reinforce my clarity

Guess where I was yesterday?

AT A U2 CONCERT!!!!

The 360° tour in Sheffield to be completely precise - left my house at 08.30, got there 10.50, queued until 17.00 and got home again at 01.30, and it was totally worth it. Because: I got into the cordoned off area that was inside the stage outer circle, yay!

And the stage this time was amazing - circle in the middle, a ramp at the back to get them down onto the outer circle, but there were two bridges out to the outer ring as well that they walked over and those ones moved around! So I have now seen all members of the band from less than 6 feet away - actually close enough to be real people, OMG. Adam was out over the bridge on our side loads of times, Bono and Edge once or twice (Edge walked right over my head playing Where the Streets Have No Name) and on the outer circle as well and even Larry came over it at one point. And there was room to move and dance and jump because they'd limited the numbers in there and everyone was shifting about as the band and the bridges moved - I never really even had trouble seeing the stage and at my height that is saying something.

( The set list and more babbling: )

So I sang my heart out and danced my legs off and my feet still hurt and my neck aches and it was amazing and incredible and I would go again in a second.

1. Picked up new U2 album "No Line on the Horizon"
2. Listened to new U2 album a total of 5 times on 3 different hi-fi systems (I live with a hi-fi geek)
3. Watched/listened to every U2-related BBC iplayer available
4. Subscribed to U2.com and read all the album reviews linked there
5. Got annoyed at the snippy tone of last week's Observer review of the album
6. Realised long-standing obsession with the band is very much still alive and kicking

Very good album, btw. Lots of echoes of previous things but with a fresh feel and definitely more interesting than the last one. I know what I'll be playing in the car for infinity.

The other thing I did today was finally get a useful inspiration for the boxofmagic Merlin Big Bang that I signed up for. I now have a page of notes and a lot of fear that I won't be able to pull off the inspiration, but that is better than the fear of being completely idea-less!