So I finally saw my cardiologist yesterday, a really nice lady actually.
We arrived early and I started by having an ECG, same extra beat showing up as in all previous ECG's. Which to be honest was a relief. I wasn't feeling that ill, which made me worry a bit that the tests I was going to have wouldn't reveal anything.
After the ECG I waited an hour for the doctor. We were early and she was 20 minutes behind, wasn't a big deal. The cardiologist went through everything, got me to explain exactly what I was feeling and such. She listened to my chest and could hear the extra beat. She explained in basic terms that my heart is having an extra beat, that beat has the chamber full of blood so needs a big beat to push out the blood and this chamber is more full of blood than usual. Then my heart tries to "reset" itself into a normal rhythm. This works for a few beats then repeats.
People can have this occasionally, but to have it 24/7 and for it to increase in severity is more unusual. The fact I'm getting dizzy spells and breathlessness with this is the cause for investigation. I could take some beta blockers to help the rhythm but being pregnant, it poses a risk to baby so that's a no.
She wants me to have a 24 hour monitor on and a 24 hour blood pressure machine, but I have to wait for the appointment to to come in the post to get them. I'm also waiting for an appointment for an echo cardiogram. She want's an MRI but again the contrast fluid poses a risk to baby so we are going to wait for that until baby is here unless things go really tits up.
I have a sick note for work for a month from my GP, only thing is I'm not seeing the cardiologist for another 8 weeks (unless something shows on tests). So I'm worried what work will say. If I magically feel better then I'll just go back to work, but if this stays the same then I can't drive. I won't risk it.
So last night I came home and it was just before bedtime, I started to feel unwell again. I went to bed and tried to ignore the strong palpitations, dizziness and breathlessness but it got me down. I have to put up feeling like this until I get an appointment for the things above. Which could be weeks away. Some days I can't even stand for more than a few minutes.
I'm still to call work, I chickened out today, I'll have to let them know what the doctor said even though my sick note is in and covering me for now. I love my job and my bosses (very rare) but now I'm worried that I might get let go.
Friday, 17 January 2014
Wednesday, 15 January 2014
6 months since last update... ops
As the title states it's been 6 months since I last updated this puppy. To be fair I keep having those "I really need to update my blog" moments, but never sat down to do it. It was only reading my cousin's blog that I decided to visit mine and proceed to fall off my chair when I realised how long it has been.
The last few month have been a bit crazy with the wedding etc, which by the way, went swimmingly. I then found out the day after the wedding that I was pregnant, and I was so relieved that I barely touched a drink on the wedding day. I had planned to drink a lot more the day before and the day itself but a upset stomach (I'm not convinced it was nerves because I wasn't nervous at all, though now may have been pregnancy) stopped me doing so. Maybe I'll write a blog post just about the wedding soon.
It was around this time that I got an idea for some crazy project... again. I bounced the idea off someone I've worked with before who loved the idea and then I went on the hunt. So far so good and all will be revealed.... at some point. There is a good reason not to spill the beans yet :) but it's going to be big.
So fast forward to present day and I'm sick... booo. For the last 5-6 weeks or so I haven't been feeling right, couldn't put my finger on it but I just put it down to pregnancy. I saw my midwife last week and told her, and she wasn't convinced what I was feeling was related to pregnancy so she booked me a GP appointment for the next day. I went to that appointment and the GP agreed with the midwife that he didn't think it was pregnancy related, he believes it's a cardiac issue. So I have an appointment tomorrow with the cardiologists.
I have been to A&E in the mean time as instructed by the GP if I got the palpitations and felt dizzy, but after it took a care assistant (note not a nurse) 20 minutes to get blood out of me, I was told 'you're not ill enough for A&E, we don't know why you are getting these symptoms, just go home and wait to see the specialists'. Lovely.
Oh and you want to see the aftermath on one arm from that care assistant? 3 attempts each arm by the way!:
.JPG)
So that's about where I'm at. Sat waiting for tomorrow to see the doctors. The slightest bit of activity kills my energy at present. I tried making an omelette a couple days ago, I had to sit down 4 times during making it because I felt breathless and dizzy. Highly annoying.
Carol
The last few month have been a bit crazy with the wedding etc, which by the way, went swimmingly. I then found out the day after the wedding that I was pregnant, and I was so relieved that I barely touched a drink on the wedding day. I had planned to drink a lot more the day before and the day itself but a upset stomach (I'm not convinced it was nerves because I wasn't nervous at all, though now may have been pregnancy) stopped me doing so. Maybe I'll write a blog post just about the wedding soon.
It was around this time that I got an idea for some crazy project... again. I bounced the idea off someone I've worked with before who loved the idea and then I went on the hunt. So far so good and all will be revealed.... at some point. There is a good reason not to spill the beans yet :) but it's going to be big.
So fast forward to present day and I'm sick... booo. For the last 5-6 weeks or so I haven't been feeling right, couldn't put my finger on it but I just put it down to pregnancy. I saw my midwife last week and told her, and she wasn't convinced what I was feeling was related to pregnancy so she booked me a GP appointment for the next day. I went to that appointment and the GP agreed with the midwife that he didn't think it was pregnancy related, he believes it's a cardiac issue. So I have an appointment tomorrow with the cardiologists.
I have been to A&E in the mean time as instructed by the GP if I got the palpitations and felt dizzy, but after it took a care assistant (note not a nurse) 20 minutes to get blood out of me, I was told 'you're not ill enough for A&E, we don't know why you are getting these symptoms, just go home and wait to see the specialists'. Lovely.
Oh and you want to see the aftermath on one arm from that care assistant? 3 attempts each arm by the way!:
.JPG)
So that's about where I'm at. Sat waiting for tomorrow to see the doctors. The slightest bit of activity kills my energy at present. I tried making an omelette a couple days ago, I had to sit down 4 times during making it because I felt breathless and dizzy. Highly annoying.
Carol
Monday, 1 July 2013
And I'm still behind
The bad news is I'm still behind on work and postage, but the good news is my other jobs hours have increased. Which sucks for my Nightwish work but great for the bank and wedding plans.
I'm struggling for time, if I'm not at work I'm caring for my son. If I'm not caring for him I'm most likely helping my mother (doing really well after her operation but long road). I then come home and look at the list of work I've got to do for the fan club or the forums and think "I've got an hour before bed.. jees"
I do have 4 days off work coming up whilst Mam and Dad are away, so that should help me catch up everything.
Seriously though.. how did I used to do this? I worked full time when TH first went official and I was rebuilding and re-branding everything. When the hell did I have the time? For the life of me I have no clue!! I want to go back in time and ask my past self how the hell I did it because I need that help now.
I'm gutted today after my first "weigh in". I started really hard last Monday with healthy diet and exercise. Some days I could barely walk because of the exercise I did the day before. But despite pushing myself, I've only lost 1.5lbs. I have about 8 weeks to get down to my goal weight which is another 14lbs loss.
Yes I know the healthy way is about 2lbs a week and I'm fine with that, just when you put so much effort in, I expected a bit more show of results on the first week.
At least 90% of all the wedding things are done (except paying for it). Even had a laugh with Floor on skype the other night with wedding shoes. She thinks mine are fab but also thinks I'm insane having that heel size.
Just the little bits to buy now like Ethan's shoes and bridesmaid gifts etc, but the big stuff is sorted. Have a meeting on Friday to go through everything and taste and pick our menu. Get a free night stay that Friday too as a nice bonus.
