Chapter 46

So after Poland, they went through Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia (playing concerts on the way, of course!) then caught a ferry over to Helsinki, in Finland - just over a 2 hour journey. They had decided to add in an extra day, just in case there were any issues with the ferries, which not only meant they would be able to do some sight-seeing, but it gave Linda time to get to a doctor's appointment at the main hospital in Helsinki.

"Hey, just been looking where we're playing: it's only a 1700 capacity." commented Dianne while they were on the ferry.

"Yes, there's a bigger place, it's almost ten times the capacity, but it's closed down at the moment." explained Brian. "Used to be owned by some Russians, but they got booted out because of Ukraine. That's why we're here for 3 nights."

"Mind you," added Dianne, "by the look of it, not only are we staying just 10 minutes away, but the hall is surrounded by a park: anyone else thinking what I'm thinking?"

"It's gonna have to be tomorrow or the day after, I'm at the hospital later today!" said Linda very excitedly: if all went well, today she would be getting her cast removed.

They arrived at the hotel, which was right next to the main station soon after their ferry docked, and went to get some lunch. The hospital was only 15 minutes away, and Linda's appointment wasn't until 2:30pm. 

Finally, it was hospital time: Linda, Ziggy, Paige and Paula (camera lady) got a suitably large taxi, and went off. Linda had decided that crutches were the order of the day: she guessed that, despite trying her best to exercise her leg recently, she would be a bit weak for a few days, so would still need her crutches.

So, yes, Paula and Sanjay had flown over to Helsinki, meeting up with the girls, and ready to do some more filming: getting her cast off was something the fans would want to see.

"Half a moment: Paige, I think we need some pics before we go in... and is there time for a quick stream?"

"Yeah, I think so..."

"Ok... so here I am at the hospital, whose name I have no idea how to pronounce. Ziggy and Paige are with me too, and today is a big day for me: I'm getting my cast off! Talk again later!". Not only did she stream it, Paula filmed it.

Inside, they spoke to reception, who pointed to where they needed to go. She could have used a wheelchair, but they weren't in a rush, besides, Linda wanted to get as much exercise on that leg as she could.

They went to the departmental reception. "Hello, I'm hoping you speak English?" Linda asked.

"Of course I do, how can I help?"

"My name is Linda Jacobson, I'm here to hopefully have my cast removed!"

"Ah, yes, we are expecting you." she typed on her computer briefly. "I see an email from your health insurance company, and that is all good. So first of all, you need to have an X-ray, then you'll be seeing Doctor Hemminki, and if all goes well, one of our nurses will remove your cast. So, would you all like to follow me?"

One nice thing about being in a place like Finland was that, especially when she wasn't dressed up, it was very unlikely anyone would recognise her, and this lady had given no indications of recognising her.

The radiographer was very pleasant, and got Linda to lie down on the 'bed'. "We need one X-Ray from the top, and one from the side" she explained, helping Linda to lie back. She used a couple of soft 'blocks' to hold her leg in place, then adjusted the big ray source. With everyone safely at the corner of the room, the first X-ray was taken. Paula was there too, capturing it all with her camera.

"That looks good, so now, please lie on your side...". Linda did as asked, and again the radiographer set things up, and took the X-ray. "The images are good, so let me take you to see Doctor Hemminki...". They were shown into a small waiting room, and a matter of minutes later, the doctor came out to call them in.

"It's ok, you can all come in with me!" said Linda. Paige and Paula went in first, and quickly told the doctor about the filming, and that they really just wanted to film Linda, not him, and he was fine with that.

"Good afternoon!" said the doctor. Ziggy helped Linda to sit down, putting a convenient stool under her leg.

"So, I have read your notes: apparently you were injured in a car accident?"

"Yes, that's right..." and briefly explained what had happened.

"Ok. I see that you visited a hospital in London a few weeks ago, and all was good then. How has your leg been since?"

"No problems at all!"

"That is good: I saw you as you walked in too, you are coping very well. Well, I've reviewed your X-rays, and as expected, it seems your leg bones have healed nicely. So good news, you can have your cast removed."

This was great news for Linda: for some reason she had a niggle in the back of her mind that she would need to wear it a bit longer.

