Brian Johnson, what a charmer!

It was so unexpected and at the same time, so easy! Raymond, the Holland cousin, gave me a clue about Amsterdam hotels and near the end of a long day of walking, walking, walking from the hotel to the Hard Rock and then to the Tuschinski, looking for leggings and having lunch by the Dam, I thought that I might as well walk in the completely other direction toward the hotel--or at least in the direction I thought the hotel might be. When I got to the hotel entrance, there were about five other fans who told me that the boys had arrived about a half hour before and had taken pictures with them. They encouraged me to hang around and once I recognized the drivers from Paris, I thought I might as well wait. The security guys that I had seen in Paris came out after a bit, as well, and I hoped that meant we would really get to see them. After only a couple of hours in the gusty cold, it happened! Cliff and Brian came out and graciously came over to us and took pictures, signed autographs for all of us. Brian was so incredibly sweet and patient with us—we were all a bit overwhelmed to be in their presence, you know—and eventually we got ourselves sorted out so that our pictures were taken. Brian hugged and get this—kissed me on the cheek—saying, “Thank you, darling, for being here!” I told him I’d see him tomorrow night for a concert I knew would be great. Maybe it was that I was so cold from standing there, but it felt like being hugged by a teddy bear when he hugged me. I know somewhere in there I told him how great he was as the AC/DC singer—just hope I was somewhat coherent. They left after spending about 10 minutes with us, just so generous with their free time; it really makes me like them even more.Somehow, one of the other bystanders declared himself knowledgeable about these things
and said that Malcolm and Angus wouldn’t be coming out. I was so cold, I wanted to go anyway, so I asked the doorman, who had sort of become an acquaintance by then, about the distance to my hotel from there. He said it was easy enough via the subway, but I didn’t feel up to it, so he said he would call a cab for me. He got busy with hotel guests and who walked out of the hotel, but Malcolm’s son. So much for “Malcolm’s not going to come out”, right? He was wearing the same AC/DC khaki shirt that I saw him wearing in Paris. When the doorman said that the cab was on its way, I thought it would be okay for me to stand on the same side of the passageway as Malcolm’s son. Then, I don’t know where this came from, but out of the blue, I said to him: So, will you be coming to the US this summer with the tour? He said he hadn’t decided yet, maybe. Then, I said: if you have any influence at all, please tell them to come to Texas, okay? He said, Yeah, they were thinking of coming to Texas maybe. And to top it off, then I said, Well, let them know Houston is the place to come in Texas because Dallas is really awful. Made him smile. Just can’t believe I spoke to him at all. What an afternoon!I missed the acdc.com gathering that took place this afternoon (sigh). Guess my lot is to carry around those Paris guidebooks in hopes that I will eventually run into Jennifer. Plan to hit the Reichsmuseum or the Hermitage tomorrow and then go to the hotel from 2-5 pm. Have to be strong on this because I have to get to the show by 7 pm if I have any hopes at all of getting a concert t-shirt from the European tour