Sadly however, London in August is definitely not happening, I just can't afford it. Which is a royal pain as it would of been useful to be down there but can't be helped.
-Joulu
I'm struggling for time, if I'm not at work I'm caring for my son. If I'm not caring for him I'm most likely helping my mother (doing really well after her operation but long road). I then come home and look at the list of work I've got to do for the fan club or the forums and think "I've got an hour before bed.. jees"
I do have 4 days off work coming up whilst Mam and Dad are away, so that should help me catch up everything.
Seriously though.. how did I used to do this? I worked full time when TH first went official and I was rebuilding and re-branding everything. When the hell did I have the time? For the life of me I have no clue!! I want to go back in time and ask my past self how the hell I did it because I need that help now.
I'm gutted today after my first "weigh in". I started really hard last Monday with healthy diet and exercise. Some days I could barely walk because of the exercise I did the day before. But despite pushing myself, I've only lost 1.5lbs. I have about 8 weeks to get down to my goal weight which is another 14lbs loss.
Yes I know the healthy way is about 2lbs a week and I'm fine with that, just when you put so much effort in, I expected a bit more show of results on the first week.
At least 90% of all the wedding things are done (except paying for it). Even had a laugh with Floor on skype the other night with wedding shoes. She thinks mine are fab but also thinks I'm insane having that heel size.
Just the little bits to buy now like Ethan's shoes and bridesmaid gifts etc, but the big stuff is sorted. Have a meeting on Friday to go through everything and taste and pick our menu. Get a free night stay that Friday too as a nice bonus.
Sadly however, London in August is definitely not happening, I just can't afford it. Which is a royal pain as it would of been useful to be down there but can't be helped.
-Joulu
Thursday, 6 June 2013
So far behind...
Once again I have failed to keep my blog up to date. I keep forgetting to post, don't have time or don't have anything interesting to say.
I'm finally moved into my new house but boy I was naive about how hard and time consuming moving is. I've never moved house before so I thought it wouldn't take long to pack things up, move then unpack... jeeezz what an idiot.
Moving home was a last minute thing. We were not looking to move at that point, though we were wanting to. We never really liked our last house. It was a bit small for us with zero storage and open plan to really make the heating bills big. With saving for the wedding, we decided not to look for a new house until after we paid off the venue. I however forgot to remove myself from the estate agent mailing list and I got an email with a house perfect for us. It left us with a moral dilemma. Did we move into this pretty much perfect house and eat into our wedding budget, or did we wait and look later knowing we might not find something for a while.
We thought that since we wanted to try for another child soon, either way the move would eat into some savings we needed so we decided to go for it. Lucky the landlord accepted us.. in the end, but we couldn't bring our cat with us :( I've had a few cats other the years but I've never bonded with one as much as this little ball of fluff, so not being able to take her with us was heartbreaking. Lucky a friend of ours took her, so at least we know where she is and can go and see her.
We only had about 2 weeks to plan and pack everything up to move, which I said earlier I thought would be a breeze. When we started to pack we found stuff we had not used in years and decided to de-clutter as we packed. I think we made 5 car fulls to the local recycling place just of random crap. To be fair, we still have unpacked boxes of crap so we could of been more strict about what to bring.
So we moved in and with it only being across the street, we never bothered with a van. We just carried or filled my small car with things and brought them over. Took us about 4 days doing this in-between my partner going to work. Typically a few days earlier my father managed to hurt his back, so I had to help lift the heavy things. Now I have zero upper body strength... zero! Carrying a huge sofa was a nightmare, I was pretty much useless. But we managed in the end.
.JPG)
(Living room decor.. sofa now replaced)
It's been about a month since we moved in and I'm still not finished. The spare bedroom is full of boxes and pictures... pictures I can't put up because of my paranoid landlord who won't let me paint and I have to check with her where to put each nail if I want to hang pictures. So screw that I went with wall decals instead. I have yet to organise my office space and other things. Lucky I mostly got downstairs finished:
However, moving has put a huge delay on my work. I'm about 2 months behind with things which is driving my crazy because I like being organised and on schedule.
Still ongoing:
All in all I'm trying to catch up, but when I'm now working extra shifts at work, have a 3 year old who needs more and more attention, it's becoming tough.
I know if I knuckled down I'd get it all done within a week however I've done that kind of work load before and it killed me. I bet there are some people who will read this that will remember me being online through the night then continue through the day as well. I've been taking more 'social time' out on an evening. I put it in ' ' because does online gaming count as social time? Haha.
Things will start and quieten down soon so I can catch up then stay on top of stuff easy. This weekend should see the office stuff sorted and most of the mailing will be done. Once the house is finished, work will be easier. It's just a tug of war to decide which to work on. I need the house done to access my office stuff to work, but I also need my work done so I know which stuff I need unboxing. Because the room I'm using is full of suitcases and boxes, having the room to organise merch etc has been a nightmare. I can't wait for the house to be done and then it should all be plain sailing.
I'm now glad I'm not going to the Download festival with my friend, giving me more time to finish everything. And of course no jetting off to see NW this year either, which means all wayfarer stuff need to remember from last year.. and my memory sucks haha.
Let's see if I can keep this updated more regularly this time
-C
I'm finally moved into my new house but boy I was naive about how hard and time consuming moving is. I've never moved house before so I thought it wouldn't take long to pack things up, move then unpack... jeeezz what an idiot.
Moving home was a last minute thing. We were not looking to move at that point, though we were wanting to. We never really liked our last house. It was a bit small for us with zero storage and open plan to really make the heating bills big. With saving for the wedding, we decided not to look for a new house until after we paid off the venue. I however forgot to remove myself from the estate agent mailing list and I got an email with a house perfect for us. It left us with a moral dilemma. Did we move into this pretty much perfect house and eat into our wedding budget, or did we wait and look later knowing we might not find something for a while.
We thought that since we wanted to try for another child soon, either way the move would eat into some savings we needed so we decided to go for it. Lucky the landlord accepted us.. in the end, but we couldn't bring our cat with us :( I've had a few cats other the years but I've never bonded with one as much as this little ball of fluff, so not being able to take her with us was heartbreaking. Lucky a friend of ours took her, so at least we know where she is and can go and see her.
We only had about 2 weeks to plan and pack everything up to move, which I said earlier I thought would be a breeze. When we started to pack we found stuff we had not used in years and decided to de-clutter as we packed. I think we made 5 car fulls to the local recycling place just of random crap. To be fair, we still have unpacked boxes of crap so we could of been more strict about what to bring.
So we moved in and with it only being across the street, we never bothered with a van. We just carried or filled my small car with things and brought them over. Took us about 4 days doing this in-between my partner going to work. Typically a few days earlier my father managed to hurt his back, so I had to help lift the heavy things. Now I have zero upper body strength... zero! Carrying a huge sofa was a nightmare, I was pretty much useless. But we managed in the end.
.JPG)
(Living room decor.. sofa now replaced)
However, moving has put a huge delay on my work. I'm about 2 months behind with things which is driving my crazy because I like being organised and on schedule.
Still ongoing:
- Finish the Finnish forum template & spam accounts
- Update the Islanders Fan Club site with the new merch and re-open subs
- Finish mailing out the new Islanders merch
- Finish mailing other outstanding items
- Finish my friends pole dancing website
- Write my bits for The Wayfarer 2
All in all I'm trying to catch up, but when I'm now working extra shifts at work, have a 3 year old who needs more and more attention, it's becoming tough.