"You'll find that your knee and ankle will be a bit week for a week or two: the more you can use it, the quicker your muscles will recover. So, after you have had the cast removed, you have a session with our physiotherapist, who will assess you, and take you through some exercises. I see from the notes that you are here in Helsinki for 3 days, so you also have physiotherapy sessions booked tomorrow and the three days after - your insurance company have been very good to you!"

"Thank you very much, doctor!"

"I'm impressed by all the signatures on the cast: you must have a lot of friends..."

Linda smiled, and decided to not explain. An assistant came in, and took them to a room where Linda's cast would be removed. "I'll let the nurse know you are here." she said. The nurse arrived shortly, and smiled at Linda: she was the first person to openly recognise Linda.

"Good afternoon, Linda!" she said with a big smile. "We get quite a few sports stars here, but it's not often we get such a big pop star! Oh, sorry, I'm Frija by the way."

"Hi Frija, nice to meet you, this is Paige, the band's PA, and this is Ziggy, who..."

"Oh, I know who Paige and Ziggy are, nice to meet you too.."

"And this is Paula, she's filing this for..."

"Don't worry, I know you're being filmed, and I'm ok with it."

"You're obviously a fan, you coming to one of our concerts?"

"I have tickets for your last night here, I'm really looking forward to it. I'm actually going with the physiotherapist, who you'll be seeing next!" Frija looked down at Linda's cast. "Wow, I've seen pictures of your cast, but it looks amazing in real life: so many people have signed it and drawn on it! It's a piece of art - it's almost a shame to have to remove it! ".

"Funny you should say about it being a piece of art, because I was hoping to keep it."

"Keep it?"

"Yes, then when we get back to England, I'm going to auction it, with the money going to our charity."

"Oh, that is a nice idea. In that case, I'll have to be very careful where I cut it, then I'll make sure it's all cleaned out afterwards."

"Cleaned out?"

"Yes, the fabric on the inside needs to be removed, I'll guarantee you wouldn't like its smell! But that's not a problem. So, lets take a look, and work out where to cut it...." She explained that there were a couple of common ways to cut a cast open, but they could 'adjust' as needed.

With Linda lying on a trolley, they highlighted a small number of signatures which could not be cut through, and Frija drew a few pencil marks to remind her where to cut. She used a small oscillating saw to gently cut through the 'fibreglass' layer, then scissors to cut the fabric that covered Linda's leg. Finally, she was able to remove the top half of the cast: underneath, Linda's leg was quite white, with dried skin. Linda could see what Frija had meant by the smell... not too surprising, as she had not only walked in it the last 6 weeks, but performed in it.

"Want to try and lift your leg?" asked Frija.

Linda slowly lifted her leg up and out of the cast: it felt VERY strange, being able to bend her knee. Frija removed the bottom part of the cast, and as Linda slowly let her leg go down again, she could feel it was a bit weak.

"Let me take you through here, you can wash and dry your leg... there's also some cream, you might want to put some of that on too"

"Ok if Ziggy comes to help?"

"Sure, good idea! While you do that, I'll clean up your cast."

Ziggy helped Linda turn around, put her feet onto the ground, then helped her to stand. "You ok there?" she checked, grabbing the bag with a 'normal' pair of jeans in.

"Wow, it feels just weird... I think we'll probably need to go slow..." With a bit of help, Linda went through and sat on the stool in the shower room.

"Stand up a sec, so we can get those jeans off!"

"Ah, yes, I'm gonna be able to wear PROPER clothes again!!!"

With the old jeans (that had one leg missing) removed, Ziggy started the shower, then helped Linda wash her leg.

"Oh, yes.... bliss...." said Linda as the warm water cascaded over her leg. The advantage of a private hospital is that they are well provisioned: soap, wash cloth, and towels were all provided. After she was dry, Ziggy put some of the cream on Linda's leg. Then it was time to put on her new jeans, socks, and a pair of trainers.

"OMG, TWO shoes"

"You look almost normal again" said Paige as they came out of the shower room. "I bet it feels odd having jeans with two legs.... and two shoes too!"

"Very odd" said Linda, clearly limping as she sat in a chair.

"Frija has gone off to clean up your casts" explained Paige, "She should be back soon".

