The Best Day Of My Westlife!!

It was Friday the 2nd November 2007. At 5.45am my alarm clock rang and I jumped out of bed as I was sure this was to be the best day of my West-life!! Westlife, yes Westlife, were signing their new album at HMV, Grafton Street and to meet them you needed a wristband which were handed out as soon as the store opened at 8.30! I woke my 2 friends who were both lying in sleeping bags on the floor and obviously they weren't too happy as Katie had been out until 3am! It was dark outside and we left my house at 6.40 for the 7am bus to Parnell street. The bus journey was quiet as we were tired and needed more sleep for the long day ahead!
As soon as we got off the bus we legged it up to Grafton Street thinking we'd be first in the queue but how wrong we were!! There were approximately 200 people on front of us and the queue formed around 2 cornors! At this stage we were losing hope of meeting the lads but kept positive thinking about the big fry we were going to have!! Eventually we got closer and closer and each received a wristband to meet Westlife! We were one of the 500 lucky ones!!
To pass the time until Westlife came at 5.30pm we had to think of something to do- we could either sit in the queue to meet them from 9am ( some people had been there since Wednesday!!) or go shopping and have something to eat and the latter is what we did!
Hours passed and it was still only 2 o' clock! We had another 3 and a half hours to wait so we decided to go and find a seat in Stephens Green shopping centre. While on the way in, my friend Sarah shouts "how come you didn't say anything?" Myself and Katie looked at each other confused! Shane Filan's wife (Gillian) and baby daughter (Nicole)and Kian's girlfriend, ex-Hollyoak's star Jodi Albert, had walked passed us! So we turned around and ran after them calling their names! (yes a bit mad i know!!) Gillian turned around thinking she recognised my voice! They signed autographs for us and let us take pictures and while we were doing that Shane rang his wife to see where she was! They looked so young and I commented on that to which Jodi replied "did you think we looked like old hags?!" After about 5 minutes chatting to them we let them go to their next destination which was none other than River Island!
At 5pm we joined the very long queue- there was 500 people in it and probably 350 of those were in front of us!! The excitement was building with people singing all the old favourites like "World Of Our Own". A man in his late 50's walked passed us confused as to what the fuss was about. We told him we were waiting for Westlife and he replied "If f****** Elvis came back from the dead I wouldn't queue to see him!!"
At 5.30pm we heard screams as the Westlife boys arrived in through the front door (we were around the back). Some girls (and may I add a lot of girls!) ran to buy single roses for their favourite members! As the queue got shorter and shorter the more excited we were becoming! At around 7pm we had reached the top of the queue and had our wristbands cut off! As soon as we passed the bouncers (yes big burly bouncers!!) we ran up three flights of stairs to meet the band!
The first person we saw was Kian. He seemed in an upbeat mood as he bopped his head along to one of their tracks on the new album. Then we spotted Mark, Shane and Nicky. We had to wait in another queue which fizzled out in about twenty minutes. Firstly I met Kian who I thought could have been nicer. (Don't get me wrong he was nice) Then Mark who was unbelievably quiet I don't think he spoke at all! Next up was Shane (who I have to say was the nicest) who spoke to me for a few minutes but I cant't remember what he was saying as I was in awe!! Finally I met Nicky who I thought was a very talkative Dubliner but I turned out to be wrong! When I was leaving Shane was the only one who thanked me for coming which I thought was a really nice thing for him to say to a fan. At this stage it was 7.15pm and we had to catch the 7.30pm bus in Parnell Street. As we only had 15 minutes, we had to leg it from the top of Grafton Street to Parnell Street which entailed running out on front of buses and trying to push our way past people on the streets!! When we got to the bus it wasn't long before we got a long deserved sleep after our manic day!!
I have to say, I have been a fan since I was 9 years old and had never met them until this day and it sure was worth the wait! Roll on the big 10 year anniversary gig in Croke Park 1st June 2008!!!! I'll be there!!