"Oh My God, I Just Met Olly Murs!"

On Saturday we went to Birmingham to meet Olly Murs at his Waterstones book signing. The first (and last) time that I met Olly was back in 2011 so it was long overdue!

We arrived in Birmingham quite early in the morning and got to catch up with Em for a bit which was lovely. We then went for food before heading over to Waterstones.

The whole event had been ticketed beforehand so we were guaranteed entry. We started queuing around half past one, with the signing due to begin at 3pm. Due to the number of people already in the queue, they started the signing early. To be honest I was really pleased about this as initially one of the Waterstones employees told us that we wouldn't be allowed posed photos with Olly. The queue snaked around the bookshelves on the upper floor of the shop and as we got closer, we could see that despite the initial message from staff, people were actually getting pictures with him!

The nearer we got to Olly, the more excited everyone became. We were told to leave our bags on the right hand side and to get our phones out and books ready to be signed. 

Eventually it was my turn to meet him. As with any signing, it was so quick but well worth the wait. He was so lovely, just as I'd remembered, and thanked me for coming. The Waterstones staff were responsible for taking our photos and I must applaud the lady who took mine as my camera roll was full and made it look as if I'd been with him for ages haha! After we posed for a picture he gave me a hug and a kiss goodbye which was cute. In typical male celebrity style, I can say that he smells really good as his scent lingered on my top for hours afterwards haha.

I was excited for mum as she got to meet him for the first time. We have a running joke from many years ago when we went to T4 On The Beach and saw Hollyoaks being filmed. There was a character called Liberty who was a singer and I remember her running towards Ethan and Theresa going "Oh my god, I just met Olly Murs!" in the funniest way so we always joke about it, but now mum can actually say it!!

I was so pleased to get to meet Olly again after four years. I think the years have been a bit kind to us haha (why I was let out in public with that hair??)

Hwyl am y tro ✌️

Peter Andre Breeze Signing

Today we went to meet Peter Andre in The Perfume Shop in Llanelli!  He was signing his new perfume called Breeze, as part of a signing tour across the country.  I've never met Peter before but I've been a fan for years and have been to several of his concerts.  Luckily for me, Llanelli is a thirty minute drive from where I live, so it really was a novel concept to be able to meet a fave of mine more or less on my doorstep!

Not knowing what time people would start queuing, we headed to Llanelli for 10:30am (the signing wasn't due to start until 3pm haha).  We went straight to the shop to purchase the perfume and noticed that they'd already laid out a queuing system however nobody had been keen enough to start queuing just yet! (Anywhere else in the country, I think it would have been a different story.  Also I'm used to extreme queuing for everything!!!)

We decided to waste a bit of time doing some (much needed) clothes shopping for myself (I ended up having a kimono haul, because I definitely don't have dozens in my wardrobe already...!).  Mum also won £25 in a charity raffle in one of the shops so it was already boding on being a great day! We stopped for a drink in a cafe near The Perfume Shop and we came across the first lot of people that had started to queue.  By the time we decided to join the queue just after 12, there were around 25 or so ahead of us.

The queuing experience was actually really fun.  We kept chatting to the people in front of us, who were really friendly and very excited to meet Peter!  Unlike anything I've seen anywhere else I've been before, the other shops were also very entrepreneurial whilst we were queuing.  A man from Trespass was selling stools for people to sit on for £5 and two people from Starbucks kept coming round the queue with ice cold drinks and sweets for sale - the drinks in particular went down extremely well considering the blistering heat!  The sunshine was the only thing that made the queuing uncomfortable, it was so unbearably hot that I've managed to burn myself.

At around 2:30, people started to get more excited as Peter's security men arrived which meant that he was in the building.  The appearance of his tour manager Carl increased the hysteria!  One thing I must mention is how nice Peter's team is - his security guards were really friendly (one slightly more uptight than the other in a banterous manner) and Carl is so lovely!  The signing began at 3pm on the dot which I was surprised about as I remember when Peter had his TV shows, he was always notoriously late for everything!  By then there were at least 150 people waiting for him outside.

We didn't have to wait long before it was our turn.  Carl made us laugh as he was taking the mick out of Peter.  Mum went to meet Peter first - they had quite a long chat and I didn't want to interrupt them haha!  They were having a good old natter, mum seemed so excited bless her!  After being nudged on by Carl, I made my way to the counter and gave Peter the bottle to sign.  It was all so quick but he was just as nice as what I had expected!  It's no wonder that he's so popular, he's one of those people that treats their fans well and is an example of how someone with fame should behave.  I gave Peter my phone so that he could take a selfie.  He ended up taking 7 to make sure they came out okay (another trait I like in a fave!). Sadly after sweltering in the heat I didn't look too great, especially next to him but here's the best pic out of a bad bunch!

He gave me a hug on the way out and then me and mum made our way back outside into the sunshine, to compare our stories.  I was stopped by a bunch of girls who wanted to see my picture, I think they were then encouraged to buy a bottle of Breeze themselves so that they could meet him too!  The perfume itself came in a beautiful box, which opened out to reveal the perfume bottle.  The bottle is really pretty and the scent is lovely too, really fresh and a suitable scent for the summer.  It was £24,95 for a 100ml bottle which I thought was quite reasonable to be honest, especially as it meant that I could meet Peter after all this time.

my signed bottle

the box doors open to reveal the pretty bottle!

It was a really strange experience to have a 'fangirl adventure' so close to home! Whilst I love all our travels, it was nice not to have to leave the house at an unacceptable time and that we didn't have to travel far for a change.  Peter's signing was certainly one of the biggest things to happen in Llanelli in a long time and I hope that more of my faves decide to venture down to West Wales one day!

Hwyl am y tro ✌️