London MJ 1997
7-12—7-19
My trip to London, to see Michael Jackson in concert, turned out to be one of the best and worst experiences in my entire life. But seeing “The Man” live made all my troubles worth it.
On July 12th, my parents drove me up to Toronto, to take me to the airport for my 7:00pm flight. We arrived there around 5 and I checked my bags in. We walked around the airport and got some popcorn. Soon enough it was time for me to go to my gate, gate 107, at the very end of the airport. Only passengers were allowed in the gate area, so we said our good byes and I was off. I made my way to the gate, and sat with the other passengers until it was time to board the plane. We got all settled in, and pulled away from the gate. I was sitting next to an old lady, and next to her was a man going to Ireland. The old lady asked me if I was willing to change places with her husband, so they could sit together. I told her maybe, let me think about it. So the plane left the gate, to assume take off position. Then we were notified of a slight problem with a generator on the plane. Due to Canada’s regulations, the problem made the plane a “no-go”. So we had to pull out of the take off line, and we went into a field, where we waited for the maintenance trucks to come and fix the problem. No more than 15 minutes….. An hour and a half goes buy, and the pilot says we have to go to the hangar. They took us, still in the plane, over to the hangar, where we waited for the trucks to come and disconnect the generator. No more than 20-30 minutes….2 hours go by, and we are ready for take off. The gas trucks come and fill the gas tanks again, and we go to move into the take off line again. We arrive there, and another problem arises, or an old problem was never fixed, and the captain says that we have to go back to the gate. We all got off of the plane and went back into the airport, to see what we were going to do. By that time we had sat on the plane for over 4 hours. In 2 more hours we should have been landing in London. People were getting angry, because all we had on the plane had been water and peanuts. So the crew brought our breakfast, and drinks, off the plane for all of us as we waited. I called my parents, so they could notify Robin Meltzer’s family of my situation. An airline official said they were trying to get us to take off on a new plane at 3 am….8 hours after we were supposed to take off. So I called my parents again and told them. A bit later the man came on and said we were definitely taking off at 1:45 am, and that we would arrive around 1 p.m. in England. So I called my parents again, and told them the new information, as it seemed final. But then some more time went on, and they said that the flight had been canceled for the night. The crew would have been flying illegal, because they hadn’t gotten the required amount of sleep, and that finding the back up crew would mean flying after 3 am, which the tower wouldn’t let us do. (It was said that besides the generator problem, there was a circuit breaker problem, as well as radio and engine failure. To put it simply the plane was just a big hunk of junk.) So they put all of us up in the Toronto Hilton. In no more than 5 minutes a bus would be there to pick us up. We all went outside, and 20 minutes went by until the busses came. By then we had been in the airport for another 2 hours. We arrived at the hotel, which was extremely not prepared for us. I waited at least a half hour before I got to the desk, where I needed a credit card. I’m 17 years old, I don’t have a credit card. So the lady took down my Quick bank card number, since I didn’t have a credit card or cash. They needed it in case I wanted to use the telephone in my room or watch a movie. Come on, its 2:30 am and I’m going to get on a plane at 10:00,… I think I’m gonna get some sleep. So I got to my room, and went to bed. My wake up call was for 6 am, which I found was too early. I got up and got dressed, and watched Much music, the Canadian MTV. No Michael! boo hoo. I went down to get breakfast at quarter to 7. After breakfast I sat in the lobby until the busses came to take us back to the airport for our 10:00 flight, a 15 hour delay. We boarded the airplane again ( deja-vu huh?) and everything went smoothly this time.
On this flight, the 2 people that had been sitting next to me, weren’t there. So I had 2 seats next to me, all to myself!! I watched Evita on the airplane, and tried to get some sleep. We had a chicken meal of some kind, with little bow tie pasta, and a roll. Not that bad. Before we landed we had a snack of some kind of salad, but I didn’t eat it. I was asleep when they gave it to me, and when I woke up I didn’t want it. I arrived at Heathrow, in London, around 9:30 p.m. on Sunday. I went through the passport check, and the guy was very nice. He asked me why I was going. I said to visit my friend Robin and see Michael Jackson. He asked me how I met Robin, and I said through the internet. He asked me if I had met him before, and I said yes, last year, and the man let me go. I went to pick up my luggage which took forever. But I finally got it, and went through customs. Then out I went into the pick up area, and I found Mr. Meltzer holding a sign with my name on it, and a King magazine. He was very nice, considering all the trouble that family had to do concerning my flights. We drove back to Brentwood and it took about an hour. When we arrived at the house, I was greeted by Robin, Mrs. Meltzer, Emily and Amanda ( which were half dead, they had been to a concert the day before) and we all went to bed. They all assumed I would be dead, because of jet lag, but I couldn’t sleep and I was the first “kid” up the next morning.