While she waited, Linda moved her leg around a bit, bending her knee, and moving her ankle. Frija returned, with the two halves of the cast wrapped in plastic film to protect them. She passed them over to Paige.

"I just saw my friend, the physiotherapist, he's all ready for you, so why don't I take you there. He's ok with you filming too. Linda, you'll probably find it easier to use your crutches."

"Yes, I was planning to! But I think we need some pictures first!"

It wasn't a long walk, and whilst Linda felt ok putting some weight on her leg, Linda was glad to still be using her crutches. Frija took them into a small gym, where a guy in his 20s was waiting.

"Hello Linda, I'm Sven, it's nice to meet you."

"Hi Sven, good to meet you too! So what do you have planned for me today?"

"Well, I know that your knee and ankle will be a little weak, so I'm going to show you some simple exercises that will help to build up your strength again. I have a feeling that you'll be eager to do these, so a few thoughts: don't do the exercises TOO much. Warm water or other heat will be good if you start to have pain, and don't be scared to use some pain-killers if you need to. That sound ok?"

"Yeah, no problems with the main killers. I'm guessing just walking on it is good too?"

"Oh, absolutely! Now, whilst you'll be able to do these with your jeans on, I'd like to be able to see your leg to start with..." He directed her to a screen, where she removed her jeans, then put on the hospital gown that was there. She started by lying on a bench, bending her knee and ankle as directed by Sven, who then showed her a couple of simple exercises she could do when lying down.

"It's looking good, I'm guessing you've tried to use your leg a bit while it was in the cast.  Ok, so lets have you sitting, and I'll show you some more." After doing some seated exercises, he took her over to a treadmill. "Go find the gym in your hotels, they'll have one of these!" He stared the treadmill on a very low speed. "No need to go fast, it just a way to let you think about what you're doing as you walk... Of course, as you feel better over the next few days, you can go a bit faster."

Next, he got Linda to lift some very light weights with her legs as she was sat down.

"How you feeling?" asked Sven.

"A bit sore, but ok..."

"Excellent, that is what I was hoping for. I see you have crutches, do you have any walking sticks? Whilst you may want to use the crutches today and tomorrow, you'll quickly be wanting to use something easier."

"Yes, we have some sticks in the coach..." said Paige.

"Excellent, bring them along tomorrow, and I'll check they are set up right for you. However, I think you are done for today. As I said, do as much exercise as you feel you want to, but stop if it starts to hurt or ache."

"Thank you, Sven. I hear you are coming with Frija to our third night here in Helsinki."

"Yes, we're both looking forward to that!"

"Would you like to come backstage and meet the others?" asked Linda. "That ok, Paige?". Paige nodded.

"That would be amazing, and Frija will absolutely love that!" replied Sven, smiling.

"Ok, well, I'll make sure Linda has the extra tickets with her tomorrow," said Paige, taking down Sven and Frija's details.


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Chapter 48

'So, we're in Helsinki, performing at the Finlandia Hall for 3 nights - the question is whether we have any fans here in Helsinki who would like to meet up tomorrow lunchtime in the park? Say 12 till 1pm?' posted Carol that evening. By morning there were a few responses, asking for details of where they would be. 

----

Linda had her second Physiotherapy session at 10:30am for an hour. This time, just Ziggy and Paula went with her.

"Hello again, Linda, how does your leg feel today?" asked Sven.

"Not too bad: where I fractured my leg still feels ... 'odd' is the beat I can say, but no real pain. My ankle and knee are maybe just a little stiff today."

"Sounds about normal to me. Any pain?"

"A bit of an ache after a session in the hotel gym yesterdy early evening, but otherwise no. Of course, the best bit is that I can sit down normally again, that is so nice! Hey, I have something for you...". Ziggy opened her bag, and passed an envelope over to Linda. "These are two complimentary 'meet and greet' passes for Friday evening, for you and Frija. Just show them to one of the security guys, and they should be able to point you in the right direction. The show starts at 7pm, so you'll probably want to be there by about 5:00 or 5:30... you going to be able to make that?". Sven had a big smile.

"No problems, we both have the day off."

"And are you going to be able to come along to the park at lunchtime today?"

"Sadly, we can't make it, we're both working, and have a later lunchtime."

