My Crazy Mother's Day at the Bieber Concert :)

Approximately 10 months ago our journey began...
Bianca-Leigh got wind of rumors that
 Justin Bieber MAY  be including SA in his Believe Tour destinations...

He [Justin] confirmed the rumors via Twitter himself...
and we freaked out...
Bianca was SUPER excited...
I was SUPER worried...

On December 10th it was time to TRY to secure those all important tickets...

Golden Circle Tickets...no less :o

'Lady Luck'... smiled... and soon it was a done deal...

And the long wait began...

The tickets were put away in the safe...
like the precious treasures that they were...

and life went on...

but

not as usual...

We now had this most important date circled on the calendar of our life...

And i can tell u it has featured in our...

 thoughts...conversations and even dreams...

every day since...

in big ways and small ways...

and as time drew nearer...our epic adventure loomed large...

her excitement doubled...

mine halved...

Truly...

Bianca-Leigh's joy never faded...

mine was all over the page...
She was filled with wonder...
and I was left wonder[ing]

 Feeling weighed down by...

fear...

it was just her and i...
all alone...
 in a sea of 94 thousand Beliebers wracked by Bieber Fever...yikes !

logistics...

we live an hour away from the Soccer City stadium...

reservations...

we had planned to overnight at Gold Reef City, but came to hear of a 'park and ride bus'...

that would take us and bring us back at a fraction of the cost of sleeping over...

and the hubby thought...
*great*
...i thought...
 *not so great*
 and then later
 *well it's not great but it's probably ok*...

...Bianca-Leigh thought...

*HELL NO NEVER EVER*...

there were numerous 'talks' and liters of tears...
all of this was a little surprising to say the least...

she is usually very reasonable,logical,understanding and sensible...totally unselfish...

and then... realization dawned ...
 i was beginning to understand JUST how much this really means to her...

and so the said reservations were...
 not cancelled...

somehow the sleeping over...prolonged... the dream for her...

 and we all need a dream right :)

location...

Golden Circle is great but...once you're 'in'...you're 'in' for the duration...
u ain't going nowhere ...FOR HOURS!!!! 

time...

Bianca wanted to arrive at the stadium in the early morning...me... NOT SO MUCH...!

can u imagine standing round waiting for around  12 hours...

*OH MY WORD*

the weather...

i ALWAYS worry about the weather...i like the sun to shine on important life events...

but it's really important this time ... it's almost winter here now...so it's cold...

and 'it' has been known to rain on Mother's Day...not often...but it could happen...

and Golden Circle is out in the open...!

So as u can imagine...

the flame of my joy was flickering wildly... like a candle in the wind... 

And hers was steady... brightly burning :)

That is our journey so far...
the rest is still unwritten...

The count down clock on her iPod,
 which has been 'counting' since our tickets were bought way back in December
stands at...

exactly :)

these Beliebers don't mess around...lol

The weather is overcast with rain...

#OhBoy

...To Be Continued...

***


...On the Flip Side...

Tue 14 May...
 24 hours + post  #BelieveTourConcert


Hi :)

Let's take a look at the wording i used...
 to describe what i thought lay ahead for my daughter and i on Mother's Day...

"Our Epic Adventure..."
Our... 'us'...
Epic... 'of unusually great size or extent, usually centered upon a hero'...

Adventure... 'a bold, usually risky undertaking, a hazardous action of uncertain outcome'...

DAMN
 I'm good !!
 :)

Our morning began early with coffee in the parlor...
followed by getting ready...

our concert shoes :)

just couldn't resist snapping this shot :)

last minute packing...

our map...

what poor Google thought about all the fuss...

excitement and trepidation...in equal measure...
 and we were on our way...


breakfast at McDonald's...
near the stadium..

and so...
our epic adventure begins...

Our beautiful 'Soccer City'

never thought i would ever go there for real :)

 9:30am...

 waiting for a concert that would end at 9pm 

**THE THINGS WE'LL DO FOR OUR KIDS**

As u can see the sun shone...

i actually rejoiced a few time she slipped behind a cloud or two lol...

we sat like this until about 12pm...

when 'they' started the long process of letting us onto the stadium grounds...

in stages they 'fed' us through a series of 'holding pens'...yes like sheep :)

they TOTALLY lost control of the crowd all of whom had a serious case of BIEBER FEVER...

