Went to Cyber Café and then on to Novotel for morning tea for me and coke for Shells. Went into the toilet and was accosted by ‘moscowfan’! True! We had also been with ‘Pasha’s Angel’ on Wednesday night where she drank Marguerita’s a la Pasha and I was doing my best USOVA impersonation (i.e. blowing smoke). But I digress, I have perhaps said a little too much anyway, hehehe.

OK, so we ended up having a few coffees etc with Fran and then went over to the arena for the Ladies Long Program. Highlights of that competition were: Jennifer Robinson, Sarah Hughes and of course Michelle Kwan.

We went back to the hotel with the other fans, there were quite a lot of us sat around having a few drinks and chatting, this is a photo of that ‘Evil A&P Crowd’ :)

(Note to all bladers: shellybean is not in this one!)

If you want to know who everyone is, then you’re out of luck LOL!

Some of them then went off to eat and some of us stayed. That was fateful. The ones who stayed behind were: Tara, Rebecca, shellybean, Rachel and myself. I fought off my later hunger pangs by raiding the hors d’oeuvres. The skaters party was going on in the hotel next door, and occasionally and quite amusingly some of them would stagger through, looking a little ‘tired and emotional’. ;)

Forgot to say! When I was at Trophee Lalique, I had coffee a few times with a very charming American lady who I later found out was Sarah Hughes’ Gran :) I got to see her on Saturday Night for the first time that week and my first words were: “ You probably don’t remember me…”

And she said: “ My Welsh friend from Lalique!”

Cool :) Got introduced to a lot of the family, I think 2 of Sarah’s brothers and a little sister were there as well as Sarah, of course. When I got introduced to Dad Hughes, I commented that he must be a busy guy……

Also said: “ Hi “ to Angelika Krylova, while I was at the hotel reception buying some fags.

So, onward and upward, the night was still young at 2am when they finally threw us out of the Hotel Bar. We went across the road to the Pizzeria (“ Yes! We serve drinks! Avez Vous un cigarette? “).

Emma and Amy eventually joined us too and our ‘party’ broke up at about 4.30am. I can’t write that much about it, as I don’t remember! All I know is that we kept asking for ‘Kronenbourg 1492’ instead of ‘Kronenbourg 1664’ and apparently there were quite a few skaters about, which I don’t remember much about either! LOL

Ok, Ok I do remember that Marina Annisina was in there and we were sort of being a bit loud, LOL! We were there first!! I’m sure she luuurved our Anna S impersonations and if she heard the ‘Gwendal Poem’, she would have luuurved that too!

(note from shellybean: I was asked to add that this is when and where the THAS was created! To find out more about it, take a peek here!)

We went over to the Novotel and had a chat with some of the other fans that were leaving the next day. Accosted Diana Poth (Had a LOL about Eurosport with her and Maxsim Marinin (More about that in the bloopers section…SHAME!!!)

I’d just like you to observe the behaviour of the Bladers President (and don’t get snitty with me if she isn’t, how am I supposed to know? PML!)

In her defence, she had been hanging out all evening with 4 BritSluts.

Well, Saturday dawned bright and early (ok, so it wasn't early...I was on vacation dammit!), the final day of the competition. Ladies free (ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ) and it didn't start till quite late in the day. Absolutely no need to rush over.

Stopped at the cyber cafe (which incidentally I think was called Cyberium) on the way by. Well, we managed to survive two days without the net, I'd say that's quite the accomplishment! I don't think there was anything overly interesting that happened there.

We arrived at the arena far too early to go in, so we went for a drink at the Novotel. Eventually though we ended up at the Sofitel drinking coffee (well, not me, I don't drink coffee) with Fran. She wanted to see about the same skaters we did, so we skipped the first few groups and gossiped.

I made sure I was there in time to see Jen skate, and she was fantastic. I was so pleased for her. I briefly thought about getting her some flowers or a stuffed dolphin from the nice toy lady in the concourse but decided against it. The smurfs were enough. I didn't want to overload the poor girl.

