I'm still getting over it.
Friday, 27 April 2012
Sunday, 22 April 2012
RELEGATION
I WAS THERE! (photo courtesy of the Cov Telegraph website) (woo... fame!) (but what a sad day.)
It should have been yet another Great Escape for the Sky Blues but we well and truly blew it the week before and all of our crowd knew this would be our last home game in the Championship.
The Sky Blues have been down at the bottom of the Championship table since October so I knew there was a strong possibility of going down into League 1 but until it was mathematically impossible to stay up I KEPT THE FAITH. My aerobics ladies will testify my insistence that we were STAYING UP with constant positive whoop whoops when playing songs in class like ♫♪☺♪♫☺
Yazz...The only way is up
Erasure...Give a little respect ("I'll be forever blue")
Queen...Don't stop me now ("I'm a racing car passing by... like LADY GODIVA")
to name just a few. We had a good spell of form around Christmas when we actually moved OFF the bottom and OUT of the bottom 3 so who could blame me for thinking yet another (annual) Great Escape was on the cards? Our final run-in compared to that of Bristol City seemed perfectly doable, our games were against clubs at the bottom with us:- Forest, Millwall, Peterborough, Bristol City and Doncaster... surely we could and would pick up some points at most of these games.
I wanted to be part of it all!!
Our recent trip to Chepstow Races was fab but I had one ear and one eye on the City score (they were playing on the other side of the River Severn at Bristol.) I wanted to go the Ricoh for the Millwall game but it was my friend's birthday meal out so I had the phone on the table waiting for match updates. Imagine my delight when yesterday's cricket match was cancelled due to a waterlogged pitch and I could go to the last home game of the season!!
It should have been a great day where we celebrated staying in the Championship for another week but none of the results had gone our way and we had only picked up two points in the previous 4 games.
To quote Brownie, "Yes, come down to the Ricoh Ali, but it will be like a funeral". How right he was. I couldn't believe how poor our performance was, we looked like we had already been relegated. It was dreadful. Where was the urgency??? We HAD to win this game!!
Doncaster,who actually HAD been relegated didn't really threaten Murphy but they closed us down every time we got the ball and looked much the keener side. Even their supporters were having fun in fancy dress.It was 2-0 to Donny. RELEGATION. Almost immediately I had an offer from a friend who supports Tranmere. "We can have a nice day out at Prenton Park and I can get us a free pie in the Presidents Lounge" (Sue K.) Diddy and Ben can't wait for the Stevenage fixture. I've lost my day out with Phil to the Boro. I'll have to stay up till 1.30am to see a highlight on the Football League Show.
We should never have left Highfield Road (I could walk there, none of this parking malarky)
We should never have sold Ben Turner.
We should never have changed the badge.
How can we "RISE AGAIN" when we have lopped the phoenix off the badge??
We should have won more matches!!!!!!!
To be fair I had a great day... a half price seat, at least 4 cups of tea, 3 hugs with Bussty, a quick chat with Oggy at the awards in the Eon Lounge after the game, a lorry free journey there and back to Chester and just great great company with Brownie, Dick, Pam, Sam, Jock and Rich.
Tomorrow at spinning I'll be playing Tubthumping by Chumbawamba....
"I get knocked down, but I get up again. You're never gonna keep me down"
"I get knocked down. but I get up again. You're never gonna keep me down"
"I'll be singing. When I'm winning" PUSB PUSB ♫♪☺♪♫☺
The Sky Blues have been down at the bottom of the Championship table since October so I knew there was a strong possibility of going down into League 1 but until it was mathematically impossible to stay up I KEPT THE FAITH. My aerobics ladies will testify my insistence that we were STAYING UP with constant positive whoop whoops when playing songs in class like ♫♪☺♪♫☺
Yazz...The only way is up
Erasure...Give a little respect ("I'll be forever blue")
Queen...Don't stop me now ("I'm a racing car passing by... like LADY GODIVA")
to name just a few. We had a good spell of form around Christmas when we actually moved OFF the bottom and OUT of the bottom 3 so who could blame me for thinking yet another (annual) Great Escape was on the cards? Our final run-in compared to that of Bristol City seemed perfectly doable, our games were against clubs at the bottom with us:- Forest, Millwall, Peterborough, Bristol City and Doncaster... surely we could and would pick up some points at most of these games.
I wanted to be part of it all!!
Our recent trip to Chepstow Races was fab but I had one ear and one eye on the City score (they were playing on the other side of the River Severn at Bristol.) I wanted to go the Ricoh for the Millwall game but it was my friend's birthday meal out so I had the phone on the table waiting for match updates. Imagine my delight when yesterday's cricket match was cancelled due to a waterlogged pitch and I could go to the last home game of the season!!
It should have been a great day where we celebrated staying in the Championship for another week but none of the results had gone our way and we had only picked up two points in the previous 4 games.
