BBC Music Awards, Winter Wonderlands and Headaches.

One thing you have to understand about Andrea is that she is a huge fan of the band One Direction. Therefore, when she found out that they would be performing at the first ever BBC Music Awards in London, she was determined to go. It took some persuading by Andrea, I rarely ever go to see live music and if I do it is usually for as little money as I can spare, but eventually I gave in.

Before we went to the award show, which started at 8pm, we went to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. We took the London tube for the first time to get there. I am not exactly a stranger to subway systems, having used the NYC one many times and the one in Washington D.C. After using the London one I can say that it is the most comprehensive and straight forward system I have used. It is so much simpler to navigate that NYC, even if it is more expensive.

Hyde Park is nestled in a VERY wealthy part of London; the type of neighborhood that makes you feel like you would do anything to be that rich. It was gorgeous. We passed a McLaren show room filled with 650S models. I made me flashback to my days working at the race track this year when I got to ride around in one of those cars.

Anyway Hyde part was really lovely. Walking to the Christmas market we walked past a pond that had a million birds in it. So many birds.... including overly friendly swans that made me super nervous.

The Winter Wonderland was decent. There were a lot of nifty shops but everything was too expensive to buy anything. There was also a lot of amusement park rides, but again I couldn't justify paying to go on them.


Once we had seen everything there was to see and it was starting to get super cold we headed out and got back on the tube to go to Earl's Court where the awards show was. We headed to a cafe/bar around the corner for dinner and waited out there till around 6pm then headed back. Then we had the lovely experience of waiting outside in line to get in for almost an hour. Once we finally got, and after we went to the bathroom, we went into the made arena space. It was huge. The standing room could fit 8000, and then the seating was way up in the air. Andrea and I moved as close as we could to the stage and waited. When we had gotten into the building people had handed us these weird bracelets to put on both of our wrists. I had theorized that they were planning to kill us all with them, but as it turns out they actually lit up with colorful lights.

A few minutes before the show started the hosts came out, Chris Evans (not the actor) and Fearne Cotton. I suppose they are something of big shots in the UK, but I had no idea who they were. This was actually a common theme of the night as the show featured all British acts. Many I figured out who they were when they sang and I recognized the song, but many I still had no clue.

The show was broadcast live, but we were such small faces in the crowd I doubt we made it on tv. There were only four awards for the entire night, which was kind of odd. The stage setup was beautiful and spectacular, but I expected nothing less. The artists, despite me having no idea who most of them were, were excellent, and I had a lot of fun.

The lights on our wrists were my second favorite part of the night. When they lit them up the entire room sparkled!

Unfortunately One Direction was on the opposite side of the stage from where we were, so poor Andrea didn't get as good of a view as she was hoping for. Ed Sheran was on our side of the stage though, and let me tell you he was AMAZING. He deserved the award he got. I was kind of peeved that two of the four awards went to Pharrell Williams, who was not even there. I am not a fan of the man or his music, so that was a let down.

My absolute favorite moment of the night was when Idris Elba, the fabulous actor, came out to present an award. When they announced his name I screamed so loudly everyone around me turned and looked at me funny. Sorry you music lovers, I am a movie gal.

About halfway through the show I started to get a throbbing pain in my head. I was able to ignore it at the show, but once we left the show is when it really started to go downhill. The headache became overpowering and I also started to get nauseated. The tube ride back to the station was a nightmare. Once we got there we had to wait for almost an hour for our train back to Birmingham, and it was one of great suffering. Andrea had some Tylenol and I took that, but it took forever to kick in. When we got on the train I thought for sure I was going to throw up and we sat near a toilet for that reason. After we left the station in about 15 minutes I fell asleep....and stayed asleep for an hour and a half. This was incredible because I, usually, am not capable of sleeping sitting up. After I woke up I felt 100% better. The sick feeling and my headache was gone. I still have no idea what had been wrong with me.

We did not get home until 2am, and were completely exhausted. Luckily for me I did not have class the next morning. Andrea, however, did. HAHAHAHA. :)