Review of the trip

27th April 2007
We got up in the early morning to go to the airport. Wendy stayed over at mine as it would take her too long to get to the airport otherwise. We met up with San at 7am and there we went, on our way to Dublin baby! Our plane took off like half an hour later than expected, and at 10.20am we were finally really on our way. At the precious time of 10.30am we landed at Dublin airport. And oh how excited were we! We took some pictures with the Love Album sign we found on our way to the baggage reclaim and we took a bus to the city centre, to our hotel. Arriving at the hotel we were told we were early but our room was ready pretty soon after. And oh boy how good was that hotel! We loved it! We went to the lads’ hotel for a bit. Met up with our fellow Dutchies and saw Kian drive off. At around 6pm we went back to our hotel to get changed and get ready for the concert. Sadly enough I knew like half of the show already and I didn’t really like the set list, you know always the same old stuff, but what a show! The medley was probably one of my favourite parts, it’s something we all remember and how good was their dancing?! Brilliant to me. In all ways, it had to me in tears of laughter at some points (remembers the chin-scratching part in ‘The Right Stuff’) and they amazed me with their kinda break dance bits for some of the songs too. After this amazing show we quickly made our way back to the hotel, to catch Nicky on The Late Late Show, was short but good!

28th April 2007
We all woke up pretty early this morning and we spent most of the day at the hotel. Saw Mark and Kevin leaving, Jodi arriving, Shane coming back from a golf game with his gorgeous best mate Keith and Gillian leaving with Nicole. We didn't get pictures with any them, as it was quiet busy, and some fans would do anything to get near them (some weird action comes to mind). Well nothing really interesting happened that day and we went back to get changed for the concert around 5 and went to The Point for the next show. We were row 8 this time, almost the same seats as the night before. We did waiting and waiting and some more waiting and then just before the show started we saw Jodi walking to her seat in the, yes, front row! We also saw Mae (Shane’s mum) crossing like half of The Point as she was asking a security guy something. And to my surprise some of the lads’ friends were sitting in the 3rd row, in front of us, including the cute Keith guy. We had our famous orange balls with us and the girls were teasing me about secretly fancying him and I wrote one of those balls to throw at Shane, asking whether he was single or not. Well would be kinda embarrassing to throw that up with him reading it out loud now eh when the man is question is like 10 meter away from ya. So decided to keep that until the other show. But anyway, this show was really good once again. A lot of joking and fooling around on the stage. Kian was giving Jodi a lot of ear-to-ear smiles and waves. And during Nicky’s speech you could really see how happy he is with his life now, now the twins are here, he thanked Georgina who was there that night. They also celebrated Kian's birthday. I didn't really expect that to happen, but it was really nice. It really lifted up the show, they got him a cake, and they also made everybody sing happy birthday to him. And then during Shane's speech he was talking about his biggest fan, so I immediately thought he was talking about Nicole, but then shook that thought as I thought he would never do that. But yes he actually did. To everyone’s surprise I guess. She's such a cute beautiful little girl. She was so talkative and laughing and giggling. She really is the cutest. Nicky made her say "Up the Dubs" which was really cute, she did everything the lads did or told her to say. I feel really lucky to have been there that night, it really made the show extra special for me. You could really tell Shane is a really really proud daddy, he looked so happy while she was there with him. Soon after that, that show had finished also. Way too soon I must say. Only one more show to go, but we saved the best for last and that was three days away.

We walked back to the city centre as we were sure they'd go out to celebrate Kian's birthday, but that, sadly enough, didn't happen, and it got cold and colder and colder and we got more tired by the minute. So around 1.30am we left, not expecting them to come anymore, they were probably having a party some other place and we wanted to get up a bit early to go to Bray.