Bianca-Leigh and i did have a couple of scary moments...!

have u ever been in a stampede...? this was our first...yikes!

thankfully no one 'went down'...because if u loose your footing ...

Trouble with a capital T...

It's CRAZY...

u get caught up in the surge of the crowd...

not only against your will... but also in accordance with your will...

everyone wanting to secure the best possible spot in the Golden Circle...

Yes i RAN with my daughter....

 like Justin himself was standing waiting for us *giggle*

i 'laugh out loud' as i remember :)

i can't stop smiling...

It was...

 so funny...

so absurd...

so real...

so surreal...

 so scary...

so awesome...

After the 'mad dash' of the Beliebers...

Bianca-Leigh turned to me and said that she was glad i was there with her...

that she wouldn't have wanted to go through 'that' alone...

I too gave thanks that i was there to 'keep her safe'...

this stage took about 2 and a half more hours...

 stand...surge forward...wait....stand...surge...wait...stand...surge...wait...

RUN

chaos all around her and i...

...in the eye of the storm...

Then into the last 'holding pen'...

 for another 2 long uncomfortable hours...

sitting baking in the sun...

 on the cold rough paving...

bum sore...

joints sore...

stiff...

tired...

bored...

hot...

It was a loooong day...!

We were informed that we would be 'escorted' into the GC...

Happy News ...indeed...!

As we had a alarming amount of stairs to climb...

[i overheard other worried/shaken people comment that...

'today people would die on those stairs...']

  

The 'escort' worked...ONLY JUST...!

u could see and feel the tension and excitement...

it was a living ... breathing ... thing...

moving along with us...moving us...!

as...we were led towards and up the stairs...

fans struggled to follow the NO running rule...

have u ever tried not to run when every instinct u have is screaming RUN !

even we would break into a run-walk stride....

 and then rein it in...

 only for it to...

 bubble right back up the the surface...

A strange mixture of emotions...

 RACING... where your feet HAD to walk...

fear...

joy...

competitiveness... 

commonsense...

wild abandon...

caution...

Up those stair...

turning right...

 push-pulling through the walls of the stadium...

cell phones being dropped and left lying at the feet of strangers...

as the living breathing wave of humans moved as one...

warnings of 'stairs ahead'... don't fall!!!! ricocheting ...

girls screaming...cheering...loosing their minds...

 a sharp left...down the stairs and suddenly...

over and out...

there we were at the top of yet more stairs...

looking down from about halfway up...

with the stadium lying spread out at our feet...

beautiful...

i turned to Bianca-Leigh and said...

'take a moment...look around... take it all in...we are finally here...'

as our harried progress continued down.down.down...

 and into the Golden Circle...

4:30pm

Where we broke into another polite well behaved little walk-jog-run...

we found our spot :)

and for the rest of the night... roughly 5 hours 

i had to FIGHT to keep it...

almost impossible...

with people fainting...and having to... 'give them room for air'...

 'make way...for security'... moments...

the squirming of sad humans with not many manners or much integrity...

worming their way past others to better their view...

their ugliness was on show too that night...

 along with the RockStars and the real stars...

and it was a bitter pill for me to swallow...

 I managed to stand my ground...

and just before Justin appeared on stage i was happy to be able to 

give my 'better' spot to Bianca...so she could live her dream...

I did it ALL for her...

It was only ever...always... all for her :)

Lessons Learned...

1) That i am tougher than i thought...

2) That at 'fat and forty'... i can still keep up physically with teenagers...

3) That there is really nothing i'll not do for my kids...

4) That i enjoyed the challenge...or rather the feeling of 'getting through it'...

5)  That i can't stand people who push and shove their way to the top...

6) That teenagers need adult supervision esp in that type of setting...

7) That some parents 'let go' too soon AND IT SHOWS !!!

8) That Justin Bieber is REALLY gorgeous...

9)  That Justin has an 'outie' bellybutton ... yes i looked :) 

10) That even though my 3 'men' had a good time alone together at Gold Reef...

they said over and over that...

 'there was just something missing'

 and that 'something' was us... 

:)

Post Script...

Bianca-Leigh thanked us so beautifully...it brought tears to my eyes..   

and that's ...

Our Epic Adventure :)