We had just missed one fast train to London which appeared to have taken all the passengers off the platform. Fortunately for myself, James and Catherine this missed train was late and so 4 minutes later the scheduled fast train to London came into the platform and we were the only passengers boarding at Basingstoke. Finding some free seats and a table was easy and so we enjoyed the 45 minute ride up to 'the smoke'.
At Waterloo we went to the International terminal to have a look at the Eurostar trains and the children told me of the journey they had to Disneyland Paris with their Mother last year.
After this, it was an escalator ride down to the underground to catch the Northern Line train to Tottenham Court Road to get some food at McDonalds. Having used to work in this part of the city, this was the most convenient place I could think of to eat. The restaurant had changed somewhat since I had been there last, but it proved to be useful in providing us with what we wanted. Then it was either a walk back down the subway to the underground to catch the Central Line for one stop to Oxford Circus, or walk down Oxford Street to said stop, as that is where we needed to change tubes for Baker Street. We got out of McDonalds and I decided it would be a good idea to walk - show the children something of one of the most famous streets in the world. Just my luck, as we started off it started to rain. I decided to carry on, but the children of course decided they wanted to go on the tube and moaned and whinged all along Oxford Street.
When we got to Oxford Circus, it was straight down the steps and onto the tube to Baker Street. London Transport have put the face of Sherlock Holmes onto the tube station (in silhouette) - I knew this and so asked the children who was the famous person who lived at Baker Street. James said Tony Blair and Catherine wanted some clues. Even when they saw the picture when we got off the tube train they didn't know!
Baker Street is one of the main underground interchange stations, and so it was quite a walk from one underground level to another to get the Metropolitan Line to Wembley Park. As we were a little bit early, I decided to let the first train go and we'd catch the next one. Whilst we were waiting for the next train to come in, we saw all the football crowd coming off their trains and going to wherever it was they were going. I didn't quite have the bottle to ask anyone what the scores were just in case I happened to ask someone who's team had just lost!
Anyway, train duly caught and we got off at Wembley Park station about 8 minutes later. It was my first visit to Wembley and so I was looking forward to seeing the twin towers of the football stadium - and there they were. There was good signposting to all the Wembley complexes - Stadium, Area, Conference Centres. Who do we meet first, but the ticket touts wanting to buy any spare Spice Girl tickets. The children didn't quite know what to make of them, and so we quickly hurried along our walk to the Arena.
When we eventually got there I realised that it was much further away than I had imagined. Our entrance was right the way around the far side so we walked around the building. We came across the official merchandising caravan. I didn't actually see anyone else selling any goodies - unofficial, except for people selling a whistle at one pound a throw. Very expensive for something that I would have thrown away. Luckily I brought my headache pills with me.....
Queued up for some goodies - the children had been given some money to spend (it was their first 'proper' concert) and so they decided on a programme and a badge each, and Catherine bought a pendant of her own. (Which she has not taken off yet )
Inside the Arena it was a case of find the toilets straight away - out of necessity and to try and make sure that it wasn't a case of having to go halfway through the performance either. Men's was OK, but the Ladies had a queue, as usual.
The show was to start at 7:30 prompt according to the ticket. We got shown into our seats by 6:50. We were on the right side of the stage as you look at it, up mid-way on banked seating. I had gone for this as I thought the children would not be able to see properly if they were on level seating on the floor. The view was good.
At 7:00 a female DJ at the mixing desk, halfway along the ground came on a played lots of disco music for almost one hour, which I really enjoyed - I tend to make a fool of myself at concerts anyway.. So there I was singing along and doing the YMCA signs.
The DJ was building up the tension, which I could see in Catherine's face. Eventually at about 7:55 the lights suddenly go out and the place erupts with shouting and screams. Some wonderful music was being played. I could tell it was the band who were playing this, and not a CD
The curtain which had surrounded the stage lifted up, and the back projector screen started to show a space-ship type sequence, and there was a voice talking about 'Spice Trek' . Eventually the space-ship landed and the 5 inhabitants came out to more screams and shouting.
Lots of songs were played, with a couple of costume changes, lots of dancing which was well choreographed and some rather good vocal arrangements, and at 8:40 they played the song 'Move Over' which is the Pepsi commercial song. As it happened it's one of my favourites and quite by coincidence the free Pepsi live CD of this song had come the previous day, and so I had played it a couple of times and so knew the live arrangement of it. So, I sang along and played the drums on my knees and loved every minute of it.
Then they had a break for 30 minutes - in which Catherine decided she was thirsty and wanted to go to the loo too - so it was queue up again which I had to go with her to make sure she didn't get lost.
The second half actually started a bit early which caught a few people out. Lots more songs which everyone in the sell-out arena sang along with. I had a look around at the crowd I could see there were a lot of Mums and Dads who were just sitting there not even moving. I had decided that I had gone to enjoy myself - and this I would do. There were many costume changes in the set and while they were doing this, the band played some great music. I can only describe it as a cross between Prodigy and Tangerine Dream. There were a couple of songs they sang that they had not recorded - Emma sang 'Baby Baby Where Did Our Love Go' - I'm sure she looked and waved at me. Then Mels B and C did a great rock'n'roll number - can't remember the name, then they all sang 'The Sisters are Doing it for Themselves'. Which was well arranged. Little Catherine loved every minute of it - she was jumping up and down and bouncing, waving her arms about and singing until she had no voice left.
The girls played what appeared to be about two encores and the house lights went up at 10:29, so I thought they had done very well. James was making some comments about Geri's boobs, as they were rather obvious, and rather bouncy - which of course, he loved..(Well, he is 11).
Then the mass exodus to go and catch the tube back to Waterloo. I had hoped we would be able to catch the 11:15 train, but looking at my watch and knowing the journey at this time of night I thought it would be touch and go. Walked briskly to the tube and fortunately a tube train came almost at once. Bit of a crush as many thousands of people tried to get on the same train, but we got seats and made the journey back to Baker Street. This time it was a change onto the Bakerloo line directly back to Waterloo. Got to the appropriate platform and the next rain was due in 3 minutes. Looked at my watch and it was still touch and go, as we had some 8 stops on the tube before Waterloo.
Eventually got to Waterloo and briskly went to the Railway Station. Looked up at the indicator board to see our train at 11:15 on platform 9 - watch said 11:12. Got onto train to hear the guard blow the whistle and send the train on it's way. It was a slow train that was to stop at most stations, in fact 11 of them before Basingstoke. That was why the journey took 75 minutes rather than the 45 coming up. Tried very hard to stop the children falling asleep on the train, as I knew it would be hard to wake them if they did. Catherine stayed awake, but James dozed off.
Got back into the car at 00:35, then drove home and everyone was in bed by 01:00 and fast asleep.