So...let me explain...Mrs. P. and I have done many things since the last update but in between those things it's just been work, coffee mornings, long walks and the odd unplanned drinkies night out so i thought it would just be better for you but a pain in the arse for me just to do one long update that no doubt will take me hours, i mean hours to type up, add pics, edit so i don't offend anyone and for you to get bored to death reading.....in saying that about not offending anyone.....sing along if you know the tune....
"NOT COMING HOME, NOT COMING HOME, NOT COMING, FOOTBALLS NOT COMING HOME!
Talk about football coming home (what a bore)
we've heard it all before,
the goals, they will score
but we know that they will throw it away,
they will run from the play,
try to defend all day
And this is why Three Lions on a shirt
Should be changed to Tiggers
Now 60 years of hurt
Keep track of the stats and figures"
Awwww never mind England, could be worse, could have a German coaching your side....oh you do! Even worse than that you could be the Welsh team and they are absolute shite and that's the truth. I've always said the only game that matters is the final, yes you have to win games to get to the final but you only actually win something when you win the final itself. Seriously now England you did your country proud
AND NOW ON WITH THE BLOG!
So let's go back to the beginning of May (screen wobbles and rolls like in a 1970's flashback)
It's Bristol and it's a warm Saturday, what a great day to be out about....shame it's in Bristol. OK, that's a bit unfair to Bristol but it's city centre just looks grubby, dirty, smells of dope & urine around every corner and to be very honest we've visited some dodgy areas but Bristol town centre just feels really uncomfortable, unpleasant, unsafe.
Anywhoooo, we're here to see the first outing of the new musical "The Greatest Showman". It's a Disney production and for some weird unexplained reason they decided to test it out in that showbiz musical epicentre that is Bristol, NOT the West End or Broadway, nope, Bristol before they decide whether to send it out to Broadway and the West End.
We both really enjoyed the film and the songs from it are most probably some the best songs from a musical ever. We spend the afternoon just having a wander around the slightly better areas of the city centre taking in the sights and the odd beer or two.
Here are the best places in Bristol...
A boat with a helicopter on it...
Ahoy there ship mate, The SS Great Britain.
Some other boats in a nice location.
And the time has come, we're very excited.
And that's all the pictures we can show you. In the Queue to get in they put anti photo stickers over the lens of the cameras on everybody's phones. Party poopers, not that we take pics during the shows we see anyway.
We get a full bottle of rose to have before the show and during the interval then get to our seats which were great seats in the stalls, settle in and the lights go down. "Whoa, whoa, whoa-whoa-whoa". Hairs go up on our arms and both of us get slightly emotional. It's weird what live music can do to you, whether it be a small gig, a stadium concert or a theatre show, live music just hits something in you....well it does in us. Now from here on in no matter how i try to describe what happens on stage it will do it no justice whatsoever. It was the most amazing spectacle we have ever seen on a theatre stage, Sian has seen more shows than me and i have seen The Lord of the Rings ~ The Musical at Shaftesbury Theatre in London (yes you read that right, look it up) which cost £35,000,000 just to stage (WOWZER) and The Greatest Showman just blew all that came before it away, i mean it was slick, spectacular, amazing just Wow, no words could ever explain the joy and wonder we saw on that stage, again, shame it was in Bristol. We would have both gone again to see it the next night but unfortunately we bought tickets for the very last night of the run. Just brilliant!
Forward a couple of weeks and we're off further South down to Scorrier, Cornwall.
This visit was for a 3 day music festival called "The Great Estate Festival". We don't normally do music festivals but there was a band we wanted to see featuring Taylor Hawkins son, Shane, on the drums called "Chevy Metal", this was Taylor Hawkins second band along with the Foos and this was their only UK performance. We drove down on the Thursday and stopped off for the night at a little pub at the half way point of the journey.
Friday
We made our way to a lovely little private chalet in the back of ladies garden just 1.5 miles walk away from the festival. in fact it was the only place that close to the festival as it was either camp on the site of the festival or rooms over 3 miles away so we were very lucky to find it and what a great find it was.
We arrive at midday, throw our bags in and head over in the direction of the music we could hear along a winding country path through fields and woods. As we got closer the excitement was building. Chevy Metal weren't playing until Saturday. When we bought the tickets no headliners had been announced but as time went on it was Friday-Kaiser Chiefs, Ooo! Saturday-Sophie Ellis Bextor, Meh and Sunday-Skunk Anansie, Aah! Also at 12.30am after the main act on Saturday Simon Pegg (Yes the actor) had a DJ set.