Monday we all woke up and went into London for the day. First we went to St. Paul’s cathedral. I think Robin thought I was stupid, because when he asked if I knew what it was, I said no. But it was just a little language barrier, as I thought he was saying Simples Cathedral, which I had no clue what that was. I realized what he was saying, but he probably still thought I was dumb! ha….We got to St. Paul’s, and walked all the way up to the top. It has a very nice view of London. It’s one of the tallest buildings in London. The inside is very pretty as well. Before the dome starts, is called the Whispering room. You’re supposed to be able to hear a whisper all the way on the other side of the dome. But it is too loud in there to hear anything. The stairs up to the very top, well as far as you can go, were spiral stairs, which I hate. But I made it. We were all winded when we got to the top, and there were a lot of people up there, so it made it a bit hard to walk around. We went back down the stairs, and Rob wrote ” Michael Jackson rules” on the wall in the staircase!! Bad Rob! ha ha ha. After St. Paul’s, we went to Camden Town, a trendy area of London, looking for a man who sold HIStory tour bootleg videos. We looked around for him in an open market thing, and I finally found Moonwalk, Michael’s autobiography. I also bought a book of Irish fairy tales. The boot leg guy wasn’t there, he only works on weekends. From there we walked to the Sony building, where there was a big display of ” Blood on the Dance Floor, HIStory in the Mix” in the big window. We took some good pictures of it, and walked to Carnaby Street. We went to Carnaby Street to find an American Flag for us to use for the concerts. We bought one at some flag store, and continued to walk down the street. I went into Boy George’s store, which was really cool, and then we went into my insanity store. It was a souvenir-junk-find anything in it-store, and it became my weakness. There was SO much Michael Jackson stuff in it, I went literally insane. I bought 3 posters, a 1998 calendar ( the un-official, which had surprisingly good pictures in it), a Dangerous world tour T-shirt, a postcard, a tear out MJ picture book… and I think that was it. I spent about 50 pounds there. ($75.00) Then we went to HMV and Virgin Megastore’s where I bought the HIStory/Ghosts single on vinyl, and 4 of each HIStory/Ghosts singles, plus the limited edition see through red ” Blood on the Dance Floor” single. From there we went to Pizza Hut for dinner. For some reason we laughed SO much. Robin had a huge laughing fit, for really no reason. But since he was laughing, we all kept laughing at him.(Maybe it was because he got sweet corn and pineapple on his pizza?!?!?) After dinner we went back to Liverpool Street station and got the train back to Brentwood. At Robin’s house, we went to his room to listen to the acapella version of HIStory, and check email. There we found out that 200 people were already at Wembly stadium for Tuesday’s concert. That really could have jeopardized our chance of getting in the front enclosure, which really worried us. We had no possible way of getting to the stadium to sleep out, so all we could do was worry and hope we get a good spot in the queue. We went to sleep, which I hardly got any again, and got up at 3:45, to get ready for the concert. The train left Brentwood at 4:45, and we got to Wembly around 6 am. We got a fairly good place in the queue and set up our spot for the day, on the steps of turnstile C. The day went painfully slow. It misted for a few minutes, but the sun then came out and it got hot. I tried to sleep a bit, on Rob’s jacket, but kept waking myself up. Soon enough it was time for everyone to stand up before the doors opened. The doors opened at 4:30 and for the last hour we had to stand up, and were not allowed to leave the queue. That went painfully slow, and the pressure and nervousness built up. Finally the turnstiles opened and everyone ran for them causing a great people jam. I got through and ran for the front enclosure. There were guards about every 50 feet, telling everyone to slow down. So you would just run, slow down, say you were sorry and run again til the next guard. I got into the front enclosure, thank god, and had a very good view of the stage. The guards made us sit down on the floor, which made it really cramped. I talked to this girl Marie ( more about her later) and some Indian guys, since I lost everyone else. Marie went and bought us all drinks, and we talked a bit. Then someone stood up and caused a great rush to the barriers. After that the guards had a very hard time of getting everyone to back up, as no one wanted to lose their