To quote Brownie, "Yes, come down to the Ricoh Ali, but it will be like a funeral". How right he was. I couldn't believe how poor our performance was, we looked like we had already been relegated. It was dreadful. Where was the urgency??? We HAD to win this game!!
Doncaster,who actually HAD been relegated didn't really threaten Murphy but they closed us down every time we got the ball and looked much the keener side. Even their supporters were having fun in fancy dress.It was 2-0 to Donny. RELEGATION. Almost immediately I had an offer from a friend who supports Tranmere. "We can have a nice day out at Prenton Park and I can get us a free pie in the Presidents Lounge" (Sue K.) Diddy and Ben can't wait for the Stevenage fixture. I've lost my day out with Phil to the Boro. I'll have to stay up till 1.30am to see a highlight on the Football League Show.
We should never have left Highfield Road (I could walk there, none of this parking malarky)
We should never have sold Ben Turner.
We should never have changed the badge.
How can we "RISE AGAIN" when we have lopped the phoenix off the badge??
We should have won more matches!!!!!!!
To be fair I had a great day... a half price seat, at least 4 cups of tea, 3 hugs with Bussty, a quick chat with Oggy at the awards in the Eon Lounge after the game, a lorry free journey there and back to Chester and just great great company with Brownie, Dick, Pam, Sam, Jock and Rich.
Tomorrow at spinning I'll be playing Tubthumping by Chumbawamba....
"I get knocked down, but I get up again. You're never gonna keep me down"
"I get knocked down. but I get up again. You're never gonna keep me down"
"I'll be singing. When I'm winning" PUSB PUSB ♫♪☺♪♫☺
 |
| Post-match autographs in the E-on Lounge |
Thursday, 12 April 2012
EASTER 2012 with Lid and John
The walls of Chester are the most complete circuit of Roman and medieval defensive town walls in Britain so it was only right we should walk round them again with my sis and bro-in-law. We started at the Northgate and headed clockwise towards the Eastgate clock.
View from the clock
AAA...Ali's Alternative Angles of Eastgate clock.
The men in the archway...Husb and B-I-L
We love our black and white buildings!
Looking back at the Roman gardens
LOOK OUT!!!!!! CROCODILE ALERT!!!! OH EM GEEEEEEE!!!
What has happenend to the weir? I have never seen the river Dee this full before. Very high tide! Even the steps had disappeared under water.
So much water.
Fun at Bridgegate
Walls information plaque.
Awwww ... big sis lil sis (glump?)(!)
Lid on the famous Chester Rows...
...and into the precinct...and we didn't spend a penny! GOOD TIMES.
View from the clock
AAA...Ali's Alternative Angles of Eastgate clock.
The men in the archway...Husb and B-I-L
We love our black and white buildings!
Looking back at the Roman gardens
LOOK OUT!!!!!! CROCODILE ALERT!!!! OH EM GEEEEEEE!!!
What has happenend to the weir? I have never seen the river Dee this full before. Very high tide! Even the steps had disappeared under water.
So much water.
Fun at Bridgegate
Walls information plaque.
Awwww ... big sis lil sis (glump?)(!)
Lid on the famous Chester Rows...
...and into the precinct...and we didn't spend a penny! GOOD TIMES.
Wednesday, 11 April 2012
EASTER 2012 Chepstow Races
Woooooo Paul Nicholls Woooooo!!
We bought the racegoers package which included a "Behind the Scenes Tour" and were in the jockeys' weighing room when Paul Nicholls walked in. His 14 year old daughter, Megan, was riding in the second of the pony races before the first Rules of Racing race.
Chepstow is a lovely picturesque course but would have looked much prettier on a sunnier, drier day with rolling hills in the background instead of mist from the Wye and low low cloud. The course itself is about 2 miles round with 2 long straights and 2 bends and several ups and downs and rollercoasteresque dips and dives. Your selected horse could be in the lead going down a dip and out of sight but then have tailed off when coming back into view over the brow of a hill. Today the going was so soft to gloopy we were looking for plodders, mud-lovers and definite stayers. From under our brollies.
Megan Nicholls was riding Wotarisk who set off, unsurprisingly, as favourite and because our tour had taken us to one of the best placed corporate boxes overlooking the winning post, we stayed there and watched her romp home by several lengths.
It was a great box and we could have happily stayed up there for the afternoon -in the dry with a tight hand on our cash - and gone home as rich as we had set out, but Roger, our tour guide, found us and we had to go back down into the rain.
It was rain of biblical proportions. Brollies dripped all over the people who weren't under them. The Bank Holiday fun day for children was a washout. We only saw one painted face and that was on a grown up who must have felt sorry for the lady or was the stag on a stag do, surely no-one slid down the slide, quested lasers, bounced on the castle or boinged on a trampoline.
Meanwhile Coventry City were over the other side of the River Severn being beaten by Bristol City. But my plastic mac was PERFECT! (OK, rain rolled off it and on to my shoes but hey)
Despite having a wet soggy race card, damp betting tickets and wet feet we had a great day, it was lovely to catch up with my brother who looks just the part here in Husb's "trainer" cap...