We got to the estate around 1pm and got our weekend passes and we had paid for "The Octopus Lounge VIP" that had an upgraded bar area with acoustic music and posh toilets, i mean these were the poshest outdoor toilets we'd ever seen and a great chill out area with rugs and floor cushions to sit and watch the acoustic sets. So we head to the garden first. Well worth the extra money.
Time to chill after our walk.
After a ice cold beer and a bit of a chill out we go for a walk around the festival grounds. It had so much going on in a huge grounds area and just a 12,000 ticket capacity which made it great just to stroll around with loads of space.
As the hours go by on one of the hottest weekends of May, we eat, we drink, we walk, we chill and then we get tired, BUGGER! We've done it wrong again, out to early. Kaiser Chiefs weren't on until 9pm and we'd been at the festival since 1pm drinking, not allot, not as much as our usual days/nights out but we were just shattered by 8pm and the heat didn't help. Both not being fussed about seeing the Kaiser Chiefs we decided to head back, after all we only bought the tickets knowing at that time that only Chevy Metal had been announced and they were the next day at 7.30pm before Bextor.
Saturday
Today is going to be a longer day because there is a Q & A with Wiley at 12.30pm, the lead singer of Chevy Metal and he is also Foo Fighters drum tech. With only 80 people allowed in to the Great Estate Hall we had to be there at least 30 minutes before the doors open to get our seats and then at 2.30pm Shane Hawkins had a drum clinic on the second stage at Madam Wongs which we also wanted to see then at 7.30pm Chevy Metal were playing.
We get our iced lattes and queue. Good job we got there early as the queue stretched out a long way from the door so there were going to be allot of disappointed people, some with Chevy Metal t-shirts on others with Foo Fighters t-shirts. The doors open and were in, in fact we were in the second row which was great.
Wiley comes out and he's a really chilled out Californian, very quietly spoken, almost shy. He talked about Chevy Metal, his music heroes, working with the Foo Fighters and of course his great friend Taylor Hawkins. It was funny, interesting and emotional but was great to hear all his stories and just confirmed what we thought Taylor would be like as a person.
Sian getting Wiley's autograph for me.
We were in the Great Hall for an hour but only seemed like minutes, it was a brilliant, loved it. We walk out and have a wander. Then we came across a secret garden with a dance lesson class. Very cool.
After a walk around the grounds and a beer it's time for Shane Hawkins drum clinic. He's 18 years old and for such a young age he is an absolute beast on the drums, definitely follows in his fathers footsteps. He arrived 30 minutes late, he was hung over as in America he's to young to drink but in the UK it's all systems go. So he thought he would ease in to it with two British friends of his from the band Mutant Menace and a little bit of ABBA!!!!!!
After that it sort of went a bit off track. He did a tiny bit of a solo, brought his mate back on for a Q & A and then went off after just an hour when it was meant to be 2 hours, ROCK N' ROLL EH! But we enjoyed it.
Time to get some food and straight away we were drawn to BBQ beans and brisket, OH MY GOD!
We still had 4 hours to kill before Chevy Metal were due on stage so we thought we would walk back to the chalet get a shower and change for night as it got just slightly chilly after 7pm but a quick picture first on the way out.
Showered, changed and refreshed we head back to the festival and we are ready for a beer, Cheers!
We get our place near the front of the stage and the show begins and they were awesome. They basically play all their favourite songs from other bands like Black Sabbath, Van Halen, Talking Heads and they were all great.
After their set we head back to the Octopus Lounge for a little chill time and let our ears recover.
Now what do we do...we don't like Mrs. Bextor and the soft pop campness of it all isn't our thing BUT i did notice a tribute band were playing on stage two the same time as Mrs. Bextor, the band was called "Nic cage against the machine"....interesting, lets go!
We have to say they were the best part of the whole weekend, a Rage against the machine tribute band but all dress up as different Nicholas Cage characters from his films, what an awesome concept. and the lead singer sang the songs as if it was Nicholas Cage singing them, brilliant! Sian enjoyed them so much i think we wanted to see them again but they only had gigs down south left, non nears us Booooooo, but we will go to see them when they do come round again.
