A Busy Day

Monday, which is a Bank Holiday, is what you could describe as a busy day.

First L, Daughter and I get the 6:30am train down to London. We are heading to the Vitality 10k run in Central London. On the train, which is largely quiet, are several fans already getting tanked up ahead of Derby’s Play Off Final with Aston Villa. Yes, I’ll be there later, but not tanked up.

L has suggested not taking the tube to the race village in Green Park but jogging there as a ‘nice warm up’. It's 3.5 miles! and I’m not sure she’s mentioned this to Daughter. We take the tube. At Green Park we meet up with L’s sister, who is also doing the run, and with her family.

The race starts on The Mall and takes in quite a few sights of London (Trafalgar Square, St Paul's, The Bank of England, House Of Parliament, where Daughter went for her interview at Somerset House) before finishing in front of Buckingham Palace. Although we finish before it, not after it like they do in the Marathon.

I finish in a disappointing 47:05 and then head back up the course to cheer in first Daughter, then L and her sister, who are running together. I have a different start time to the others, so get a head start on them.

After a sandwich, a coffee and quick clothes change in a portaloo I’m off to Wembley for the match. While everyone else, apart from L’s sister who is my partner in crime at the game, head off home.

At Wembley I am rather shocked, but pleasantly surprised, to find a real ale stand. We have a quick drink and it does have to be a bit quick as we’re running late. Then we take our seats five rows from front.

I am totally relaxed about the match as I’m not particularly keen for Derby to go up where no doubt they would once more fill the side with ageing relics and crap foreigners like they did on the last two promotions then spend the next ten years paying them all off but what will be, will be.

The way Villa play in the first half that doesn’t look very likely anyway. Villa score at the end of the first half and then again early in the second. Derby finally get their act together and pull one back but it finishes 2-1 to the Villa.

Mostly though everyone is pretty pleased with the season and with Frank Lampard. Subsequently the team get a fifteen minute standing ovation at the end. That’s not something I’ve seen before in defeat. Lampard has turned out to be exactly what we all needed and has been a breath of fresh air. He has not only brought a calm, professional approach to the club but also an infectious enthusiasm that has rubbed off on everyone. More than anything though he’s united the team and the supporters, something that's been missing for years, probably since the Jim Smith era. On top of that, he’s given us two glorious cup runs and late run up the league table all the way to the Play Off Final. I just hope he’s still here next season.

While there isn’t a dissenting voice in Wembley or on the train home, the alternative universe that is Social Media World is a different matter entirely, as I found out later. In that world things have been interpreted very differently but the who cares what the armchair experts think.

Later was quite a bit later due to the utter chaos at St Pancras. Thames Link were using two of East Midland Train’s four platforms due to maintenance work on their own platforms and to make matters worse all the trains were single locos rather than the usual doubles because it’s a Bank Holiday. The staff said they didn’t think it would be busy... despite the fact they’d emailed me in the week, saying it would be busy. They quickly start coupling up extra locos.

So there’s a huge disorderly queue where reservations were not being honoured and all the Nottingham trains were being rerouted to Derby. Helpful for many but not for me. I hop off at Long Eaton where I have to wait a further 30 minutes for a Nottingham train.

I’m ready for a big V no T when I finally get home.

(Monday 27^th May)

Beginners Luck

It’s Glastonbury ticket day. Clearly last year was beginners luck because this year I don’t get a sniff and again they are all gone inside thirty minutes.

I also don’t manage to obtain any train tickets to London or rather I’m not prepared to pay £61 return each. So we hop in the car and drive down for a fraction of the cost. We park at Watford Junction and get the Overground into central London. This plan looked fine on paper until this turned out to be the slow train to Euston, it took forever.

From there it’s a short walk to the Royal National Hotel where out Australian visitor is staying. This is the daughter of someone L once met and has penpalled with ever since. Naturally we quickly show her the most important sights e.g. a traditional English pub, the Admiralty on Trafalgar Square. A Fullers pub no less with the full range of ales.