places, and to sit us back down again. We sat back down, but then everyone stood up again, and the guards gave up. At 6:00 p.m., one of Michael’s opening acts came on. It was Grace, and she was awful. It was dance music, and all you could really hear of her, was just some kind of screaming. At one point she says ” This is your night,” which made everyone think it was finally over, but then she said, ” But it’s not over yet,” and she went on to do 2 more songs. After Grace finally left at 6:30, and when 7:00 rolled around, Michael’s second opening act came on. It was Human Nature, a 4 male group from Australia, and they were quite good. But Toby, the cute one, had to be gay of course. They left the stage at 7:30 and a woman’s voice came on and said, ” 30 minutes until HIStory begins”. In the last half hour a camera panned over the audience, and showed it on the big screens. And now comes the bit about Marie. She was sitting on one of the Indian man’s shoulders, and the camera was right on her, so she pulled her entire shirt up, and “wiggled” all she had for the cameras. When everyone noticed what she did this man reached up to grab her, and the man she was sitting on turned around for everyone behind to see…. I could never do that, that is so sick and embarrassing. But finally the woman’s voice came on again and said, ” 5 minutes until HIStory.” Then the screens came together on stage, and the video started. It showed a man ( Michael) in a space ship. The ship took off, and it traveled a roller coaster ride past famous sights, and famous clips of Michael’s career. Finally it led up a mountain and straight down, and the space ship appeared on stage, in a puff of smoke. Michael, from inside, kicked the door off, and stood there, with a helmet and space suit on. He stepped out of the ship and the ship sank into the floor. Michael stood there a minute and turned, taking his helmet off. He turned around as “Scream” started. He danced his heart out. After ” Scream” came ” They Don’t Care About Us”. During that song I noticed that Michael’s ex-wife, Lisa Marie Prestly, was sitting on the side of the stage with her 2 kids. She was having so much fun, bopping away to Michael. I waved to her and she waved back at me. Her kids were scared of the pyrotechnics of the show, and her daughter was playing with a toy trumpet that Lisa kept taking away from her! ha ha. After ” They Don’t Care About Us” came a medley, if you want to call it, of ” In the Closet” and ” She Drives Me Wild”. Then came ” Stranger in Moscow,” which was so beautiful, or ” Wanna Be Startin Something,” I can’t remember. ” Wanna be” was quite similar to the Dangerous tour ” Wanna be”. But he sang it live and amazingly. Then came ” Smooth Criminal” with the famous silhouette on the sheet, but it was a bit too light to see it good. The performance was amazing, as usual, with the moonwalks and 45 degree lean. After that was ” You Are Not Alone” which hosts the famous girl on stage. Michael danced with her, as he “sang”, and after a while motioned to Wayne ( Michael’s security man) to take her away. He finished the song with some live wonderful ad-libs. I think ” The Old Songs the Old Fashioned Way” came after that. It was a wonderful mix of Jackson 5 songs ” I want you Back” ” The Love You Save” and ” I’ll Be There” ala Dangerous tour. But it was sang so wonderfully live, he is so good. At the end of ” I’ll Be There” he “cries” and becomes really funky at the ending, ala Triumph tour and “Jacksons Live” CD, but better, as I didn’t like the “I’ll be There” on “Jacksons Live”. Next was an amazingly updated version of ” Billie Jean”. At the beginning Michael walked on stage in silence, you could only hear his shoes hitting the stage, carrying a suitcase. He walked down the middle of the stage, looking so sad, and looked up to the spot light above him. It seemed like he was looking into his home, but it also seemed that it was like he was looking to see what kind of weather it was. You know, like people look up to the clouds to see if it is raining. He walked back to the back of the stage and put the suitcase on a stool. He opened it, and slowly took out the 3 trademarks of ” Billie Jean” the jacket, glove and hat. He looked at them with such sadness, like he was wondering if he should do it, and put them on, and become the Michael everyone loves. He put the jacket and glove on, and carried the hat with him into the middle of the stage. He looked up again at the spot light, and then jumps in, beginning the amazing performance of “Billie Jean”. At the end of the song, he throws his hat into the audience, and it came right towards me. I thought oh no, everyone is going to jump on me. I moved