Shiloh

My trip to Shiloh started the previous evening when I finished packing and repacking. You know, those things you think you OUGHT to have - just in case! LOL! I didn’t actually SLEEP that night as I had a taxi to get at 4.30am, I maybe catnapped for about an hour.

Got up about 3.30am, got dressed, got everything together, put the rubbish out in the bins (!), switched everything off, remembered crutches (thank GOD!), and went outside and waited. 4.30am came – no taxi! Our plane was at 6.40am, check in an hour earlier, and I said I’d meet Tracey, Lucy and Annette at 5.30. I rang them, they said they’d allocated me to someone but he might’ve fallen asleep – they’d ring him. Gave them five minutes and rang back. He HAD fallen asleep – they’d send someone else. Few minutes later this car came whizzing around the corner and I piled in! Well, guess what, I had another Hey Mr Taxi time – what is it about taxi drivers and me?! He drove like a loony tune. At least two birds (a pigeon and a blackbird) got it, I think, on the first road. We drove at LEAST 70mph towards Leeds, and then went via the back roads (and the speed cameras) mostly in North Yorkshire, only entering West Yorkshire (and speed camera country) at the last minute as we entered the airport! Five minutes to spare!

Leeds Bradford taxi dropping off point is WAY over the other side from the terminal, so Mr Taxi lugged my suitcase for me over to the building, where I met the gang. A very friendly gentleman made sure I was booked in for assistance (oh dearie me!) and then I checked in and Annette and I chatted for a bit, until Tracey and family came back. Went through customs with the minimum of fuss for a change and then waited a bit for boarding.

As for Ireland (which you’ll notice has not been blogged as it still makes me cry), I had to be carried on to the plane, but the guys doing it were extremely competent and I was soon on, and in my seat, buckled up and ready to go. I hate taking off so that was a bit of a chore, but I like looking through the clouds – go figure! We had just under an hour in the air, but managed to have a cheese and scrambled egg Panini – which sounds odd, but actually tasted quite nice – and a coffee. The plane was quite full – it only took about 40 people so…. LOL! I managed a little snooze, which was nice. Landed in Brussels – decent weather. Waited until everyone had got off, then I was taken off – again, with minimum of fuss – oh how I wish this had been the case later on – more of that later – MUCH later!

Anyway, we went through customs and got our luggage. Tracey had arranged with Jenny about our transportation to the hotel, and he was supposed to be waiting, with a card in his hand with Tracey’s surname on it. Could we find him? Could we heck as like! We spent a good 30 minutes surreptitiously going up to strange men with cards in their hands (OK, I did!), and casually pretending not to read what they said. Eventually, Tracey managed to ring Jenny to ask her what this guy looked like – there was then a three way conversation in two languages to find out where he was – having coffee, not too far away from where we were standing. We were late, so I can kind of understand it, but you’d have thought he’d come out a bit! And, he didn’t have a card with Tracey’s name in his hand, he had a card with his company’s name on – really helpful! LOL!Anyway, we then followed him to the van – and I nearly died. It was a 4 x 4 mini-van, and so I had to climb in! Got me into good practice for the weekend – little did I know – ha! Anyway, my second Mr Taxi of the day was as much help as a chocolate teapot, thank goodness I was with the others, otherwise I think he would’ve just tied a rope to my wheelchair and towed me – LOL!

