Sometimes I wonder why I put myself through these missions. The mission itself is at times too crazy to put into words but then, soon after the event (in this case around twelve hours) I have to jump on the computer, upload the photos to my FlickR account and begin the difficult task of writing up my adventures for the world to read (enjoy or cringe, depending on your point of few). Let me pick up the story from my last post, yesterday lunchtime.

I had planned to leave home around 3pm but I left nearly half an hour earlier. In fact it was exactly 14:31 as I took these photos (above) of the sun shining across the Cressex Link. Whenever I normally go to London, it is always a mad rush, particularly to go to Arsenal matches so I was glad time was on my side for a change and I could relax. I got to High Wycombe station and got my ticket from the FastTicket machine and checked the train times on the computer screen. I had missed a train which had left literally a few seconds before. The next train was at 14:56, I had plenty of time. As I got across to platform three I realised it was the non-stop direct service to Marylebone. Result! Just as I boarded the train there was a buzzing coming from my bag. A work colleague calling, obviously not realising I was officially on holiday. I explained I would call them back when I got off the train. I settled down into my seat and put the volume up on the Zen. The sun was shinning through the windows, it was a beautiful winter afternoon. I smiled as we cross the M25 and saw the traffic at standstill heading clockwise. When we got into London around d 15:25 and I called my colleague and dealt with her query. Then rather than opted to jump on the tube, I decided to walk to Oxford Street and browse. I had plenty of time to kill. Rikki doesn’t finish work until 6pm and was going to try and get out fifteen minutes. I went into HMV to take a look around and also tried a few phone shops to see if could get a case for my newly acquired work mobile (Nokia N70) No luck, but the phone is now three years old! I walked down Regent Street, avoiding going into the Apple Store and made my way down to Piccadilly Circus. I looked back to my previous Friday night when had been stick here for nearly twenty minutes in the rush hour. I took a few photographs. On one of the neon signs was a rolling advert for the BBC iPlayer. Then I realised that I would need to login at some point over the weekend to catch up on the episode from 8pm on Friday. I wondered what to do, and thought I would head across the road to Leicester Square, from here I walked down to the National Gallery and down the steps onto Trafalgar Square. Here I sat down and put my Zen back on. I listened to No Air several times, while watching a Boeing 747 flying across in the distant blue sky. It was starting to get dark, with the sun quite close to kissing the horizon. Just like when I was last here, there was an incident. Somebody had collapsed and a paramedic on a bike (para biker?) came onto the square, closely followed by an ambulance. There was quite a crowd gathered but I was in a different world, listening to my music and letting the day pass me by. It was getting dark and the clock was ticking, I decided to head back on myself. I was not in a rush, so walked at a slow place taking in as much as I could. The ambulance was pulling away as I made my up across and onto Leicester Square. I was going to Waterstones. I thought I could take a look at a few books while waiting for Rikki. Not sure why I headed for the Career advice section but at 17:46, Rikki called to say she was downstairs and we headed down to Bond Street. We would get something to eat when we got to the O2. IT was nice to catch up, considering the last time I had seen her was at the Mobo Awards back in September. The trip on the tube was relatively quiet for a Friday evening pushing 6pm. Once we got to North Greenwich, there was a strange sense of deja vu. Although we were in more casual clothes and there were far less people about. As we entered the dome, I noticed quite a lot of Asian people about, many ladies in bright saris. There was obviously some function going on. As we walked passed the closed arena we saw the venue, it was Indigo. (Some digging around the internet, thanks to Google reveals all. We headed down the main street (if you can call it that, it is actually called Millennium Way) pass the ice rink and tried to decide on which restaurant to go to. In the end we opted for Zizzi. Mainly because it was not too busy and we would get served in time before heading down to the show.

