Although, if you want to be technical, I was back on Sunday evening.

Debrief ...

Drive up to Auckland on Friday made some points glaringly obvious ...

1.   I'm not as young as I used to be,

2.   I can't handle a straight 8 hour drive like I used to

3.   Granny naps are fantastic

4.   Taupo really has nothing to offer (fantastic lake views aside of course)

5.   Road works outside of Hamilton SUCK

6.   Saving the sugar rush for an hour out of Auckland is the best idea I have ever had

7.   My mum is the best travel companion

8.   The holden didn't suck as much gas as I thought it would

Saturday was a little exciting as we just hung out with my sister and my aunt/uncle/cousins came around and we just shot the breeze, I could very easily have forgone the concert and just laxed out on my sisters deck in the sun but I had people expecting me to go so I did.

Point to note :  Mt Smart is big, Mt Smart takes 17 minutes of hard walking to get around, Portaloos are horrible things but a necessary evil, Danish ice creams are a necessary evil too .

I will say this, I saw them the last times they were here, but being older and more appreciative brings out the howly bag in me.

Lets just say this ... I jumped, I screamed, I danced in the aisles (Yes aisles, I'm out of my depth in GA these days too old to cope and too broken to last) I waved my arms and other parts of my body and along with almost 50,000 other people, I cried.

There was speculation that Bono's voice might have taken a hammering and that he was compensating but what I saw and heard and felt in the depths of my heart had no twinges whatsoever of compensation.  Miss Sarajevo was magic, he swung full steam into Pavarottis aria and didn't bat an eyelid, Sometimes you can't make it on your own, for his dad, pure emotion!  then the song me and probably countless others were waiting for, 1st encore, 3 song ... With or without you, cliched yes, overplayed yes, its the song I heard nearly 17 years ago that opened up my world to U2, and it will always be the song I love the most, he sang, I sang, the crowd sang, I cried, the crowd cried, I shook my head and closed my eyes because it became too much, I felt like one of those screaming girls at a bon jovi concert where the emotions get too much and you just scream and cry (except I didn't scream) I just overflowed. 

When I first discovered U2, I was just beginning my fascination with the drums, for almost 17 years, I have been infatuated with Larry, watching him on the big screen play this song, made my heart just skip and bounce around inside my chest cavity, he became the reason I followed U2, he became the reason I tried to actually learn the drums, I learnt 3 songs, with or without you, bullet the blue sky and stairway to heaven, I can still kind of play them now (in my head) but he was the reason I fell for drummers.  He isn't quite Lars ulrich (thank fuck!  good drummer but king kong sized ego) but its just the fact that he is so sexy and silent and unassuming ...  totally totally everything I want!  Electrical storm video I found myself seriously disliking Samantha morton as she got to romp around in a bath with him ... OMG at him actually doing a video !  and he has the best neck/shoulder physique I have ever seen (and I'm a serious neck/shoulder kinda girl), boy could I snuggle into that every night.

I Digress!

Long story - short ...

the best concert I have ever been too, their other 2 included, mainly because of my maturity levels now, (I've been to a lot of concerts, some good, some great, some really really bad),  with a voice like a fine wine, Bono made everyones hearts sing, edges guitaring with that unmistakeable U2 sound searing a well trodden path into our hearts and making everyones night magical, and in row a, seat 1, west stand  .... Larry made mine.