I'm seeing U2 tonight!

Things I might think of during each Joshua Tree song:

1. Stan Wawrinka
2. My solo karaoke performance and kissing whiskey lips 
3. My debut karaoke performance (technically it was an open mic night) 
4. The now two guys who mentioned liking this song when I told them I'm a U2 fan 
5. Sweet sins and bitter tastes left in mouths (does whiskey even taste bitter?) 
6. My dad playing me the song for the first time because it had something to do with Dream Theater 
7. Being a dreamer and getting burned by the fire of love
8. Providing temporary relief to someone
9. Amy 
10. That I used to really dislike it because I couldn't hear it for the first minute or so 
11. When I heard U2-2 perform it and I swear they played a bit of the Miracle Drug riff which made me tear up

Just a stop down the line...

"Don't get on the wrong train." That was the first line of the first song I heard at the most recent concert I went to in London, and it's sound advice for tomorrow, when I undertake my laborious journey from the Biomedical Sciences Teaching Labs to The O2 Arena. Yesterday I found a new route that will shave approximately one minute off of my journey time to the bus stop, and I've looked up the station platforms between which I'll have to traverse, so I'm feeling well prepared! Today I carved a pumpkin with the current U2 tour logo and painted my nails; the thumbs with the same design, and the other nails crimson, to be my crimson nails of success! Right now I'm listening to a live stream of tonight's concert, and almost crying with excitement about tomorrow, when I'm actually gonna be there...

Just 2 stops down the line…

Two years ago today I experienced my second 25-hour day in a row when, the day after the clocks went back, I travelled back from Germany, gaining an hour in the process. Although tomorrow will be 24 hours long, I anticipate it feeling far shorter, as I complete final preparations for my lab session and the journey to London…

4 stops down the line…

Six years ago today I had my first experience of seeing U2 live, when their 360 Tour concert at the Rosebowl in Pasadena was streamed  live on YouTube. After an enjoyable day celebrating my grandad's 65th birthday, I set my alarm for 3:15 am and settled down for a few hours rest. A short time after I had drifted off, it was time to get up and go, all the way downstairs to watch U2ube. I was extremely proud of myself for not drifting off during the twenty minute intro, and when the show began I really perked up! The stand out moment for me was hearing the beautiful Ultraviolet (Light My Way) during the encore; I believe it almost brought me to tears. I'm led to believe that particular highlight won't be repeated in four days time, when I attend my first proper U2 concert, but I'm looking on the bright side: I will be attending my first U2 concert in four days time!!!!

Just 5 stops down the line...

My first U2 show is less than a week away, and I'm getting more excited by the hour. On 18 September I was pretty annoyed to discover I have a practical session in the afternoon, which gives me a mere three and a half hours to get to London before the concert starts. Over the following few weeks, I became pretty confident that I'm gonna make it on time: a quick search on Google maps gave me hope that a train at 17:30, followed by a tube journey, can get me there in time; recces to the train station have taken no longer than 25 minutes; and my dad suggested a fast and hopefully less crowded route to the venue on the tube. Additionally, last week I bought some leather effect trousers to complete my "Female Fly" look for the concert!

Dreaming out loud

It's been a nice rounded 2 years, 3 months and 4 days since I last posted about a concert, and in that time I've seen many more artists, including Gary Barlow, Scouting For Girls, half a dozen Eurovision winners, NKOTB (once), Lawson (twice) 5ive (three times) and most recently, Take That (including Howard for the first time)! However, my all-time favourite band continues to elude me. It's kind of my own fault for becoming a fan a few months after the tickets for their tour had been sold, but how was I to know they wouldn't come back to my country on the next European leg?! Anyway, they will not elude me for much longer...

Last September, U2 surprised the world with the release of their new album, Songs of Innocence, when it turned up on the Apple devices of millions of people worldwide. I was in the minority who were delighted by this, and eager to learn whether seeing them live would be a possibility in the coming year or so. It seemed likely, so I decided to convert my u2.com free membership to a paid subscription in order to get access to presale tickets. Sure enough, on 3 December the tour was announced, including four nights in London, which I could easily get to. But things weren't all positive: the shows were on weeknights in late October, so I'm extremely likely to be in uni on those days (I won't know for sure until 18 September this year); the presale code only allowed me to buy two tickets, but my sister and mother both wanted to come; and signing up after the album release meant I was in the Innocence presale group, so wouldn't have access until a day after long-term subscribers, by which time the general admission tickets I wanted to go for could well have sold out. Setting aside my GA dreams, I decided to try for two presale tickets anyway, and managed to get a pair of seated tickets for my sister and I! The following Monday my mother entered the general sale and succeeded getting herself a ticket only a few blocks away from us!

