they kept asking how much longer and Dana kept saying 50 minutes... The house we rented was amazing - huge projector tv, PS3's in every room, a kitchen with every conceivable appliance and the bedrooms were arty - we had a wall of pistol-toting Elvis's. Ah huh!!

Saturday we had an excellent bacon and egg fry-up for breaky, and then 6 of us leapt into the mini bus and went clay pigeon shooting (the hen's idea!). Our teacher was called Foff, and is one of the top 15 shooters in the UK (and also a fireman!). He was awesome. We had 30 rounds each to shoot. The first 10 shots were at a 'rabbit' (a round clay piece that shot out and rolled along the ground) and we fired at that. Foff told me about kick back - but on my first shot he stood behind me, and I actually banged into him! If he hadn't been there I'm sure I would have landed on my backside. After that I knew what to expect. He double loaded (2 bullets) for my last shot, and said if I didn't get it, fire again. So out comes the 'rabbit', I shoot and miss, and apparently I lowered the gun to my waist and fired again! The gun was getting heavy! Foff thought it was hilarious, like I was John Wayne and shooting from the hip!

I missed all in that first 10, but Anna shot 3 - all with her eye's completely closed! She used The Force, obviously. The next 20 clay's were fired into the air, traditional clay pigeon style. I shot down 5 of them!!! All on my own, and with no help from Foff (except verbal - 'shoot up and slightly ahead'). Pics of me, Anna, and Dana with a smoking gun.

Meanwhile, dinner was cooked for us at the house, and champagne was flowing like Niagara Falls. About 9pm the traditional hens night 'entertainment' turned up in a sailor suit, and was quite dreadful - Khanh was an unwilling, but good sport.

Soon after we jumped into taxi's and hit a club in town called Kulture. All a bit scary for an old girl like me. But I hit the dance floor - and with a glass of magic champagne that never ran out, I was out there busting moves with the best of them. I had a fabulous time, got very drunk (but not disorderly!) and once home I secretly stumbled up stairs and fell into bed, with Anna making me drink water. A great sister!

I felt rather delicate on sunday, and luckily some some of us got to sit around the house watching MTV on the projector tv, while the others went to watch Khanh's future husband fight (taekwondo type).

Coming home was quicker - and much quieter! Someone joked on friday that the mini bus looked like an ambulance - and with all the hangovers on sunday, it almost certainly was...