Leeds Castle, Maidstone - my local gig!

I really felt as though I needed a good night out tonight. I'd had a busy week (with little sleep) plus of course the bombings in London. Although I didn't feel concerned going back into London today (I thought it was the safest day ever to travel) there was a strange atmosphere at work and outside there was a very visible lot of police. Charing Cross station was closed just before I got there but other than that my main impression was how quiet the trains were (I had a double seat to myself all the way in). Lots of people didn't make it into the office. A couple were due to travel problems but the rest were because they were concerned. I may sound a bit hard but since the IRA were bombing London for most of my childhood I've never yet gone into London without thinking about the possibility of a bomb (even yesterday morning) - when I used to go up to London for days out with my parents we were used to arranging to meet at a certain place if we got separated and we always had a second place too in case there was a bomb scare (not the politically correct "security alert" that they use now).

Anyway I worked until 5.00pm and came home and watched the news while I got changed. I left at about 6.20pm as Leeds Castle is only about 35 miles from me (and most of that is motorway). It was okay until they told us to get off the motorway at junction 7 which is the one before the castle. They then lead us through a load of small villages which took a fair while. The AA (Automobile Association) signs were crap as often they were put on the actual junction itself and once there was no sign at a roundabout so I just followed everyone else.

The final part of the journey was a single track road and took ages! A few times I switched the car off as we just sat there. I'd planned to see Hurricane Party (the support act) from the back as they were so loud at Harewood House but in fact I listened to them in that country lane! There was then about a 15 minute walk from the car park to the concert area.

My seat was in the third row and I met up with some people I knew there. As I said in my review at http://www.KasimInfo.com/2005/07/08.html it was a good concert and I had a perfect view! I was talking to a friend before the concert (this person has been to a few concerts on the tour too) and we were both saying that this is a good tour but not a great one. I'm not sure if it's because it's a shorter set or whether it's because they're playing a lot of songs that I'm not all that keen on or what it is but this tour isn't getting me as excited (maybe that's the wrong word) as other Meat Loaf tours like the CHSIB tour. I still deeply regret the concerts I missed and I'm still planning to go to the rest of the concerts in Europe and some in US but I'm just not as inspired on this tour.

Getting out of the car park was a lot easier than at Harewood House and the Kent police were brilliant as they'd stopped all the other traffic and we had an easy journey to the nearest entrance to the motorway so I was home within 45 minutes!

Roll on Chatsworth House on Sunday!

Mileage today: 76 miles
Tour total (in my car) –5, 082 miles