Manchester

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After a short afternoon/night at home, and saying goodbye to Hannah, we headed to the airport at 7am.
Check in, hanging around and killed some time at the airport till it was time to board.
I insisted on sitting close to the wing, and yes, most monkey junkies know why.

Of course, not shortly after take off, Monica and I started singing wings on fire. (I know, don't jinx it, but i just couldn't resist myself)

We arrived at Manchester airport, a little over an hour later. The coach was easy found, but i booked it two hours later, just to make sure everything was okay.
Luckily we could change our departure time to 11 instead of 1pm, and we boarded. It was good to finally be able to enjoy the view outside and not have to pay attention to the traffic.

Arriving at coach station, just before noon, but not knowing where to go, we booked a hotel, but i was a quite bit confused, easiest solution... take a taxi, gotta love the British taxi's, 4 pounds later, we arrived at the Holiday inn express, right across the Starbucks, and 10 minutes away from the venue.

a shower and some food, and time to explore the area around the hotel. What we mostly did, was looking for the venue, and explore more from there,
Venue was easily found (thanks to the big greenish bus) and we founda nice and cozy pub across the street, (which was of course closed till 3pm for some graduation party). glad to announce that it was only a quarter to 3.

Found out that Jen and Sarah were waiting to check in the hotel, and text them where we were. A few beers and a hamburger later, a few ladies walked in. It was nice to finally meet Suzie and Lisa and Louise and Gayle (and some more who I forgot the name of *blush*. When we were about to leave, Sarah and Jen walked in, and it was like we knew eachother for years.

At the crossover i heard my name and I finally met Ellie, These bunch of girls are the most amazing girls in the world, and i had the bestest of times with them, while waiting in line.

Zookeepers were lucky again today, and we got to wait inside till they would open the door, including a promise that we would get our early entrance.
I was convinced we would get our early entrance, but alas, we had to run for our stage places again, when the security guy opened the door, without letting us inside the room first.
I was quite bummed, till Lani called the zookeepers to the side of the stage where we had our special standing places, which was the only 'real' special standing place during all the shows we had, but we had the best place to stand non the less.

All the zookeepers (Exept Jo) headed to the side of the stage, where we had lots of space to dance and bounce around, we could even score ourselves some beers.

I managed to took some pictures with my phone, because smart as i am, i forgot to charge the batteries of my camera. The pictures aren't of the best quality, but you can definitely see how special our standing place was.
UNTIL i dropped my phone on stage, and i couldn't reach it.
Luckily Ben was sweet enough to give it back to me, (after trying to steal it first)

We decided to go stand last for the signings, but i was a bit bummed that there wasn't much beer to get during waiting in the LOOOOOOOONG Line, till Ellie pointed us at a bar upstairs.

The signings were great as usual, the men really take their time for you, and again i managed to get a Twilla hug.

Hanging outside chatting with the ladies for a while, before going back to the hotel to get some sleep before heading to the coach the next morning, to go to Birmingham.

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