My night to remember, "All life long"

                              
                                
I've won a competition on Radio Donna and got this wonderful
price. A trip to Milan, the Bryan Adams concert at the Forum on
May 9th and the best part, a meet and greet with the man
himself. Here is how it goes.

On Friday afternoon, May 9th, I left for Milan with Eric Lahey
from Polygram Belgium and a couple of other winners from
another radiostation. I was very excited about it, especially
when it was my first time flying. After a one hour and a half
flight, we landed in Milan, where a man from Polygram Milano
was waiting for us. The weather was great, it was 23° Celsius.
In a little, but very chique bus he drove us to our also chique
hotel, a bit outside of the city.

In the afternoon we were free, so we all went into the city by
metro. While we were eating, Eric received a phone-call "for
me" from the DJ of Radio Donna. He was wondering how I was
doing. Of course I felt great. He also asked me if I wanted to
an interview by phone about the whole trip and the concert and
meeting the next morning. Of course I wanted to do that. Wauw!

In the evening at 19.30, the Polygram Milano man came to the
hotel and drove us to the Forum, to the concert. We had to wait
a little bit here and a little bit there until they finally
agreed. Yes, these are the people that Mr. Adams is expecting.
We could go in. We had to go through the concert-hall and
then... we had to wait another time. Finally they let into the
band lounge where we had to wait for Bryan. After a bit of
chatting to each other, the man himself came into the room with
the wonderful words, "Hi I'm Bryan", as if we didn't know. I
guess it was just in case. He first talked to an Italian girl
in a wheel chair (she had no legs), but she was very beautiful.
She had made a magazine for school about Bryan. He looked into
it and said it was lovely. The another Italian girl, she had
made a beautiful drawing about Bryan. After that he came to us.
First he talked to a couple from Arlon in Belgium and they
spoke French, so Bryan did too. His French is great by the way,
a lot better on TV with Celine Dion. The woman showed him a
picture of her 18 year old daughter who is starting as a model
and, of course Bryan liked this a lot. He signed the photo the
photo and was wondering why this beautiful girl wasn't there.
Sorry Bry, it was just a trip for two. I'm sure she'll be in
Brussels as you requested. 

The finally, my turn. I introduced myself with, "Hi, I'm
Christine from Bruges and I've brought you a present". I bought
him a beercan with a painted picture of one of the many
beautiful sights Bruges has. I also explained to him why I
brought him this present which I'm not going to tell you, but
he said it was great and thanked me spontaneous by giving  me
two big kisses. I was stonned. He looked at me and laughed.
Then I showed him a photo of my youngest son, Tim. He was only
three years old on that photo and was dressed in a baseball cap
wearing backwards, my B.A. t-shirt and his guitar. Bryan looked 
 at it for quite a while. He said he looked very cute and
sweet. He said, "It's just like me, only he is a lot cuter and
looks better". I think Bry is a bit worried about his looks
because he ofen says that. You shouldn't be Bryan, it's the way
you feel inside that is important, not the looks.
He signed the photo for my son. Then I wanted him to sign a
book, but he didn't want to. He said it is an old one, "I'll
bring you a new one next time I see you". Well sorry Bryan, I
have so many I had to choose one. Anyway, he did sign my "18
til I die" booklet. Thank you. We also had our photo taken,
I'll treasure it forever. I also met Tommy. And Bryan is right,
he is one crazy guy, but lovely.

After all that, we had to go back into the concerthall. We had
press-tickets, so were seated at the end of the arena, but I
didn't stay there for long. I went to the B-stage to see the
guys another time upclose. It was great, although the sound was
pretty bad. You really had to guess what song they were doing.
Bryan let too many people on that little stage and Thor had to
look underneath if it was strong enough to hold. To my
thinking, it was a good thing that it was only for one song
with all these people on it. It was getting dangerous. I didn't
want to go on it, I wanted to return home in one piece.

The concert was great as always with a few surprises, like
Elvis showing up in the audience while he was singing "Hey
Elvis". He did almost all the songs from the last album except,
"You're still beautiful to me". Also a few covers and of course
some good old ones. End of show.

After the concert, the man from Polygram drove us back to the
hotel. A bit tired but satisfied. None of us wanted to go to
bed yet. We were all too excited. It was 0.30 and since the bar
of the hotel was closed, we went all out to a bar. We didn't
understand anything on their drinkinglist, so we all had Wodka-
Lemon. I'll tell you, we all felt "happy" when we returned to
the hotel. Including Eric from Polygram Belgium, who is, by the
way, a great guy. I didn't go to bed immediately because I
didn't want this night to end, so I sat down and wrote a few
notes for my first live interview by phone the next morning. I
think I did well.

The next day, at noon, we returned to Belgium. All good things
come to an end. And as everything I told you wasn't enough, the
next week I had another live studio experience. A one hour talk
about Bryan, between listening and commenting to new singles
from various artists. My sister taped it and when I listened to
it, even though I say so myself, I didn't do to badly. While I
was there in Brussels at the radiostation I also met Per Gessle
from Roxette. He also is a nice plain guy.

I would like to thank everyone involved in this adventure, but
especially Bryan, thank you for being who you are. Never
change, you're great. I also thank my husband for his support
and enthusiasm. And my children. I finally found my dream
coming true.