Image Credit: Pexels- Monica Silvestre
Carrie had been waiting all year for this night to come round, and now that it was here, she couldn’t wait to get to London. She had purchased the ticket to see Jeff Dunham back in September as a cheer-up gift for herself, and now the day was here, she was going to make the most out of it. She had planned her day to a tea, she would spend the morning meeting up with Betty and having a good old catch up, she would then make her way to the station to catch her train and go directly to the arena, knowing there was food places around that area she would eat before the show and then have a great evening with Jeff and the little guys in the boxes.
Of course, this was a great plan in theory, but as with every plan, it doesn’t always go the way you want it to go. Carrie had no problems in her plan to start with, she met with Betty and had a wonderful catch up, putting the world to rights in their own little way, before they parted ways and she went to the train station, the train left on time for Waterloo and Carrie sat comfortably, passing the time reading a book. On arrival, she checked which tube line she needed to take and made her way to the underground to catch the Jubilee line to Wembley Park; this was where her plans started to go wrong!
Carrie had always hated the underground; the escalators were huge, and she hated how Londoners were always in so much of a rush to get to the bottom, pushing their way past you without a care in the world for other people’s safety. As she made her way to the first of two escalators she would have to go down, she moved to the side and let the crowds go past before taking her first steps towards the large, slow-moving steps. She grabbed the railing and took a quick step onto the escalator, holding on for dear life. She moved as close as she could get to the side and waited with bated breath to get to the bottom, her grip getting tighter and her heart beating faster the longer she rode this contraption.
Finally, she reached the bottom and jumped off quickly; that was one down. Yet, she still had one to go. Carrie started to feel sick, her hands got sweaty, and her chest felt tight. She moved herself to the side. She tried to focus on one thing, but fear started to take over. She started to struggle with her breathing, and it was at this moment that Carrie realized she was going into a panic attack!
Dropping her things on the floor Carrie tried to control the panic attack with a breathing technique she had been taught, the problem was she couldn’t focus on anything, and the fear took its full control, now in a full blown panic attack and on her own, Carrie watched as people completely ignored her struggling for breath and carried on with their day as if she was invisible, that was for the exception of two woman, a mother and a daughter who stopped and noticed she was in distress, they got Carrie to focus on them only and helped her to calm her breath by taking slow deep breaths until she was out of the attack.
Carrie was exceptionally grateful to the woman, who stayed with her until they got down to the Jubilee line to catch the tube. once she was on the tube making her way to Wembley Park, she noticed how hot it was, it had been 28 degrees when she arrived at Waterloo, yet underground it seemed so much hotter than that, with no water on her she wasn’t going to focus on the heat and instead focused on the stations they were stopping at, counting each time how many stops she had left till hers.
As she arrived at Wembley Park, she disembarked and made her way to the exit, instantly remembering where the arena was from the station she started a slow walk up towards it, as she got closer she soon realized there was no chance she was eating that evening, every restaurant, café and fast food place was full with people, either sat in eating or queued up outside waiting to go in and eat. Carrie sat on some steps, and people watched as she waited for the gates to open. She knew from experience that there was no point rushing in as once inside, you couldn’t get back out to have a cigarette, so she was going to leave it as late as possible to go in. At 7 P.M., she took one more drag of her vape as she proceeded towards the gate to enter the arena, showing her ticket to security as she entered. She then made her way to the nearest bar and bought herself a larger one, and then she went to find her seat.
As the arena slowly filled and the time got closer to the event starting, Carrie got excited. She loved Jeff Dunham and the gang and knew seeing him live was going to be out of this world. As she sat there with her lighter in her hands, the lights dimmed, and a voice echoed out, “Here for your entertainment tonight, Jeff Dunham!” The crowd went wild as he ran onto the stage.
He had Carrie laughing from the minute he started, as he talked about his family, making jokes about them as he does! He warmed up the crowd brilliantly before he brought out the little guys. She felt honored to be at the first show of his European tour; being part of the crowd that saw the material first was a huge treat.
Most of all, seeing Walter, Bubba J, Achmed the dead terrorist, Peanut, and Jose Jalapeno on a stake. With this motley crew and Jeff, the evening was no stopping laughter. There was also a special addition added for the European tour called Clive the Critic, despite Jeff showing great nervousness before he introduced Clive to the crowed, Carrie thought he was brilliant and so did the rest of the crowed as huge cheers went up, after Clive was put back in his box, along with chants of “keep him” echoing around the arena.
Once the evening was over it was then a race to get back for the last train from waterloo, despite knowing this Carrie wasn’t going to rush, she knew she had time and didn’t like the thought of being crammed on the tube, so she slowly walked back to the station enjoying the cool rain that fell upon her, as she reached the station and boarded the next tube she was glad she had taken her time as she now sat in an near empty tube train, arriving back at waterloo she could take the escalators with ease as the station was practically empty.
As she went to find out what platform her train was on and what time it left, she discovered she had time for a vape, walking to the nearest exit she drew in the smooth taste of iced mint which she hadn’t had since 7 P.M. that evening, she then walked back into the station and over to her platform to board her train. As she made herself comfy in first class she reminisced about the show and the great evening she had had, as the train jolted to signal they were leaving all she had left to do now was try and stay awake for next two hours of her journey home, it had been a long day and she wouldn’t get home to the early hours but seeing Jeff Dunham had been worth it and if she had to do it again she would.
When Carrie finally dragged herself through her front door, she went straight to bed, and she fell asleep with a smile on her face, muttering the words I laughed the night away.
This was written by our contributing writer, Leah Palmer.
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