"Ok then, just make sure I have your private contact details and maybe we can meet for lunch on Friday?"

"I'll definitely do that. Now, to work: I was looking at your notes, I see you have 3 more physio appointments, tomorrow, Friday and Saturday: clearly I'm not here on Friday, so one of my colleagues will be looking after you, but I've volunteered to be here on Saturday. Ok, I see you brought your walking stick... want to walk across the room with it?"

Linda walked across the room with the stick. "Let me take a quick look at it." Linda gave Sven the stick, and he took a look at it. "I'm thinking that if I do this..... you might find it easier. Ok, try that..."

Once again, Linda walked across the room using the stick. "Oh, yes, I see what you mean, that DOES feel a bit easier!"

"Good. So, let's get you working that leg..." Sven got Linda to do pretty much the same as yesterday: bend her knee, pulling knees towards her tum while bending them; pulling her leg up behind her, like dancers do; stepping up and down onto a bench; ankle movements while Sven held her foot; small weight lifting by her legs to make her work her knee; and various other exercises. Some were simply to stretch her muscles, others were to work her muscles. As Linda did the exercises, Paula was filming her.

"How you feeling after that lot?" asked Sven.

"Amazingly good, a bit sore though."

"I think it helps a lot that you are young, fit, and there's nothing actually wrong with your ankle or knee, they've just been out of use for a while. Tell you what, when you're at the hotel, try climbing the stairs, even just one or two flights. No need to rush, but it will be really good for both your ankle and knee. Of course, stop if you get pain."

Linda felt good with how her leg felt: no pain, more of an ache simply because she had been working the leg hard. "How long before I'm walking without a stick, and how long before I can dance, do you reckon?"

"Good question, and right now I don't really know, but ask me again on Saturday!"

----

Before leaving the hospital, Linda checked her phone: she'd heard it ping a few times while she was doing her physio.

"Ok, so looks like we're definitely having a meet-up, we need to meet the others at the hotel, then we can all go to the park: someone has suggested there's a botanical garden just around the back of the hotel where we could meet..."

----

"Oooh, very pretty!" said Dianne as they saw the small formal garden in the distance, which looked good in the sunshine. Behind it was one of those large old iron victorian-style greenhouses. As they got closer, they could see a small group waiting for them by the large open area by the fountain and pond. They could either sit there, or go to the grassy areas amongst the various plants. Linda was with Ziggy and Dianne, a little behind the others. With her stick, she was managing to walk pretty well, just slowly - she had a feeling that, by the weekend, whilst she might not be actually dancing, walking should not be a big problem.

Paige and Eleanor had boxes with lunches for everyone, and by the time you added the 8 girls to their immediate teams, that made almost 20 people!

They were greeted by 11 fans who had managed to get there.

"And you must be Linda!" said one of the girls, "Your leg isn't in a cast, but your walking stick gives it away! Hi there, I'm Emilia!". They had discovered in many countries around Europe that, when they met fans like this, they were generally very pleasant and not at all over-excited.

"Ok, why don't we all be quiet a moment, and I'll introduce everyone!" suggested Paige. She was SO good at doing this now! "So, lets start with the four Northern girls, and their team..." she introduced Taylor, Erin, Kate & Meg, their manager Andre, and their 'PAs'. "Then we have Carol, Jenny, Dianne and Linda, who are of course CJDL. With Jenny is her fiance Ben, and that's her brother, Callum. This lovely couple are Brian and Lisa, their parents and the band's managers. This is Eleanor, and I'm Paige... oh, and better not forget Ziggy, who has been helping Linda! So, maybe you guys can introduce yourselves too?"

The fans all introduced themselves.

"So, who's coming along to see us then?" asked Carol. All their hands went up. "ok, which night? Anyone tonight? Ok, tomorrow? And Friday?" The group of fans was split over the three nights.

"More importantly, who's a Northern Girls fan?" asked Taylor, hoping that they weren't ALL CJDL fans. It was ok, several of them actually liked both bands.

"So, as you can see, we've brought our lunches. We're not in a rush, so feel free to chat with anyone, ask questions, take pictures...." explained Paige.