out of the way a bit, and everyone jumped on each other and became crazy trying to get the hat. I was paying so much attention to the big mosh pit that had started because of the hat, that I missed some of ” Thriller”. He began ” Thriller” in a glowing jacket. His dancers were dressed up as the ghouls. At one point the ghouls chased him down into the stage, through a trap door, and he came up with the wear wolf mask on. ( What you’re not supposed to know, is that Michael trades spots with an impersonator, and the impersonator finishes the song). After that ” Michael” was put into a coffin, where spikes go through it, and it starts on fire, but when they open it, no one is in it. From that, starts ” Beat it” and Michael jumped into the cherry picker crane, and is picked up above the audience. He came back down and proceeded to finish the song. At the end of the song, a bunch of people came on stage, and they acted like it’s a baseball game. There was a man who pitched a ball to another man that hit it out into the audience, and there was a man selling snacks, like at a baseball game. But I don’t know what it had to do with ” Beat it”. After ” Beat it” came the new ” Blood on the Dance Floor” which was truly amazing. It was so loud, and pumping. The stage was flooded in red lights, and it was just so full of energy, you couldn’t help jumping and dancing along. After that came either ” Black or White” or ” Dangerous”. In ” Black or White” a wall of foam speakers was built on the stage, and during the song, they started to ” short out”. The dancers carried fake fire extinguishers, that they sprayed at the wall. At the end of the song, the wall fell onto all of them, and a huge fire came out of the stage. It was so hot, you could feel it on your face. ” Dangerous” was the same routine, with the same moves. After ” Dangerous” was a brilliant, amazing, beautiful performance of ” Earth Song”. It began with props of a bombed out town moving onto the stage. During the song Michael went onto the crane again, and it picked him up on a circle about the audience. At one point he let his feet and legs dangle above the audience, and he pulled himself back up. God, what would happen if he couldn’t hold himself, or pick himself up, the fans would kill him. After the lyrics were over, and the war torn families had gotten on stage, a tank rolled on. It stopped and Michael ran to stand in front of it. A soldier came out of the tank holding a machine gun. He pointed it at each family, and then stood in front of Michael with the gun pointed at him. Michael just looked at him, and finally pushed the gun away crying. Both Michael and the soldier, kneeled on the stage crying. Then a girl came and gave a sunflower to the soldier, who was now crying like a baby. It was such a moving scene. “Heal the World” was after ” Earth Song” and the train of children came onto the stage. ” HIStory” was the final song. It was so beautiful. The screen flashed flags from across the world, and clips of the HIStory trailer. The space soldiers from the beginning of the show came out holding flags from across the world, and waved them to the beat of the music. Michael came out and began the song. It was just so pretty, and such bright colors. At the end, Michael walked off the stage, and they showed the entire HIStory trailer, and had fire works. That was it, that was the end. I was so sad to see it over. I left the stadium from the farthest entrance, that we were going to all meet at. I bought 2 shirts and 2 tour programs. I walked all the way from turnstile J to turnstile A, and met everyone. Then we got something to eat from the vendors, where I came across all the posters, which caused another moment of insanity. In a short period of time I bought 6 posters. I’m truly insane. I have no where to put them all. So we walked back to the train station, and made our way back to Brentwood. But at the station I got on a different car then the rest of my friends. I looked behind me and they weren’t there. So I looked at the map and decided where I thought we were getting off, but I made sure to look out and see if they had gotten off so I could follow. At one stop I looked out and saw Rob get off. So I ran after him, and he got back on. So I panicked and hoped that the train wouldn’t close the doors without me. But I made it. We found each other again. The train was crowded since all of the stadium had to get home. Rob sat on the floor and then on a little seat built into the side of the car. During a bump, he almost fell off. It was so funny, but we were both too tired to really laugh properly about it. We got back to Brentwood and we were all dead tired, and went to sleep right away.