But that's not all! A week ago, six Irish dates were added to the tour itinerary: two in Belfast and four in Dublin, including one Saturday. Getting to Ireland for this date seemed feasible, as I could fly over after university on Friday evening, so I decided to try to get tickets. Having already used my presale code, I had to enter the general sale on 14 September. While setting up a Ticketmaster account, I noticed some student tickets would be available. I decided to go for them, as my sister and I are both eligible, and the demand for them would be lower than for general admission tickets. I was entered into the ticket queue at 9:00 am and after about 15 minutes, was able to select two student general admission tickets! At 9:23 am I received email confirmation of my purchase and the fact that I'll be going to Dublin to see U2!

So I now have two opportunities to see my favourite band and hear my favourite songs live, the first in just over six weeks! I'll try to keep this blog updated as the time approaches...

Mark Owen concert!

Last night, we threw ourselves away... but we made it out all right.

Yesterday my mother, Emily, Joe, Daisy and I attended Mark Owen's concert at the O2 Academy in Bristol. We got to the queue an hour and a half before the doors opened and my feelings, as we waited, were more of awe than excitement; I couldn't believe we were actually going to see Mark Owen live! The O2 priority queue extended much further than our non-O2 line, but we once the doors opened we managed to find a decent spot. The support act, Animal Kingdom, came on earlier than we anticipated and we enjoyed their songs, but the early start lead us to believe there would be another support act to follow. It turned out there wasn't; we realised this when we watched the rug, which Mark picked up from the set of Alan Carr: Chatty Man a few weeks ago, being laid out on the stage. The excitement continued to bubble up, then at 8:50pm the lights went down, the music began and Mark appeared! He started off with a couple of songs from the new album, which we weren't very familiar with as our (super deluxe, signed) copy had only arrived a few hours earlier, then he launched into the new single, "Stars" (available to download here), before Take That favourite "The Flood". By this point I was getting really into it, and still in disbelief at how close we were to Mark Owen, when a very familiar tune started and tears formed in my eyes as I realised we were about to hear one of my absolute favourite songs: "Makin' Out"! I put my all into singing along and dancing, while Em trustily filmed the song, and it was glorious! The rest of the show was the perfect mix of Mark's older solo hits, songs from the new album, and rousing Take That anthems, which were lovely to hear and sounded wonderful even without the other 3/4 members. "Shine" was another song which made me well up: I have so many memories attached to that song, which I didn't fully realise until we were there, hearing it live and dutifully singing along. Over all, it was an absolutely fantastic night that I will never forget!

Exam free!

At exactly 3pm today I put the pen down for the final time on an AS exam (unless I have to retake next year, but I hope I won't). Psychology 2 was a pretty good paper, I was happy that the twelve-marker was on stress because that meant the other stress questions were shorter, and the abnormality section was as good as I'd hoped it would be. I sat psychology 1 two weeks ago and it was all right, but I much preferred today's exam. This Monday I did biology 2, which was my least favourite of all the exams, but I had a good go at it. Chemistry 1 occurred 13 days ago and it was great (for an exam); I finished with 25 minutes to go, but of course used that time to check, and I'm confident I got at least a B. The second chemistry test was always going to be worse, but it wasn't as bad as I'd feared, and the question based on the pre-release document was fine. I now have four days of peace before returning to school to begin year 13, but even during the first week back I still have Animal Crossing: New Leaf and seeing Mark Owen in concert to look forward to!

Dressy Jessy

Yesterday, as it it is supposedly Spring now, I went shopping for warm-weather-ready outfits. The song "If It Don't Fit" by B*Witched rooted itself in my head and accompanied me into the changing rooms; this perhaps made me more discerning about my clothing choices. I tried on multiple tops and dresses to no avail, until a shimmery lace navy dress graced my figure - and fitted perfectly! I also found a nice stripy vesty top and a denim jacket which would be perfect to wear to The Big Reunion Tour show I'm going to, if it fitted. Hopefully I can exchange it for a better size.