They split into three groups, moving over to sit on the grassy areas. Over the next hour or so, people moved around, took selfies, and generally had a good time. A couple more fans came slightly later.

"Hey, I see that we seem to have started a trend!" said Jenny.

"Which particular trend you talking about?" asked Taylor.

"Big groups getting together: looks like Busted and McFly are getting together again..."

"They obviously know a good thing when they see it!"

After eating, Carol grabbed the guitar, and they all had a bit of fun singing some CJDL songs. Then Taylor took the guitar, and they sang a couple of Northern Girls songs too.

"Well, I managed to get a long lunchtime, so I could come, but need to get back to work." said one of the fans. "It's been quite amazing to meet you guys, I can't really believe I've met you though!"

"Hey, I think Paige might have something for each of you before you leave...." said Jenny with a smile. Paige got a bag from her shoulder bag, and passed out some 'we met Eight Girls With Braces for lunch!' keyrings, and some small (small so they would fit into her bag!) signed tour posters.

"Oh, cool, thanks!" said the girl with a big smile.



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Chapter 50

"Dear Lord, I thank you for bringing us to this wonderful city, and to the wonderful hall: I think we are all going to enjoy using the gifts you have given us here tonight. And thank you that Linda's leg is healing so well, it's great to see her without her cast. Finally, please send your love down to everyone here tonight. In Jesus' name.... Amen!"

Linda walked onto the stage: she had decided to use a walking stick, as she really did not want to make a fool of herself by accidentally falling over. They had also decided to keep the singers supporting her for the moment too, just in case, and she passed her stick to one of the other dancers. But it felt wonderful to be able to walk easily onto the stage. She looked around at the lovely hall: it was so small, and felt so intimate. She closed her eyes, and felt a familiar comforting feel around her. "I don't think you really need my help tonight, do you?" said a warm voice in her head.

Linda opened her eyes, looked around, and smiled. Rather than starting to sing, she said a few words: "Lord, this is a lovely place, thank you!", then after a brief pause, she started to sing: the acoustics were amazing. At the end of the song, for the first time in six weeks, Linda was able to kneel down with the others.

----

Jenny had managed to persuade Kate to let her take the solo spot: she had done so quite willingly when Jenny had explained what she wanted to do. Whilst Jenny would be playing the main part on the organ, Carol, Linda and Dianne would also be playing, so they had put the solo spot at the end of one of the CJDL sessions.

"Right, Jenny, I hear you're playing the solo spot tonight" said Carol. "So, what do you have planned for us then?"

Tara, the stage cameraman, went over to Jenny as planned. "So, let me start by showing everyone my keyboard setup. This is my synthesizer, this is my smaller electronic keyboard, and this is my electric piano. They all sound good, but....."

"Something tells me that Jenny has got 'Organ Envy'..." said Carol with a big smile. This afternoon, they had rehearsed not only this link, but also the song, so felt quite confident that it would all sound good.

"Surely you mean 'Keyboard' Envy?" suggested Dianne. There were a few chuckles from the crowd.

"Yeah, sorry, 'Keyboard' Envy. I mean, look where she's going...". With Tara behind her, Jenny was walking over to the hall's organ.

"So this beauty comes with the hall... And yes, I DO have Keyboard Envy... I mean look at this lovely thing!" As she spoke, a couple of the stage staff had come over and removed the organ's 'lid' revealing the four keyboards, and Tara got some great close-ups. "I mean, how can we have such an item of beauty here, and not hear it's wonderful sounds?" She sat down, switched it on, and pressed some buttons, then played the start of the Bach Toccata and Fugue. The crowd applauded. "Hmm, sounds quite amazing, but it's not quite us, is it? Let me try something slightly more modern: this is from the 60's, my grandpa loved this song, and it's kinda stuck in my head ever since. Booker T Jones played it on a Hammond M3 electronic organ, then later on a Hammond B3. It's gonna sound a bit different tonight, but different can be good....". As she spoke, she pressed some of the buttons, yo reconfigure the organ's 'voice'.

Jenny played the opening bars of Booker T and the MG's famous 'Green Onions', with Linda and Dianne joining in pretty quickly on the bass and drums. A few bars later, Carol joined in on the guitar. It was strange, because the organ wasn't being played over the PA, it was just it's natural sound, so all of the girls had needed to remove one of their in-ears to hear it. But it sounded amazing!

