No, my heart has not been possessed by the spirit of Michael McIntyre, nor have I developed a stammer. No, indeed - but this weekend was all about the man with the tightest trousers on God's green earth. Yes, folks, OLLY MURS!! (I hope you read that in your Voiceover Man from X-Factor voice!)
I can honestly say that a grand old time was had by all four of us (Jo's pals from work, Hayley and Rachel, were our partners in crime for the evening). We sang. We danced. We laughed. We ate, drank and were merry. Even Jason Manford joined in on the fun. More on that later! I think my one and only grievance was that the boys and girls from Northern Trains are under the misguided supposition that a train consisting of two carriages is sufficient in order to transport the inhabitants of Leyland, Preston, Blackpool, Bolton and the surrounding areas home after a gig at an auditorium that houses 15,000 people. Just saying. Being able to breathe might be nice.
I decided to have my first Flexible Syns day since I started this whole slimming thing. It's slightly more structured and less terrifying than just having a day off, in that rather than just thinking "Bah, to hell with it!" for the day and eating your own body weight in chocolate, you can say to yourself, "Okie doke, I'm going out somewhere that will involve a lot of eating and drinking and general carrying-ons - I'll double/treble my Syn allowance for the day!" and then rein it straight back in for the rest of the week. So I decided upon 45. I did have quite a few drinkypoops, but was actually really rather good on the eating front. I had this amazing salad for my tea consisting of loads of salad leaves, green beans, eggs, tomatoes, grilled chicken and bacon, on a plate roughly the size of my bottom (which may give you an idea of how huge the salad was - I must say I was struggling towards the end!) and all the salad dressing was put in a little pot at the side, so I didn't put any of it on. Fabulous. Had egg, bacon and three Synful sausages for lunch, which was amazing. Been so long since I had anything resembling a Full English breakfast, it was a lovely treat. I have a feeling it should have always been a lovely treat, rather than tea two or three nights a week and then lunch on a Saturday!!!
Of course I still managed to beat myself up about having had a load of Syns, even though I knew I was going to and I didn't go over what I'd decided on, but I did do an awful lot of dancing and jumping about like a mad eejit. I may be fat but I can still shake and shimmy with the best of 'em. I also went on a mammoth walk to my pal Helena's which was, I've now worked out (thanks, Google Maps!), 2.2 miles - so every last drop of booze must have been worked off already!!
Back to Olly.
I think Olly Murs must be the least offensive person in pop. I mean, I appreciate that he mightn't be everyone's cup of tea, and I'd never call myself his biggest fan or anything - but he's just a nice chap and sings cheery songs of cheeriness. I mean you'd need a heart of granite to enforce a feeling of hatred towards him. And, fair play to him - he knows how to put on a show. He had a bit of a ska set and a bit of a Motown set, had everyone up and dancing, as well as all his own songs - I genuinely don't think that there was one person in that audience, male or female (you'd be surprised at how many men were there!) who didn't walk out of the arena feeling just a little bit in love with him. Although it was a large venue, he was so chatty and personable he made it feel like it was a rather intimate gig - which is no mean feat. He made quite a large tour of the arena floor, even going right to the back to dish out hugs and kisses to fans who I'm quite sure never imagined they'd get quite so close from where they were sitting!! Good on him. I've honestly never seen any singer or musician be so committed to making sure *every* person in the audience is having a great time. The big sister said, "It's like everyone who goes to see him gets sprinkled with a bit of love dust!" and it's absolutely true!!
As I may have mentioned, our tickets weren't just in the normal seats - Jo's boss had arranged for all of us to have seats in a private box. I know, get us - partying like celebs without even the slightest hint of a king prawn ring from Iceland!!! I don't think I'd like to gig like a commoner again! We had glasses of red wine out of real glasses, no cheapo plastic glasses with lids, thank you very much! Poshtastic. One started referring to oneself in the third person and everything.
Rachel spotted some actress from Emmerdale in the box next to us, and she smiled and waved and seemed dead nice (I wouldn't know her if I fell over her, but that's beside the point!). So it was quite nice, feeling as though we were rubbing shoulders with a few possible future contestants in I'm A Celebrity. Then, as I was having a bit of a gormless people-watching moment around the arena, I turned around to look in the box next to us and saw a tallish fella who looked rather familiar. I couldn't quite place him and I had to look a couple of times, but then he clocked me and I looked away in case he thought I was being weird. Jo asked me what the matter was and I said, "I'm probably wrong, it probably looks nothing like him - but I'm sure that fella in the box next to us looks a bit like Jason Manford!" She had a quick look and said "Erm, yes. That's probably because it is him."
I am such a Comedian Fangirl, I was more excited about him than the prospect of Olly Murs's trousers! I thought I'd just be cool and pretend I hadn't noticed, but Jo, Rach and Hayles all waved and he gave us all a big smile and waved back.
Later on, during the gig, Jo's feet were killing her, so she took her shoes off and put her feet up on the little ledge in front of us and started wiggling her toes in time to the music. Jason then went down the steps in his box to the ledge, had a bit of a look round, saw Jo's feet, did a massive comedy double take and burst out laughing! She didn't see it, but it was one of the most surreal moments in my life. It's one of my life's ambitions to make a famous comedian laugh - I think if I can do that then I am officially funny. But then our Jo just got her tootsies out and he was in stitches!!!
A girl in front (in the commoners' seats!) saw him and got her photo taken with him, so Hayley and Rachel jumped on that whole scene and also got their photo taken with him. He was so nice, Hayley said that he must get sick of being constantly asked for photos and stuff and he was like "No, no, it's fine, I'm happy to do it!" She said to him, "Listen, Jay, my husband's a big fan of yours. I'm not so keen, but he'll never believe we've seen you!" which I think was probably THE most awesome thing anyone could ever say to a famous person!!! Then afterwards she said to him, "Hey, if you ever want inspiration for new material, come on a night out with us!" and he pointed to Jo and said, "I know! That one's got her shoes off!"
My sister, ladies and gentlemen. The woman whose feet have probably inspired Jason Manford's next stand-up tour!!
What an awesome night. I danced so much my everywhere hurt, I was absolutely wrecked - but it was so worth it. I'm still quite giddy about it. If you're going to see Olly on this tour, you won't regret it - even if you just think "I don't mind him", you too will fall under the Murs spell after the show. Absochuffinlutely fantastic.
Right, well. After all that frivolity and hilarity - it's Monday again. It's another rainy day in Chorley (I'm sure there's a song in that...) and five days of monotony are stretching ahead of me. There is, however, some serious light at the end of the tunnel, as this Friday will be renamed Firman Friday. I cannot wait. Me. Pete Firman. Same room. Same time. Le squee. So exciting I had to say it in French.
Join me again on Wednesday when I'll give you an update on slimming and exercising (I'm going to try a lot harder on the exercise front this week), and hopefully I'll be looking forward with a degree of excitement towards the weigh-in on Thursday!!
I don't know who either of those people are but it sounds like a lot of fun! :)
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