She arrives with gifts for us and the Australia cap she hands me seems to be a serious present that is unrelated to the defeat of the England rugby team last night by the Aussies. All the same, I don’t think today is a safe day to wear it.

What next? We are rather terrible at being tourists but today we rather rashly decide to try out the London Eye for which the queues are shorter than we expected. It’s also not quite as expensive as I expected but then when you realise it's sponsored by Coca-Cola, you’d think they’d be able to offer the experience for free but nope. £23 a head. It rotates slowly showing you some of the sights of London without tipping you on your head, it’s slow but marginally quicker than the train in from Watford Junction.

After that we wind our way back to her hotel and then head off home. We get back, rather late, to two much neglected dogs but it’s been an interesting day and a surprisingly touristy one.

(Sunday 4^th October)

The Big Day Arrives

The big day arrives. To some it’s just another Saturday in June but no. Not only is it the midpoint of Glastonbury, it’s the midpoint of Wimbledon and bizarrely the midpoint of the year, in that it’s exactly six months from/to Christmas. Freaky, scary even. If all these significant events have coincided at the same time it can only mean one thing. It must be Daughter’s eighteenth birthday.

The countdown has been going on for some time, approximately the last four years, so you must have noticed. I’m surprised they haven’t got one of those big clocks in Trafalgar Square counting down. Well they have, but it’s for the Olympics, that thing you can’t get tickets for.

Subsequently our Saturday lie-in is truncated, although it’s not all Daughter’s fault. True, L is up and baking birthday cake but I’m berating Student Finance England over the phone and that is no one’s fault but their own, for being crap, again.

At lunch we assemble the family hoards and invade a local hostelry that doubles as a Thai restaurant. Daughter goes to the off licence on the way to try out her ID.

The restaurant is a compromise. Daughter wanted Chinese but L’s not keen on Chinese. Daughter’s not keen on Thai but we’re paying, so Thai it is. Personally I don’t think there’s much difference between the two but here at least I can get a pint.

It all goes well. The family depart, Daughter heads for home to meet some friends for part two, so L and I amble back, stopping for another beer on the way.

Then Daughter hits the town, on her first night of freedom and we hope that she isn’t too late home, along with L she has a 8am train to catch tomorrow. We go to bed early, shattered. Daughter tumbles in at 2.45am and wakes us both up, which works out better than it might have. I'll thank her later.

(Saturday 25th June)

Bad Coffee Day

Today the University UK Tour continues. Today London or more correctly Westminster, the university is on Regents Street. We get the train down, which is a pleasant-ish if expensive experience and the coffee is awful.

The main University building turns out to be an impressive affair but that appears to be their main selling point as they don’t push the boat out much as regards anything else. No free lunch and no coffee, certainly no biscuits. We’ve had free coffee at every university visit so far and lunch at two out of three. So get your act together Westminster, think of the parents. There's also no accommodation tour, not even a talk, until we join the queue waiting to collar the accommodation man. I bet he wished he’d done a talk now. And there's no free coffee. Did I mention that?

The girl who gives us the campus tour can’t be bothered to show us the library, saying it would take half an hour. Funnily enough we have acres of time as the whole open day is over in less than an hour. Then we walk to the library by ourselves in less than five minutes.

We tour some of the other university sites on foot but Daughter wants to see the London Eye, so we head there as well. She seems less bothered about the historic sites of Big Ben, Trafalgar Square etc, just the man made wagon wheel. Although the ship in the bottle, HMS Victory no less, which now adorns the fourth plinth does cause her to get her camera out.


At least after all those crackpots standing atop the plinth, they now have something appropriate up there.



However, the most popular part of the day with our prospective university student was easily the tube. Each to their own. It was about the most packed as I’ve seen it. Not pleasant. We need alcohol. We find a pub, get a pint and an excellent meal, almost worth the whole trip in itself. Just need to survive the coffee on the train back now.

(Wednesday 23rd March)