By the time they finished it was 10.30pm and Simon Pegg wasn't on for another 2 hours, that ain't happening, beers, food, heat and moshing had taken it's toll and it was time to head back in the dark, i mean real dark.
WHATS THAT?
I'm pleased to say nothing happened to me and Sian caught up to me half a mile down the path and eased me out of the fetal position and from under a bush.
Sunday
Unfortunately we didn't have enough holiday days left to book the Sunday/Monday off so we got up and out and headed back to avoid the bank holiday traffic and it worked BUT the good news is we have already bought our tickets for next year without even knowing who's playing as we enjoyed the weekend that much and booked the same chalet plus it's the festivals 10th anniversary and they are building it up to be something special, we'll enjoy it whatever and we got The Octopus Lounge again, we like chill and posh toilets. It really is a feel good festival and we felt very at ease there unlike other festivals in the UK.
It's June and that means just one very special thing....Sian's Birthday
I had booked a restaurant and kept it a secret from Sian. Sian knew we were going out for a meal but not where we were going.
We decided to wear the same as we wore for her birthday meal on Hydra at Omilos, now that was the perfect meal, how do i beat that? I can't but i'll try to second it.
As we walked through Cardiff City centre i take Sian in to one of our fav pubs first for a pre meal drink, Cheers!
Then i walk Sian past some of our fav restaurants, is it this one? No. Is it this one? No. We do this for about 4 or 5 places until i do a quick detour in to Pasture/Parallel, Cardiff's No.1 restaurant on Tripadvisor.
Sian was so surprised and excited as this place is the best of the best for steaks, i mean big ass American style steaks and they have daily menus.
I tell Sian she can order whatever she wants, tonight is Sian's night and money's no limit.
Cocktails are the first and most important thing to order. Sian orders a Green Garden Highball (wai gin | cucumber & elderflower cordial | lemon | sauvignon blanc | soda) and i order a Butterclife Old Fashioned (whiskey blend | planteray dark rum | smoked salted farm honey | olorosso sherry), they were amazing but not as good as my creations 😉.
Now then Mrs. P. you can order for both.
Sian decided on 3 starters to share. Crispy Squid, Pork Belly and Leek Croquettes.
They were so good and now for the main and of course i knew it would be the best dish on there...Tomahawk Steak by the 100g and we got a 1kg Tomahawk Steak....it was huge and it came with huge thick triple cooked chips and a Caesar salad just to make the meal feel healthy.
There was enough steak for 4 people, wow!
And just to put the size of the steak in perspective here's the bone it was attached to....
It was as the status says No.1 in Cardiff and the best meal we've ever had in Cardiff and we've eaten out in loads of places. Happy Birthday my beautiful girl and now time for a night cap at Copper Club.
Add on to this meal Sian's original birthday present that i bought in May 2025 for June 2026. I can hear you saying now "What? May 2025? That could then be for her birthday in June 2025" No it couldn't as Metallica weren't in Cardiff until June 2026 and Hydra and Omilos was for birthday 2025.
June 28th 2026 - Principality Stadium - Metallica
The day has come and it's an early start, Sunday 11am we hit our first pub and start the day off in one of our sort of locals and they were playing a rock music soundtrack, perfect way to start the day.
Hate having my picture taken but we do love a serious, moody, atmospheric, "We're chocolate, we love ourselves" selfie 😂
One pint in here and off to a new bar called Roos.
As we arrive the soundtrack is Metallica, just Metallica, perfect. Outside are just concert goers all with rock or Metallica t-shirts on. Inside are smartly dressed, well to do couples and families with a chill out soundtrack and all wishing they hadn't booked in for Sunday roast wondering what the hell is going on.
And there...sat at a table just metres away from us was non other than Dave Grohl, with his daughters Violet and Harper...i kid you not. Foo Fighters had just played Anfield the night before. Blown away!
We leave here shocked and amazed and head off to a pre concert party at Clwb Ifor Bach that we had tickets for but the service was awful, we had waited 15 minutes and the bar staff were clueless so we sacked it off and went to our fav City centre bar...Barbara's Bier House, great rock music, Jubel peach beer and SHOTS. SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS.
And here is the proof.
Uuuuugggghhh.....and now me.
