Find And Seek

Last weekend we went geocaching. "What is geocaching?" I here you cry! Well basically it's a worldwide treasure hunt. A cache is generally a sandwich box, ammo box or something similar, containing a logbook and a few small gifts, although they can be as small as a film case. People hide them (often in bushes, trees or rocks), taking a note of the GPS co-ordinates, then file them on www.geocaching.com where other people (like us!) log the co-ordinates and try to find them. The idea is that you take one gift and leave another, and write a message in the logbook. We thought we'd do a bit of promotion of our favourite band Marillion, and leave sampler CDs.

Darren's son Jordan came up to the North East for the long weekend, so we located a few near us to try to track down. We started with a relatively easy one (all caches are graded on Difficulty and Terrain) called Air Power, then found Hardwick Hall Park and Rodridge Lane. Hardwick Hall was particularly nice - a wooded park with lots of ponds and ducks. 3 out of 3!!! Just when it started to look really easy we seemed to hit a wall...

Next on our list was Rule Of Thumb. We knew it was a multi-cache, where the co-ordinates don't lead directly to the cache but to a clue. We could see a bird-box among the trees, and sent Jordan in to have a look but he couldn't see anything. It started to rain so we gave up. Dalden Tower seemed even more fruitless - lots of overgrown nettles and the tree cover made it hard to get a good GPS signal. Again the heavy rain drove us back to the car. Alienation was quite good fun - a VERY steep path down the cliff onto a raised beach. But we searched and searched among the rocks and could find nothing (we weren't quite brave enough to stick our hands in blind holes!

So after 3 successes and 3 failures we had two more on our list. It was getting late and we only had time for one more so we decided on another multi-cache, Dead Man's Bank. We had to find out the co-ordinates by answering some questions, and we were on our way. It was quite a long walk along the cliff, and when the heaven's opened we were really too far away to get back to the car. So we plodded on in the rain (which soon subsided) to a bunch of gorse bushes. Hmm. It was obviously in there, but they're prickly things and as they were covered in spiders there wasn't a chance I was sticking my hand in! Darren wasn't going to be beaten though, and eventually he found it. 4 out of 7, we won!!! Also in this cache were a travelbug and a Geocoin, both of which wanted to move from cache to cache.

On Saturday evening we e-mailed the owner of Rule Of Thumb (who very quickly replied with a hint) and studied the pictures of Alienation. Dalden Tower looks a bit of a lost cause as no-one's found it for a while, but we thought we'd have another go at the others. Firstly Rule Of Thumb. I decided I was going to investigate the birdbox this time. I found a small metal stick around the back of the telegraph pole, and when attached to a metal disc on the bottom of the birdbox a tape measure came out with the co-ordinates on it! Clever! Alienation we found by taking a picture with Darren's mobile phone - his arm was just about long enough! We left the Geocoin (which wants to travel around the North East) here. Finally we found Go Down In The Woods Today, the one we didn't bother with yesterday. It was a long, long walk in the Dene Forest - and a long walk uphill walk back!

We had a lot of fun Geocaching. It's a great way to explore places you wouldn't have otherwise known about, and get some exercise. We'll take the travelbug with us next time we decide to hunt some treasure...

V2006 - The Good, The Bands and The Ugly

Wow, what an amazing weekend!!! Instead of writing a diary style entry, I thought I'd break it down into the above categories. In reverse order - finish on the positives!!!

The UglyThe Rain - Now, maybe some festivals like to think that rain is an integral part of the experience, but I have to disagree. It's not so bad standing in the rain listening to great music, but sitting outside your tent in the dark and wet is no fun at all. It's one of the most enjoyable bits - chilling out after the bands, get a barbecue going, have some beers, but it isn't quite the same when you're dripping! The rain also creates mud of course, meaning all the nice clothes and shoes you planned to wear get replaced by wellies, combats and warm fleeces.