I know if I knuckled down I'd get it all done within a week however I've done that kind of work load before and it killed me. I bet there are some people who will read this that will remember me being online through the night then continue through the day as well. I've been taking more 'social time' out on an evening. I put it in ' ' because does online gaming count as social time? Haha.
Things will start and quieten down soon so I can catch up then stay on top of stuff easy. This weekend should see the office stuff sorted and most of the mailing will be done. Once the house is finished, work will be easier. It's just a tug of war to decide which to work on. I need the house done to access my office stuff to work, but I also need my work done so I know which stuff I need unboxing. Because the room I'm using is full of suitcases and boxes, having the room to organise merch etc has been a nightmare. I can't wait for the house to be done and then it should all be plain sailing.
I'm now glad I'm not going to the Download festival with my friend, giving me more time to finish everything. And of course no jetting off to see NW this year either, which means all wayfarer stuff need to remember from last year.. and my memory sucks haha.
Let's see if I can keep this updated more regularly this time
-C
Monday, 31 December 2012
My 2012
So my 2012 was an eventful one full of ups and downs, but mostly ups which is all that counts and me turning 30. Edit: Okay this ended up hugeee.. sorry
Started the year with getting the new Tuomas-Holopainen.com design. I swore to myself that I wouldn't change it for a long time (yes Steff I mean it!). I finally managed to get the design nice and simple and easy to navigate. Something which bugged me for ages with past designs. Though I'm still very much a beginner as I'm still "thrown into the deep end" after the guy who helped me design the blue version back in 2010 stopped contact so I had to literally learn as I went along and trial and error. I don't think I've done too bad for someone with no training :)
Then headed to Finland for some Nightwish shows, which was good fun. Was good to see them all again. Of course we did the interview with Tuomas which went down well.. and I was blanked by a certain female which no names will be mentioned but was the start of me suspecting something wasn't right with that person.
I got to meet Katharina in person for the first time on this trip which was wonderful and a huge surprise, and it was nice of Johanna Kurkela to come stand for a bit and chat while we waited for the show to start.
Then Paris happened with 3 crazy Ghouls.. and Disney, which was so fun.. though bloody cold! We need to do this again when it's warm I think. Paris backstage at Nightwish was fun, watching Sari Beastall and Liz Lowe dancing stage side made me laugh and of course I got a photo of the event. I arranged for them to have time to 'interview' Tuomas which we were going to publicize but it just turned into complete randomness so decided not to. Also got really angry at said female from before, again won't go into detail but it led to a good rant with someone else who agreed with me 100% which I didn't expect. So that put a downer on things for a bit.
By mid year I got pissed off with working at the care home. They were taking me for a ride. I ended up having to stay awake over 54 hours so I could look after son and then work on the evenings and they didn't attempt to swap my shifts, so I walked out.
Then I had a horrible argument with Tuomas about a few things . Of course all got sorted in the end (all made sense in UK why it turned into an argument) but then the bombshell was dropped about Anette, which caused me a lot of money as the server we were on couldn't handle the traffic and the host company suspended our account. Costing me an hour phone call (of 1.50 per minute) to the states, then £170 to upgrade to a dedicated server. Stressful time that was.
So she left then as if by magic, the UK club was allowed meet and greets again. *ahem* So we frantically sorted all that out with only a few weeks till the tour. But all done and organised had the best time ever calling the winners. The time on tour was fun (if I didn't fall ill would of been better) and the meet and greets (bar Manchester *shakes fist at security*) went brilliantly and it was great to meet so many people I have spoken to for such a long time finally in person.
Then it was off to the premier in Helsinki. Good atmosphere and the best NW show I had seen to date. Would of been perfect if the crowd from Brixton were in Hartwall instead. Afterparty goodness and great to see Christian again and actually have a conversation this time :). Met twice before but only seemed to say very little to each other.
Then it was the trip to Kitee and me panicking on the train by not knowing the thing splits in two hah. Seeing Kiti, Penna, Plamen and Katharina was great and it was a lovely experience. Having my photo and mentioned in the paper was weird though. Shame I never managed to get a physical copy, but at least Katharina was kind enough to scan it for me.
With the continued growth of Tuomas-Holopainen.com - official 2 years now and the improving Nightwishforum which we have had a year now, things are looking stronger and stronger all the time. Huge thanks to Benedikt for help with our new server which has made things so much easier and cheaper to run.
I think it's still weird that little old me started some typical fan appreciation site way back in 2008 and to have grown to where I am now. Got a great little web team going, the certain bunch of individuals who try to sabotage our work and write crap online seem to have started to give up. So all in all I think 2013 has the potential to be a good year.
Apologies to people I missed off, I think this is long enough to start.
Saturday, 15 December 2012
Trip take 2 plus extras
I've been home for about a month now after the tour and trip to Kitee.
Tuomas' gift giving went down well, though as it's covered on TH.com I don't think I'll go into it much.
I was picked up from the apartment by Plamen and took to where we were holding the meeting. There I met up with Katharina, Kiti and Penna and fueled up on coffee. We moved everything into place then waited for Tuomas to arrive.
As punctual as ever, Tuomas pulled up in his car just before the arranged meeting time so we made sure everything was ready before he walked in.
He came over asked how I was, I returned the favour which he replied 'still hungover'. The after party was a great night and he defiantly had a lot to drink that night, but it was funny.
Unknown to me, we were joined by a reporter who took pictures and interviewed Katharina and Tuomas. The guy spoke briefly to me but didn't ask any questions, just kept mentioning Tuomas' UK fan club.. which I tried to set him right that 1) TH.com is *not* UK and 2) is *not* a fan club.. but he didn't seem to want to listen to what I had to say about the event, just Katharina and Tuomas.
Because of the reporter taking the extra time myself and Tuomas had agreed for a catch up, (a sort of 'meeting' as we had lots to go over), we had to cancel. This did annoy me quite a bit as we had rescheduled this meeting twice already and I was not asked about the reporter and since was my/our site event, I feel I should of been consulted as it changed the idea and feel of the day. This would be my last chance to sit and go over stuff with Tuomas in probably a year so for us not to be able to and have to resort to email made getting things done harder.
In the end the newspaper got some facts wrong and didn't even give the website information so I was not best pleased at that either. If it was going to be covered by media, could of been done a lot better.
Anyway gift giving over and something special wrapped well to survive the journey back to the UK, goodbyes were said, I was took back to the apartment. From about 2:30 until the next day I was on my own in the apartment. I wish I knew none of my friends had the time to spend as I would of got the train back that afternoon rather than the next day as... well I was very bored.
I contemplated going for a walk, but having to find my way back in the dark put me off attempting.
The next day, Tuomas' father took me to the train station and I started my 14 hour journey back to Glasgow.
Now home a few weeks, I have piles of stuff still to do. Thanks to flu I have to finish mailing out the Wayfarer which I emailed everyone and said it would of been this week. Late ordering a gift for someone from the site so had to spend more money on priority time rather than standard, late with my Christmas cards. Still have some TH promos to mail out.. again thanks to work load/new job/flu I think I still have half a dozen to send and some other things... but don't even mention I have not started any Christmas shopping.
However a package I was waiting on arrived this morning, meaning I can plan something I have been waiting on for a few weeks now.
Some pictures of time away:
Carol "Joulu"
Tuomas' gift giving went down well, though as it's covered on TH.com I don't think I'll go into it much.
