When the chips are down!

Look what I found! These piccies are from Floyd's 40th (which was in November 2006!). We hired out a big room and a bar at a local hotel in Blackheath and had live music, a drinks luge (I had the Rolling Stones mouth and tongue done! Your poured in your schnapps or vodka in the back and it trickled down the tongue in to your cup! or mouth...or ear...for some people at the end of the night...who's names shall remain anonymous!).

We had bangers and mash, mulled wine, huge fireworks display and live music! We also had a fun casino brought in and I made some special money just for the night! The casino was meant to be entertainment for those not wanting to listen to live music but unfortunately everyone went mad over gambling and the band were left playing to an almost empty room! Which is shame as the band are our very, very good friends Live N Kickin! who are Kent's number one covers band! If you ever get the chance to see them, grab it by the horns!!!

These are the bank notes I 'Photoshopped'! Bank of Wully and Bank of Flatch! Both Floyd's nicknames from The Almighty. Wully = short for Walter - he can explain where that came from! and Flatch = short for Flatuence... my, those touring days on the bus must have been such fun with Floyd! I suffer now so God knows what the poor band and crew went through!

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People were getting deadly serious about the casino and winning!!! My mother had the biggest pile of chips the whole night!! People were siddling up to her asking her what her secret was! But the overall winner of the casino was my dad!!! Well done the oldies!!! ;-)

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The casino, remains of the drinks luge & Mum and dad on a winning streak!

So last Tuesday, some thieving little ******** broke in to our car at night and ripped out our groovy car radio, stole the satnav (which Floyd had forgotten he left in the glove box, typical as he usually always brings it in), took the cigarrette lighter (!??? WHY?) plus a whole array of other things including Floyd's designer sunglasses, digital tyre pump etc. ********'s.

Floyd took it very, very badly and it looks like neither the house insurance or the car insurance are worth claiming on because it costs £150 just to make a claim with either and even then, we don't have receipts. Grrrr. Horrible business thieving!!!! But I rest safe in the knowledge that what goes around comes around - these people will get theirs! mwhahahaha!!

Floyd is now considering buying himself a Harley Davidson to cheer himself up!! Hmmm....

New York, New York!

Elderly people are really not all that sweet and innocent you know! They just think they can get away with more but watch 'em!!! When you're back is turned!!!....

My sister Tamzin and her hubby Tom planned to be in New York on business this week (remember, they moved to LA permanently a little while back). My devious mother thought it would be great if my dad joined them out there as he deserves a break and has never been to the US. But the idea had to come from Tamzin. So a plot was formed and set in to action. Lo and behold...a hook, some line and a sinker later...they were off!! I actually found some really cheap flights with American Airlines. Shame the Manhattan hotel cost twice as much!

I am not sure if anyone else has ever attempted this but explaining to an OAP what online check in is, US visa waiver forms, customs forms for the US, baggage allowance, rules on carrying liquids in hand luggage, rules on taking a taxi outside JFK airport, when to tip at a hotel, how mobile phone roaming works etc etc etc - as well as all the little in's and out's such as 'no dad, you don't need to make your bed and vacate your hotel room every morning...it was all quite stressful really!

Floyd is starting a website of his own! Well....that's code for 'wife Sophie is creating a website for Floyd'!!! Keep an eye on www.floydlondon.com. It should be up and running soon. I am making him write his own content though!! Just be prepared for pictures of Floyd's socks or an in depth report on his favourite marmalde....perhaps!

Floyd and I are planning our trip to the US in April - part of which will be touring around Arizona on a Harley Davidson (but how much stuff can I take as a pillion rider? arggh!). I am also probably going for a week's hol later in the year with a friend - who I usually have a little holiday with each Summer. Last year was France and Italy - the year before was the Athens and the Greek Islands. We are just doing a short break this year - somewhere in Europe.

Whew!! Glad that's over! What a mentally busy January! Got back from our event at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland (I was there just 2 days but have been preparing for it for weeks and weeks, ugh!). The drive from Zurich airport to Davos is spectacular!!! It takes 2 1/2 hours and usually requires a 4 wheel drivel and a gifted chaufffeur with 9 lives!!! The the scenery is breathtaking as you go up and up and up the mountain roads and see little trains travelling along ridges right below you! I regretted not bringing my camera equipment (goes without saying) but used my little pocket camera for some snaps. I was there working anyway so there wasn't much spare time!

These are some pics from the World Economic Forum in 2007...
(Note the machine gunner standing on the roof of the Belvedere, above my room!! eek!)



And these are some pics from 2008!

Floyd's been away for nearly 3 weeks with The Almighty who had a few days of rehearsals and then toured the UK. 12 shows in total and the occasional day off here and there. I had suggested the band doing meet and greets after each show and was planning to go on the road too for part of the tour but I couldn't stay on the bus (grumble grumble) and as I don't drive, I ended up only going to the London show this year. It would have been a logistical nightmare otherwise!!!!! What with the Switzerland trip too, I am glad it worked out like that really.

I was horribly drunk at the London show as everyone and anyone wanted to buy me a drink. I was putting them on the floor and leaving them in the end!!!! Lovely to meet fans and mates and get to chat to everyone!!! Bloody brilliant effort Brucebruce for flying back from Australia especially!!! \m/

The first weekend Floyd was away on tour, I went to Dublin to stay with our friends and then the second weekend I was in Davos so all in all it went by quite quickly. Floyd and I have rarely spent any time apart at all over the past 7-8 years (annoying aren't we!) - apart from when he was ill of course but even then, I was at his side 20 hours a day!!! But it was great on this tour....I actually got to use the remote control(s)...all 6 of them! And made a big pile of stuff to sell on eBay (lets see of Floyd notices anything's missing!!!!).

The Almighty website finally came to an end over the weekend. Wow...can't believe it's been 7 years! It was a long battle getting it off Sanctuary Records at the time as once they stopped representing the band, they weren't interested in doing anything for them. So it took forever and lots of angry emails to get them to give me the domain etc. It was funny because when Ricky and Stumpy had asked to meet me, with regards to me running the site for them, they didn't realise I was Floyd's girlfriend back then....I told them after the meeting!!!!! How's that for conincidence!! Back then, Nick and Gav were in the band as Floyd and Pete had decided not to rejoin. A few months after I started doing the website, Sanctuary and the band parted ways. So I started paying the bills and even when the band cancelled a tour due to poor ticket sales and Ricky's getting an offer to tour solo in the USA, I decided to keep the site going anyway - mainly because by then, we had such a brilliant online community on the forum and the fans were so decent and really devoted, I wanted to keep it all going. And I did...for the next 6 1/2 years!!!!

It's got to the point where I just can't keep paying the bills and doing so much work for free - even though Floyd has been playing with them for the past 2 years, I still can't keep paying the bills myself and doing all this work for nothing. I guess it had to end at some point, but it was so, so, so sad to see the forum go. The band will keep a page on Myspace and I think Ricky has his own plans for www.thealmighty.co.uk.

Floyd stayed up until 3am reading all the old messages of support which people had posted on the forum when he was ill. He said he wanted to read them again before they went. So it was then that I managed to persuade him to keep a blog and maybe even have his own mini-website. I could import the 'get well' messages from the old Almighty forum and we could keep the community going. Soooooo....any moment now floydlondon.com will be launched!!! Hurray!!!!

Here is the only photo I managed to take on Friday night, at The Almighty's show!! Floyd dived in to the crowd at the very end (I swear I am not feeding him anything to make him crazy!) and got carried offstage by Stumpy!!!

Soph xx