The Organisation - It's got to be said that I have a lot less complaints than some people have had (don't go to a festival if you can't handle queuing for a beer or the loos or to get in or out at peak times). But there are a couple of things that did annoy me. Firstly, don't tell 100,000 people that they don't need to bring too much money if you're only going to provide 3 cash machines. Don't tell people that they will be able to charge their phones up if you can't provide the electricity to power all of the chargers you have. Train stewards and security staff so that they know the rules on what you're allowed to take in and so they know the layout of the site. And when everyone's trying to leave the car park, get some stewards in to guide the cars into proper lanes instead of allowing a free-for-all bottleneck.

The Clashes - There's always going to be some at a festival, but there were loads of bands I'd have liked to have seen but missed because they clashed with someone else. Divine Comedy, Beautiful South, Sugababes, Girls Aloud, Fatboy Slim, Faithless, Cardigans - what was most annoying was the odd times when there was no-one I wanted to see!

People Who Can't Put Tents Up Properly - The mess of guy-lines was ridiculous in such a small space!

The Bands
Son Of Dave - Only caught the end, wanted to get a good spot in the Cider House for Hayseed Dixie...

Gucci Soundsystem - And then realise that we'd have to listen to 90 minutes of drum and bass! Still, it was entertaining to watch people off their faces on drugs at lunchtime!

Hayseed Dixie - In case you don't know about them, Hayseed Dixie started off doing AC/DC songs in a country style. They've since diversified into other rock bands, and also write their own songs (some funny, some serious). Really good fun in front of a packed crowd (although that could have been because the Cider House provided shelter from the pouring rain!

Richard Hawley - Next it was over to the JJB tent. Gomez was the priority here, so we got in early to make sure (when it rains the tents always fill up quicker). This also meant we got to see some acts that we wouldn't otherwise have chosen. Richard Hawley was ok, a bit 50's influenced for my taste but the last track (I think it was called Ocean) was excellent.

Imogen Heap - Man she's weird!!! She did the entire show on her own, using lots of samples and vocal effects to create a big noise. The first track was a cappella but using looped vocals recorded live - I've seen this done before but this was the best I've seen. Her use of backing tracks made it feel a bit sterile though, would have been nice to have some other live musicians on stage.

Nerina Pallot - I really liked her but the other half was less keen. She's very good at what she does (she sounded pretty nervous at the beginning) but what she does is fairly unremarkable, especially after the inventiveness of Imogen Heap.

Gomez - Apparently the JJB was so packed they were turning people away. I've been into Gomez since their debut album and have seen them countless times. We'd been at the front since Imogen Heap, and the time spent there certainly paid off. They played a pretty rip-roaring set, some tracks from the excellent new album and finished with Whippin' Piccadilly which got the crowd calling for more. 40 minutes was never going to be long enough!

Starsailor - From the JJB we nipped over to the Channel 4 stage as quickly as possible where Starsailor were playing. What an excellent set - with no brand new album to promote they gave the audience the perfect "best of" performance.

The Charlatans - Not a band I'm a fan of or would have chosen to see, but this was Darren's choice. They were pretty good, but there's only so much whiny Manc indie I can handle! The new stuff sounded excellent though. We managed to get pretty close, and there was a bit of push and shove, mostly just a bit of fun.

Razorlight - After the Charlatans we moved out of the crowd to get some food and beer. We stood at the back for a couple of Razorlight songs, but weren't particularly bothered about hanging around. A lot of people were though, for a 2nd stage band they commanded a huge audience.

Groove Armada - We noticed that we could get into the JJB so we wandered in for a quick boogie. They were performing completely live which surprised me for some reason. Very good, but seemed a bit samey so we went for another wander.

Morrissey - The only main act left was the one I really wanted to avoid. There was only 10 minutes left though, and the main stage was on our way back so we couldn't avoid the depressed one. It was amazing how few people were there - everyone must have been watching Razorlight! So we walked nearer to the stage, and managed to catch the encore of How Soon Is Now - the only Morrissey / Smiths track that I've ever liked. It was pretty good, Morrissey seemed like quite a showman and if you like the music I can understand why you'd be a big fan.