I was picked up from the apartment by Plamen and took to where we were holding the meeting. There I met up with Katharina, Kiti and Penna and fueled up on coffee. We moved everything into place then waited for Tuomas to arrive.
As punctual as ever, Tuomas pulled up in his car just before the arranged meeting time so we made sure everything was ready before he walked in.
He came over asked how I was, I returned the favour which he replied 'still hungover'. The after party was a great night and he defiantly had a lot to drink that night, but it was funny.
Unknown to me, we were joined by a reporter who took pictures and interviewed Katharina and Tuomas. The guy spoke briefly to me but didn't ask any questions, just kept mentioning Tuomas' UK fan club.. which I tried to set him right that 1) TH.com is *not* UK and 2) is *not* a fan club.. but he didn't seem to want to listen to what I had to say about the event, just Katharina and Tuomas.
Because of the reporter taking the extra time myself and Tuomas had agreed for a catch up, (a sort of 'meeting' as we had lots to go over), we had to cancel. This did annoy me quite a bit as we had rescheduled this meeting twice already and I was not asked about the reporter and since was my/our site event, I feel I should of been consulted as it changed the idea and feel of the day. This would be my last chance to sit and go over stuff with Tuomas in probably a year so for us not to be able to and have to resort to email made getting things done harder.
In the end the newspaper got some facts wrong and didn't even give the website information so I was not best pleased at that either. If it was going to be covered by media, could of been done a lot better.
Anyway gift giving over and something special wrapped well to survive the journey back to the UK, goodbyes were said, I was took back to the apartment. From about 2:30 until the next day I was on my own in the apartment. I wish I knew none of my friends had the time to spend as I would of got the train back that afternoon rather than the next day as... well I was very bored.
I contemplated going for a walk, but having to find my way back in the dark put me off attempting.
The next day, Tuomas' father took me to the train station and I started my 14 hour journey back to Glasgow.
Now home a few weeks, I have piles of stuff still to do. Thanks to flu I have to finish mailing out the Wayfarer which I emailed everyone and said it would of been this week. Late ordering a gift for someone from the site so had to spend more money on priority time rather than standard, late with my Christmas cards. Still have some TH promos to mail out.. again thanks to work load/new job/flu I think I still have half a dozen to send and some other things... but don't even mention I have not started any Christmas shopping.
However a package I was waiting on arrived this morning, meaning I can plan something I have been waiting on for a few weeks now.
Some pictures of time away:
Me in the photo pit in Glasgow with Floor's camera
Me and my boss before leaving after gift giving
Monttu studios after signing the wall
View from my apartment
Outside the apartment
Train ride back to Helsinki
Cool steam engine at Kouvola
My UK tour pass
Carol "Joulu"
Monday, 12 November 2012
Tour overview
Warning: Long blog.
I really don't know where to start with this. The original idea was to do little daily blogs and even vlogs from the road whilst traveling but schedule and the immense tiredness that came with doing the tour just took all the spare time and energy from me. So instead of that I thought I would write this big overview blog and try to remember everything important or interesting that may of happened whilst being on the wander.
The start: November 2nd - Start point: Durham End point: Glasgow
What I expected to be a straight forward day turned into a nightmare. I woke to messages that people cannot connect to the websites. I had about a maximum of 30 minutes to look into this whilst getting ready and making sure I had everything. I spent about 10 minutes checking the account and all seemed to be working and payments were up to date, so I was puzzled. Realising I really had no time to spend chasing this, I had to pass everything onto mojo and pretty much just leave it to him.
After dashing around, I was on my way to the train station in Durham. With a suitcase and huge canvass prints in tow, I attempted to get to the platform without dropping anything. The train had a slight delay of only 10 minutes so I just stood waiting for it. Once on the train it took me an age to find somewhere to put my luggage as they all seemed to be full in the carriage I was booked in. After walking 3 carriages down I had success then headed back to Coach F to take my seat. When I arrived there was a child in my seat, the mother who was sitting on the other side said she is sorry and someone had taken their seats. I let it go just because it was a child, but the mother was too shy to ask the people in her sons seat to move. A seat cleared up after the next station, though it was a backwards traveling seat in a red hot carriage with no air.
I tend to suffer from motion sickness, so whenever possible I get forward facing to reduce the risk that I would suffer any symptoms.
For 3 hours I sat in this chair practically sweating but lucky for me as I was starting to feel unwell, we stopped at Edinburgh and about 3/4 of the carriage emptied. I used this opportunity to jump to a cooler forward facing seat for the last hour or so of the journey.
Alex and his sister met me at the station and I unloaded the canvas prints onto Alex to carry. At his we made dinner then drew the winners of the British fan club's meet and greet competition. Alex had said winners would of been announced at around 5pm, since I didn't get to Alex's till around 4:40, this obviously didn't happen on time. After we drew the winners we thought it would be a good idea to call them and record some of the reactions to a pre-tour vlog we had planned to film that night.
Calling everyone was great, but it took a lot longer than I expected. I think our last calls were around 8:20..nearly 3 and a half hours after Alex's announcement deadline. Oh well.
After the winners were all called and dinner was ate, we set to work on filming the rest of the club vlog. It ended up quite random due to the Jack Daniels that was flowing, but all in all it turned out nice and was well received.
Day 2: November 3nd - Start point: Glasgow End point: Manchester
This was the day of the Nightwish fan party to be held at the Hard Rock Cafe in Manchester. We travelled about 5 hours on bus from Glasgow to Manchester. Horrible journey. No leg room, really hot and stuffy. We were met by a friend Nikki, someone I've been speaking to online since roughly 2008 but this would be the first time meeting her, which of course was nice. We arrived at our hotel about 45 minutes before the event was due to start so we just thought we would get food when we were there. Fat chance! It was packed solid. Lucky we spotted Jeanette and her friend and we managed to claim a large table to the site of the bar. Others started to arrive and it became obvious that we were in for a nice evening. We did eventually get some food but decided not to touch the alcohol that night due to the lateness of when we ate.
I think around 20-25 people came and even some internationals which was real nice to have.
Day 3: November 4th -Manchester
I woke not feeling 100%. I put it down to eating too late the night before, being tired and the stress of not yet having our meet and greet schedule and being unable to contact anyone about it. I finally heard from Ewo with times so I could go ahead and tell everyone.
We headed to the venue around 4, it was freezing cold and we were all pretty much huddled together trying to keep warm. Lucky for me I got a sms from Ewo inviting me inside for a coffee and chat. I did feel bad leaving the guys in the cold but since I had stuff to sort out I jumped at the chance to get warm. I had Tuomas and Floor both say hi as I went in. Tuomas was shocked that I had my hair cut short and of course this was my first time meeting Floor. In the brief 30 seconds first impressions were good.
I had my coffee and sorted out a few things, then I stole a 2nd cup to take upstairs to Alex along with his pass for the tour.
I then got the call to bring the meet and greeters to the meeting point, then annoyingly security decided they were going to be right arses and not let the guys in. There was even an outside courtyard and still no. Tuomas said he didn't care and walked past security into the street to meet them and soon the rest followed. The guys managed to get things signed and photos took but then the queue noticed the band and also came down to join in. The band stayed 5 extra minutes and me and Alex went around apologising for security, of course it was out of our hands and even the managements.