Can't really remember how many shots later but it's time to go and get ourselves settled in and what great seats we had. I took a couple of videos but very short ones as i want to see the band in first vision not through a camera screen, i really don't understand people who film almost the whole song watching through a tiny screen, it's crazy i tell ya!
IT BEGINS!
"Unforgiven" was one of my bar opening tunes for Oceanic that i used to play real loud to send a message over to the Greek owner of the Cavo Doro, Christos, an angry sounding song from a Welsh man who wouldn't put up with his intimidating bullshit when in my third year i stole all his customers 😠 another song was "Underdog" by Kasbian, the lyrics of "Underdog" were perfect.
And now for the greatest song ever written and i said this to Sian while we were sat with Dave Grohl...well not with him, by him 😁 and i'm in good company, the legend of song writing itself Elton John also agrees with me, i didn't know that before i made my claim.
So, the stage is a circle as you can see and Lars (Drummer) had 4 drum kits under the stage which would come up so he could move to all areas of the stage while the mic stands were placed all around the outside and inside of the stage so all the band could walk around and face any area of the stadium and still be near a mic to sing, it was the most amazing set up and we were so lucky as James (Lead singer) spent 3/4 of the concert over our side for some reason which was great. Every time the drum kits changed there would be a short filled break like this one.
And there was only one song to finish on and it was perfect to finish off the concert with Enter the Sandman and the Welsh Dragon, perfect coupling.
We are so lucky that we grew up with such great artists, i mean real artist, bands that sing and play instruments live, that just give off natural energy and real enthusiasm and genuinely so grateful to their fans , not fake show ponies. Today's artists will never have the longevity that real bands from the 70's , 80's and 90's still have, i didn't say 60's as most of those bands are dead or broken up, oh, apart from the Rolling Stones and they still sell out stadiums all over the world.
Every concert we have seen has been better than the last, Lady GaGa was a real amazing spectacle a more theatrical concert but this just for pure energy and performance was i think the best concert we've ever been to and we've seen Duran Duran 😂.
If it wasn't for the fact we were flying out to Milan 4 days after this concert i would have bought tickets for both concerts in London....but oh, wait....the weekend just gone we had a little tiny pub crawl as it was a lovely sunny evening. We were sat in a local pub a couple of pints and shots already done, in good spirits and Sian went to the toilet. I checked my email....and there like a sign from James Hetfield himself saying "You shall see us again" was an email stating there was resale tickets available for their shows at The Sphere - Las Vegas. Sian sat down and i asked Sian "What would you say to seeing Metallica at The Sphere in Las Vegas?" I think Sian thought for one thousand of a second and said "YES". So we are now booked with British Airways for a week in Vegas and have our tickets for not 1 but 2 shows of Metallica. Vegas nor America appeals to us, not one bit but Metallica, twice and at The Sphere, a once in a lifetime experience, it's a no brainer. The rest of our stay we'll just rent 2 seats at the bar in the Hard Rock. So Vegas here we come Jan 2027.
The concert was over but there was more to come. We had tickets for Metallica after party and what a great party it was, just all Metallica tunes and if that wasn't enough it was a Air Guitarists wet dream, just look at this. The guy in the white t-shirt took the title though. It was amazing in a wonderment way and funny all at once.
It's now 1am and we could have stayed out longer but we hadn't eaten since 10am and now we were starving so food comes before beer and Sian had already prepped our food, a Calgary Sandwich.
3 different cheeses and 6 slices of each, 3 different meats and 6 slices of each, sliced pickles (gerkins), sliced tomatoes topped and bottomed with mayo stuffed in to a full bloomer loaf.
Just look at that bad boy or girl or LGBTQ+, need to be inclusive, it's the perfect after concert food.
3 days after we'd been blown away by Metallica in Cardiff we're off up to Manchester to stay overnight on the Wed before our flight to Milan on the Thursday. Never flown from Manchester airport before and the airports nice experience apart from everyone sounding like one of the Gallagher's "Alright R' kid, can't wait to get to Benidorm, mad for it", you get the idea.
We land in Milan and the new EES system was painless and quick at Linate airport. Straight through and out to the metro to our hotel. We had booked B&B Hotel in Sesto Marelli just on the edge of Milan centre and so easy to get to with the metro stop just a few 100 yards away, PERFECT!
Where's the hotel? It's behind you!