Saw Doctors - Sunday morning started with a trip to the C4 stage to see the Saw Doctors. Again we got to the front. Saw Doctors were excellent. I didn't really know what to expect, but I thought there might be a fiddle in there somewhere!

Biffy Clyro - we stayed where we were for Kula Shaker, and this was an interesting band in between. Just three of them, all sharing vocals and making a lot of noise! I was most impressed by the drummer's excellent vocals.

Kula Shaker - I'm so excited that they're back together. The new tracks are excellent, and they played a few classics to remind the crowd how good they are. Like Gomez, the early slot made for a short set, and I could listen to this band all day.

Captain - We'd spent most of the intervening hour trying to charge up our mobiles without much success, but I really wanted to see this new band. It was our only foray into the Virgin Mobile Union, but on the basis of one song I had a hunch they'd be really good. And they were. Trevor Horn's lush production on Glorious wasn't lost live, the vocal harmonies sounding fantastic. Looks like I might have to get their album.

Art Brut - We were just leaving the Union when I spied some more chargers which weren't otherwise advertised and were mostly empty. At last we could get some juice in them, plus we could sit down for a while and rest our aching feet! In the meantime, Art Brut were on the stage. They were certainly interesting - not sure I'd buy any of their records but they were entertaining enough.

Jamie T - We hung around for a couple of songs while we finished charging. Not my cup of tea, a bit too Arctic Monkeys.

Keane - The next aim was to get a good place for Beck. Keane were halfway through their set and the crowd looked pretty big but it was very spaced out so we walked down the middle quite a way forward. I really don't like Keane - I find Tom Chaplin's voice insipid and most of it's far too MOR for me, but it certainly got the crowd singing. During Bedshaped you could barely hear the band!

Beck - This man is a genius. If you only ever see one live act again in your life, make it Beck. Virtually all of the band end up playing percussion of some sort at sometime, including an oilcan! A new addition to the show is a puppet show on stage of the band, replicating everything they did down to the instruments. They also did a fantastic bit of table percussion which I've seen before but just gets better - as Beck plays a bit of solo acoustic, the rest of the band gather around a table for some water and fruit. Gradually they join in, banging glasses in tune and shaking maracas disguised as oranges. As they had a break before the encore, the puppets had made a video, walking around the site and trashing Radiohead's dressing room. The band then returned to finish with Where It's At and E-Pro.

Radiohead - we ended up far too near the front. When Radiohead came on, it became a bit of a crush and I couldn't breathe very well. We lasted until the fourth song My Iron Lung when Darren took the initiative to get us out. Going backwards through 50,000 people didn't look like an option, so we tried to go forwards to get over the barrier. Surprisingly we got quite a way before hitting a wall of people. The only way was up and over, so we both crowd-surfed our way out. It's quite an adrenaline rush crowd-surfing, and I could finally breathe fresh air! We grabbed a well-deserved Strongbow and enjoyed the rest of the set much further back. This meant we could properly see the excellent light show. Lucky was a definite highlight for me, and the audible sigh of joy when they started Street Spirit was quite amusing. Then they played Creep - one of the rarest songs in their back catalogue showing they truly are in "Greatest Hits" mode at the moment. An awesome end to an awesome weekend.

The Good
Sometimes it's the little things that make a difference...
Getting A Good Pitch - We left at 5.30am to try to beat as much of the traffic as possible and get a good pitch. We ended up in Orange Campsite, right near the Arena, near a fence (so not too many people were walking past), not too far from the loos and stalls for tea and coffee in the morning. Excellent!
Avoiding the rain - It seemed that every time we wanted to be outside it stopped hammering it down. Just as we finished putting the tent up and got inside, the heaven's opened. Whenever a band we wanted to see was on in a tent, it poured. All in all we were very lucky!
Disposable Barbecues - You can't beat a freshly cooked bacon butty in the morning. Much better than buying them off the stalls, and of course much cheaper too. We ended up taking far too much food though!

Glyn & Hannah - Our pitchmates, and excellent company all weekend.