So meet and greet was not perfect but not a failure, so we picked our heads up and headed off inside. We went to the dressing room to have a drink and warm up. I asked if we could stay 5 minutes to warm up, it ended up being most the night till they were due to get ready to go on stage. Floor introduced herself more, quickly followed by "there is a female here now, wait", she went out of the dressing room and into her own returning with a new pair of boots to show me and show her matching nail polish. Must admit the shoes were fantastic and I'm not one of these girls who goes crazy other clothes and shoes.
She brought in a Finnish book as well and had Tuomas going through it with her. He started reading some vowel examples out and kept saying, we don't say it like this, this is crazy, saying the sentences outloud causing the others in the room to laugh with the content of the book. Then we noticed her notes looked a bit chewed, she admitted 'her dog did actually eat her homework'.
Ice broken and shattered, we headed off to find somewhere to stand for the show. It was warm inside, too warm. The amount of people + the heating was left on was too much. I kept having to leave the venue to try and cool down. I managed to catch the last two songs, Ghost Love 'Floor' and Last Ride Of The Day before heading upstairs to grab my bag and get back to the hotel to rest.
As I got to the top of the stairs near the dressing room, it felt like someone had stabbed me in the stomach. The pain went through my whole body and it was horrible. Tuomas, Marco and Troy all made sure I was okay and said to keep them informed. Being tired etc just aided the illness hit me so hard. We ended up back at the hotel around 3am and had about 3 hours sleep max before we had to get up to catch the train.
Day 4: November 5th - Start point: Manchester End point: London
The train to London wasn't too bad even though I still was not 100%. We were not in a hotel in London, but accepted the warm invitation of Sam to stay at her place. To make it easier we just took our bags to the venue and put them in the dressing room to get when we left to save a trip to Sam's and back into the city.
We met up with the other 2 British club admins and went to Nando's for lunch. I ate as much as I could stomach, Chris being a gentleman and not leaving any waste, finished my second wrap half. This time when we got the call for the meet and greet to start it was so much better. Security led the guys into the hall and I went to fetch the band. It went down a lot better then Manchester because they were inside and it was easier to chat and get photos etc.
I went to meet up with Pip and Sam Williams, leaving Alex with the club who wanted to be on the barrier. I didn't think it'd be a wise move for me and my stomach to risk getting squashed. We joined on the side with a good view after Pain finished their set. I must say the London show was phenomenal. At this point it was the best Nightwish show I had ever seen. The crowd went nuts on Ghost Love 'Floor', much to the surprise of the band, who actually took some steps back in disbelief.
After the show, we headed upstairs only to open the door and see Adrian Edmondson. Of course Troy plays in a band with him, but was just a shock to see him backstage laughing with Troy and Marko. I didn't talk to him really, he just made a witty remark when I tried to dodge him while carrying my case out of a crowded room.
We left the band all really happy and went to get our taxi to Sam's place. I had a great nights sleep there and started to feel healthy again. It was a relief as I had fears that I wouldn't of been able to continue the tour.
Day 5: November 6th - Start point: London End point: Birmingham
Sam dropped us off at the train station after we fought with her sat nav and wondering where it was trying to take us.When we arrived in Birmingham, we were greeted by TH.com team member Liz who helped us find our hotel. Unfortunately the map printed off had marked the incorrect place, so we walked for ages trying to find it. In the end we got a taxi and it was in a run down area of the city and looked like a dump. When we checked in we saw the prices of the rooms and thought that we had a bargain as we paid about a third of the price. Walking out the lift towards our room proved different. The corridor stunk and looked like it was from a prison block. Our room was just big enough for the 2 single beds and the shower....well I dared not use it. It was black with mold and the whole room stunk of smoke. Frantically I got changed and was glad to get out the room and go for some food and down to the venue.
Of course we ended up in the most important place, a bar, with Roz and Sean from the UK fan club. Roz gets the nickname "Stella" online, and because of this we just had to get a picture:
The Birmingham security were good, we managed to get all the meet and greeters inside next to the dressing room and all the guys (except Troy), came out to sign and take pictures with everyone. Roz made each member their own cake, something the band adored (more on this later)
When the meet and greeters were took inside the venue, I went into the dressing room to see Jukka eating the cake with a bottle top as if a spoon. He said he loved it and would eat the rest later.
Floor then caught us and asked if we were prepared to do the interview with her now. Well we were kind of prepared but not fully so I had to borrow Floor's camera to record the interview as I had not brought mine thinking we would not have time to do it tonight. The whole thing went great and she was so lovely, we would have to bring the laptop the next night to get the footage off her camera.
Floor the joined us in going out to watch some of Pain. When she left to get ready, we went to join the fanclub near the stage. We were not in the best place for sound but we got a good view and I got some okay pictures. Samples:
After the show we went backstage for a few drinks. They had some guests and the tiny dressing room once again ended up packed solid. I had a drink poured by Ewo which was practically 3/4 vodka and 1/4 orange :) That one drink got my drunk, and I'm not embarrassed to say. I had some laughs with Emppu who claimed a gift from the UK club (a JD box) and said 'if it fits in my case it's mine' then proceeded to grin when his case closed without issue. Tero of course was a hoot, making rude gestures behind me, but it was just all fun.
After we left we met up again with Roz and Sean and decided that a late night snack was in order. We wondered around about 20 minutes before finding a kebab shop and thought it would do. After some good laughs and actually some okay food which sobered me up, we called it a night.
Day 6: November 7th - Start point: Birmingham End point: Glasgow
We left early morning, thank god! Was great to get out of that hotel. We arrived at the train station and promptly boarded our train North. Settling down to try and sleep as much of the journey as possible nearly worked. I got a few hours sleep waking with about an hour to go. In Glasgow we went back to Alex's flat and just relaxed. We had a couple of hours to get things ready to take to the show for signing, including the large canvas prints. Typically it had started to rain when we left and I was worried that the canvas prints would get wet.
When we arrived at the venue, the band were doing soundcheck so we used that opportunity to dump our stuff inside and then go back out to talk to people in the queue. We stood with them around 30 minutes but whilst outside in the rain, a puddle had gathered on the road behind me, meaning when a bus went passed I got soaked. My hair was dripping and it went down my boots wetting my socks. I decided enough was enough and went inside. Floor had sympathy for my new wet look and I dried myself off the best I could. The product in my hair went horrible when wet so I decided to wash it. The band mentioned once more about Roz's cakes and wanted to thank her again. So we decided to give her a call. I put her on speaker phone and the band spoke to her giving her thanks once more.
I sat and watched Floor and the guys playing poker dice, a fun looking game which small amounts of money is gambled and the tune of Raiders Of The Lost Ark was sung by them all when a specific combination was rolled. The first time I had witnessed this was in London, where I was sat next to Tuomas recovering from being ill the night before and all a sudden they burst into song, slapping their legs in time. I nearly jumped out my seat!
I happened to mention that I was planning to go in the photographer pit to take some pictures as I was not aware till the night before that the pass I had granted that ability. Floor then said I can use her camera as the quality is so much better than my crappy little compact digital. Paranoid about using a dslr for the first time, and it not being mine. I agreed but I never let go of it throughout the songs we could photograph. In the end, I still managed to lose the lens cap. I have no idea how I did it as I remember putting it back on the camera after the final song. I guess I did not clip it in place properly and it must of dropped back off as I walked back to the dressing room to put her camera back. I felt so bad about this, sure accidents happen but when someone who barely knows you trusts you, you just feel like you let them down. Floor was lovely about it though, and I planned to buy a replacement the next day.