At this point it's all going so smoothly, good nights sleep in Manchester, straight through security, flight on time, straight through EES system, easy metro ride to hotel THEN it all went wrong for a couple of hours.
We arrive, we hand over our passports and then proceed to pay for our stay, CARD DECLINED! The receptionist resets the card machine, CARD DECLINED! He explains that it's not a problem i can pay tomorrow and that they've been having a problem with their card machine. By this point my anxiety had kicked in as i knew there was more than enough in my bank to cover cost of hotel and stress had set in. I had requested a room on the highest floor, 13, and that's what we were given. We made our way up to the room still with my card being declined on my mind. We open the door to our room and the first thing we see is a half drunk bottle of water and an open pack of olives. We walk in to the room and then see the quilt had been pulled back on one side of the bed and had been laid on. We proceed in to the bathroom and the towels had all been used. This just increased the level of my anxiety. We went back downstairs and the staff were so apologetic and moved us to another room only this room was on 10th floor as no more rooms on 13. We accept and were then taken to our room, much better.
We half unpack and look at putting the air con on as it was very warm in the room what with the temp outside being a pleasant 35deg with temp rising over next 4 days. We work out the air con and put it on, NOTHING! I look up the control manual online and try again, NOTHING! I call down to reception and they send someone straight up to check. While we were waiting i called my bank, plenty of funds in bank, card wasn't blocked and nothing had been declined from the banks side, PHEW, i knew it wasn't my bank that had a problem but that didn't help.
The receptionist comes up to the second room we've been in and agrees that the air con wasn't working. They go back downstairs and get another key card for another room on the same floor. We now head to our third room and on entry we could tell the temp was much lower and the room was tidy and fresh. THANK GOD FOR THAT! We unpack and go to look for a local shop just to get some snacks.
We've called this part of our trip ~ "Baldy locks and the 3 rooms"
As we leave the hotel and walk around behind it there is a bar right next door to us called "East Side", sod the shop lets have a beer, we deserve it.
Really nice bar, playing good music and great beers so we stay for a couple and just chill out outside.
CHEERS!
We take them back to room, kick off our clothes and shoes, crank the air con up and flop on the bed with our pizzas with the sun setting outside our window. Nigh nigh now, big day tomorrow, time to sleep.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MRS. P.
Yes folks it's 2 years since our wedding in Calgary and this year 10 years since we first got together even though we have now known each other for 30 years, big anniversaries.
Today to celebrate it we have tickets to see Florence & the Machine at the San Siro Ippodromo with Manic Street Preachers as support.
The San Siro Ippodromo. It's a race course.
We decide just to take our time and go out to find a shop to get those snacks we were meant to be getting last night and guess what.....we find a Lidl. We have a fridge in our room so we buy some ready made salads, sandwiches, crisps and little cakes so there is something there for when we get back after the concert. We have breakfast included at the hotel so we load up before we go out as it's just way to hot to even think of eating during the day.
By the time we get up, have breakfast, have a wander around by the hotel looking for a shop and then going back to hotel with our food it's now time to head over to the concert.
We get off at the metro we have to get off at when we go to see the Foo Fighters on Sunday just so we can get our bearings and then make our way back to the San Siro.
After a hot and sweaty 30 min walk we get to the San Siro and there like a saviour is a bar right next to the stadium.
That's better you can see the corner of the San Siro Stadium
We sit outside in the shade and have a couple of beers just chilling before going over to the Ippodromo which was just across the road from the stadium.
As you go through the gates of the entrance of the Ippodromo your met with a huge bronze sculpture, Leonardo's Horse. This was a project of Leonardo Da Vinci which was only ever drawing and made from clay but destroyed. He wanted to create the largest ever bronze equestrian statue and in 1977 his creation was completed and cost in that year £2.5M, in todays money it would cost £17M and i have to say it's so impressive and imposing it is well worth the money, absolutely amazing.
You can see the scale of the size of it.
Time to head on in to the concert just in time for Manic Street Preachers.
As the sun sets Florence takes to the stage.
She's very gentle spoken, very flower power, everybody is beautiful vibe and to be honest it was great, gave a very feel good emotion about the whole concert and her voice live, wow, it's just unbelievable. The power and the range is nothing like we've ever heard before live and the crowd just loved her.
