My birthday last Monday is one I'll remember for
the rest of my life - <br>as it was made extra
special by the lads in Westlife and all our crew <br>on
the road here in foreign parts. I never imagined
during my <br>school-days in Sligo that one day I would
celebrate my 21st birthday in the <br>Phillipines. Neither
was I expecting the big party that was organised for
me <br>in Manila on Monday night. So it was a double
surprise for me when the <br>lads and crew threw a big
birthday bash for me in the Phillipines. I'm <br>not a big
party animal, so I was just going to have a few quiet
drinks <br>with the Westlife crew in the hotel bar after
a busy day. I was <br>chilling out in my room when
our tour managerAnto came rapping on my door. He
<br>lured me to a suite on the pretext of getting me to
sign work permits, <br>which we have to get to perform
in foreign countries. I never suspected <br>a thing
as I walked into a dark room. Then the lights went
up and <br>everyone shouted surprise! You really do
go in to a state of shock when a <br>surprise like
that is sprung upon you. I was left speechless. As I
came <br>to terms with what was happening, my
immediate thought was that I wasn't <br>even dressed for a
party. I was wearing track-suit bottoms! It didn't
<br>matter because no-one noticed as the party got in to
full swing, with <br>everyone getting up to do their
karaoke singing spot. We partied into the <br>early hours
of the morning, I couldn't have asked for a better
night. <br>The tour is going really well with the
mixture of indoor and outdoor <br>shows stuffed with wild
fans. They are so enthusiastic and you get an
<br>amazing buzz off them when you're performing. But away
from the stage we <br>have to be surrounded by
security all the time because the fans just <br>swarm
around us. We've been prisoners in our hotel in every
city from <br>Tel-Aviv to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpar and
Manila because of our fan mania. In <br>Tel-Aviv we had
armed soldiers with us and our cars were checked out by
<br>the bomb squad. We can't go out shopping or even go
down to the hotel <br>lobby because there are fans
everywhere. And we have security guys on our <br>hotel floor
all the time because the girls try to get to our
rooms. <br>They scream every time they catch sight of
one of us and they climb all <br>over the cars when
we're leaving. It's always a worry that some-one will
<br>get hurt. Most of the time we dont get to see much of
the country we're <br>in, apart from the airport,
hotel and concert venue. But driving to the <br>venues
you do get a glimpse of the local conditions and some
of it is <br>pretty horrible. There is alot of
poverty in places like Indonesia and <br>it makes us
realise just how lucky we are coming from a country like
<br>Ireland. They live in tin-huts or make-shift shelters and
they must be <br>like ovens because the climate is
sweltering. While it's great to bring <br>our tour all over
the world, it'll be good to get home again. I'm
missing <br>all the home cooking. And, no doubt, there'll
be another party with my <br>family and friends in
Sligo when I get back.<br><br><br> ;D generyby