Florida day 2…..

Having a great time here at Ralphs house, here's the view from his yard!!

Goodbye Philly….Hello Florida!

Got an early morning call at 6am, showered packed the rest of my stuff and drove to the airport around seven.
Leaving Philly                                             My home for the last 5 nights
  

Dropped the rental car off at the airport, took the shuttle to the terminal and checked in for my 9:30 flight to Ft Lauderdale. Made my way to the US Airways Exec lounge and had some croissants and orange juice for breakfast. I watched an episode of 90210 on my laptop before making my way down to the gate to board my flight. The captain came on the intercom and let us all know it was clear skies and 78`  at the moment and this was at 9am! I’d been looking forward to this leg of the tour not only because of the weather but because i was staying at my good friend Ralph and Loris house in West Palm Beach.

I slept for half the flight, woke up drooling and wondering if anyone had seen me!! The rest of the flight i typed up my blog and checked a few pictures form some of the shows. Landed in Florida around 1:30 and felt the humidity hit me the second i walked off the plane! There was no way id be needing my hoodie for the next few days that  i had brought with me which id be wearing all the time in Philly!! this was T shirt and shorts weather! yay!

The rental car line was pretty long, at least 20 people in front of me and if you've rented a car in the US you’ll know that these lines just don't seem to move! It took me nearly an hour to get from the back of the line to actually sitting in the car and setting off. My first question now when i collect my rental car is “ what sort of car is it?” I've been dreading getting one of those damn cube car things and the guy at the check in said i had a Nissan Sentra, that was good, id seen a few of these on the road and it didn't look anything out of the ordinary so i was happy with that. I smiled to myself when i got in the car and it said 83` on the outside temperature dial:)

Blue skies and open roads of Florida                                                        In case their cars breakdown?

 

Ralphs house was about a 50 minute drive away and after driving around Philly for the last 5 days it was nice to not have to  drive through countless lanes of traffic and stationary vehicles!

I got to Ralphs house just in time to set off again to go pick my friend Greg up who was flying into West Palm Beach airport at 4:20pm i said hello to Ralph and his daughter Christina, Lorri was still getting ready so Ralph and i headed straight out to pick up Greg. Was great to see Ralph again, he had seen the show already in Chicago but has seen the 4th show there and that was the only one i had had to miss of the whole tour so we didn't get to meet up. The last time we saw each other was when we went on the Think Floyd cruise from Miami a couple of years ago and at the dark side shows a couple of years before that.

Ralph, Christina and Lorri, great hosts.        Lorri, Ralph, Greg and I                My new friend

    

Greg called us as we were sat in the cell phone lot at the airport and said he was still sat on the tarmac in the pane and they wouldn't let them out! Ralph then remembered there had been a small plane crash at the airport the day before and a couple of people had been killed! Greg said he was gonna light a cigarette up so they would let him off the plane but we didn't hear from him for another 45 minutes so I'm guessing he didn't or it didn't work!!

Greg had also been on the Think Floyd cruise with us a couple of years ago but he had also been in Chicago with us all a few weeks earlier for the shows so we’d seen each other a few weeks ago.  We headed back to Ralphs house at which point Ralphs wife  Lorri was all dressed and ready to see us.

Ralph was a pizza chef for seven years and started off making dinner when we got back to the house.Lorri had gone out and bought all the drinks needed to make me Long Island Iced teas as well as a cooler full of beer and a fridge full of wine! Not only had myself and Greg been looking forward to being here but Lorri and Ralph were so excited to see us! You guys are the best and i cant thank you enough for your hospitality and I've only been here one night!

     

The pizza was amazing!! and tasted soo fresh!! Ralph made four huge pizzas in total and i think we devoured two of them between us and that's just reminded me there still some in the fridge for breakfast this morning! i LOVE cold pizza in the morning,lol need to go for a run first though.

Lorri had a shot at making a long island iced tea, bartenders make it look soooooooo easy when you watch them, they seem to get the amount of each drink that goes into it just right, Lorri made me pick a shot glass from their collection in the kitchen cupboard, i though the one below suited me well  as smiling is something i do a lot when I'm drunk!

My shot glass                                          Ingredients for my Long Islands!