The meet and greet for here ended up being the end of the show due to scheduling. Ewo was due to lead us all down but he had to leave and said the security girl would help. So when I approached security they would not let them down. They said they needed passes. She would not even let me down to grab someone with an escorting pass, so all we could do is stand and get in the way of the load out while we waiting for Ewo to return.
In the end it all worked out and the guys were ushered down the tiny stairs into the tiny, hot dressing room. I grabbed the band one by one as we had a meet and greeter in a wheel chair waiting outside. Annoyingly enough, the location didn't have good wheelchair access and this was all we could arrange. At least she got to meet them. However earlier in the day I 'paid' Tuomas my outstanding bet loss of some very nice whisky and by the end of the night he was swaying. I took him down the stairs to meet this girl outside and typically he nearly fell, causing me to catch him and pulling my arm. Rather that than him fall completely over, however funny it may have been.
End of the tour done we headed back to Alex's place and waited about an hour for a taxi in the cold wet night. When we got in, we both pretty much crashed out as we were both so tired.
Day 7: November 8th - Glasgow - Day off
I woke early as I had to go into town and get Floor a new lens cap and get it to her before they left. I knocked on Alex's door to no response, so I decided I would venture out into Glasgow on my own. I got a taxi to the camera store who's shop keepers were helpful and I managed to get a new cover. Next I had to find the hotel. It looked far on the map so I got a taxi after about 10 minutes of searching for one. Time was pressing on when we arrived at the Hilton. I asked the taxi driver to wait as I only planned to leave the cap at reception for her to collect on check-out. This is when I found out there are more than one Hilton hotels in Glasgow. Frantically I made a phone call and found out which Hilton she meant. I got back in the taxi and we left to the next location. This time I had a queue at reception to wait in and with a taxi on the meter outside, I was anxious to get going. Lucky this time it was the correct hotel. Lens cap left and taxi back to Alex's, it was time to sit and do nothing. Pizza and movies and sleep were on the cards, with a little bit of laundry to do before we needed to pack before our flight in the morning.
Day 8/9: November 9th/10th - Start place: Glasgow - End Place: Helsinki
We left around 06:30 to the airport to catch our flight to Amsterdam and then onto Helsinki. We were in good spirits and got plenty rest the day before and our plane was on time so things were looking positive. We landed in Helsinki at 17:20 local time and that's when things went pear shaped. Alex (who last trip to Finland lost his wallet- and yes he will kill me for mentioning this) was now faced with no luggage. KLM apologised and said they would get it to him on the night or the next morning at the latest. Not the end of the world we thought.
We arrived at our hotel and then met with our friends for dinner at a restaurant called The Seahorse. It was really nice food and we ended the night at a bar till around 2am. We didn't have to be up early the next day so we just enjoyed ourselves and laughed how a round of drinks cost 25e each (4 drinks). So after we spent 100e in total between us, we called it a night and walked to the hotel passing the beautiful cathedral and I had to get a picture.
The next day we missed breakfast but stayed in the hotel for lunch. It was the same restaurant Tuomas took me when I met him last year and I ate the same thing as it was gorgeous, Salmon Soup. 2 huge filets of Salmon with potatoes and loads of buttery creamy soup. I believe the restaurant is Michellin accredited so perhaps that's why it's so good.
When it was time to head to the arena, we got a few of us to share a taxi. Once there of course we made our way to the bar and again we were shocked with the prices. A vodka and orange came to just over 9euro! And the Nightwish wine was 7euro a glass of 48 euro a bottle. So a few drinks later and it was show time!
I loved seeing Nightwish in the UK with the small venues and intimate feeling, but this night with the screen and the pyro was just amazing. Floor was on form again and all the guys looked so happy and content. Floor's specially made outfit looked really nice and very fitting for the evening.
Arabesque featured some kind of fire dancers, I presume were booked when the night was originally going to be the full album but of course singer change caused this idea to be cancelled. Although they were okay, I would of preffered another song by Nightwish in the set than these. Pekka being onstage with his violin was really fun. It added something to the songs and stage and was something unexpected.
This night was my 10th time seeing Nightwish live and I think it was the best, closely followed by London.
Then we had to leave so they could put down the seats. Of course we went to the bar and had a shot of Salmiakkikoitso. Love this stuff. We had good seats for the movie although the temperature dropped pretty fast. My neck was aching a bit from looking up at the screen but it was enjoyable. It's something I will have to watch again as I kept finding myself concentrating on the music more than the movie itself at times. All in all, it was a great night.
In typical Ewo fashion he had forgot the wristband needed to get into the after show. Lucky Sam helped out by grabbing Tuomas who was able to help. The Backstage Bar was packed of familiar faces. It was great saying hi to people I had not seen in ages, or ones I spoke to online but never met in person. Marianne spoke with us for quite some time and was a real angel. Everyone was so accommodation and nice to each other. I didn't want to stay too long as had some stuff to do in the morning. I went to say goodbye to people and then left with Tuomas and Johanna who were also leaving.
I set some of my videos to upload over night and went straight to sleep. It's amazing how much energy I was using up by all this travelling.
Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheEscapistofficial/videos?view=0
Day 10: November 11th - Start place: Helsinki - End Place: Kitee
I caught my train to Kitee at 4pm. Whilst on the train I heard them say the stops and I nearly panicked as I thought I was on the wrong one. Little did I know that the train splits in two later down the route and half goes to Joensuu and the other half somewhere else. Panic over I sat to start this blog, but after an hour I could feel my eyes getting tired so I set an alarm and tried to sleep.
Plamen met me at the station and brought me to this apartment I would be spending the couple of nights. It's really nice and even has a personal sauna (not used yet).
I decided to have an early night as I had cold symptoms and wanted to be healthy for the net day of meeting with Tuomas, Kiti, Penna and Katharina.
But I'll write a whole blog on this event on it's own :) Photo teasers below.
Thank you for reading this monster...more to come!
Carol 'Joulu' Walker
I really don't know where to start with this. The original idea was to do little daily blogs and even vlogs from the road whilst traveling but schedule and the immense tiredness that came with doing the tour just took all the spare time and energy from me. So instead of that I thought I would write this big overview blog and try to remember everything important or interesting that may of happened whilst being on the wander.
The start: November 2nd - Start point: Durham End point: Glasgow
What I expected to be a straight forward day turned into a nightmare. I woke to messages that people cannot connect to the websites. I had about a maximum of 30 minutes to look into this whilst getting ready and making sure I had everything. I spent about 10 minutes checking the account and all seemed to be working and payments were up to date, so I was puzzled. Realising I really had no time to spend chasing this, I had to pass everything onto mojo and pretty much just leave it to him.
After dashing around, I was on my way to the train station in Durham. With a suitcase and huge canvass prints in tow, I attempted to get to the platform without dropping anything. The train had a slight delay of only 10 minutes so I just stood waiting for it. Once on the train it took me an age to find somewhere to put my luggage as they all seemed to be full in the carriage I was booked in. After walking 3 carriages down I had success then headed back to Coach F to take my seat. When I arrived there was a child in my seat, the mother who was sitting on the other side said she is sorry and someone had taken their seats. I let it go just because it was a child, but the mother was too shy to ask the people in her sons seat to move. A seat cleared up after the next station, though it was a backwards traveling seat in a red hot carriage with no air.