Being Front Row - For Hayseed Dixie, Imogen Heap, Nerina Pallot, Gomez, Saw Doctors, Biffy Clyro and Kula Shaker.

Bob - From the group of young festie goers near us. You provided us with entertainment and beer, we provided you with food. Fair exchange!

Good Buys - £10 each on wellies that we spent all weekend in, bargain! £10 on a fold up wheelbarrow to cart stuff from and to the car, bargain! £3 on a waterproof rug to stop things falling off said wheelbarrow into the mud, bargain!

The Loos - They actually weren't disgusting at all, and if you looked in the right place at the right time, there were hardly any queues.

Strongbow - Nice and refreshing, much better than beer!

Virgin Mobile Sims - Even though I didn't manage to get backstage with one like they said, the two free ciders during Radiohead were worth the £3 I paid on eBay!

Going Ape

With V Festival coming up and us in possession of a new tent, my boyfriend decided that we had to test it out. Now, I'm not that girlie a girl, but camping has never been my idea of fun. My protests were to no avail - we were booked to stay near Ullswater in the Lake District.

We met up on Friday night with Darren's parents who have a nice comfy trailer tent, along with his son Jordan and his mate Marcus. So much for summer - looks like it's all over. It was really quite cold overnight - my boyfriend mocked me for wearing jogging bottoms and a fleece but when I woke on Saturday morning he was wrapped up in his fleece! We made our way over to the trailer tent where his mum was cooking up a fine breakfast - we would need a lot of energy today...

We were about to Go Ape. Basically, Go Ape takes you up over rope bridges, tramlines, cargo nets, up rope ladders and down zip lines in the forest. This one was in Grizedale Forest, and there are 6 other locations around the UK. You are fitted with a harness and taken through a pretty rigorous training session before you are let loose on your own. At all times you keep yourself attached to the trees, so you're never in any danger, even on a tiny platform 60ft up a tree! I was amazed at how confident I was with it all. Until one of the last obstacles that is - a "Tarzan swing" into a cargo net. Unlike the zip lines which you could almost sit into, with this you had to jump off the platform a free fall about 10ft before the rope tightened. I still did it (even if I did scream a bit!)

It was a real sense of accomplishment to complete the whole course. I'd highly recommend going - it takes about 3-4 hours to go round and if it's quiet you can even go round again. You don't have to be particularly fit or young even - the oldest person to complete the course was 86 years old!!! Have a look at Darren's blog for some pics.

On the Sunday we said goodbye to our fellow campers and made our way back across the country. On our way down we'd taken a wrong turning off the A66 into some strange place called Rhegad, and as we were passing again we thought we'd check it out. Turns out it's a strange shopping centre / cinema / exhibition hall / conference centre hybrid. It's been built into a hill so you can bearly see it from the nearby roads. We had a good nosy around the shops. My favourites were Taste, a proper foodies food shop with lots of local produce, Saunders the chocolate shop where you could watch them making the chocolates through the window, and Talent, an art and furnishings shop with lots of fabulous individual pieces (I would love to be rich enough to fill my home full of these things!)

There is a giant cinema screen which shows movies on things like Everest, the Grand Canyon and the Serengeti, and the National Mountaineering Exhibition, but we decided not to pay for these. The temporary Buddhist Himalaya market was a bit disappointing. All in all it was a slightly odd place, but it's worth a look around if you're in the area and fancy something unusual.

And so to V!!! Please pray for me that it doesn't rain!!!

Live To Tell

Recently I've been embroiled in arguments on an internet forum about Madonna's performance of Live To Tell on her current tour. I ended up writing a short essay about it to try to explain how the piece worked, and the points I believed Madonna was trying to make with it. As I spent a bit of time on it, I thought I'd post it here so it didn't get lost forever!

As a general rule, I hate discussing art in this way. After many years of writing essays and analysing art, I now find it pretty pointless. For a start, the only person who knows the true intentions behind a work is the artist themselves. Secondly, to discuss something that someone else hasn't seen is fruitless. You wouldn't want to tell people what a piece of music sounds like without playing it to them, would you? Seeing the Mona Lisa is a completely different experience to seeing a picture of the Mona Lisa. In the same way, you can imagine Live To Tell in your head, listen to a recording, see a couple of pictures but unless you are there, seeing it with your own eyes it will never have the same impact.