We had found out that Wednesday, Michael was going to be spending his time around London and “playing” with his fans. So Wednesday morning we made are way to Michael’s hotel, the Carlton Towers, near Harrod’s ( which we found out is where Michael buys his underwear!). We stood in front of Michael’s hotel for a while, because everyone said he was coming out to see us at 1:30 p.m.. We waited and chanted ” Michael, Michael” but he didn’t come out. His vans came, and sat there. But still no Michael. So Amanda, Sally and I went to get some lunch at Mc Donald’s because we were so hungry. We hoped and hoped Michael didn’t come out while we were gone. We got back, right when everyone was screaming. Michael was about to come out. Amanda and I stood on a fence on the side walk across from the hotel, waiting for him to come out. I fell a couple of times onto the fence, which had big metal spikes on it, and they scratched my back really bad. But, Michael finally came out, with Lisa Marie! They went right into one of the vans and went off, to Hamley’s toy store. That was it. Michael didn’t acknowledge us at all. Fans ran after the 3 vans, and one fan, Joe Yennish, got hit by one of the vans, and broke his leg. But Michael went into Hamley’s, which wasn’t prepared for his arrival, and the store was still packed with regular shoppers. Michael picked up a few toys, and because of the hysteria that was happening, left right away. He came back to the hotel, and we didn’t even see him run inside. That was the last we saw of him. He did not come out to talk to us, and take our gifts, and he didn’t even wave out his window. People said he was mad about Joe getting hit by the van, or that he was mad at the lack and un-organization of the security, and that Hamley’s was so packed. But who knows. All I know, is that it was a huge disappointment, that I wasn’t able to get my gift to him. I almost started to cry in front of all my friends as we went back to Brentwood around 7:00 on the train. We went to bed early, after watching some Michael videos. We watched one that was a Japanese interview. At the end they showed behind the scenes footage. At one point, some ones watch was going off, and Michael started laughing hysterically. He said, ” what is that, it sounds like a watch, bebebebeeep.” It was so cute and funny!!! Then after that, he couldn’t stop laughing, and it was so cute. After that we watched part of the Mexico deposition, which was a law suit against Michael for plagiarizing ” the Girl is Mine”, ” Thriller”, and ” We are the World”. He looked so funny. He was all swollen because he just had his wisdom teeth out, and he could barely close his mouth. He kept clearing his throat, because it hurt, and was drinking tea. He was also so drugged up on pain medication, that at some points, he looked about to fall asleep. But it is amazing footage. He sings live and demonstrates how he writes his songs. For anyone who says he can’t sing live, because he sometimes mimes his concerts, should watch this video. With all his pain and swolenness he sings like an angel. After that we all went to bed, to get up early for the next concert.
We got up at quarter to 4 again, and were at Wembly around 6 am. We got a good place at turnstile A this time. But then it rained, and it poured, all day. Just when it started to rain hard, Rob and I decided to go across the street and get a big sheet of plastic for us. So by the time we got back with it, we were all soaking wet. So we put it up between the banisters on the steps and sat under it. But the stairs were still all soaked, so we were still wet. We had fun though. Robin kept talking in this announcer type voice, which made us all crack up. In fact, people were looking at us and wondering what we were laughing about. The day and the queue was rather miserable though. We all wanted to seriously go home. We got something to eat, and we felt better. But 1:00 rolled around, and me and Emily still didn’t have our tickets. Sandy was supposed to pick them up, since she had ordered them for us, but we hadn’t seen her at all yet. So Emily and I walked down to the ticket collection place, and asked if she had gotten them yet, she hadn’t. So we went back to the queue and waited some more. 2:00 rolled around and still no Sandy, and no tickets. We were getting worried. We walked to the ticket place again, and still no Sandy. We went back to the queue again, to see what we should do, because 3:00 was approaching fast, and we didn’t have tickets. Rob said to go once more, and if she wasn’t there, for Emily to take Amanda’s spare ticket, and for me to get one from a scalper. So we went back to the ticket place again, and by this time the guy knew what we wanted, and said no before we even got to the booth. We walked around, asking scalpers their prices, and we got from 35 pounds, which I paid, to 150 pounds, which you could get Mix Tower tickets for that. So we were in the queue, waiting for the turnstiles to open, when Sandy, and Glen finally show up. Glen came up to talk to us, and asked us if we needed our tickets. I told him what happened, and said I wanted my money back, and he went back down to talk to Sandy, and we never saw them again. I just hope I either get my 35 pounds back or my $60 from Sandy, for never getting a ticket from her. Finally, the turnstiles opened and we ran to the front. This time I had been 2nd or 3rd row, but then got pushed back to 5th or 6th by the guards. I talked to this really nice man from Wales, who had a camera with him also. So we kept checking our camera angles, to make sure we would get good pictures. This time, they didn’t make us sit down, so we had to stand up for the entire time until Grace, Human Nature, and Michael finally came on. The show was mainly the same. But it was better, because Michael seemed so happy, and smiling all the time. He mimed more of this concert than the other one, but we figure it was because he wanted to dance his heart out for his mom, sister and ex-wife. Some differences in the concert were, during ” Smooth Criminal” you really could not see the shadow on the sheet, so they pulled it up early. At one point, between songs, when the stage hands were sweeping the stage, Michael ran after one of them and slid behind them! It was so cute. Michael seemed so happy during this concert. We thought he would still be in a bad mood from Wednesday, but he wasn’t. During ” Billie Jean” he brought out the suitcase again, and walked up to the front of the stage, but this time he put it down and sat on it. It was so cute. He sat there, and stuck his finger in his ear, and then did it again. Once he got up and turned around to walk to the stool, he scratched his back like the first show on Tuesday. It was just so cute though. Everyone was so surprised to see him sit on the suitcase. All in all it was way worth sitting in the raining queue all day. The show was far better than Tuesdays, and I really can’t say why. After the show, we were caught in a terrible people jam going back to the station. But finally we got back to Brentwood and went to sleep.