29th April 2007
Today it was time for a bit of sightseeing. Well County-Dublin-Seeing. We went to Bray, a city south of Dublin. It was a beautiful place and the weather was really good, warm even. We walked up the hill there, although our feet were killing us, so we didn’t walk all the way to the top, cause if we would have we’d probably still be climbing. After that we went to Enniskerry, as there was like the largest waterfall of Ireland to be seen there, but we got off the bus too soon, and San and I felt like we could fall asleep any minute so we didn’t feel like waiting for the next bus and decided to go back to the hotel, get some rest and decided to see what was going on at the lads’ hotel that night. We felt kind of stupid for being there, but we saw Mark and Kevin leaving, waving at us. And we were hoping Kian and Shane would go out as well, and then all of sudden we found Kian's room. Because of something that looked like a camera, which after I analysed what we saw in the room, was actually a telescope, but that's a very long story, we noticed Jodi, Shane, Gillian and Nicole in his room. We think Shane caught us as he got to the window with Nicole and I felt like he looked me straight in the eye. That’s when we felt stupid and turned away, hoping he wouldn’t be mad lol. Then Gillian went to put Nicole to bed, and we saw Jodi again, wearing something different from when we first saw her, so we thought, they're going out, but they weren't leaving and weren't leaving. So after a while we decided to go, we had to get up really early on Monday, cause we were going to Sligo, but it was nice to find out their rooms, especially the way we did and the fun it actually gave us.

30th April 2007
Today it was the day for our planned Sligo trip. Wendy had never been there before and really wanted to go there, so we did. We had breakfast at 7am, still really tired and I couldn’t eat a single thing. Took me 20 minutes to eat only one croissant! We hurried to the train station as we thought we were late but then we were 15 minutes early, typical!

When we finally arrived in Sligo first thing Wendy wanted to do was to get her pics of Shane&Nicole, from the Saturday night developed, so we could get the pictures in his mailbox, so we found a store, and had to be around for one hour. In the meantime we went to Anna Rose, Gillian's store, but it was closed, hoping it would open later we stopped by another three times during the day, but without any luck. We were gutted it wasn't open, and we heard some things about it being closed down, but hell don’t let that be true cause it’s a lovely shop and that's one reason to go back. We went to rent a bike, to get through Sligo faster only to be told that the man doesn’t rent any bikes anymore, because “Nobody in Sligo is renting bikes anymore”. And to be honest, looking at all the expensive cars driving around we weren’t even surprised. But unfortunately that meant we had to walk to looooong walk to Shane's house after all, and not being able to go to Strandhill... But well, Wendy had the pictures developed so they had to be delivered or it would have been for nothing. While waiting for the hour to pass we stopped by the one and only nightclub in Sligo, and the Record Room to get a few pictures and went into a supermarket to get some food (Carlton Café and Morgan used to be there). And San was getting some cash when I suddenly spotted a familiar figure walking in. And San and Wendy didn’t have a clue what I was on about, they thought the woman was trying to get San’s personal code or whatever but then it clicked and who was it? Shane’s mum indeed! His brother Liam walked in a little while after her. Was kinda funny to just bump into them this way, and walking out we also spotted Finbarr, the brother he owns the “Shafin” company with.

 

We then took the walk to Shane’s house and oh my god, it was long, longer than I remembered. And it was getting hotter and hotter. Yup even in Ireland it can be really warm! And when we finally arrived, we saw his dad and brothers, walking there with the horses, and we felt really stupid for being there and rushed into the nearby store, just looking around, waiting for them to go away. But we had a mission, delivering the pics to Shane's house. We put the pictures in the mailbox and kind of ran off, hopefully not to be caught by any family member. We went back into town and had a rest as San and I couldn’t walk any further, our feet were hurting too much and I even felt like sitting down in the middle of Penneys! And after that we went back to the station to check if we could get a bus to Strandhill, but no luck, as we had to catch the train back to Dublin, so instead we went to the Hawkswell Theatre and Summerhill college. Was quiet funnyas we were looking at the back of the complete wrong building, thinking it was Summerhill! But we found it after all, well Wendy did as San and me were still to tired to walk.