As the crowd applauded, Jenny just sat there quietly: it had been quite a surreal experience playing that song on such an organ.

"Well, how on earth do we follow that?" said Taylor, as the Northern Girls returned to the stage. "Nice one Jenny!".

"Before I let you guys take over, can I just say a HUGE thanks to the people here at the hall: playing your organ has been a lovely experience. Come on, let's give them some applause!"

----

Since Paris, Linda and Dianne had been swapping around between 'bass riffs, and 'drum licks', and tonight Dianne and Erin were doing their 'drum licks', playing Wipeout. This was the third time doing Wipeout, and experience showed that people liked it.

Dianne was already on stage, so Erin came and joined her. Dianne let Erin explain what this was all about, then there was silence. Suddenly, and like on the previous 2 occasions, one of the stage crew, Will, rushed onto the stage...


"HahahahaHohoho! Wipeout!!" he shouted crazily into the microphone, then rushed off again... Both Dianne and Erin hit the cymbals, then started to drum a simple beat. Linda joined in on the bass, and a couple of bars later so did Carol, on the guitar. The frenzied drumming continued, then when the guitars paused, the drumming changed. At the next 'chorus', Dianne did a short solo, then handed over to Erin for her to do the same. As they glanced at each other, they smiled: this was fun. At the end, rather than a 'gentle fade', they did a brief drum duet, and managed to both end at exactly the same time. The audience showed their appreciation.

For both Dianne and Erin not only was this song fun to play, but having the two of them doing it at the same time meant that they both had to concentrate hard, to make sure they synchronised their playing. They had watched playbacks of their previous attempts, and had been very pleasantly surprised how good it sounded, so it had been worth the effort and practice!

----

So, one night down, two to go. Linda had her third physio session on the Thursday morning: she could feel her leg getting stronger by the day. She was now sufficiently confident that she was ok walking around the room without it, but still used her stick for anything longer. If nothing else, it just reminded her, and others, that she was still healing, and needed to take things sensibly.

Whilst they hadn't had many guests playing on the European part of the tour, tonight they did, and being the lead singer with a Eurovision winning Finnish rock band, he was going to sing with the Northern Girls: he rehearsed with the girls for a bit over an hour in the afternoon, and played with them in the evening.

----

Skipping forward.... Our girls were sitting backstage, having just finished their second evening's performance.

"You know, it's all very well playing huge places like Paris, but last night and tonight have been amazing!" said Carol.

"Yeah, it's a nice change to have a smaller crowd, isn't it? I feel a lot more relaxed, don't have that 'have to get it perfect' feeling." replied Dianne.

"Well, only a couple more weeks till Vixen, and THAT's not gonna be intimate at all!" added Jenny. "I know it's gonna be very big, but I'm actually looking forward to it. Yeah, we've played a couple of festivals in the last few weeks, but we're gonna be HEADLINING at Vixen."

"Not worried you'll screw up in front of so many people?" asked Linda, in a jokey way.

"Me screw up? As if I would  do such a thing... oh, yeah, you mean like tonight?" replied Jenny: she had made the simple mistake of not updating the voices of her synth between a couple of the songs tonight, so when she started playing, it definitely didn't sound right. "Sorry about that by the way..."

"No problems, Jen, it happens to us all at some point. Makes things a bit more fun, and keeps us on our toes" said Carol in between drinking some water, and using the towel to dry herself. "Come on, let's get out of these stage clothes, and into something a bit more normal. Lisa, want to get Mary in?"

With Paige and Ziggy helping Eleanor on the merch stand tonight (on venues with such a small crowd, they didn't bother bring in any local staff), Lisa was the only person in the room with them: at this point, the men were not allowed in, something to do with 'ladies in nakedness'... Mary was part of the team that did their makeup, hair, and costumes.

"We need to have a chat with Ziggy at some point soon" said Linda, "see what she wants to do after the tour finishes, and what we can do for her."

"Yeah. She needs to move south if she really wants to get into the music business, doesn't HAVE to be London, could be Bristol or Birmingham even: I'm thinking we could offer her something from our charity fund, I mean, we set it up partly to help women in bands, and she's a woman, and I think she wants to be in a band."

