Michael Jackson in London May 2000 Day Two

When I went back to my cousins house and told them about my day, they couldn't believe what had happened. They were a little shocked that I wanted to stay out the next night but there was nothing they could do.

The next morning I got to the hotel as early as I could. There was a lot more fans there as well as many photographers. The day was a little grayer, and in the early afternoon it started to rain. We took shelter in doorways of the building beside the hotel. I had an umbrella and coat and managed to keep dry but may fans were not so lucky and got very wet.

I couldn't bare to leave, to take shelter in a cafe, it didn't make sense to be out in the rain but I just felt so happy, being surrounded by all the fans, knowing that Michael was in the hotel.

When the time came to go to the event, it was still raining and I decided not to wait to see Michael leave but to go straight to venue, The Royal Albert Hall.

At the venue there were fans everywhere. I didn't wait around, I just went straight in.

My seat was on the floor section of the arena, at the back of a section. I had a really good view of the stage. I started talking to the people beside me. They didn't know Michael would be with Elizabeth and were amazed when I told them about the huge amount of fans who like me had tickets for the event.

As soon as everyone was in their seats the lights went down and Elizabeth was introduced. OH MY GOODNESS, there they were, in the royal box in the balcony. It was insane, so many Michael Jackson fans screaming.

Eventually things quietened down and the show began. It was so funny, every time there was break in the show, for scene changes etc, all you could hear was fans screaming for Michael.

I did watch the show, but every so often I would turn around and watch Michael and Elizabeth.

At the end of the show Elizabeth came on stage and gave a speech. Her passion for the AIDS charities shone through and was very inspiring. When Michael walked onstage with flowers for her the whole place went crazy. Many fans ran to the stage but I didn't. I knew that I could see him better from where I was.

Once the lights went up when the show ended I tried to get back to the hotel as quick as I could. Unfortunately I didn't make it back in time to see Michael and Elizabeth.

Most of the fans who had been at the show were at the hotel. There was such a great atmosphere. We were all at the side of the hotel, where we could see the lights in the rooms where Michael was.  Thankfully it had stopped raining, which relived me a lot, as I was not looking forward to being out all night in the rain.

As the hours went by, fans starting drifting away. At about 1 am there was only about 20 or so fans, mainly UK and German. As we could still see lights on in Michael's rooms, we were singing and chanting and calling out messages to him. At one stage we all sang ELIZABETH I LOVE YOU as we knew Elizabeth was there too.

We had positioned ourselves under the balcony, and every so often we would look up there.  Suddenly we saw a shadow on the balcony, OMG, it was Michael, coming out to see us. It was insane, he only stayed there a few minutes but I couldn't believe that he would come out to see us just like that.

That energized us, now we knew that he could hear us, so we kept singing and chanting and calling out messages to him.

Suddenly there was a plopping sound on the road in front of us. For a few seconds we didn't know what it was, then one of the fans saw something and raced over to it.

Oh My Goodness, it was a present from Michael!!!!

It was a small hotel tablecloth in a Harrods bag which Michael had written a message to us on. It had only just been written as we could smell the ink from the pen he had used.

Just as we were looking at this, another bag landed on the road, with another small hotel table cloth.  This time many fans dived on it. I just stayed back, I was just too overwhelmed at what was happening, that Michael was sending down hand written messages to us.

Then two more came down, this time wrapped in fruit!! It seems he had run out of bags.

All four messages had the same theme, he loved us and thanked us for being there and it was time to sleep.

Unfortunately I didn't get any of the messages but I felt so lucky and blessed just to be there and experience something so special.

When we saw the messages, that he was telling us he was going to sleep, we decided to stop the singing and chanting and to try to get some sleep ourselves. By now it was around 3 am so we settled down in the doorway of the hotel, huddled together to keep warm.

I tried to rest but my mind was racing. I just couldn't believe everything that had happened in such a short time. The chatter of the fans slowly died down and eventually I did manage to get some rest.

Seeing the sun rise after spending the night outside Michael's hotel is something very special and one of my favorite memories.

As the night changed to morning, the fans slowly started waking up and the babble of chatter began again. Looking around I could see that we were a very small group, less than 20.

Suddenly we heard noises coming from the entrance to the hotel underground parking. It was only about 5.30 am, what was going on. When the shutters started moving and were opened, all traces of sleep quickly vanished and we all gathered at the side of the road beside the parking entrance.

At 6.00 am the cars drove out, Michael was leaving. When they saw that we were all there at the parking entrance, the cars slowed down. Then they turned into traffic and were gone. Some fans ran after the cars, some ran the other way to get the tube or a taxi to the airport, but I just stayed at the hotel.

It had only been 2 days but I was just overwhelmed by everything, I needed to just take it all in. Most of the fans had disappeared and I was on my own. I decided to go to the shops, get something to eat and the morning papers and come back to the hotel. Even though Michael had gone, I wasn't ready to leave the hotel yet.

There were no  Facebook and Twitter  or internet on phones back then, so many fans had no idea that Michael had left. From about 8 am fans started arriving at the hotel and when they found out that he was gone, many were upset that they had missed him.

The rest of the day I spent with fans, sharing our stories of what we had just experienced.

I learnt so much during those crazy 3 days and met so many fans and made a ton of new friends, many of whom I would share later trips with. I learnt how to behave around Michael, that if you are calm you stand a better chance of getting close to him. I learnt that he loved having fans at the hotel and all the gifts from fans. I  grew in confidence, and for the first time had a group of people I could connect with.

This was my world now, and when I went home I became even more active online, joining as many fan sites as I could and keeping in contact with the fans I had met. By now I moved out of Dublin and couldn't go to as many YANA group meet ups. After this London trip I found myself connecting more with the fans I had met & the online fan communities more than the Irish YANA group fans who were not interested  in travelling to see Michael. I did try to get to the meet ups but I found more and more that they were distancing themselves from me. Only one girl from the YANA group really understood how I was feeling and as a result we became travel buddies, going to London to the fan club events where we became friends with many of the UK fans.