I tend to suffer from motion sickness, so whenever possible I get forward facing to reduce the risk that I would suffer any symptoms.
For 3 hours I sat in this chair practically sweating but lucky for me as I was starting to feel unwell, we stopped at Edinburgh and about 3/4 of the carriage emptied. I used this opportunity to jump to a cooler forward facing seat for the last hour or so of the journey.
Alex and his sister met me at the station and I unloaded the canvas prints onto Alex to carry. At his we made dinner then drew the winners of the British fan club's meet and greet competition. Alex had said winners would of been announced at around 5pm, since I didn't get to Alex's till around 4:40, this obviously didn't happen on time. After we drew the winners we thought it would be a good idea to call them and record some of the reactions to a pre-tour vlog we had planned to film that night.
Calling everyone was great, but it took a lot longer than I expected. I think our last calls were around 8:20..nearly 3 and a half hours after Alex's announcement deadline. Oh well.
After the winners were all called and dinner was ate, we set to work on filming the rest of the club vlog. It ended up quite random due to the Jack Daniels that was flowing, but all in all it turned out nice and was well received.
Day 2: November 3nd - Start point: Glasgow End point: Manchester
This was the day of the Nightwish fan party to be held at the Hard Rock Cafe in Manchester. We travelled about 5 hours on bus from Glasgow to Manchester. Horrible journey. No leg room, really hot and stuffy. We were met by a friend Nikki, someone I've been speaking to online since roughly 2008 but this would be the first time meeting her, which of course was nice. We arrived at our hotel about 45 minutes before the event was due to start so we just thought we would get food when we were there. Fat chance! It was packed solid. Lucky we spotted Jeanette and her friend and we managed to claim a large table to the site of the bar. Others started to arrive and it became obvious that we were in for a nice evening. We did eventually get some food but decided not to touch the alcohol that night due to the lateness of when we ate.
I think around 20-25 people came and even some internationals which was real nice to have.
Day 3: November 4th -Manchester
I woke not feeling 100%. I put it down to eating too late the night before, being tired and the stress of not yet having our meet and greet schedule and being unable to contact anyone about it. I finally heard from Ewo with times so I could go ahead and tell everyone.
We headed to the venue around 4, it was freezing cold and we were all pretty much huddled together trying to keep warm. Lucky for me I got a sms from Ewo inviting me inside for a coffee and chat. I did feel bad leaving the guys in the cold but since I had stuff to sort out I jumped at the chance to get warm. I had Tuomas and Floor both say hi as I went in. Tuomas was shocked that I had my hair cut short and of course this was my first time meeting Floor. In the brief 30 seconds first impressions were good.
I had my coffee and sorted out a few things, then I stole a 2nd cup to take upstairs to Alex along with his pass for the tour.
I then got the call to bring the meet and greeters to the meeting point, then annoyingly security decided they were going to be right arses and not let the guys in. There was even an outside courtyard and still no. Tuomas said he didn't care and walked past security into the street to meet them and soon the rest followed. The guys managed to get things signed and photos took but then the queue noticed the band and also came down to join in. The band stayed 5 extra minutes and me and Alex went around apologising for security, of course it was out of our hands and even the managements.
So meet and greet was not perfect but not a failure, so we picked our heads up and headed off inside. We went to the dressing room to have a drink and warm up. I asked if we could stay 5 minutes to warm up, it ended up being most the night till they were due to get ready to go on stage. Floor introduced herself more, quickly followed by "there is a female here now, wait", she went out of the dressing room and into her own returning with a new pair of boots to show me and show her matching nail polish. Must admit the shoes were fantastic and I'm not one of these girls who goes crazy other clothes and shoes.
She brought in a Finnish book as well and had Tuomas going through it with her. He started reading some vowel examples out and kept saying, we don't say it like this, this is crazy, saying the sentences outloud causing the others in the room to laugh with the content of the book. Then we noticed her notes looked a bit chewed, she admitted 'her dog did actually eat her homework'.
Ice broken and shattered, we headed off to find somewhere to stand for the show. It was warm inside, too warm. The amount of people + the heating was left on was too much. I kept having to leave the venue to try and cool down. I managed to catch the last two songs, Ghost Love 'Floor' and Last Ride Of The Day before heading upstairs to grab my bag and get back to the hotel to rest.
As I got to the top of the stairs near the dressing room, it felt like someone had stabbed me in the stomach. The pain went through my whole body and it was horrible. Tuomas, Marco and Troy all made sure I was okay and said to keep them informed. Being tired etc just aided the illness hit me so hard. We ended up back at the hotel around 3am and had about 3 hours sleep max before we had to get up to catch the train.
Day 4: November 5th - Start point: Manchester End point: London
The train to London wasn't too bad even though I still was not 100%. We were not in a hotel in London, but accepted the warm invitation of Sam to stay at her place. To make it easier we just took our bags to the venue and put them in the dressing room to get when we left to save a trip to Sam's and back into the city.
We met up with the other 2 British club admins and went to Nando's for lunch. I ate as much as I could stomach, Chris being a gentleman and not leaving any waste, finished my second wrap half. This time when we got the call for the meet and greet to start it was so much better. Security led the guys into the hall and I went to fetch the band. It went down a lot better then Manchester because they were inside and it was easier to chat and get photos etc.
I went to meet up with Pip and Sam Williams, leaving Alex with the club who wanted to be on the barrier. I didn't think it'd be a wise move for me and my stomach to risk getting squashed. We joined on the side with a good view after Pain finished their set. I must say the London show was phenomenal. At this point it was the best Nightwish show I had ever seen. The crowd went nuts on Ghost Love 'Floor', much to the surprise of the band, who actually took some steps back in disbelief.
After the show, we headed upstairs only to open the door and see Adrian Edmondson. Of course Troy plays in a band with him, but was just a shock to see him backstage laughing with Troy and Marko. I didn't talk to him really, he just made a witty remark when I tried to dodge him while carrying my case out of a crowded room.
Day 5: November 6th - Start point: London End point: Birmingham
Sam dropped us off at the train station after we fought with her sat nav and wondering where it was trying to take us.When we arrived in Birmingham, we were greeted by TH.com team member Liz who helped us find our hotel. Unfortunately the map printed off had marked the incorrect place, so we walked for ages trying to find it. In the end we got a taxi and it was in a run down area of the city and looked like a dump. When we checked in we saw the prices of the rooms and thought that we had a bargain as we paid about a third of the price. Walking out the lift towards our room proved different. The corridor stunk and looked like it was from a prison block. Our room was just big enough for the 2 single beds and the shower....well I dared not use it. It was black with mold and the whole room stunk of smoke. Frantically I got changed and was glad to get out the room and go for some food and down to the venue.
Of course we ended up in the most important place, a bar, with Roz and Sean from the UK fan club. Roz gets the nickname "Stella" online, and because of this we just had to get a picture:
The Birmingham security were good, we managed to get all the meet and greeters inside next to the dressing room and all the guys (except Troy), came out to sign and take pictures with everyone. Roz made each member their own cake, something the band adored (more on this later)
Floor the joined us in going out to watch some of Pain. When she left to get ready, we went to join the fanclub near the stage. We were not in the best place for sound but we got a good view and I got some okay pictures. Samples:
After we left we met up again with Roz and Sean and decided that a late night snack was in order. We wondered around about 20 minutes before finding a kebab shop and thought it would do. After some good laughs and actually some okay food which sobered me up, we called it a night.