"I think she's 70% the way there, but needs a bit of a 'push' to make the other 30%."

"Well, she'll be meeting our award winner in a few days time, maybe that will help?"

"Yeah, true. I was also thinking we could do something to give her some sort of 'showcase'. Like at Vixen..."

"THAT would be a hell of a showcase for her! But I'm liking the idea: we need to have a word with the other four, I suspect Ziggy would play better with them than with us."

This discussion was typical of what they talked about after their performance: their minds were still hyped, they needed to unwind a bit.

"Hey, tell you what, Jenny... by this point in a tour, you would have normally had a couple of 'silly sessions', wouldn't you. But Ben really does keep you settled, doesn't he? I must admit, I'm a bit jealous!" said Dianne.

"Yes, I'd forgotten about that, it was Birmingham last tour, wasn't it? Hey, how's things going with Chris?"

"Yeah, we're ok at the moment. I half think that being apart actually helps, but we talk every day. More important, how's things with Zac, Linda?"

"I spoke to my *boyfriend* earlier, he's looking forward to me getting back home..."

"Hey, you worked out what you're gonna do once the tour ends... I mean we normally all take a long break..."

"Yeah, I was hoping to have a break somewhere nice with Zac. Of course, Jenny has a honeymoon to go on!" In the back of her mind was performing on 'Singer in the Mask': she's not heard anything recently from the production company, so maybe something to chase up on at some point. She really hoped it would happen, it could be such fun. Of course, that then raised the issue about whether and when to tell Zac... so far, things were going ok between them, but how would things change once the tour finished? Something to think about another day, right now she needed to get changed.


[64/13342]

Great Part again - so you Work in music Business or doing something as Hobby or from where you Know all this Details?

But also i'm quite disappointed from the Girls and their Management...
They're doing a Europe Tour but no Gig here in Austria 
All the Fans in my Home Country really felt very sad about that...   

Oh, I'm sure Austria got visited, just not specifically mentioned! I'm thinking they started in Paris, probably didn't have the time to go south to to Spain / Italy, but would have gone through Switzerland, Austria, maybe southern Germany, over to eastern Europe, through Latvia / Estonia and north to Finland. Next after Helsinki is Stockholm (on the ferry), Oslo, bridge / tunnel to Copenhagen, then down through Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium, before heading back to England. (and we just have to pretend that it all happened in the 3 months... I'm thinking now it would have probably taken more like 4 moths, but who's counting!).

Being vaguely eco-aware, they are trying hard to travel by road / ferry where they can (although they ARE about to do a quick flight from Stockholm to London then back to Oslo... at least 10 of them!)

I'm a technical person, but have "worked" (unpaid, volunteer) in the semi-professional radio industry. I used to do sound at church, so I have a certain knowledge of simple PA systems, but have watched a few "behind the scenes" videos... eg of Pink, and of Take That, watching out for all the tech bits (I was especially interested to learn the tech behind mixing for the in-ear monitoring system).

Plus, I've done a bit of research for the story (so, been finding out that the big stadium in Helsinki was closed down a couple of years ago, due to it being Russian owned, and found the smaller concert hall. I could have maybe found a bigger venue for them in Espoo (Stayed there on business a couple of times) or Vantaa, but stuck with Helsinki. The venues in Stockholm and Oslo are large though! Not got as far as investigating  Copenhagen and beyond yet (but that will probably get skipped).

My "aims" for the story include: that trip back to the uk, and short follow on in Oslo; Back to England for a TV interview; then on to Vixen festival; and the final 3 gigs in London.

(If you're wondering about "Vixen", I would have used Glastonbury, but that was just at the start of their tour., so bad timing).. they'll probably do that NEXT year!. So decided to invent one. Nottingham's icon is a fox... but there IS a "FoxFest", so went with "Vixen". Was looking for something down near Bristol, but no name jumped out at me :-( )


I'm glad you're enjoying the story. As I said at the start (oh so long ago!) the braces are occasionally there, just not 'in your face'.

The next episode will have Linda meeting up with Sven & Frija, and getting Ziggy into the story a bit more...

