London, England, 29 October 2011
Ozzy & I woke up at 7ish in Dam. Took a shower and we got the bus at 8.20 to the airport. We are going to see The Streets in Battersea.
We had our boarding passes already, and only hand luggage as we were only going for 1 night. We got through the passport check to Starbucks in lounge 3 and when we finished our coffee we went through the luggage check. We were boarding at 9.30 and just after 10 the plane left. We arrived at Gatwick at 10 (English time). We got the Gatwick Express to Victoria Station on our way, we passed Battersea, we saw the festival & the Snowboard ramp already.
When we arrived at Victoria Station we went to Shakespeare for a full English, although I didn’t take the beans and mushroom. We first wanted to wait for Laurence, but decided to go to the Airways hotel Victoria to check in. When we arrived at the hotel there was a large group checking in before us, by the time Ozzy checked in, Laurence arrived as well.
We were supposed to meet up with Lizz and Abbie, but their fancy 5 * hotel was a nightmare to get to, so we decided to meet up at the festival at 4pm. The girls agreed. Lizz would have done my nails. She would give me blue glittery nails, but she would bring then nail varnish to the festival.
We got to the festival just before 4. We picked up the guest list tickets. We saw Mike‘s family waiting as well. We were on the list. Thanks so much Ted for sorting us out again! Last time you have to help me out for a Streets gig. Next gig, my last one, the 35th gig is already booked.
I got a message from Abbie that they would be a little bit later. They went shopping and were on their way back to the hotel. We went to have a look around the festival. We went to see where the main stage was, cos Mike will play there later and we saw the snowboarding.
A Dutch snowboarder Joris came 3rd. Van harte gefeliciteerd man!
I got a text from Havva, she and her hubby Dave wanted to meet up with us. I let here know where we were and they came over. Great to see her again. We had a little chat. We also got some food. After a while Havva left with Dave and we would move more towards the snowboard ramp. Until the girls arrived at 6.30, 2 ½ hours late. Anyways was great to see them again. We went inside the tent cos it was freezing outside. We were so cold. Guess we were meant to be, as we’re at Freeze festival, but I didn’t like it much.
We got to the front on the right side of the stage, we were surviving a band who I don’t know the name of anymore. Abbie and Lizz left for a few minutes to watch the snowboarding. At 7 they got back, and we moved more to the middle. 2nd row, that’s fine cos we had to survive “Everything Everything” first. I got my nails done. When Everything Everything will finish, I have to get to the front. A girl left, Ozzy saw it and told me, I grabbed the fence, but saw 6 other people grabbing that fence, but they let go when they saw me LOL think they saw that they didn’t have a chance. Haha just kidding.
YAY up front again, and ready. The gig was amazing. great crowd, very rowdy, but fun.
It was so good! Rob waved. Kevin & Mike said hello. Madge did a “I’m watching you”
After the gig we went back to where we met up with Abbie & Lizz. I saw Spencer (Mike’s cousin) there, I said hello to him, we had a little chat. His movie “Rock ‘n Roll Fucking Lovely” will be able to see in March 2012, go and see it! (Well, I guess it didn’t come out until 2 or 3 years later). I’ve seen it. I have it, but it’s not my cup of tea but was good to see some guys from the Streets crew in it.
Then I saw Dan, I said hello to him, and we had a little chat, then he introduced me to his mum, which means it’s Mike‘s mum as well. She said “Oh are you Tess de Jong? I have heard so much about you.” And Dan said “Yeah Tess, we all know who you are”. OH MY, I’m shocked but wow this is so cool. And Skinner’s mum is so lovely! We had a good chat. And Dan told me where The D.O.T. stands for. It’s The Dear ol’ Tess. All your questions are answered now. And their mum said “I always see your name on the list, also today. Oh Tess is on the list again”. So nice. It was so lovely to meet her. She also said that I should get a family pass instead of a guest pass. Awwww that’s so sweet! She should tell Mike tho 😉
Then everybody left so did we. We said goodbye to Lizz & Abbie. And got the train back to the hotel. I was so tired, I wanted to go to sleep straight away, but I was so cold, I couldn’t get warm. Thankfully there was an extra blanket. I fell asleep, and slept like a little baby.
October 30th 2011
The next morning, I saw a message of my mum that she had to stay with my granddad the whole night. He might wouldn’t make it through the night but I couldn’t do much, because I’m still in London. Thankfully he did make it.
We were going to meet up with Lizz & Abbie at noon on the London bridge, we were going to walk to Westminster, but we walked past Buckingham palace, and we saw the changing of the guard.
Then we were walking through St. James park, and saw a place where we could get lunch, so we did. We were going to be too late to meet the girls but we were so thirsty, and were dying to go to the toilet. This needed to be done. I let the ladies know that we were going to be late. After this we went to Westminster, and got the metro there to London bridge. We met up with the ladies at McDonalds. We could only stay for 30 minutes cos we had to catch a plane and Laurence needed to catch her train back to Brussels. We should have left earlier tho, cos we didn’t have much time left, we had to hurry, but we got there just in time. When I got back home I didn’t go to Amsterdam, I had to go straight to mum, my brother and granddad in Hillegom.
I phoned work that I am not coming into work tomorrow, I need to be there for my mum and granddad, he looks so bad that I was shocked. I’m scared he won’t make it through the night.
He did make it through the night, but not during the day.
October 31st 2011
My granddad passed away. RIP granddad, I miss you and I love you.
The D.O.T. (The dear old Tess) released on October 18th Insane and Wrong way, right way:
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