The journey time to the hotel was about an hour (me ‘Are we there yet?’ when I first saw my first sign of Genk – others ‘NO!’) and when we were leaving Brussels Airport, I saw an airplane with ‘United States of America’ on it, are there more than one Air Force One’s? Anyway, that was the only bit of excitement, other than the anticipation of getting there. When we WERE nearly there, the driver took a wrong turning and WE had to tell him the right way (not bad, hey!!). Eventually, we came to this long drive up to the hotel, past the golf club (which we’d vaguely heard one or two stories about!) and arrived at the entrance to the hotel. It looked really nice from the outside, a little steepish ramp to get inside into a large, bright reception area, with a door off to the bar and restaurant and another to the rooms. Checked in, found out where our room was – downstairs. Went to lift – and was confronted with the tiniest hotel lift known to man, woman and child! …..). Couldn’t get wheelchair in it. Went BACK to reception –, receptionist came to lift tried just in case I was a bad driver (hmmm…..) - are there any rooms on THIS (ground) floor – no (wouldn’t have done any good anyway – read on! LOL!). Soooooo – I got out of my chair, got on my crutches, walked into lift, Annette and I folded the chair, I think our cases came up the slow way with the receptionist, and we got to our room. We had a junior suite – which is designated as a bedroom with a separate living area, but no door between the two. This was a double room, with another room off it, which Annette used as her room – there was a door. And there was a bathroom – which I couldn’t get into! Anyway, we unpacked a bit, and had a bit of a wash and then went downstairs again. I’m not mentioning it again, but you can imagine that it was a heck of a faff having to rely on people to help me get in and out all the time – one time I accidently (I PROMISE!) shoved the wheelchair out and it went out with a little more speed than I intended and nearly knocked a member of staff flying! I apologised profusely, and, to be fair, they were very, very helpful as well as everyone else.

Anyway, went downstairs, found an accessible loo which I claimed for my own for the weekend, and went down to wash in it a couple of times in the morning.

Anyway, eventually we went back up to the foyer, only to discover that we had to go even further upstairs to register. This hotel was bigger than it looked! LOL!

Anyway, we hung around for a bit, and then went in to get our stuff, a lovely folder FULL of stuff on the programme for the weekend, the food available, the treatments available, the rules of the weekend, and we were also given extra sheets on a chance to record with Merrill on his new CD – more later! And a chance to have a Reiki session – again, more later. I helped with giving the info out, just putting the two extra sheets together, so that Lucy didn’t have to waste time doing it herself – she did a great job. There were two wheelchair users at the weekend, and after a while we were escorted to where the next part of the weekend was, and ho hum, it was up two flights of stairs. Well, as there were several dozen people boiling in a room waiting to go to the same room, I felt I had no choice but to start walking. I walked slowly up the first flight, with help from a lovely person, who was a trained nurse so knew what she was doing – thank goodness! And then the second flight, I went on my bum! Eventually got to the top, to see Heather and Kade sitting at a table, watching rather incredulously as we came in. They did offer to help, but a) she’s a little bitty thing and b) she’s pregnant, except I didn’t know that at the time – LOL! I sat on a seat until my wheelchair came upstairs and then we went to our seats at the front, and waited (and rested for my part) for things to start. First of all Jay came in and joked around a bit, shook hands, was really lovely – more loveliness in a mo! Then Merrill came in – with his neck collar on – then he took it off! Heather told us of her and Kade’s horrendous plane ride – they had actually only arrived three hours before due to various delays with technical problems with planes – well, if you will fly Delta! HA!

Merrill spoke about the weekend – if you want it to be a fan gathering, that’s OK. He joked about Jay needing a lot of therapy (he got it). Not about Merrill, about us. What you put in, you will get out of it. It is his life’s dream coming true, and he wanted it to be a time that we would remember for a long, long time. Wanted to be free to be with us. Don’t fear failure, take up the opportunity to take issues away.

He then explained why we had M&Ms in our packages – all goes back to when he was little and wanted to be a doctor, and his parents used to give him packets of M&Ms to use as pills!

He explained about the stones – as opportunities to grow, decisions made about our lives. A Native American introduced Merrill to the idea. Don’t over analyse what happens to each of you, give each other space to be emotional, and he talked about his patriarchal blessing involving the gift of healing.

And, yes, I wrote notes (the only time).

Thanks were given to Jenny and Jay, to Heather and Kade, and we were introduced to Grietje, who talked a bit more about the weekend.

Then, everyone left, and we decided we’d wait until everyone had gone, so that we didn’t hold anyone up as we went down those stairs.