Thirdly, art is, of course, purely subjective. Everyone brings their own baggage to a work, and that inevitably changes the way they view it. If you don't like Madonna, you are bound to view it with a frown. It's human nature. Despite all of this, here is my personal take on the Live To Tell piece. I'll make it as brief as possible.

The song. I've had this discussion on Madonna forums, and no-one seems to know what it is originally about, if anything. It could be about a husband and wife, a child's fear of a family member, abortion, sin. Some believe it's about Madonna's personal experience of rape, some believe it is about the stigma of AIDS. Some even think it could be political. No-one really knows, and Madonna seems reluctant to reveal - the general consensus is that the ambiguity is intentional. This of course makes it the ideal song to be used for this topic. Even if all of the above intents are true, most of them have a relevance the the subject of AIDS, and it's easy to read the words and relate them to the issue.

I have a tale to tell
Sometimes it gets so hard to hide it well
I was not ready for the fall
Too blind to see the writing on the wall

A man can tell a thousand lies
I've learned my lesson well
Hope I live to tell the secret I have learned
'Til then it will burn inside of me

I know where beauty lives
I've seen it once I know the warm she gives
The light that you could never see
It shines inside, you can't take that from me

A man can tell a thousand lies
I've learned my lesson well
Hope I live to tell the secret I have learned
'Til then it will burn inside of me
The truth is never far behind
You kept it hidden well
If I live to tell the secret I knew then
Will I ever have the chance again

If I ran away
I'd never have the strength to go very far
How would they hear the beating of my heart
Will it grow cold the secret that I hide
Will I grow old
How will they hear
When will they learn
How will they know

The song may have religious connotations for Madonna - when she performed it during the Blond Ambition tour the stage was set like a church. The Vatican has long been criticised for it's stance on condoms in relation to the AIDS crisis in Africa. This has made it difficult for the governments of Christian countries to educate their people about safe sex. This along with the continued belittlement of women in many countries has been a lethal combination - the women are often the more devout, and will refuse to use condoms even though their husbands are infected.

The Catholic church is perhaps an unfair target - although infection rates in Christian countries are higher than those in Muslim countries, the rates for Catholic countries are much lower than non-Catholic Christian countries. Madonna obviously still has some issues with her early Catholicism, and possibly chooses it as a primary target because her upbringing makes her more comfortable in challenging it. But I don't think it is the only message or target within the performance.

Sacrifice is undoubtedly one of the points being made. What can each person sacrifice to try to make someone else's life better? I also feel there is a further message for those who consider themselves Christians. What would Jesus think of the world we live in today? Of how we treat our fellow human beings? What would He do if He came back to Earth? I think Madonna is trying to ask all of her audience - whether they believe in God or not - to do their bit. To, "walk the walk," as she puts it.

A little explanation of the whole piece for those who haven't seen it. Rather than a rapid onslaught of images and facts, the audience are simply presented with 3 facts and 5 images (if I remember correctly) to make the point. Not wanting to sing with a barrier between herself and the audience, Madonna descends from the cross before the bridge and sings the remainder of the song to the audience. The song ends with the website addresses of Raising Malawi and The Clinton Foundation on the screens. The mirrored effect on the cross may have further connotations (about materialism perhaps), but I suspect that may be reading too much into it and it is purely to make a better visual fit into the rest of the show.

Is it shocking? Not really. Jesus has been portrayed by people many many times before, so why this has caused so much consternation I don't know. I suspect that the majority of those who criticise have not seen the performance and thus do not understand the context. Or maybe there are those in the Catholic church who do understand but who wish to deflect the criticism. Some Catholic fans have found it offensive, some do not understand how anyone could be offended by it. Maybe the fact that the performance is by a woman, or maybe because it is this specific woman compounds some people's shock factor.