When arriving back in Dublin we went to our hotel quickly, and then left to the hotel, this was supposed to be the night of meeting them, well so we hoped. And yet again we were there with a mission: getting rid of the congrats book for Nicky, and giving Shane a couple of pictures of Nicole on stage too. Mark and Kian arrived first. Kian went in straight away, without saying anything. Mark was slower though, so as soon as he got out of the car we handed him with the book. Asking him to give it to Nicky as it was for the babies. He looked at it and then put in the back of his car, promising he'd give it to Nicky. Then the German fans who were there asked him for a picture, and after that we did. He was a real sweetheart! Thanks so much babe! Then we waited for Shane to arrive, we knew he would have to come back soon too. He was with Nicole and Gillian, so getting pictures would be almost impossible, but Wendy still had the pictures to give to him. But his reaction wasn’t what we’d hoped for. He did thank her quickly but didn’t take a look or whatever and just put them in the back pocket of his jeans and walked off. We were too afraid to ask for picture as he seemed in a mood judging from his reaction to the pictures, so no pictures. But later on Wendy found out that one of their friends from Sligo had passed away, so that could have easily explained his mood. Can’t blame him then really eh!

1st May 2007
Today was our shopping day. We went to all the shops like Carrolls, St. Stephens Green, Henry Street, and yet again our feet were hurting when we got back to the hotel. But not a problem because we had the perfect night ahead of us – front row centre! The lads would now we were there. So we took everything Dutch with us to attract their attention, orange balls, flag, hats, banner, and the present bag for Rocco and Jay. We all got really nervous just before the show started and when the light went off we got even more excited than we already were. We were trying to get Nicky to read our banner ("Nicky, we've got presents for Jay & Rocco, make Dave come get them [please]." )but he wouldn’t at first but then later on, but a few songs, shouts and attempts later he started reading it and you should have seen the smile but nothing happened, yet! The show was so good, they were all making fun of each other, dance routines failed and you could see they were having fun even though they all looked like they wanted to say ‘I’m bored, I’m tired of this’ but they proofed themselves wrong. The medley was amazing again, but yet again the dance routines failed with Mark forgetting to dance and making the others crack up during Uptown Girl for example. So when after a few songs Nicky still hadn’t made the effort to get the bag up or get someone to get the bag for him, we decided the only option was to throw it on stage. And seeing as a lot of people had been throwing stuff up we thought it wouldn’t be a problem. So at one point when he was standing close to us Wendy got up, walked up to the barrier and threw the bag at him, nearly knocking him out. He mimed a 'Thank you' to us, and tossed the bag aside, to where all the other stuff was laying and it was loads I tell you. When The Rose was finished and they walked up the stairs, our bag was the first thing he picked up, and he needed Mark to carry a few of the other presents for him. And him kissing his wedding ring when Shane was saying the final goodbye was the cutest thing ever! Nice ending to a even better show. Thanks lads, front row again next year please!

2nd May 2007
Today was the day we were leaving the beautiful country, beautiful city and beautiful hotel. We did some more shopping, got some more souvenirs, and decided to go back to the lads' hotel one last time. And we didn’t go there for nothing, we saw Shane leaving with Nicole, so we didn't walk up, respect you know? But then I noticed some fans coming out of the hotel, and I think they got a picture taken with him, so that’s when I kind of regretted my respectful waiting at the gate, but at least we showed respect not going up there. Like half an hour after Shane had left we saw Kevin going out with Saffy, he went to take her for a walk. So when he walked past us we asked him whether he would go on a picture, but he wouldn’t and told us “Mark will be out soon”. So there was us hoping he would be coming within the next 10-15 minutes as we had to leave for the airport, but no luck. So we went back to our hotel to get our suitcases, and walking out of the hotel was really hard. I must say leaving was harder last year but you’re looking forward to times like these for months and they’re over in a minute. And like I said to San and Wendy when we got off the bus in O’Connell Street on Friday, Dublin is really beginning to feel like a second home, it felt like I’d never been away. So that made leaving even harder but they say you shouldn’t be sad it’s over but glad it’s happened. We were leaving the country but with a lot of nice memories gained. And as Wendy did in her review, I’d like to say a thank you myself. Starting off with my 2 tour buddies, Wendy and San. Thanks for the fab week, thanks for the laughter, the sadness we shared when leaving, and thanks for just being there with me. Love you loads and Croke Park next year eh?! And then the most important people, Shane, Nicky, Mark and Kian, without you this all wouldn’t have happened, I wouldn’t have seen all those beautiful places, met all these amazing people, and wouldn’t have had so much fun. So thanks for a perfect week and I love you, from the bottom of my heart. You guys don’t know what you mean to me.

Back