I had read some of the reviews but even so it is not until you see the show for yourself that you can make your own opinion. I can only describe the show has magnificent. Our seats were in block G, in the second row so we had a perfect view of the show circle, almost directly central. There was a band placed above the main curtain. The show started at 8pm and the first half lasted an hour. The acts came thick and fast and the time flew by without you really noticing. I was going to go into details of the acts but I cannot do them justice with words on a web page. To truly get an idea of the colour, magic and wonder of this unique circus you need to head over to the official web site and watch the short video clip on there. There were two highlights for me, in the first half the two human pyramids which collapse into each other. In the second half there was the the young woman who is so flexible she is able to twist herself around her own body. Does that make sense? It probably doesn’t which makes it even more amazing. The show ending at 10.30pm exactly and how my mission to get to Maidenhead could begin. I said goodbye to Rikki at the top of the escalator and then headed down to platform three. I had my Zen on and was listening to, yes you’ve guessed it No Air. I checked the time on the platform clock, 22:42. There were many commuters at the platform, so I made way down to a quiet section and got on the train. I took a seat and looked up. I smiled at the advertising board and had to take a photograph, just for fun. Perhaps I can send it as a MMS to my friend later. Now it was a case of every second counts. I got to Baker Street, switched over to the Bakerloo line (for one stop only) to get to Marylebone. Here, like many times before I ran all the way back up to the station and checked the board. The next train didn’t leave for a good fifteen minutes. It was 23:15. At this rate, I would most likely get to Wycombe after the witching hour and have to dash over to Maidenhead to catch the closing aspect of DJ Breezy’s set. I was still keen to do this, to prove my friends wrong and more importantly improve my ranking (at least by two) with the Admiral. I took a window seat and relaxed a little. I listened to my Zen as the minutes ticked passed before the train departed. I text Pav, but rather than send the full detailed text I wanted to, I accidentally hit sent after only starting my SMS with “At Marylebone”. I completed the text and decided to send it to Charlie because he would be there and actually check his phone, whereas Pav would be busy on the decks entertaining the crowd. (I would be proved wrong later!) After spending most of the day listening to music, I opted to watch some music videos instead. It was here I realised I had called the national anthem of the beloved US of A, as “Stars & Stripes” instead of “The Star Spangled Banner”. In any case, due to the way mpeg recorded by my TV card is played back in Windows Media Player, the encoding to WMV was skipping, so I heard only one third of the song. 🙁 Never mind, I would fix that wrong tomorrow. As we got to Gerrards Cross, I text my Dad to arrange for him to pick me up. He called me back a few minutes later, he was out in London and I would have to get a taxi home, however my car was still at home. The mission was still on but the journey via taxi would cost me time as well as money. As the train I was on was heading to Aylesbury it was stopping at every station and resulted in a journey time of forty-five minutes. I got to Wycombe at quarter past midnight, headed for a taxi and directed him the best way home. As he pulled into the bus stop on the Cressex Link, he struggled to change my £20 note, so I just got him to sort out change to the nearest pound. I did not have the time to wait and quibble over eighty-five pence. I got out the taxi and ran the way home, got through the door, dumped my bag in my room, grabbed my car keys and headed back out onto the radio. The A404 was clear as I was able to make excellent time before getting into Maidenhead itself. There were road works on the main road and more around the corner but I got around and parked my car in the car park just up the road from Phatz Bar. I noted the time on my car park ticket, 0:44. Just over two hours ago I was leaving the O2 in Central London and here I was in Maidenhead ready (as much as I could be) for some Trance Planet. I went across and was stopped by the bouncer and asked for three pound entry fee. (I had always come before when it was free to get in). I headed upstairs (even downstairs was playing the urban, more suited to my music tastes. As I came through to the room, I saw it was quite busy. However I did not see all my friends I had expected. I headed straight for the DJ booth and looked at Pav while checking the time on my watch. His response was, “Terry – you made it!”. I headed to the bar to get a drink and saw that Andy & Mel were at the front dancing and they gave me a wave. Mel left about fifteen minutes later and then Andy & I headed towards the front of the dance floor. Paul appeared, a little worse for wear with wine glass in hand, leather jacket on with very fashionable scarf. His brother was there also, along with Eddie. Pav was playing some great tunes and then shouted to me, that the next song was for me. We had discussed this late on Wednesday evening on MSN. He asked me to request a song to be played when I arrived. I had suggested something fitting like Love Inc. – Superstar but this was far too commercial and would wreck his set if played. It was too “dangerous” I was told and understood. He then responded with, “the most commercial im going is a remix of filo & peri anthem”. I was happy with this choice as I had downloaded the song a while back and played it a few times in the car. This was the song he played now. Fantastic! It got the crowd going and the room filled up once again. However, after another half hour my energy levels were dropping and I really needed to head home to my bed.

I said goodbye to Pav and explained that I bet he didn’t think I was going to make it. I said goodbye to Andy and Paul before heading out the door. There was a large police presence standing opposite Chicago’s for some reason. I walked back to my car, put the car in the payment machine, even though there was no need as the car park is free after midnight, the barriers are open. I checked the time on my ticket and tried to take a photo with my N73 before leaving but the flash was over exposing the image. Never mind, I would take another when I was home over the weekend. This must be some record somewhere. Not just if you take into account all the events of the evening but the fact that I was out clubbing for less than an hour. The time stamps on my ticket do not lie.