Friday we all woke up around noon time. We showered and got ready to go into London. Mrs. Meltzer made us Americans a special lunch of hamburgers. Scottish beef, so no mad cow! ha ha…We took the train into London, and met up with Kathy Grasso and Michelle somebody, in Piccadilly Circus. We went to Rock Circus, which is a wax museum of musicians in history. You wear head phones and when you go by the statues they play one of their songs. When you first walk in, they take your picture with Jon Bon Jovi. The picture turned out really good, and I bought it. We walked through the museum, and took pictures of the statues. Some of them were really good, and others, like Michael’s, were really awful. But I noticed that everyone stopped at Michael’s statue, and stayed there, for at least one run through of ” Billie Jean”. A lot of people took pictures of it too. Michael’s statue was the only one that also played his video, which was really cool. But the statue was awful, and the glove was on the wrong hand!!! After Michael’s statue you go into the Wall of Hands which is this big wall, where on a plaque, there are hand prints of people that have statues in the museum. Michael’s was there, so we all had to touch it, as it’s the closest most of us will ever get to touching Michael’s hand. He has big hands. The picture of him with his hand in the mold, next to the hand, was so cute. Beyond the Wall of Hands, you go into this theatre where they have a little show. It documents the history of music through the decades. At times one of the wax statues will show up and “perform” for us. But during the 80’s part of the show they had Madonna, Phil Collins, and Bruce Springsteen, BUT NO MICHAEL… What is the 80’s without Michael Jackson?!?!?! Michael was the 80’s. But anyway, I enjoyed the show, and the museum. The gift shop was nice too. It had some nice Michael stuff, and a lot of Madonna stuff. From the museum, we went to Sega World to go on AS-1 the Michael Jackson ride. It was only 2 pounds to get in and 2 pounds for each ride. So we went to AS-1, and it was the best ride I have ever been on. Michael is the commander of a space ship and he talks to you and shows up on the screen from time to time. The whole ship your in moves, so it feels like you’re really there. But you have to shoot things, the enemy ships, and Michael will tell you when to shoot, and he sounds and looks so cute. Then after the main part, whoever has the most points has to land the ship. Michael explains what you have to do, and tells you to go right and left. But we didn’t land the ship and we crashed into a building. Michael came onto the screen and talked to us. He said something like” that was close, is everyone ok?”… He is just so cute. We were all screaming and stuff whenever Michael came on. It was the best. I’ve never had more fun. After Sega World, we went to Tower Records, and then made our way to the river. We were going to try to take a boat ride, but by then it was around 9:00pm and they were all closed. So we walked to Big Ben, and Parliament, and took pictures. Typical tourist bit! Then we walked across a bridge that led to Waterloo station. We stopped in the Royal Performance Hall ( or something like that) where Bob Dylan played a long time ago, and other famous people in the 60’s. We got a snack there, and just rested from a long day. Then we got an underground to Liverpool Station, and then a train back to Brentwood. Once back home, around midnight, we watched Top of the Pops, a music show that we had taped, because Michael was going to be on! We watched it, and they showed a taped ” HIStory” song from the Thursday night concert, and when they showed the audience, me Rob and Amanda were in the audience. You could see Robin and Amanda, better than you could see me. We watched some more Michael videos, and Madonna’s ” Justify My Love” that Robin had bought at Rock Circus. By the time we had finished watching Michael and talking about him, it was 2:30 and I had to get up to go to the airport at 3:30, so I didn’t even bother going to sleep. I layed there in the dark until I had to get up. Mrs. Meltzer made me breakfast, and the taxi came to pick me up. I arrived at the airport at quarter after 5, and got in line to check in. I sat by myself, in total sadness for having to leave. The flight went uneventful, and I got back home right on time. The time went by so fast. I didn’t stay long enough at all. All I know is that I’m definitely going back next year.
So many nice memories, that I will hold close to my heart always. It’s going to be a long time until I get to see Michael again, and at least a year until I get to see my e-friends again. I miss the week already, and its only been one day since I got back home. It was the most fun I’ve had my entire life. I thank Robin Meltzer, and his lovely family, as well as Michael Jackson, for providing such a good time. I love you all.
Sara Etten July 20th, 1997