Roaming Bella

Well let me just say: combine a long weekend with music, drinking,
eating, a carnival, a trip to the country AND so much sunshine that I
got burnt, and I can tell you one thing….you have a VERY happy Leigh!!

This weekend was our Bank Holiday weekend. The sun started to shine late Friday afternoon, and it’s been shining every since!

After
a boring day at work, I met up with Spides, Kristy, Mish, Andrew and
Little Emma at an old 11th Century church that now houses the Museum of
Garden History. Once inside I was in awe…I couldn’t stop grinning
when thinking I’d be listening to one of my favourite performers in
such a historic place. There were church chairs all lined up, and
probably only seating for 50 people – it was THAT intimate! After
buying a green and a yellow raffle ticket (had to be patriotic), we sat
down in the 3rd row looking at Tim’s grand piano. I couldn’t contain my
excitement! It was like I was 5yrs old and tomorrow was Xmas!!

Went
to the bar and ordered the more important red wine, grabbed some gourmet
thai salad wraps and sat down to enjoy. Not long after, the support act
began. He was an Irish fruitcake of a man, but had a good voice. He
sang a weird song about scribbling clocks down on a piece of paper, and
I thought to myself that my Kindergarten kids could have written
something better….Where’s Tim? Come the feck on!

And there he
was…a man who I have been mesmerised by for over 7yrs after I heard
the song ‘Thank you’ from The Whitlams CD ‘Love This City’, whilst
sitting in Maths class with Ali Kim in Yr12…oh they were the days. I
couldn’t believe how close we were sitting to him. It was as if he’d
invited a group of his closest friends around to listen to an acoustic
version of Whitlams songs. My jaw dropped once he played ‘Charlie 2
(Buy Now, Pay Later)’. He might be the most arrogant man ever, but he
is extremely talented. Towards the end, he came on and did an encore,
asking the audience what they’d like to hear. If you’ve been to any
Whitlams concerts, you’ll know that the fans always scream out
‘Hamburger’. So in traditional style, so did I…a few others did too
and off he went with it ;) Man, it was just amazing.

Because this
was a special concert, an intimate one and the last, he had organised a
raffle and a Q&A session. Once the Q&A was out of the way, they
began with the raffle. So here am I, off in LA LA Land, paying no
attention to what was going on, when they call out the first number.
Spiders like "Hey my number is only 2 off….Leigh Leigh! that must be
yours!" So I go into my wallet, get my ticket and it’s me! HA! I won a
signed copy of Tim’s album ‘Little Cloud’ – it was Xmas after all!!!
GRIN FRICKING GRIN!! I’m still grinning a week later! The only thing
I’ve ever won, was a voucher for Barbeques Galore! Hahaha It was fate
after all as I had stumbled (literally when I was drunk in the city one
night) upon the poster for his concert.

Afterwards, Tim was doing
some signings, so of course I couldn’t resist to get the CD signed
twice – after all he owed me one from The Metro in 2000 when he half
signed my T-Shirt and became distracted. After photos with him and a
bit of banter we all headed off, light headed, into the London evening.
This is why I moved to London.You don’t often get
the chance to see someone live in a unique setting such as an 11th
Century church in Australia!