We're sitting there, trying to work out how we're going to go down (there is another girl in a wheelchair as well), and this very familiar voice says, 'Yes, how ARE we going to get you down?!' Well, bless him, he asked me what HE could do and I asked him to stand in front of me and basically walk down the stairs backwards (if he'd tripped, I would never have forgiven myself!). I joked that if I did I'd have a soft landing - LOL! He proceeded to walk slowly down, making sure that my crutch landed on the step safely on the first flight, and because I swapped round on the second, he held MY HAND in place on the railing to make sure it didn't slip - it makes my eyes water just thinking about it, he is a darling and I totally understand why you Jaygals love him so much - he's almost equal to Merrill now - and that's saying something – bless him, it wasn’t the first time he was so lovely to me over the weekend.

Sheffield and Birmingham

I got up the following morning, had breakfast and asked reception to phone for a cab. However, there were some cars outside so I went to one of them. Journey doesn't take long to the station, but we chatted about the Osmonds and the taxi driver seemed interested that they were all touring again. Train journey was not memorable - thank goodness, as National Express EC have become really awful since they took over from GNER! I arrived back home, got a cab to my place, went to the loo, dumped my bag, and then went off to Sheffield. It took about an hour and a bit, as traffic was really light. Sheffield Arena is really easy to find (now!) and I found I was more or less first there - again! HA! Decided to sit in car and read a book for a bit, and then got out as people started coming. Had a really good chat with people as they arrived, as it got nearer and nearer to the gig starting time we started to get a sinking feeling that we weren't going to get anyone coming out. And - we didn't! Boooooo! It's not THAT far from Newcastle. Anyway, went in, seat was on the right hand side, looking from the stage, and I was sat near a lady and her daughter, and we had a great time. I leant her my binoculars (view was great, actually, but it stopped me ogling Merrill for a while - hehehe!). The show was fantastic again, but I decided that I would leave halfway through the last song and go to the gate - I knew how it ended - LOL!

So, I did, and there were a few people there as well, and we waited, and waited, and decided to do some noise (OK, I decided to lead some noise, I will admit it - I am a bad, bad Merrill fan!), but they went onto the bus and watched Jonathan Ross instead of meeting us (I STILL haven't seen that interview! HA!). After a bit of time, there was some movement, and eventually all of them except Wayne and Alan came out. Merrill had his Wales t-shirt on, he looked a bit tired and serious - so I decided he needed a kiss to cheer him up! He wasn't best pleased either when we told him 'someone' had said he wasn't feeling too well, voice-wise - whoops! (and I can genuinely say that I can't remember who said it, so I'm not giving anyone's name away!). Had a little chat with Marie again, and when Donny came along, I took the opportunity to say thank you for putting on such a wonderful show as a tribute to his brothers' careers in showbiz. He was genuinely moved to hear me say that - bless! And then Jimmy came along.................. the reason I've taken so long to update this blog is because of this incident. He came along, looked at me with my camera, and said 'Why are you taking a picture of me, you don't like me!' He had a small smile on his face, but I can't say it was all that brilliant. Well, cue one stunned and slightly hurt Gerry - sticks and stones and all that, but did he REALLY need to say that?! I have to say that, ever since then, I've not thought much of him, and have decided not to go to Chicago to see him, and was actually in two minds to go to Osmania because a trip to Grease was included - but I did, and we met and it was nice, but, still.......

Anyway, I tried to enjoy the rest of the time there, and did, with my friends, who tried to make light of it happening (it makes me well up still). I'm all for people saying what they think, but ...

Anyway, I travelled back to York and spent most of the next day in bed (tired, not because of JAO). On Bank Holiday Monday, I went to Birmingham as Jay, Jimmy and Merrill were due to do a DVD signing at HMV in the city. Left home quite early, train journey takes about two hours, station staff at both ends really helpful (specially New Street, as it is HUGE!). Taxi driver took me as far as he could go, as it's a pedestrianised area. There were already tons of people there, queuing behind barriers. I went up to security to ask them where the end of the line was, and they told me to go away!! Just kidding, they DID tell me to go away, but to come back nearer the time and then they would take those of us in wheelchairs up first - lahdidah!

