Wow...what a weekend!

Well, we are back in the "land of cheese and drizzle" after a fabulous weekend in London. It sounds a bit wanky to say that there aren't many words to describe our experiences there, but actually all I can say is......WOW !!!!

We arrived midday saturday, and after checking into our cheap but definately cheerful hotel, we headed straight off to Shepherd's Bush to catch up with our Sudanese friends who used to live here in Nijmegen. We spent a very funny and lovely afternoon/evening catching up, visiting the local market, cooking a meal together and generally having a rollicking good time :-) Sunday morning/early afternoon was spent at the Camden Market. Browsed all the stalls, bought some stuff, drank some coffee, went back to our hotel. THEN our Prince "experience" really began.

We headed off to the O2 Arena at about 4.00pm and after wandering around the many funky bars, cafes, restaurants etc in the complex itself, we decided to go to one of the few real local pubs left in the immediate area, The Pilot Inn, to meet up with other Prince fans Jeroen knows through a fan forum. It was lovely, and everyone was so nice and ultra friendly, and all VERY excited at the prospect of the impending performance! We met up with people from the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The main show in the O2 Arena itself was great - fabulous stage (in the middle of the arena and in the shape of his "symbol" - exactly like this year's Superbowl performance for those of you who happened to see it). See the photo here to get a bit of an idea - it's not the best quality 'cause my phone doesn't exactly have a zoom lens, but you get the idea! Prince was full of energy and humour, and played a good mix (for us non hardcore fans) of hits and non hits.

BUT, the aftershow was something to behold. Totally stunning!

After the mainshow we went to the Indigo2 (a smaller club-like venue in the O2 complex, with a capacity of 2,000). We arrived at about 11.45pm, Prince came on stage at 12.30am and played (together with his amazing band and backing singers) until about 3.00am. OMG 2 1/2 hours of pure funk, jazz, guitar and amazing energy. There was even a little piece of Oz in "da house" (apart from me that is!) when Shelby J, one of the fab backing vocalists, did a pretty funky version of Kylie Minogue's 'Can't Get You Out Of My Head' :-) Prince was truly connecting with the energy of the crowd and he just didn't want to stop. The whole place was going mad !!! It wasn't a concert, it was one big party!

I have definately become a convert to the reign of his royal purpleness (his live performances at least)!!! Don't have any photos of the performance itself - security was VERY tough and anyone caught taking piccies were to be immediately evicted so didn't want to risk it.

Our fabulous night was topped off by a boat trip down the Thames at 4.30am back into the city. Spectacular views of Tower Bridge and the London Eye, before stopping at Waterloo to catch a taxi back to our hotel. Oh, and almost forgot to mention that I did manage to stock up on crumpets :-)) Extremely handy having a proper freezer now!

Phew, what a weekend!!

Alli xxx