We leave the concert with just one song left to sing to avoid the masses and it's a good call as the metro station of Lotto has just one staircase entrance so i think we would have been there for ages if we'd left at the very end. We head back and stuff our faces with the food we bought earlier that day and it was another amazing day over in Milan. Tomorrow is a full on day with a visit to Torre Branca and Duomo Milan, better get some rest.
Today is basically a day of doing things we didn't do during our visit in June 2022 when we went to see Imagine Dragons.
Firstly it's a visit to Torre Branca, a tower with a 360deg view of Milan. This tower is 370 feet high and only 6 people at time are allowed up to the top. Let's go.
That looks very high, you can see it stand out high above the trees.
Good job there's a lift.
But well worth it, just look at the stunning views.
You only get to spend 10 mins at the top, an alarm sounds and that's it, time to go down. No time to waste as we are now booked in at Duomo Milan for a rooftop walk which is 259 steps up a side tower to the first level and another 90 to the top level in a wait for it......in a feels like 42deg temp. Are we mad?
Duomo Milan.
Before we do this crazy sight seeing we have a little wander around the centre just to kill 30 mins before our entrance time.
OK, let's do this.
We wait in the queue and it's our time to step up, literally, 259 steps then 90 steps. It's a stone spiral staircase inside one of the outside towers with narrow steps. It's quite claustrophobic, it's 42deg and it makes you a bit dizzy going around and round for so many steps but we made it with just one short stop about 3/4 of the way up. We get to the first level and the roof design is something else, so intricate and detailed.
Time for part to to the top level another 90 steps.
My pictures don't do the detail justice and i took so many pictures of the roof but not going to bore you with them all.
It's hot, It's humid, It's time for drink or 4, HARD ROCK!
The last time we were here the bar/restaurant wasn't even complete and open it was just the shop but now it's open, YAY!
1 cocktail, 2 cocktails, 3 cocktails, 4! Hic!!!!
The cocktails are working in this hot, sticky, sweaty city centre and Limp Bizkit to accompany them.
Sian didn't know i was filming, Sssshhhhhh.
The bar downstairs was full with mainly people eating but this is upstairs and doesn't open till the evening.
The memorabilia was a bit rubbish to be honest, nothing "Oh Wow!" but we don't care, the cocktails and music does it for us and of course a traditional Hard Rock t shirt purchase wherever we find a Hard Rock.
Full on cocktails and a parting Fireball shot we make our way back to East Side bar to finish off our very tiring day and of course it's the Foo Fighters tomorrow.
FOO FIGHTERS, FOO FIGHTERS, FOO FIGHTERS!
The day has come. It's down for breakfast then back to the room to chill out under the air con as today is 38deg proper not feels like so god knows what the feels like in the city centre is. We stay in the room until the afternoon and the plan is Hard Rock then over to Snai La Maura Ippodromo in time for the Foo's to come on.
Snai La Maura Ippodromo, another bigger race course.
As we walk in to the Hard Rock the music is just wall to wall Foo Fighters and the manager welcomed us back again and let use choose the songs to play, even better, our own personal jukebox at a Hard Rock Cafe, how cool is that?
Foo Fighter ready, Foo's T, Taylor Hawkins Van Halen Shorts and Limited Edition Foo Fighters Vans. I'm ready!
We get to the Ippodromo, i buy Sian a tour t shirt as it's a tradition i always buy Sian a authentic tour t shirt at the gigs we go to and we find ourselves a spot towards the back of the stage front area with enough room to jump about in.
We've drank all our water so i go to find a water fill point before the Foo's take to the stage.
Bugger! The Queue.
The sea of people just stretches on and on as it's a sell out.
Fans in the cheaper seats behind front of stage area that we were in.
Red smoke plumes out from above the stage and Dave runs out like a mad man.
As the concert races on it's hit after hit after hit and non stop.
Then it gets to my fav Foo's song "Run". It's the first time i've seen them sing it live and i lose my shit!
UUuuuggghhh and now me losing my shit as Sian was filming it and i was so lost in the song i didn't realize. So forgive the state I'm in and my terrible singing but to be honest....i don't give a shit, IT WAS AWESOME!
And now Sian's turn. Sian wasn't such a mess 😊
And before we knew it, in a blink of an eye 2 1/2 hours was over of pure joy, singing loud, jumping around like idiots and the odd tear for Taylor during certain songs. Traveling to Milan to watch them was totally worth it and we'd do it again anywhere in Europe, it's just a great gig to go to, for 2 1/2 hours we just let loose and don't give a shit.