My dress, photo source 

When I look at 2012

The end of the year is finally here, and I'm taking the opportunity to look back on 2012.

When you look at 2012, what is it that you see?

(Partly inspired by this tumblr post)
In the future, my 2012 will be memorable to me for the reasons listed here. Enjoy!
FF54B0 32 Emilys Candy

Concerts!
I attended six this year and each one was marvellous for it's own reasons! NKOTBSB kicked off the year back in April, memorable for the insane energy and wondrous excitement (and some crying). I saw Twenty Twenty in May, the evening after my RS GCSE exam and it was awesome; I was into it as soon as the first support act performed "Good Vibrations". July 1st was the next concert date, T4 On The Beach. We woke up at 4:15am and queued in gusty wind and intermittent rain for over 4 hours, but it was worth it to see and hear acts such as The Wanted and Labrinth. In September I went to see Aiden Grimshaw with two of my best friends from primary school; we managed to get second row and the concert experience was great, very comfortable. Exactly four weeks later I was back in the O2 Academy watching Labrinth along with my mum and sister. It was horrifically sweaty but I loved seeing him and hearing the songs live. Just 8 days later the three of us were off to London for the last concert of the year: Owl City. It was wonderful, we met the support act, Matthew Koma, and we weren't at all disheartened by not getting to meet Adam when we stayed outside after the concert till almost midnight.


School changes!
Despite staying at the same establishment, lots has changed education-wise for me this year. I'm now a student because I choose to be. Many of my friends have gone to different places; Rachel now resides in Australia! The last few days of year eleven were lovely, but I knew things would never be the same again. Thankfully, it's not unmanageably different now, and we all seem to have settled in well to our respective courses and locations. Lunchtime in the common room is becoming the norm, and it's pleasant to get to know different people better. Also, signing up to Envision has been a great decision this year, I've already gained great experience and helped to earn £500 for our project via a pitch and video.


NCIS!
I'm not quite sure how my obsession with love of this show began, but I started watching it in mid-February and have been enthralled ever since! So far, I've managed to see all the episodes in seasons 1, 2, 3 and 5, plus most of season 8, quite a lot of season 6 and the first third of season 4 on my DVD box set. In some ways, it has defined my year, [psychology part] each episode acting as a retrieval cue for events around the time I watched them [/psychology part] and I'm sure it has helped my happiness. It's safe to say my exploration of the series has been emotional: on numerous occasions it has made me laugh, cry and almost cry with laughter! I think Kate and Palmer are my favourite characters, but I adore them all, and I don't think it's possible to watch an episode too many times (I've seen one, About Face, 5 times already!).

Turning 17!
My birthday was only 12 days ago, so I'm still getting used to this new number, but I've never been this old before, and I'll never be this young again. It's scary to think that this time next year I'll be an adult... probably best to not think about that for now! My birthday itself will be memorable because I was ill and barely got out of bed. I had my cake today though!

An owlsome couple of days

This time two days ago, my sister, mother and I were getting ready to go to Owl City's concert later in the day. We arrived in London soon after 1pm and grabbed a quick lunch from McDonalds before looking at Buckingham Palace and walking through Green Park and St. James's Park. We then caught the tube to our accommodation in Southwark and dropped off our luggage before heading over to Charing Cross and joining the queue outside Heaven nightclub, which was already extending in front of the stairs up to the station. We spent one-and-a-half hours in the queue, nibbling on Krispy Kreme donuts and dodging spilt coffee before successfully passing through the metal detector and into the venue. We managed to get really near the front on the left side (from our perspective) and waited a little under an hour to see the warm up act, Matthew Koma. He was great, and after the show we met him and got a picture with him! The Owl City set began promptly at 8:30pm and was awesome! After the show we waited outside the venue for about an hour and a half and saw some of the musicians. The next day, we shopped on Oxford Street before returning home.

Matthew Koma

Owl City

Adam Young

NKOTBSB baby!

In 177 days I will be in London watching New Kids On The Block and Backstreet Boys live!! I'm really excited even though it's over 5 months away and a lot has to happen before then. 

NKOTBSB (sorry I don't know where the pics are from)