"Visions of you....."

It's tiring, being a groupie! I am totally amazed at how Cliff does it; 20 shows in the UK, 8 shows in Asia, and another 10 in Europe after this. We kicked off on Thursday morning with the 7 am bus which was very comfortable, with leg rests and all; it took us 6 hours, considered a good time from Beach Road right up to Genting. And my back behaved itself. Beti knew her way around the disorganised, noisy underground labyrinth that is the huge Genting complex. We were dehydrated from not drinking much on the bus and on show days, to prevent us from having to go to the loo during the 'koncerts'. After discovering that there very few photo opportunities for vistas, and sadly hardly any flora, I hit the casinos [there are 2], lost Adrian's 200 ringgit and then my own 100 ringgit on the slot machines, but I had so much fun; I hit the major jackpot of 118 ringgit, (the bells go off, the panel above flashes and a recording goes "JACKPOT P-A-R-T-YYYY", the minor jackpot of 29 ringgit, then lost it all again. I was amidst aunties and uncles, the wheelchair bound, half blind and what-not. A motley crew, indeed.

The photos show the garishness of Genting, which has a theme park indoor and outdoor. There are hundreds of restaurants, game stations, and indoor carousels, and the noise is terrible. I hope that our own IRs will have more taste. We had no choice but to walk underground as everything is connected that way.

What I loved about our trip up was the weather - it was 18-20 during the day, and the wind chill factor was not to be underestimated. It was 12-15 at night. It was misty almost all of the time, especially at night when the mist turned into fog, and it was damp, damp, damp. The wind was strong, [note the "lost mahjong hair"and it was bloody cold. The hotels leave their doors open, so this cold draught blows right in but the staff are used to it. The rooms are chilly. The first night, Beti was at the tables, and Lisa (from HK) and I tried to find the bloody aircon, to turn up the temperature. Stupid us. Genting hotels have no aircons. We discovered that our window was open 3 inches. So after sliding it shut, we piled on the clothes and socks and finally became comfortable. All the windows in Genting are not "openable" due to suicide watch. We learnt this from Mr Chow, VP of Marketing, Genting Intl, who took us for a lovely lunch, to appease us 0ver the 2003 debacle. He encouraged me to try the wagyu beef steak, (wow) and we shared fois gras. Ooh la la. He mentioned how people die at the tables. I can totally see how people can get addicted after my "surely I will make it all back" attempts at my favourite, the Zorro machine!

And then there was Cliff ... Despite our best efforts, we never bumped into him, though Beti did catch him on Saturday night around 1 am, surrounded by police, on his way back from dinner I guess. She had gone to 'work' as she liked to call her casino moments, and was just returning. She and I spent some many, many happy moments soaking in the atmosphere before the show, with some fans from Hong Kong, Canada, Japan, Australia and the UK, and this group had been to all 20 UK shows, and then followed him to Asia. Nice people, totally devoted; mothers, grandmothers and the younger set. It was so fun to join the this group of fans, and scream each time he pivoted his hips in those jeans. Then we'd all burst out laughing at our antics. We knew the script, we knew his actions, we knew the words to all the songs, and he knew we knew. At 66, his tiredness is showing, and his voice got hoarse on some songs. Why does he do songs like Wired for Sound ?? He strains his voice in this song, and i think he should stop it. BUT - when he sang his slow songs - Constantly, The 12th of Never, It's All in the Game, When the Girl in Your Arms, well, words fail me. I just wished they would never end. He performed at the Arena of the Stars [the fan-shaped colourful building in one of the photos]. The crowd loved him, and sang along with gusto. There was the Deputy Prime Minister there the first night and on the second night, the VIPs came in 15 minutes into the show. How embarrassing. The funny thing is that in the front row with us was the Minister for Communications, who is one of my ministerial forum attendees. He's the same age as Cliff, and looked all of 90. We had this Indian guy and his wife, whose son got them free tickets for the front row, and after the show, said to us that he could see why we followed him.

Cliff is doing Manila tomorrow [we originally planned to go...] and Yokohama on Valentine's Day. I can imagine the Japanese fans and all those flowers. Good for him; the fans made him, and he is always nice to us.

Here in Singapore, we sent our flowers and gifts last week via Mr Tony Cousens, GM of Marina Mandarin, and thanked him personally last night at the show. He said Cliff was appreciative of them. We hoped that we would get another chance to meet Cliff here, but his having arrived in Singapore only at 4.30 pm put paid to that. Constance and her HK group were at the airport and said that they behaved themselves, "as always", but when he drove off, he rolled the screen down and blew them a kiss. Then all hell broke loose and they screamed like schoolgirls. Ha Ha.

Beti and I decided that it will be a bonus if we got to meet him again yesterday, but were fine if we didn't because 3 times meeting him is more than we can ask for. We look forward to his next tour, hopefully with the Shadows, and hopefully with the Hit List routine, where he will sing "The Minute You're Gone" and they'll have to pick me up from the floor. Thanks, Cliff, for giving me a lovely weekend to add to my life's memories.