Lorri added an equal amount of each drink, shook it in the shaker and then added a splash of coke,i tasted it for the first time, WHOOOO AHHHHHH its a good job i was not near any naked fames or I'd have instantly combusted!! we added a splash more coke and then a splash more and a splash more till it was just right. I made the second one and for some reason everything just seemed to work well together! it came out great!  Its funny,  hate and i mean HATE all the drinks that go into a Long Island but seriously when you mix them al together its just like something magic happens!! i really don't drink anything else apart from the odd glass of wine and i don't drink AT ALL when I'm in the UK.

We ate pizza, chatted outside, drank great drinks and then started to play bowling on the Wii! that was so much fin, I've only played Wii once before and it was good i enjoyed it but throw in some great friends and a few drinks and boy did we have some fun!

Greg and Ralph Wii’ing!!

 

After playing bowling we moved on to the golf game, that was fun but i think i enjoyed the bowling more. More drinks flowed more pizza got eaten and more games were played! Ralph has a dartboard on the wall and that's not all there is on the wall! he has a few trophies of the things he’s shot over the years including a bear that his dad shot and is now in the living room!!

     

After a touch of confusion over the fact that Lorri wanted to play cricket!! we all went over to the dartboard. I was shocked when Lorri announced that she knew how to play the game of Cricket, she was the first American person whom I'd met that knew anything at all about cricket! however my shock soon turned out to be nothing as what i didn't know was she meant a game that's played with darts called cricket!! you have to get three of each number from 20 to 15 and then three bulls! I of course being English beet the crap out of the Americans:)

Greg's friend Mike from Tampa arrived  around 11 ish and the drinking and games continued another hour before i was hit by a huge blast of tiredness and made my excuses and made my way to the bedroom that was mine for the three nights i was here.

My bedroom for the night!!

   

Its now nearly 11am Saturday morning , Maria just knocked at the door! her and Jack didn't get in till late last night and went straight to their hotel and drove over here (about a 45 minutes drive) to see us all, everyone's still in bed and I'm just gonna go for a run! Last night was fantastic and we didn't have a show to see so I'm guessing tonight's going to be even more of a blast and the partying is gonna continue after the show for sure back here!

More pics from last night below:

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Philly 3rd show..

So after a late ish night last night with Dave and Wendica i didn't wake up till around eleven and didn't get up till noon. I went for a workout in the hotel gym and then chilled out in the room for a couple of hours. Spoke to Jim who had arranged a pub meet up tonight called the Dark Horse for dinner with him and Chrissy plus Greg, Phil and a few others.

Left the hotel around 3:30, in fact that was the first time id been outside the hotel today! We headed down to the Dark Horse in the car, wasn't far, a short 15 minute ride away,  parked up and headed in to the pub. Jim and Chrissy arrived five minutes later and then Phil, Greg, Laila and Linda and then a Ccouple of Jims friends arrived

Myself, Greg and Phil                                 Linda, Myself and Laila

 

We had a few drinks and a bite to eat and then drove down to the venue. The drive took us 15 minutes and we were fortunate tonight to have a VIP parking pass so drove straight in the parking lot next to the venue and positioned the car right near the exit so hopefully we wouldn't get caught up in much traffic on the way out.

If you read my blog yesterday then you’ll have seen the details about Coleen and her mom and dad, when i read the comment from Coleen her story really touched me and i had a chat with Dave K during the day and showed him her message, he was really touched as well and said he would come out to meet them before the show started tonight. They were sat 2nd row centre and as Kami and i went in the venue we made our way down to the floor and waited for Coleen to take her seat. Ten minutes later and i spotted Coleen and her mom but unfortunately her dad wasn't at this show and had only seen the second show! I explained about meeting Dave K and Kami sent a text to Dave to tell him we were here. he came out to have a picture taken with them and a quick chat, it was quick though as he had a few guests tonight and was also spotted by the “gay guys” whom we’d met in the Four Seasons a couple of nights before.

Elly, Dave and Coleen                         Myself with the guys!                          Friend, Myself and James

   

As i was stood talking to the James and his friend another guy Erik came up to me and told me we had met briefly in London in 2002!!! I vaguely remembered Erik and we had a quick chat before heading back to our 13th row centre seats. Kami got a couple of pics with Brent while he was going past with about 10 minutes to go before show time.

Erik and I                                           Kami and Brent

   

We sat next to a couple of guys who had received complimentary tickets from Roger. They worked in a restaurant one was a waiter and the other a bar  tender. A couple of nights before Roger had been in the restaurant and was so impressed with their service he offered them two comp tickets to the show! Today was also Veterans day and there was a whole row of Vets tonight slightly off to the right side off the floor.

