Buxton Opera House - 5th April 2008

Great dress Can't wait to see more photos, and Connie Talbot is too cute- she looked SO excited to be meeting Hayley.

Hi everybody,

Many thanks for the numerous great reports and pictures, which already have been posted here.

After meeting Thomas at Frankfurt Airport at 6 am we both flew to Manchester on Saturday and arrived in Buxton roughly at noon.

The Best Western Hotel (Manchester Rd.) is a nice place to stay with a friendly staff and only a five-minutes-walk from the Opera House.

At 1 pm we got our tickets from the Box Office and went to the city centre looking for a quick meal. Shortly afterwards we met Grant and the other in front of the Opera House and of course I want not repeat the information already given by Grant in the accustomed detailedness, not to forget Stephany,… etc..

So I will give only a few personal remarks aside. Contrary to the majority of our group I had a seat in the first row of the Dress Circle (as Morag and Graham), which is in Buxton fortunately located over the sixth or seventh row of the stalls. So the distance to the stage isn’t so far as e.g. in Dublin.

Also fortunately the lights were in fact dimmed during the songs, but in-between the conditions were sufficient to try my luck.

Personally my favourite song of this evening were Hine and of course Sonny, which I had the privilege to hear for the first time with Hayley playing the piano herself. Needless to say I liked her new dress.

It was a great privilege for me to take part in this wonderful gathering, meeting a lot of members for the first time.
Many thanks to Hayley for her great patience during the signing session after the concert, in particular considering her long way home after that. Many thanks to Ray, too.
And last but not least the staff of the Opera House were very helpful and patient, too, as already mentioned in this thread.

At 11:10 pm another wonderful evening with Hayley and the HWI group faded away, as always too early.

On the next day Thomas and I were surprised by a blue sky over the snowy landscape of the peak district. After a short visit in Poole’s Cavern and a round tour through the sunny Buxton we went to Manchester by train and arrived at Frankfurt Airport at 9 pm.

More pictures will be coming soon, but working with raw-files needs getting used to, I suppose, sorry.

Bye for now

Karsten

Here we go, first a few from the gathering at 5 pm - in the Old Hall Hotel, if I remember correctly:

Lasting Memories of my first Hayley Concert, Buxton 5th April 2008.

Part 1 Before the Concert.

The wait from the tickets going on sale in October 2007 until the concert felt like an eternity !
Lots of thoughts flash through my mind in the long wait..........
Will it be as good as every one keeps telling you
Will it all be an anti-climax
Will there be time for a ‘Hayleymeet’ after the concert with so many attending
Will I be as tongue-tied as everyone says they are if I do get to meet Hayley
In short will I become ‘Hayleywowed’ as everyone else appears to be at the Forum

The day began at 8-00am , overnight bag, de-icer, shovel, blankets, all packed just in case of the weather closing in either while at Buxton or on the way back over the moors in the early hours of Sunday morning. As Morag said hopefully if we pack it we won’t need it, but if we don’t…….

A double check to see I have the things I would like to get signed. Morag closes the front door, we are ready, Oh no we are not, she has locked the keys inside the door !
( Morag must be Haleywowed already !) Now arriving back home in the early hours with no keys would not be a good way to end the day, fortunately our next door neighbour has a spare set so after 5mins sorting that out we are truly on our way !
The journey down to Buxton was fine we arrive at 11-45 more or less as expected. We drive past the Opera House and find parking space on the road to the cricket ground just behind the Opera House, only a couple of minutes walk down the hill, and right opposite the Dome, perfect !
We go straight to the Opera House but find we are too late for the only tour of the day. We take some photo’s of the Foyer (already posted) and have a walk round the back to the Pavilion Gardens and the park. (Photo’s posted)
Then up to the Dome which is now part of Derby University. A bit of good luck it is a University Open Day so everything is open and we can mingle with all the other visitors !
The Dome as the photo’s show was magnificent. The café is open for the Open day with Home made soup rolls etc so we dine in the centre of the Dome looking at the Foucault Pendulum oscillating.
After this we proceed down to Spring Gardens to look at the Shops. We buy up the Butchers supply of Derbyshire Oatcakes ( At least Grant will know what they are ! ) find a nice ‘old style’ hardware shop and find some plant pots ( rectangular) design that Morag has been, ‘on the look out for’ for ages so that is good. We struggle back to the car with our 30 Oatcakes ( they do freeze well ! ) and various plant pots, to see the gathering HWI crowd now outside the Opera House in the distance . A thought crosses my mind as they look at us with all our shopping that they would not guess in a couple of minutes time after we had safely locked the shopping in the boot of the car that we would be greeting each other. However in a few minutes I was shaking hands with everyone mostly recognising their faces from their Avatar’s . It was nice to be greeted as long lost friend’s !

A ‘crocodile’ then eventually finds it way to ‘Wetherspoon’s’ where we meet up with George’s group. Some have a full meal but after our lunch at the Dome we just have a coffee and enjoy the chat.
As 4-00 pm approaches we make our way back to the Opera House to meet up with more members. The party then go across to the hotel James is staying at for refreshment. It looked like only sandwiches etc were available and by then it was quite crowded so Morag and I decide to go to a nearby restaurant and have a proper meal. We meet back up again with the main group at 6-00pm and have the Photo shoot in the Foyer. Many more chats take place with members just arriving. With such a gathering in the Foyer the staff seemed surprised to see so many here so early. Soon they organise a Bar to be opened upstairs so we can clear the Foyer. 7-15pm arrives and we take our seats and take photo’s of the inside of the venue.
7-30pm . The lights dim, the wait was over, the time had come !
More to follow………………..


Graham and Morag .

Hello Karsten!

In the last photograph I would say the colour of the dress is peach, but it could still be coral. It definitely isn't orange. i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Richard

Hi everybody,

I knew I didn't need to take my camera with so many competent HWI photographers present in Buxton
Thank you very much everyone for the lovely pictures!

Richard, I still have no idea what the word "coral" means, but I kinda like the sound of "peach". Hayley prefered "orange" most of all, though.

Stephany