Provocation often gets confused with shock, and I certainly believe that Madonna wishes to provoke, but I do not think she intends to shock. That is probably even more evident in the fact that she has chosen to take this tour to Rome, to the heart of the Catholic church - the first time she has toured Rome since Blond Ambition. It is easy to be lazy and presume that it is a publicity stunt, but I have no doubt in my mind that she intends to generate publicity for the cause rather than for herself. But when it comes down to it, it is a work of art, not a marketing campaign and it should not be judged as such.

I'm sure that when you garner your information about the piece on hearsay it may sound somewhat crass. "It's a painting of some flowers," wouldn't convince me that I'd love Van Gogh's Sunflowers. I understand that journalists have a job to do, an agenda to fulfill and many of those who have commented on the piece have done based on a still image. However, seen live, Live To Tell is very simple, emotional and effective.

Time Goes By So Slowly For Those Who Wait

And it was a weekend of waiting, queuing and delays. And people, lots and lots of people.

Saturday morning's journey to Cardiff was the usual planes, trains and automobiles - train Hartlepool to Newcastle, Metro to the airport, plane to Bristol, train to Cardiff, taxi to the hotel. Once at the hotel we changed and called another cab, arriving back in the city centre about 6pm. First stop was the Millennium Stadium itself to see whether people were queuing yet - there were a few and I admire their resolve as it was chucking it down with rain and didn't stop all night! There weren't enough people there to worry about so we went off in a quest for food and drink. We ended up in the Hard Rock Cafe where we stuffed ourselves silly and had plenty to drink as well. We sautered back down to the Stadium where there still weren't very many people queuing and decided to have a boogie in 80's bar Reflex before getting some kip.

After just 5 hours sleep the alarm went off at 6am on Sunday morning. Urghhhhhh. Dragging ourselves out of bed, me and my boyfriend Darren were pleased to see that the rain had passed and the sun was shining. I think the cabbie was a bit bemused by us getting there so early! We arrived at Gate 6 at 7am, went to get some newspapers, croissants and water. At 8am a very nice member of the Millennium Stadium staff (who were excellent) told us we could go in any entrance despite Gate 6 being printed on our tickets, and that we'd get to the Golden Circle quicker from Gate 2. After a couple of hours eighth in line at Gate 2, we realised that we could actually be first in the queue at Gate 3 and moved there where we stayed for the rest of the day. As it turned out, we could have had an extra 3 hours in bed!

The day actually flew by. We chatted with the other fans in our queue, and Darren bought us a couple of cheap fold up chairs to make things a bit more comfy. We had a couple of beers, got some snacks from M&S and basked in the sun. Madonna herself arrived in a blur of sliver people carriers at 3pm (3 hours late) and that's when the crowds started to swell. We heard a little bit of the soundcheck, but from our gate nothing was very clear. By the time the gates opened at 6pm (30 minutes late) the crowds outside were huge and chomping at the bit. There was a mad rush, but with a combination of walking and running (security tried to stop people running) I got exactly where I wanted to be - halfway up the catwalk right on the barrier. Surely she can't miss me in my pink hat (NOT a cowboy hat) from here?!!

The Golden Circle definitely has advantages - there's no chance of being crushed and you can easily go to the loo without having to fight through thousands of people. Plus being right at the front means you can ask security for a drink of water whenever you need it! Paul Oakenfold was the support act for the night to get everyone warmed up, and warming up he certainly did. There's a real art to "proper" DJing, and he mixed some house stuff (which I liked but don't really know) with some modern classics, including remixes of Song 2 by Blur, Beautiful Day by U2 and the Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams. He really interacted with the crowd, encouraging clap along's and jumping from the assembled throng. He ended with a rather peculiar fade out though.