Roger has again been working on the visuals and has the last couple of shows added even more animation and changed the projections about a bit! During the lyrics “ a snapshot in the family album” he’s added a picture on Mr screen of Roger with his mom and dad, its the old black and white pictures that's been seen online for years but they have coloured it red to match in with all the other graphics for Another Brick! There's also a nice subtle change to the camera animation that's on Mr Screen during Mother, the camera now gets covered by the red animated “blood” that covers the whole of the wall. Its a little thing but works really well.

       

Last night there was also a change in the animation at the end of Goodbye Blue Sky, normally all the symbols (shell logo, $ sign, Mercedes logo, cross, Star, ) that are shown coming out of the B52 planes usually fade in and out and fall all over the wall around, however last night they all “bounced” down from the top of the screen and bounced around at the bottom of the wall. Similar to before but different, you have to see it to know what i mean. Roger also spoke of the veterans at the beginning of Mother and thanked them all.

The crowd tonight were better than the 2nd show but still not as good as the 1st one, they all remained standing up but the energy just wasn't as good as the first night. There was a lot of “action” around our seats as well, a lot of people coming in and out and changing seats and moving around which kinda took the edge of a couple of things for me.

Few random images from the show.

       

We’d spoken briefly to Robbie before the show and he had asked us if we were coming backstage again tonight, (i cant stress how much of a nice guy he is, he remembers things!!  peoples names for one!) i said maybe and we decided at intermission to go back and see him briefly. He had some guests here tonight who were Chinese and Kami felt like she was back in China again rambling on to them in Chinese!

John Joyce and the Kipp brothers came to see us and again they had a few guests around so we pretty much left them to it and sat and had a bottle of water. I had to laugh when we were talking to John Joyce, he had remembered us from  a couple of nights before when he joined us at the Four Seasons for 10 minutes, we were chatting away and he had his earpiece monitors dangling around his neck when i noticed the small crossed hammer logs on the side of each one!!

We headed back out to the floor and watched the second half from the right side, about 5 rows from the stage. we had a great vantage point to watch Jim try grab the armband from here too!

I'm still not liking the little “oohh ohhh oohhs” that Robbie is doing in the Show Must Go on, it just doesn't sound right to me! I am however really liking the new graphics for the Comfy Numb, as we couldn't see Dave on top of the wall due to being so close i watched Roger and the new graphics all the time. They just seam to fit perfectly. Made me laugh when Roger changed up his normal line and said “ are there any paranoids in the city of brotherly love tonight” i didn't quite catch what he said at first till Kami heard it also and heard what he actually said.

   

After waiting for the Worms we watched the scramble on the floor around Jim as Roger threw his armband!! It was hysterical, there were people everywhere scrambling to get it! Jim later on told us that i seamed like everyone knew  tonight that it was going to happen and even though everyone around them were different people from the nights before they still knew where and when Roger was going to throw it.

      

Security started moving people early on before the wall fall, the whole of the right section was full of people tonight, even though the yellow caution tape was still there and had blocked off about 4 seats from the stage all the way down the section they started to tell people to move out of there seats in the first 5 rows. Kami and i were right on the border where the wall would come down and moved back a row and in towards the arena a couple of seats. Had we not done we would have been pleasantly hit on the head by falling bricks!! oh if only!!

 

Wall falling in Philly

   

Roger thanked the crowd again and said how much of a music town Philly has always been and how much the crowd have always been appreciative, he then introduced the band as normal and they all left the stage once again for a final time in Philly.

Jim, Chrissy, Kami and i hung out for 20 minutes after the show just for a chat as this would be the last time we’d see them till Milan or the UK shows. Jims a great guy and it was a pleasure to meet Chrissy this time round as well.

Kami and i headed back to the car and managed to make a quick exit out on to the highway, 20 minutes later we were back at the hotel!

Its been a fantastic five nights in Philly, and three great shows that i will remember not only for the shows themselves but for the people i attended them with and the people i met. I'm actually sat on a plane at the moment between Philly and Ft Lauderdale typing this blog entry  and ready for the next section of the tour, the south US. The captain has just said the weather  at our destination is 78` and clear and I'm looking forward to wearing  shorts and t shirts for the next couple of weeks till i get to Denver, then back to the shorts for the last 3 weeks of the tour in California!!

I think Kami had a great time this week too and i wanted to say thanks to her for been such a great friend and hanging out at the shows and of course for ordering some great Chinese in Chinese!!

More pics from Philly 3rd night

 

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