We make our way back to East Side bar for a quick night cap after a brilliant day.
It's our last day in Milan and we have a very early up and out Tuesday morning to get to the airport for 6am as we have a Lounge booked at the airport to just chill out and be there just in case there is the nightmare of the EES system.
Today it's a visit to Milan's famous cemetery and a trip over to Milan's Canal quarter in the Navigli district.
We make our way over to the cemetery and we're looking forward to a quiet walk around it as the temp today was going to be in the 40's and we were starting to flag after 3 days of 40deg heat, lots of alcohol, lots of walking and lots of jumping around at concerts. IT'S CLOSED! It always stays closed on a Monday. WHY? What if my only day off was a Monday and i wanted to visit my families tomb? Why is Monday so special?
Sian is stood by the locked gate.
UUUUGGGGHHHHHH!
OK let's go to the Canal quarter.
It was very easy to get there and we were excited to see it.
The street that leads to the canal from the metro station was pretty grubby, a little run down looking and lots of rubbish graffiti, We like graffiti if it's more like art but these were just rubbish tags so we were wondering what the canal was going to be like.
We got to the canal and it was much better, neat, tidy and lots of little canal side cafes BUT it was pretty ordinary, nothing special and not that big. The canal stretches for miles but the area with bars and cafe's is quite short.
I look like a Meerkat!
It didn't take us long to walk both sides of the canal and we were just running on empty by now so we wanted something refreshing and light to eat and any drink that was cold. We find a bar with seats at the edge of the canal and order food and a beer. We decided we wanted some nice fresh Bruschetta. The bar had deals of 2 drinks and a meal and we spotted a picture of what we thought was a large slice of Bruschetta big enough for 2 people called a Bruschettona. That will do us just great.
When it came out yes it was big enough for 2 people and we had to 2 beers BUT the Bruschettona was more like a pizza topping on top of Bruschetta bread and with chips, not the refreshing meal we wanted but it did taste good.
Fed and watered we have a slow plod back to the metro and head in to the centre for last drinks at Hard Rock. We have seats at the bar and order cocktails and Aperol Spritz which is huge in Milan as it's part of the Campari company and Milan cemetery (Which was closed) has the tomb of the Campari family. Tonight the band System of the Down are in town and almost everybody in the Hard Rock is in black and wearing a rock t shirt.
A few drinks later and it's time to head back to pack but we'll have a sneaky last drink in East Side before going to the room.
IT'S BLOODY CLOSED! What is it with a Monday in Milan and everything bloody closed, IDIOTS! Ah well, it's been an amazing Anniversary trip.
Tuesday 5am and we're on our way to the airport. We get there and go through security quick and easy but EES system is before you board, lets get to the Leonardo Lounge.
Quiet, air conditioned, nice food and drinks of all sorts.
We spend around 3 hours in here but the great thing with this lounge is time in there is unlimited. We decide after to 3 hours to go down towards the B gates where UK flights go out from and ask the security which gate it may be going from, he doesn't know but tells us to use the EES system now before anyone else as it will get very busy. That was a very kind gesture from him, so we use the system and go through. Painless and easy both ways, PHEW!
And that was it, another trip away over. Flight left on time, our train from Manchester was on time, on the train it was quiet and relaxed BUT as soon as we hit the first Welsh train station a group of adults and children get on at Cwmbran going to Cardiff, loud, swearing and annoying. Welcome home guys, these are your country men/women/children/LGBTQ+, what a bunch of f**king assholes spoiling the very end of a wonderful trip.
So what next for us i hear you cry, well, just a few little trips left this year. Hollywood Vampires at Cardiff Castle in August with a hotel stay so we can go out after it, September it's west Wales and a Penguin feeding experience, October it's War of the Worlds in Bath, November we're in London for our traditional Christmas trip and New Years eve it was Barcelona but now Gloucester due to the fact we are now going to Las Vegas in January.
So until the next update, whenever that may be......
Serve All. Love All, Peace All, Kevlar, Mrs. P. & SquidlyOut!
P.S. I was kidding....it wasn't Dave Grohl but he did look allot like him and Dave was still in the UK after the Anfield gig so it may have been him....we will never know.