Day 6: November 7th - Start point: Birmingham End point: Glasgow
We left early morning, thank god! Was great to get out of that hotel. We arrived at the train station and promptly boarded our train North. Settling down to try and sleep as much of the journey as possible nearly worked. I got a few hours sleep waking with about an hour to go. In Glasgow we went back to Alex's flat and just relaxed. We had a couple of hours to get things ready to take to the show for signing, including the large canvas prints. Typically it had started to rain when we left and I was worried that the canvas prints would get wet.
When we arrived at the venue, the band were doing soundcheck so we used that opportunity to dump our stuff inside and then go back out to talk to people in the queue. We stood with them around 30 minutes but whilst outside in the rain, a puddle had gathered on the road behind me, meaning when a bus went passed I got soaked. My hair was dripping and it went down my boots wetting my socks. I decided enough was enough and went inside. Floor had sympathy for my new wet look and I dried myself off the best I could. The product in my hair went horrible when wet so I decided to wash it. The band mentioned once more about Roz's cakes and wanted to thank her again. So we decided to give her a call. I put her on speaker phone and the band spoke to her giving her thanks once more.
I sat and watched Floor and the guys playing poker dice, a fun looking game which small amounts of money is gambled and the tune of Raiders Of The Lost Ark was sung by them all when a specific combination was rolled. The first time I had witnessed this was in London, where I was sat next to Tuomas recovering from being ill the night before and all a sudden they burst into song, slapping their legs in time. I nearly jumped out my seat!
I happened to mention that I was planning to go in the photographer pit to take some pictures as I was not aware till the night before that the pass I had granted that ability. Floor then said I can use her camera as the quality is so much better than my crappy little compact digital. Paranoid about using a dslr for the first time, and it not being mine. I agreed but I never let go of it throughout the songs we could photograph. In the end, I still managed to lose the lens cap. I have no idea how I did it as I remember putting it back on the camera after the final song. I guess I did not clip it in place properly and it must of dropped back off as I walked back to the dressing room to put her camera back. I felt so bad about this, sure accidents happen but when someone who barely knows you trusts you, you just feel like you let them down. Floor was lovely about it though, and I planned to buy a replacement the next day.
The meet and greet for here ended up being the end of the show due to scheduling. Ewo was due to lead us all down but he had to leave and said the security girl would help. So when I approached security they would not let them down. They said they needed passes. She would not even let me down to grab someone with an escorting pass, so all we could do is stand and get in the way of the load out while we waiting for Ewo to return.
In the end it all worked out and the guys were ushered down the tiny stairs into the tiny, hot dressing room. I grabbed the band one by one as we had a meet and greeter in a wheel chair waiting outside. Annoyingly enough, the location didn't have good wheelchair access and this was all we could arrange. At least she got to meet them. However earlier in the day I 'paid' Tuomas my outstanding bet loss of some very nice whisky and by the end of the night he was swaying. I took him down the stairs to meet this girl outside and typically he nearly fell, causing me to catch him and pulling my arm. Rather that than him fall completely over, however funny it may have been.
End of the tour done we headed back to Alex's place and waited about an hour for a taxi in the cold wet night. When we got in, we both pretty much crashed out as we were both so tired.
Day 7: November 8th - Glasgow - Day off
I woke early as I had to go into town and get Floor a new lens cap and get it to her before they left. I knocked on Alex's door to no response, so I decided I would venture out into Glasgow on my own. I got a taxi to the camera store who's shop keepers were helpful and I managed to get a new cover. Next I had to find the hotel. It looked far on the map so I got a taxi after about 10 minutes of searching for one. Time was pressing on when we arrived at the Hilton. I asked the taxi driver to wait as I only planned to leave the cap at reception for her to collect on check-out. This is when I found out there are more than one Hilton hotels in Glasgow. Frantically I made a phone call and found out which Hilton she meant. I got back in the taxi and we left to the next location. This time I had a queue at reception to wait in and with a taxi on the meter outside, I was anxious to get going. Lucky this time it was the correct hotel. Lens cap left and taxi back to Alex's, it was time to sit and do nothing. Pizza and movies and sleep were on the cards, with a little bit of laundry to do before we needed to pack before our flight in the morning.
Day 8/9: November 9th/10th - Start place: Glasgow - End Place: Helsinki
We left around 06:30 to the airport to catch our flight to Amsterdam and then onto Helsinki. We were in good spirits and got plenty rest the day before and our plane was on time so things were looking positive. We landed in Helsinki at 17:20 local time and that's when things went pear shaped. Alex (who last trip to Finland lost his wallet- and yes he will kill me for mentioning this) was now faced with no luggage. KLM apologised and said they would get it to him on the night or the next morning at the latest. Not the end of the world we thought.
We arrived at our hotel and then met with our friends for dinner at a restaurant called The Seahorse. It was really nice food and we ended the night at a bar till around 2am. We didn't have to be up early the next day so we just enjoyed ourselves and laughed how a round of drinks cost 25e each (4 drinks). So after we spent 100e in total between us, we called it a night and walked to the hotel passing the beautiful cathedral and I had to get a picture.
When it was time to head to the arena, we got a few of us to share a taxi. Once there of course we made our way to the bar and again we were shocked with the prices. A vodka and orange came to just over 9euro! And the Nightwish wine was 7euro a glass of 48 euro a bottle. So a few drinks later and it was show time!
I loved seeing Nightwish in the UK with the small venues and intimate feeling, but this night with the screen and the pyro was just amazing. Floor was on form again and all the guys looked so happy and content. Floor's specially made outfit looked really nice and very fitting for the evening.
Arabesque featured some kind of fire dancers, I presume were booked when the night was originally going to be the full album but of course singer change caused this idea to be cancelled. Although they were okay, I would of preffered another song by Nightwish in the set than these. Pekka being onstage with his violin was really fun. It added something to the songs and stage and was something unexpected.
This night was my 10th time seeing Nightwish live and I think it was the best, closely followed by London.
In typical Ewo fashion he had forgot the wristband needed to get into the after show. Lucky Sam helped out by grabbing Tuomas who was able to help. The Backstage Bar was packed of familiar faces. It was great saying hi to people I had not seen in ages, or ones I spoke to online but never met in person. Marianne spoke with us for quite some time and was a real angel. Everyone was so accommodation and nice to each other. I didn't want to stay too long as had some stuff to do in the morning. I went to say goodbye to people and then left with Tuomas and Johanna who were also leaving.
I set some of my videos to upload over night and went straight to sleep. It's amazing how much energy I was using up by all this travelling.
Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheEscapistofficial/videos?view=0
Day 10: November 11th - Start place: Helsinki - End Place: Kitee
I caught my train to Kitee at 4pm. Whilst on the train I heard them say the stops and I nearly panicked as I thought I was on the wrong one. Little did I know that the train splits in two later down the route and half goes to Joensuu and the other half somewhere else. Panic over I sat to start this blog, but after an hour I could feel my eyes getting tired so I set an alarm and tried to sleep.
Plamen met me at the station and brought me to this apartment I would be spending the couple of nights. It's really nice and even has a personal sauna (not used yet).
I decided to have an early night as I had cold symptoms and wanted to be healthy for the net day of meeting with Tuomas, Kiti, Penna and Katharina.
But I'll write a whole blog on this event on it's own :) Photo teasers below.
Thank you for reading this monster...more to come!
Carol 'Joulu' Walker
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