At 8.37pm the real show started, just 7 minutes later than planned. A 6ft glitterball descended to the stage, and then opened to reveal Madonna inside. The first section of the show had an equestrian theme - for opener Future Lovers the dancers were dressed up in saddles and bits with fake manes or hair. I Feel Love followed to really get the crowd going. She performed virtually solo for Get Together, proving that she doesn't always need dancers to command attention. Then followed the problems with getting so close - the height of the catwalk meant we couldn't see the left hand side of the stage which was where she performed Like A Virgin. Looking forward to seeing that one on video! Jump then closed the first section, a big climbing frame descending onto the catwalk to make it even higher and less visible! A shame because it's my favourite song from the new album, and despite the dancers leaping like monkeys it lacked the energy that it probably should have had.

Section two started with recordings of three of the dancers reciting their "confessions" while video accompanied their dance. The moves were very much in a contemporary dance style, much like the rest of the show. This segued into Live To Tell, with Madonna on her now famous disco-crucifix. It was actually much more subtle than the press have made out - a few photos of African children and a couple of simple facts about the curse of AIDS in Africa serving up the message much better than a bombardment. The end of the song promoted Raising Malawi, a charity that Madonna supports to prove that she does, in her own words, "walk the walk". The rest of this section contained all songs from the latest album - Forbidden Love with it's anti-homophobia message, Yitzhak Sinwani accompanied Madonna on backing vocals for Isaac and all of the dancers came out to perform in a cage reminiscent of the video for Sorry. Like It Or Not followed, with a routine on a chair on the end of the catwalk that I couldn't really see from my vantage point - I could see less there than I expected.

Next up, the guitar set. My favourite!!! I Love New York and Ray Of Light got us bouncing like nutters, and it's always great to see Madonna strap on an axe! Let It Will Be calmed things down a bit, followed by an impassioned and brilliant performance of Drowned World from the steps of the catwalk. This section was rounded off with a duet of Paradise (Not For Me) with Yitzhak Sinwani.

Finally, it was time for some all out disco. Music was mixed with the Trampps Disco Inferno and the dancers donned rollerskates to up the energy to fever pitch. Madonna treated us to some of John Travolta's moves before You Thrill Me - an alternative version of Erotica - with some excellent couple-dancing on the main stage. Next up, a really fast version of La Isla Bonita, then Lucky Star followed mixed with the now familiar sample of Abba's Gimme Gimme Gimme which meant the last song was easily predicted. There was surely no-one left in the Stadium who wasn't dancing to Hung Up. And finally I got my moment with Madonna! She got the crowd from different areas to sing, "time goes by so slowly" back to her, and when she did our section she was looking straight at me! No matter how much the tickets, transport and hotel cost, moments like that are priceless!!!

Golden balloons fell from the ceiling and it was all over. She came, she danced, she conquered. Some papers have reported booing - I didn't hear anything more than a disappointed sigh as the house lights came up. I made my way to the merch stand where I spent £90 on a programme (really not worth it) and a tracksuit jacket (which I love!). We eventually made it outside and were left with the dilemma of how to get home. We were far too tired to go out on the town, but Cardiff doesn't have any late night public transport to speak of and the taxis were all booked. After an hour of wandering around talking to cabbies who were waiting for people who had booked, we decided to queue at the taxi rank near the station. Slowly but surely free cabs came around (boy did I appreciate my new jacket!) and we eventually got back to the hotel at 1am.

Unsurprisingly we crashed straight to bed, our feet feeling like lead. We made a cup of tea but didn't stay awake long enough to drink it. We woke at about 11am, dragged ourselves out of bed, checked out and headed into Cardiff to get some food (breakfast had finished everywhere by then!) After a Starbucks and a wonder around a few shops we headed for Bristol, did a bit more window-shopping in the torrential rain and eventually found somewhere to eat. I forgot how good Pizza Express was! Another walk through the torrential rain following rubbish signs to Temple Meads train station later, and we got on a bus to Bristol Airport. There is a point at which you can't get any wetter, and I think we were there! We changed at the airport and checked in, only to find that the flight was an hour late. Eventually we boarded at 11pm and dropped home just after midnight. I think I'll spend all week catching up on lost sleep!

For a much shorter review and some photos, go see Darren's blog at http://www.themarketsquare.blogspot.com/