Bubble Footy and stuff

Last weekend we were in London to see Thomps and Connor from Kingsland playing Bubble Footy which was taking place in Croydon. Now that Kingsland have split, the boys are all doing their separate things and it was ideal that two of the boys would be at this event. From this point forward I will try and live in the present day by calling them their real names, JJ Thompson and Joe Conaboy, instead of basking in the old times haha.

We travelled up on the Saturday and conveniently enough for us, JJ was doing a meet up in Hyde Park that afternoon. I've never been to Hyde Park before and on arrival it was like I was living a nightmare between all the loose dogs and birds but I got used to it by the end of the day. The meet up coincided with Abbie's 18th birthday so it was nice to see her, Beth, Zoe, Natalia and Elaine that day. There were a few other girls at the meet up too, and we basically just spent time chatting with JJ whilst chilling in the park.  It was really casual and just nice to be able to spend time with him. Lots of laughs were shared and overall it was just a cute little afternoon.

After the meet up, we headed back into Leicester Square to have food. Instead of getting the tube we decided to walk as it was so warm and also extremely busy due to it being London Pride. As we walked down Regent Street we could hear the pride parade coming so we decided to watch along with thousands that had already lined the streets.

It was such a spectacle! It was so nice to see people being so supportive of those who are LGBT - there wasn't an ounce of negativity anywhere during the parade. It was quite remarkable to see men, women and children of all ages and of different ethnicities come together to celebrate gay pride regardless of their sexuality. There were all types of organisations involved, from unions to the big supermarkets such as Tesco and Asda, banks like HSBC and even a float representing different TV channels which had some of the cast of Eastenders on it!  

Shona McGarty (Whitney Dean), Jonny Labey (Paul Coker), Luisa Bradshaw-White (Tina Carter)

The next day, we set off to Whyteleafe in Croydon.  As we stepped off the train, we were amongst dozens of other people that were also trying to find the location for Bubble Footy!  Eventually we all arrived at the grounds and were soon let in to the area.  I still laugh thinking about when we had our tickets checked as mum was chatted up by one of the men working there lol!!!! He needed to do a "hug test" on her apparently..... soz cringe!

Once we were let in, we took a seat and waited until we could see Joe or JJ.  I wasn't really familiar or interested in any of the other people there, luckily we saw Joe almost straight away.  He was really cute when we saw him however he wasn't best pleased with his shirt as it said 'Connor Kingsland' on the back haha.  Once he acquired a sharpie pen, he scribbled it out and wrote Joe Conaboy instead, making a stand that he shall be known as Joe from now on.

RIP Connor Kingsland sob

Next we saw JJ who was just a smidge hungover from the night before ;-) both him and Joe were hilarious during their warm up, playing up as usual!!  Then it was their time to play in the bubbles.  It was so funny!  They spent more time trying to knock everyone over rather than actually kicking the ball which was so amusing to watch.

limbering up haha

We spent most of the afternoon people watching and speaking to some of the girls that we've met through Kingsland.  By the end of the day we went to see Joe and JJ again just as they were about to play their last match.  They were banterous as usual and after their match they made sure that we all had plenty of pictures with them.  We also got to see Kathryn, JJ's girlfriend again.  She is lovely although she deserves a medal to put up with JJ's antics haha.  As soon as they left, we decided to go back to our hotel as we'd had a tiring few days.  

some of the girls

favourite boys always

It's really odd not to see the boys as often as what we used to but then I guess it makes us appreciate each time and memory with them even more.  I can't wait to see Joe and JJ again in August where Joe will be performing his first solo gig whilst JJ will be presenting,

Hwyl am y tro ✌️