THE DAY I MET CHRIS FROOME.

Today I woke up at 8 in the morning, I think, for the first time since my final submission; and the reason behind it was that I (by choice) had planned to be in town, more specifically the WHSmith in the Arndale Shopping Centre, at 9 a.m. when it opens. And the reason for thattt is because Chris Froome was scheduled to have a book signing.

Now you might ask; Who isss this Chris Froome guy, that I, a person who’s hardly ever bothered with a meet and greet would go out of my way and voluntarily choose to stay 3 hours in a queue for to meet? Well if you must know, Chris Froome is a professional road cyclist under Team Sky and he won last year’s 100th Le Tour de France. Quite frankly thats about all I know about Chris Froome because (a) I’m not about to Google him for the sake of blogging about it, and (b) because I spent a considerable amount of time actually watching last year’s TDF with none other than… my boyfriend.

He’s actually the one who persuaded me to go for the book signing, but insisted that I came an hour before the event. However, despite my zero experience in book signings / meet and greet, I know better than to arrive a mere hourrr early to see a man who is considered a nationwide hero. Le Tour de France is no joke guys. I may not be a cycling aficionado, but I watched that race, and it is brutal. You would understand / respect these cyclists more if you, yourself have cycled. These people climb mountains on bikes. ’nuff said.

So yes, because I love my boyfriend and am constantly finding ways to make him happy I want my boyfriend to owe me his life / feed me an alarming amount of Japanese food / pay for my MooCow / drive me places, I told him I’d make the effort to come early so as to be the first few in line for the signing. And I was ! Seventh person in line to be exact, and I like to think its only because I arrived 30 minutes later than I had planned.

So obviously, from the photo above; I did get to meet Chris Froome and get two books signed. However it was not a pleasant experience. I don’t precisely know who to blame for the calamity but there were a number of us who came 3 hours early, was not allowed to sit down (I was in agony, wearing my Topshop boots was a mistake) and had to even wait a while longer because Froome-y here was late. Okay. So I thought the early birds would at least be given a mere minute to meet Chris, but that was not the case.

I was ushered to the front, my books handed to Chris by a working staff, while my camera is held by another; to take photos that would’ve just been the top of Chris’ head and me near-poking him to make him look up if I didn’t ask for him to actually ‘look up, please, Chris‘. And directly after he finished signing both my books, I was asked to move to the side. Immediately. Immediately.

I waited over 3 hours, to have only met this guy for 20 seconds.

Honestly I was fuming afterwards, not really sure who / what at, but I just was. Had to sit down on a bench outside and calm myself, only then beginning to realise that it wasss a book signing, and ultimately I diddd get my books signed. I just wished it was more an experience than what it was… and that I would walk out with something more than just two signed books; I brought a jacket for him to sign because the boyfriend wanted to have it framed.

All that matters in the end however, is that the boyfriend is pleased. And I am pleased for having pleased him; especially knowing how much he admires Chris Froome and how much he would value the signed books I got him.