Childrens Baftas November 2007 - The Armstrong Angels and their mascot meet Jonas

As you all know, I was fortunate enough, along with Nicky, Jakey, PG and fallen_angel, to meet Jonas last November at the Childrens BAFTAS where he was presenting an award. Up until now I've been reluctant to do an indepth blog about it because I fully realise how lucky I was out of his zillions of fans to meet the man himself and I didn't want to cause any jealousy or have it appear that I was gloating or rubbing other fans noses in the fact. A fansite owner I may be but I don't consider myself to be more important than any other fan. I even went so far as to cut myself out of the photograph to avoid any backlash. 

But as I say, recent events have forced me to re-evaluate the situation so for the first time I will be giving a full, no holds barred blog, about the day I met Jonas complete with my banner and halo :-))))

The day of the awards was a Sunday and fallen_angel had travelled to me from Wales on the Saturday. We'd been up til late the night before making the banner which had Armstrong Angels painted across it. Bless her, she has such a steady hand until it came time to take photographs of Jonas and his loveliness did her in. More about that later. 

Mr Lucky drove us to the station on the Sunday morning [me with my halo securely placed on my head and clutching the banner]  and with his last words ringing in my ears "if you came at me looking like that I'd run a mile in the other direction. he'll have you arrested and I'll end up bailing you out. oh and your arse looks huge in those leggings"  we hopped on the train to London Victoria. It took 45mnts and all the while I could tell that fallen_angel had been more troubled by Mr Luckys comments than I. She kept eyeing my halo suspiciously and more than once I felt her hands reach to snatch it away. I was proven right when she screeched at me as we were rushing through the gates "take that **** halo off - you look like a pillock"  But my halo was going nowhere, it was  my armour, and it stayed on my head for the rest of the day. I thought of it as having the army of angels beside me. 

We did a recee of the Hilton first so that once Nicky and Jake arrived we'd have no trouble finding it and also because poor Nicky had been delayed. Two hours later fallen_angel was getting used to my halo and we'd grown immune to the pointed stares and odd comments from passersby. When Nicky did arrive she brought her with a little beam of sunshine called Jakey. I fell in love with Jake as did fallen_angel and PG and John and as I told Jakey later, Jonas seemed pretty taken with him as well :-) 

We walked to the Hilton where we met John and then we set about hanging our banner over the barrier, inbetween chasing Jakey about as he battered us round the face and body with his Robin doll. Most of the time he just wanted us to kiss the doll which was quite nice actually. I'm sure Nicky won't mind my telling you that Jake has speech problems and the only words he can say are Mummy, Nan and Robin. But he can sure make you understand what he wants, and he has such a beautiful little face that we were putty in his hands and powerless to resist. He was a complete joy to be around and quite possibly the most dedicated Jonas fan I've ever come across. For a six year old kid to patiently wait that long to meet his hero was quite astounding. PG soon arrived and was almost as much of a bundle of joy as Jakey :-)

Everyone at the Hilton, from the doormen, to the people organising the event, to the guests who stopped to chat with us at every available opportunity, were fantastic. They really made the day even more special for us and I hope that we managed to convert a few more people into being Jonas fans, we certainly did our best. One American guest actually offered me money for my screencap of Jonas but it was my favourite and I'd taken it there in the hope it would be autographed so I turned her down. She said that she'd have to visit the sites and print it off herself. lol