The rest of the ladies (in my opinion) were sort of blah. I have NO idea why the Russian Federation sent Volchkova to worlds instead of Soldatova. To be honest, I don't really like either girls style of skating, but I think Soldatova would have placed higher in the standings. Really the only other lady that stood out for me was Sarah Hughes. It's really a shame that she didn't get hose combinations landed, because I think otherwise she would have been on the podium. I was really looking forward to seeing Irina skate too, and she did skate well, just not nearly as well as she did in Lyon at the GPF (which I only saw on TV).

Ok, back to the Sofitel had a few drinks, coke light for me (as usual). We were invited for dinner at some place called the Hippo, but declined as I (at the very least) wasn't hungry. Sat around with Rachel, Sharon, Tara, Rebecca, Mandie, Frances and Sev (I think that's who was there anyway) until they kicked us out! The only activity that happened was when Kati Winkler came running into the bar looking either very happy or very drunk. Stephane and Philippe arrived at just about that time to buy some cigars (to celebrate Luna's birth perhaps?) and Stephane told Kati to get herself over to the party.

Anyway, since they kicked us out of the Sofitel we went over to the Novotel, but felt like groupies, so we retired to the pizzeria across the road.

Sharon had to promise the owners that we were only there to drink, and with that promise they let us in. Good thing we managed to keep the place open because there were more groups that followed us in. One group was the diners from the Hippo, who kept leaning over and telling us "Brits" to keep it down (ok..so we are loud drunks). The next group to come in was a couple of skaters. Rachel and I had the best seats that night.

We really were being loud and obnoxious, for some reason Rachel did the splits right there in the bar (I think actually that it was at my prompting..not good!), and we were all singing that song that Anna Semenovich and whatever her partners name is skated to in their FD. The other group decided to leave but the lovely Emma and Amy decided they weren't ready to leave yet, so they came over and joined us, at which point at least one more round of drinks was added to the table. By this time Rachel was bribing the bartender with cigarettes she'd bought from Tara who bought them cheap in Monaco earlier in the day, so that they'd stay open.

Funny how people in France seem to do anything you want them to as long as you'll give them a cigarette. (hmm....that leads to some very interesting speculation)

So, after about 5 bottles of whatever beer it was that we were drinking (Sharon knows I'm sure), they decided that they really wanted to close. But...we weren't finished yet, so Rachel and I took ours with us, which upon further reflection was not really a very socially acceptable thing to do. :)

I at this point was having a really hard time standing up (5 beers is a lot for someone who rarely drinks anything but diet coke, and who also has an empty stomach).

We headed back over to the Novotel to see if the skaters party was lingering on. It wasn't, but Ben (whom I know both Sharon and I have mentioned before) was in the lobby talking to some people he obviously knew, so off we went to say hi. Maxim Maranin was spotted walking through the hotel lobby and suddenly...Sharon went running. If I could have stood up I probably would have gone over to drag her away, but... alas, it wasn't possible. I guess she gushed for a while, all I heard were snippets of the conversation. "I threw you a Rose"....."you and Tatiana are my favourite team".... and then she was back. Of course, then Diana Poth comes through and Sharon gets up and over she goes to talk to Diana, this time Rachel goes with her and the three of them talk, and I dig up Sharon's camera and take a picture (which I am not allowed to post).

We go back to the hotel (ours because Rachel was positive she'd be locked out), where we not only wake up the night guy, but also Pierre on our way up the stairs. He did not look happy. Since Rachel had to catch her plane at some ungodly hour of the morning we decided to just stay up till she could get back into her hotel, as well as it being late enough for her 'roommate' to be awake. Sharon promptly fell asleep!

Rachel searched high and low for a lighter so she could have a cigarette, but somehow it ended up in the bed with Sharon, so she had to wait till breakfast (at 7am) to get a light. We sat in the room freezing until it got to be time for breakfast. I had on both of my jackets and Rachel borrowed a sweater to put on over her sweater and under her jacket. The night guy (whom Rach declared "cute") gave us our breakfast. We ate our baguettes & croissants and drank our coffee & chocolate chaude, and then were on our way back to Rachel's hotel where we had a teary goodbye.