it's friday!! and what's more, it's my last friday at work here! *bounces around happily* will be going home soon, (via Sainsburys so I can buy my fix of chocolate chip cookies), and watching tv the whole evening. then waking up at 5am (pah) to catch my 6.26am train to the Lake District, where we shall have much fun eating rubbish and getting drunk while picnicking. *beam* can hardly wait. see yaz all on monday people :) 4 working days to go!

jumped at 8:48 AM

hrmph. well, yesterday was anything but interesting. i decided to take the day off to go see a1 perform at this Blue Peter roadshow in Irvine, so took the train from edinburgh, total travel time, 2 hours+, walked to the Beach Park, where there were loads of little kids in sparkly eyeshadow, 11 year olds wearing slipknot sweaters, and loads of teenage girls in variations of pastel pink, blue and white. and it looked like it was going to rain. (as usual.) and there were 4 hours to wait to see the guys, on stage, performing, with no chance to talk to them at all. so, i went to Asda and bought some vegetables, and went home. *grin* sad ending isn't it? Oh well, it was broadcast live on tv so i guess i didn't miss much. Ben has lost a lot of weight though, no wonder Carol couldn't recognise him in S'pore. He looks really fit now. *grin*

Anyway, it got me to thinking about the ups and downs of chasing the past few years i've been doing it. *counts* 6 years now to be exact. Had a couple of really interesting/surreal/fun experiences:

• the editor of Max calling me a traitor for appearing in Lime. (jokingly i hope *grin*)


• shopping with a1 3 times.


• ben pulling me under the security line for a hug when they were leaving malaysia


• being comforted by Mark because Najip Ali picked on me, (his words, not mine)


• being one of only two fans (*grin jane*) to be at the filming of the mtv for No More


• playing pool with Aaron Carter in Hard Rock Cafe


• going backstage for the Savage Garden concert at the Harbour Pavilion


• meeting a1 at baggage claim in KLIA


• Mark picking up the tab for us (via his manager) at the hotel pool in Malaysia


• being followed around by a camera crew while we were chasing westlife, and having to sneak them into the hotel room we'd had booked under the auspices of westlife's record company.


• being one of the very few fans at the Beaufort hotel for quite a few days, ended up talking to the guys really casually, and in the end not even being bothered to get off our seats when we saw them.


• being told by Christian, "The doctor gave me a shot in the bum." Erm, yea.


• teaming up with Mark to tease Jane unmercifully *muhaha* :p

• waiting an entire day in the lobby of Orchard Parade Hotel, only having one slight glimpse of Christian on the 2nd storey.


• walking the 1 hour+ route to the filming area for No More, numerous times, getting caught in the rain once, but mostly in the sweltering heat.


• the constant backstabbing and bitching. (though it has to be said, much of the time i actually enjoyed that. )


• the amount of money spent, on hotel rooms, vans, taxis, flights, cds, concert tickets, film etc.


• waiting, waiting, waiting.


• learning the unpleasant truth about certain stars attitudes. *cough*westlife*cough*


• constant ridicule from people who don't see the point in doing this. my life, not yours, fuck off. *nod me*


• dealing with too, too many screaming 13 year old fans, (no offense to Annz meant here, you were the exception. *grin*), usually screaming right in your ear, and with no actual idea how to chase. *smirk*


• getting phone calls like this: "Hello, is this Lianne? This is ::insert name here::, I got your number from ::insert name here, usually someone i can't remember::, and I was wondering if you know where the guys are?" *rolls eyes* like i'm going to tell someone i don't even know. get real. lol.

jumped at 4:26 AM

Which Boyband Member Is For You?

k, so i cheated. and cheated bad, but hey, when it's so obvious which answers are going to get ben, it's kinda hard not to choose em. *sparkle*

what is your michelle branch theme song?

(brought you by april & patricia)

jumped at 6:47 AM

oh, and i managed to get tickets to two of the Festival performances i really wanted to go to. got the absolute last ticket available for the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio on the 19th, (which is the one with the violin solo, as opposed to the 21st, which has a solo pianist.), and i'm going to be spending my very last night in edinburgh at the Usher Hall watching the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Actually got some rather nice seats for that one, *thanks goodness for student half price offers*. That ISIC card has paid for itself twice over.

jumped at 2:18 AM

was quite an interesting weekend. felt too sick to come in on friday, so turned out to be a long weekend as well. just got into work and the cell cultures chengxia's been working on have been contaminated with this pink stuff, it's like, bubblegum pink. thank goodness it was nothing to do with me.

it was also, sadly, my last weekend in scotland. *sniffle* and typically, it rained. lol. i suppose that was fair enough, it wouldn't feel like scotland if it wasn't raining. went over to peiyi's place on friday, after clearing up some last minute purchases in edinburgh. went to asda first, always a mistake, and ended up completely pigging out that night, and sat morning. example, breakfast was cheesecake, beer, crepes with banana and toffee topping. and one spare rib. left over from the night before. *grin* managed to drag ourselves to glasgow though, and spend one last day shopping there. *sniff* i'm going to miss buchanan st so much. didn't buy clothes so much this time, got 2 cocktail glasses and 2 mugs, all pretty cheap, and really nice. had to accompany peiyi on her seemingly endless search for coloured wine glasses, as she had to follow me as i continued my hopeless quest for shades. no, i will not buy the police ones. *convinces herself* no, really.

sunday was spent at Festival Sunday in the Meadows, one of the major free items in the Edinburgh Festival calendar. was loads of fun, a lot of actors dressed up really really strangely, wandering around giving out pamphlets, (or in one particularly memorable case, a pamphlet with his phone number on *grin*). got a hair wrap done, as usual, in shades of blue, as usual. it reminded me somewhat of a larger scale airlie beach flea market. except of course, back home we don't usually have quite so many people juggling and going around on unicycles. ;)

that night was also the terry pratchett, erm.. lecture? seminar? anyway, whatever it was, it was great. he didn't wear his hat though, and quite a few people, (including myself), felt quite cheated. *grin* but it was loads of fun, found out who his fave characters were (Vimes and Granny Weatherwax), about film versions of his books (in talks, but he doubts it's ever actually going to happen), and lots of other interesting factoids. then queued up for 1 1/2 hours to get my copy of Good Omens signed. wish i'd brought more of my collection, but alas, my other 12 books of his are at home. lol. bit disappointed that i won't be able to get good omens signed by it's other co author, but neil gaiman is only appearing this saturday, and i'll be at the lake district. *sigh* and i have a nasty feeling it's sold out anyway.

jumped at 2:13 AM