Soooo, I did what I was told, went to the McDonalds down the road for breakfast, KJ, Wilma and Alison eventually came to, and then they went back up, and I went back up after a while and took some photos of the crowd. Lots of people going past wondering what was going on. Eventually it came time to go in and we were taken through the side entrance, and placed near a table with some chairs behind it - three of them. The crowd grew bigger and bigger, the press came and chatted with some of the local ladies, and pictures were taken, chants were chanted, songs were sung, excitement grew. And then.................... security came in and took one chair away - and my heart sank, as I kind've knew who might not be coming. Sure enough - I was told to pass on a message that Merrill wasn't feeling too well, was resting his voice, and WOULD be performing that night. Apparently, Chinese Whispers changed it slightly as it went along the line, but I passed it on correctly - so there! I was sad, but was determined to have a good time anyway (and you can't be too greedy about meeting your favourite Osmond - can you?! Who the heck am I kidding?!). Anyway, I was about third in line, we were told keep the chat to a minimum, keep the signing to a minimum. Jimmy and Jay were great - Jimmy said 'you come to everything!' Errrm - no! I think he was trying to make amends - but I'm not sure. I was so busy chatting I forgot to give them my DVD, Jay had to ASK for it! LOL! All too soon it was over, and we were escorted out of the building - and I hung around for a bit, waiting to see where some friends were in the queue so we could go to lunch together, but I missed them so went up to the food court, and had lunch with Jenny and Elinor - really great (got a tiny Merrill fix - with J as in between - ha!). Anyway, eventually they went off and I decided to hang about outside the shop a bit, and explain to passers-by what was going on, some were interested in a good way, some were not - numpties! After a bit, I decided that I would go to the arena - can't be that far - three quarters of a mile later, through the streets of Birmingham City Centre, in the drizzle, having been pushed up a very steep hill by a lovely man with his family, I arrived. Couldn't find anyone there (this was quite a bit after the signing, so I would've expected some to be there. Eventually, I found some friends, and we tried to find where the bus was - I can NEVER find that car park! LOL!

Eventually, we found a bus parked a bit further down the road - just happened to be outside the Hyatt Regency. Now, I've made comments in the past about hanging around outside hotels, and I apologise for being hypocritical about it now I've done it! LOL! It WAS outside, though, and we had no idea if we'd see anyone. Well, we did! HA! Wayne was one of the first out, and he nearly landed on my lap - he was signing stuff and posing for photos, turned his back on me (not deliberately), and walked backwards, I had to put my hand on his back to say 'whoa!' - he was soooo apologetic, bless him! Then Alan came out, and went very quickly onto the bus, then Donny, and I very nearly got pushed over by the rush - should've prepared better for that. Then I met Jimmy and Jay again - Jay smiled broadly at seeing me. It was nice to see them all, we waited a bit to see if a certain someone would come, but no, he was waiting until later to go - unless he was already on the bus, the sneaky rascal!

Anyway, we then went back to the gate, where there was a sneaky game of cat and mouse with the gateperson. Teasing was done - bad people! I spent most of the rest of the time in a pub having a drink with a friend, watching the world go by, talking about all sorts of things, we noticed particularly a homeless guy with a dog - poor loves, it was horrible weather by this time, people gave some food for the dog, and a bit of money. After a while, I decided to get something to eat, so went to the Jurys Inn and had another hamburger! Really nice - met up with a few friends though who were passing the time, some of them also disappointed at not seeing Merrill - ah well, (((((HUGS))))). I then got a cab to the station and went home, tired and a bit emotional. My 50th tour was over, but outside HMV I'd been given a flyer about a tour Merrill was doing of Ireland, but that is a WHOLE new story!