Jools68

Well it's taken me a day to come back down to earth enough to describe what a fabulous weekend I had in that London. The O2 is an amazing place made all the better by the man himself Mr Robbie Williams being there.

Hours on the motorway on Friday night with a detour around the country lanes of Milton Keynes in the dark because the Satnav decided the M1 had traffic, does it ever not have traffic? Dumped bags in hotel room after we eventually found it and legged it to O2 to spend two hours queuing to get wristbands at midnight to get us a good position in the queue on Saturday. Orange No 52 for me!!! Amazing! Biggest question was where to put the wristband so as not to lose it before the morning! Much hilarity and excitement ensued on our return to the hotel! Pizzas and alcohol all round!

Arrived at O2 on Saturday morning at quite a sensible hour after a convoy of taxis dropped us off at 9am and walked past the people who were already there flashing our orange wristbands with a discernible amount of smugness!!

There was around 40 international friendlies in our group most of whom have met online through RW Funpoker or RW.com and who, this time last year didn't even know each other existed and we spent all day on Saturday chatting, laughing, designing rude banners to show to Rob then deciding that wasn't perhaps the best idea. T shirts were handed out, personalised pink Access All Areas were distributed, pink wigs tried on, flashing fluffy armbands passed round and no-one could ask for a better bunch of girls to spend time with. Too many to mention here but you all know who you are!

There was trauma, tears, laughter, numb bums, frost bitten toes and fingers and loads of loo breaks because of the cold and ciggie breaks to stretch the legs, but at least we weren't wet as we queued within the famous 'Millenium' dome itself. At 4pm we were given our second candy pink wristband that would potentially bag us the coveted barrier spot (no running please just power walking !!) We then had two hours to make ourselves look pretty, no mean feat given that we'd been camping out all day and not had a lot of sleep the night before. We removed the many layers of clothing and thermal socks we had on so we didn't overheat when our man came on stage! Excitement mounted, last loo breaks taken and we were eventually called into the 'sheep' pens to be allowed to power walk our way to where we thought would be the best spot. Arms aloft proudly showing our wristbands trying not to spill the water we had in bottles (without the tops because we'd shoved them down our bras so security wouldn't take the bottles off us in case we would use them as missiles!! Like we'd want to throw bottles of water at our hero!).

Enter the Arena, OMG where to stand here or over there? Would we be together?  Friendlies frantically looking for each other to make sure we would share the moment we'd been waiting for.

The excitement was now almost too much to bear, final nods and smiles and a final check to make sure we were all ready to share the memory.

Candyman started and our dream became a reality. Songs old and new, Sky camera man filming up close and personal, Rob so close you really couldn't believe it. Strangely we all individually decided that we wouldn't spend all the time taking pictures, we just wanted to take in every precious second and commit it to our memory banks to be pulled out when we need to escape to our Robbieworld!

Waves and winks and knowing recognition from our man as he read the banners and recognised names on t shirts and faces among our group made many a friendlies' night and when He picked up the Chocolate Orange Candy Cracker that I somehow managed to land right at his feet and kissed it well my day was well and truly made!

All to soon it was over and we couldn't quite believe that we had been there together and experienced a truly amazing show by our hero. Relaxed, happy, controlled, emotional at times. You could tell he had enjoyed himself.

We finally regained composure and made our way to yet another queue for our live CD from the night to play on the way home. More tears from some and each telling our special moments from the night.

Back to the hotel through the rain but no-one cared about getting wet, our mission was complete. We'd achieved what we wanted to achieve and we truly deserved the alcohol that flowed into the small hours for the military operation we had just successfully completed! Hilarity knew no boundaries among the stalwart friendlies and Rob was there - well his life size cut out was! 

Sunday dawned cold windy and bright and the many hungover and tired friendlies began to make their journeys home, whether within the UK or to the various far flung places they had travelled from. Even this wasn't without its problems with motorway breakdowns and missed coaches.

The weekend is one that will probably never be repeated in the same way. It was a unique experience, an amazing experience, one that we can relive through the many recordings husbands and boyfriends were under threat of death to make sure  were set up properly. 

Today has been about watching the re runs of the show and 'eeking' every time a friendlie was seen on worldwide television. 

I'd like to thank every single one of you that made the weekend what it was but mostly I'd like to thank Mr Robbie Williams for finding his mojo, coming back to entertain us in his own fantabulous style and at the same time unknowingly bring 40 odd women from all over the world together to share what will surely be up there in the top ten best times of my life!

Take the Crown Rob you deserve it and we were privileged to have been a part of it and like the man himself said its like he's never been away!

Much love to all of you who were there and for those that weren't you were there with us in our hearts!

Jools