It had been a long 3 or 4 months waiting for Thursday July 13th 2000 to come around. The excitement and anticipation turned into an almost manic nervousness on when the day finally arrived. Was it all going to be a big anti-climax? Would I feel completely out of place back in Helsingborg? Would I feel completely out of place with the people I would be at the concerts with? Somewhat reluctantly at 11:15am I dragged myself out to my car and drove to the Airport. It was an uneventful drive and I arrived at London Stansted at almost exactly 2:00pm as I had planned. I parked the car and caught the bus to the terminal building. John and Vixie were stategically positioned watching the busses arrive so we met up immediately and a few minutes later we were having some lunch waiting for check-in time.

We checked in at about 3:30pm and went through to international departures. The obligatory wander around the tax-free shop followed and I bought a new watch having broken mine earlier in the day at home trying to install a new battery in it. The flight was about 30 minutes late departing but Ryanair got us into Malmö on time. Passport control and baggage reclaim later we got the hire car from Hertz (a nice Volvo) and hit the road for Helsingborg by about 9:00pm Swedish time. Stopped off in Rydebäck on the way (where we used to live) and got lost because they have done so much building in the last 10 years. Eventually found our old house - did the "I used to live there" thing for John and Vix and we headed off to Helsingborg.

We got into the centre of Helsingborg at about 10:30pm to find complete mayhem. The Helsingborg summer festival was in full swing with live bands playing in most of the main squares and lots of market stalls along the main street. We checked into our hotel, the Mollberg, and dropped our bags in the room and went for a wander. We had a kebab from one of the stalls and pretty soon afterwards the long day caught up with us and we returned to the hotel for some much needed sleep.