Chapter 52


Paige came into the CJDL 'green room'. "Your guests have arrived! Come on in guys..."

"Hey, Sven, Frija, come and say hello to the girls" said Linda.

"Hi Linda! OMG, thank you so much for doing this for us!" said the two incredibly happy Finish fans. The girls hadn't done a 'meet and greet' for most of two weeks now, so they were actually looking forward to meeting Linda's physio.

"So, Sven is my physio, although I had someone else this morning. And Frija here is the lady who removed my cast!"

"Hi Frija! We saw the video: you looked very confident cutting off Linda's leg..." said Carol, causing Frija to laugh.

"She was a good patient..." replied Frija, "and I have to admit, that was a cool cast, and a few big names I recognised too!

"I'd agree with her being a good patient." said Sven. "So, how's the leg feeling tonight?"

"Getting better by the day!" replied Linda.

"It's been odd, when we catch the lift at the hotel, Linda insists on using the stairs... apparently you suggested it! Plus she sneaks off to the hotel's gym too"

"Don't worry, I'm not overdoing it... but it's worthwhile, I'm feeling so much more confident walking now. I still like having the stick when I have a longer walk, but I was thinking of maybe leaving it side-stage tonight. Hey, would you guys like a drink? We got coffee, sodas, and some beer too. Well, when I say 'beer'. I mean what you Europeans call beer!"

They sat down and chatted to the girls: because of the personal contact, everyone felt very relaxed. Paige had obviously told Taylor and the others too, and they came in maybe 10 or 15 minutes later, and joined them all.

Time flew by as they chatted. At one point, Frija was looking around at all 8 of our band, as well as at Ziggy, and wes smiling.

"Ok, Frija, you're smiling.... what is it?" asked Linda

"Well... um... it's just that a moment ago you were all smiling, and I could see nine of you with shiny metal braces on your teeth. That's a LOT of braces!" explained Frija. Which of course lead onto a discusssion about their braces, how come all 8 of them had braces.

"If you ask VERY nicely, Dianne might show you something a bit special.." said Linda

"You mean her headgear?" As Frija said 'headgear, she whispered it, and put her hand in front of her mouth, to pretend that Diane wouldn't be able to hear her.

"Oh, it's not just headgear either. Hey, Dianne, if we promise not to take pictures, why don't you show these guys?"

"No photos, right?" Dianne started by showing them her expander. Next, she went over to her bag, and took out her lip bumper, her facebow, and her headgear. And some elastics.

"So, we're trying to make a bit of space for my teeth at the bottom" explained Dianne. "So this lip-bumper is for my botton teeth, it is very slowly pulling back my bottom teeth...". She inserted the lip-bumper. "The headgear is to push back on my top teeth, not so much because they need moving, but so these elastics can pull back on my bottom teeth too...". Dianne put the facebow in - she was so used to doing so, it took just a second, added the headgear, then fitted the elastics from her top rear teeth to her front lowers.

"I don't know why she's still so shy about it, a big picture of her in it gets shown during the show. Hey, why don't you leave it on for the start tonight, you could make a thing of it, and just remove it on stage? I'm sure the audience will enjoy it... besides, there won't be THAT many people out there."

Dianne left her headgear in place: after all, when everyone has seen it, there's no longer anything to really feel akward about, is there?

At about 30 minutes to 'stage time' Paige came in. "Guys, the girls all need to get ready now, so I'm afraid I need to kick you out."

"That's fine, we understand." said Frija. "It has been an amazing day for us: we had lunch with Linda, then we've met you, and next we get to see you perform: thank you all very much, and have a great evening!"

"Absolutely! It has been really great to meet you all!" echoed Sven

"Hey, we need a picture of us all before you go! Paige, can you do the honours?"

Minutes later the picture was online: "You may recognise these two from the video Linda posted the other day: Frija is the lady who 'cut off her leg', and Sven has been helping her with her physio: great to meet you both!" added Jenny.

----

The final show in Helsiki went well. Dianne DID leave her headgear in, and had a bit of extra fun when the picture of her came up on the screen, but then removed it. Plus Linda managed to embarrass both Sven and Frija by name-checking them during the performance.


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Merry Christmas to you Sparky and pass my regards on to the girls.

An honorable mention...Thanks!