Our early arrival was rewarded when at about 3pm Jonas arrived at the hotel. It was a complete surprise, as we'd not been expecting him to arrive until the evening. Nicky spotted him and managed to say rather quietly that he was stood there. He was about to walk through the doors when we called him over. Now this was what you might call make or break time. His courage was being put to the test. Infront of him were women wearing halos with a huge banner draped across the barrier saying Armstrongs Angels. Behind him and within easy reach was the door to the Hilton. He could have gone either way but he chose to step forward and come to the barrier. John was heard to remark "He IS Robin Hood"  roflmao. At first he did look a bit bemused, bewildered, a tad anxious even but then I think his RADA training kicked in and he was relaxed and charming. After a few minutes of chatting and I think once he'd realised we didn't have a car waiting to bundle him into, he was just fine and happily posed for photographs, signed autographs etc. When I asked him to sign the pic for his Angels on the forum he did so and when I told him that this would make Nicky and I the most popular members on there he smiled. He shook hands with Jakey and called him mate. Watching Jakes face light up was magical. To a kid Robin Hood is like Santa Claus and I refused to call him Jonas when Jake was around. He was Robin and Jake was more than happy with that. PG was fantastic and asked him lots of questions which meant he stuck around for longer. He talked about Robin Hood and to be honest I was swooning so much at that point I don't recall exactly what was said word for word but I do know he has a lovely accent and is even more gorgeous in the flesh. Oh yes he is! When he left us he asked if we'd be there later, and we said ye,s and he said "See yous later then" with the s after the you and it was the cutest thing evah! and made us all swoon. As he walked through the doors into the Hilton, fallen_angel who had been incredibily calm up until that point suddenly shouted "he was bloody gorgeous"  Isn't her language appalling! I was about to let out a deep drooling sigh when Jakey whacked me round the back of the legs with his Robin doll so it turned into a yelp of pain instead. 

Now when I first started these sites I had no thought of ever meeting the man himself. You don't write the kind of blogs I do if you think there is a chance you'll meet the person you're talking about face to face. And you know they say that when you're about to die your life flashes before your eyes? Well as Jonas first approached me, every blog I'd ever written and every post I'd ever made on JAF, flashed before me. In a split second I realised that I could either let that get to me and stand there hyperventilating, or just brazen it out so I kept on smiling and when he didn't whip a restraining order out of his back pocket I relaxed a bit myself. lol. 

At that point we started to get a bit worried about Jake because we'd been there for quite a while but at the slightest mention of us leaving he grabbed hold of the barrier and we'd have had to break his hands to make him let go. Jonas had said that he'd be back later and Jake was going nowhere until he'd seen him again. By about 6pm more people had started to arrive and at around 7pm the organisers came and told us that because we'd been waiting so long they could tell us that Jonas would be coming round in the car with Sammy very soon. We'd been singing up until that point but we only knew the first few lines "Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the glen, Robin Hood, Robin Hood, with his band of men...." I think PG knew a bit more of it but we didn't care, we were on such a high that we kept repeating it over and over again much to the amusement of the press who were stood next to us. When Jonas did get out of the car he came back over and signed more autographs and so did Sammy, I won't go into detail except to say that she was lovely, totally unaffected, and seemed genuinely pleased that Jonas had so much support there. I'd forgotten to ask for an autograph for myself earlier in the day because I'd been so determined to get one for the Angels. And proving himself a star once again Jonas duly obliged and I was a very happy bunny. Once they had posed for the press and then gone inside, Jake promptly released his grip on the barrier and took my hand guiding me out of the throng of people and round to the play area [outside of hotel] where we once again played 'lets see how many times I can hit Lucky with the Robin doll before she cries'

On the way home Jake was on such a  high and kept kissing his Robin doll. And at one point he said 'Robin - My Mate' which was incredible considering his speech difficulties. Jonas had a real effect on that little boy and it's a memory that I will treasure forever. We got back to London Victoria and had a Burger King but there was nowhere to sit so we just plonked ourselves down in the middle of the station on the floor and happily ate our tea. Jake was still on cloud nine and munched on his happy meal. I can't recall which toy he had with it but I'm pretty sure he made the toy kiss his Robin doll as well. We all got to snog Robin that day. 

And now for the 'more later' part - I've known fallen_angel since we were kids and she is the most in control person I've ever met. Nothing fazes her and for much of the day apart from a couple of little blips she'd been her usual calm, collected self. It was only when we started to look at the photographs she had taken that I realised how nervous she had been. Most of them were un-usable, her hands had been shaking so much that they were blurred. Holding the camera had kept her from fainting but that was about it lol. See the effect Jonas has on women! As for myself, I was very proud that I didn't faint, even when he used that smile on me I didn't colllapse in a heap of drool, mainly because I was hanging onto the barrier for dear life. Now I know why they put those there, not to protect celebs from fans, but to ensure that fans have something to grab hold of in the event of a fainting/swooning attack. It was greatly appreciated, I can tell you. Sadly, Jonas didn't need to use it once roflmao. Most important thing was that I remained more or less upright. It may have appeared that I was draped nonchalently across the barrier but that was because my knees had buckled. No way was I reporting back to the Angels that I'd fallen down on the job so to speak.