...we had a free drink and we all had winners. Quote Husb, "All my tenners are soggy and sticking together". Shame! Black Thunder (aptly named for the weather conditions)
***
easily won the first race giving us a bit of cash to play with (so Paul Nicholls wasn't just there for his daughter then), Husb had the next two, I backed Pancake and Diddy backed Kindly Note.
It was hard work at times juggling camera, phone, purse, betting tickets and racecard and trying to keep them all dry but we enjoyed the day. I'm not sure whether Roger Lewis' guided tour could actually be classed as such, it merely involved a visit to the weighing room and a chat in the nice box but he was a very lovely man, bless. And I did have a photo with Paul Nicholls.
Chepstow Racecourse.... that's one more racecourse ticked off.
*** Brownie backed him too.
We bought the racegoers package which included a "Behind the Scenes Tour" and were in the jockeys' weighing room when Paul Nicholls walked in. His 14 year old daughter, Megan, was riding in the second of the pony races before the first Rules of Racing race.
Chepstow is a lovely picturesque course but would have looked much prettier on a sunnier, drier day with rolling hills in the background instead of mist from the Wye and low low cloud. The course itself is about 2 miles round with 2 long straights and 2 bends and several ups and downs and rollercoasteresque dips and dives. Your selected horse could be in the lead going down a dip and out of sight but then have tailed off when coming back into view over the brow of a hill. Today the going was so soft to gloopy we were looking for plodders, mud-lovers and definite stayers. From under our brollies.
Megan Nicholls was riding Wotarisk who set off, unsurprisingly, as favourite and because our tour had taken us to one of the best placed corporate boxes overlooking the winning post, we stayed there and watched her romp home by several lengths.
It was a great box and we could have happily stayed up there for the afternoon -in the dry with a tight hand on our cash - and gone home as rich as we had set out, but Roger, our tour guide, found us and we had to go back down into the rain.
It was rain of biblical proportions. Brollies dripped all over the people who weren't under them. The Bank Holiday fun day for children was a washout. We only saw one painted face and that was on a grown up who must have felt sorry for the lady or was the stag on a stag do, surely no-one slid down the slide, quested lasers, bounced on the castle or boinged on a trampoline.
Meanwhile Coventry City were over the other side of the River Severn being beaten by Bristol City. But my plastic mac was PERFECT! (OK, rain rolled off it and on to my shoes but hey)
Despite having a wet soggy race card, damp betting tickets and wet feet we had a great day, it was lovely to catch up with my brother who looks just the part here in Husb's "trainer" cap...
...we had a free drink and we all had winners. Quote Husb, "All my tenners are soggy and sticking together". Shame! Black Thunder (aptly named for the weather conditions)
***easily won the first race giving us a bit of cash to play with (so Paul Nicholls wasn't just there for his daughter then), Husb had the next two, I backed Pancake and Diddy backed Kindly Note.
It was hard work at times juggling camera, phone, purse, betting tickets and racecard and trying to keep them all dry but we enjoyed the day. I'm not sure whether Roger Lewis' guided tour could actually be classed as such, it merely involved a visit to the weighing room and a chat in the nice box but he was a very lovely man, bless. And I did have a photo with Paul Nicholls.
Chepstow Racecourse.... that's one more racecourse ticked off.
*** Brownie backed him too.
EASTER 2012 Symonds Yat
We saved the motorway for the return journey and took the scenic route to Chepstow for the Easter Monday race meeting. As there was very little traffic and we didn't see any rain it was a very pleasant drive. We had heard of a delightful pub in Cliffords Mesne which did an aMAZing Sunday lunch...we both had "Roast Leg of Forest of Dean Wild Boar" and it was absolutely fantastic. Ditto the bread and butter pudding and the fresh pineapple crumble. What a pity the pub is so far away.
The local sheep regularly walk round the village eating all the flower tubs and making a nuisance of themselves. After discussing the sheep's unsociable habits with the landlady it wouldn't be a complete surprise to see local lamb on the menu. And I thought they were cute, oops.
On the way to Chepstow we called at Symonds Yat Rock which overlooks a spectacular gorge through which the River Wye flows.
My new plastic mac is still dry! Easter Day and lovely weather in Gloucestershire. This is looking north up the River Wye.
Peregrines and goshawks nest in the cliffs here.
Well fed and only a few miles away, we were all ready for Chepstow Races tomorrow!
The local sheep regularly walk round the village eating all the flower tubs and making a nuisance of themselves. After discussing the sheep's unsociable habits with the landlady it wouldn't be a complete surprise to see local lamb on the menu. And I thought they were cute, oops.
On the way to Chepstow we called at Symonds Yat Rock which overlooks a spectacular gorge through which the River Wye flows.
My new plastic mac is still dry! Easter Day and lovely weather in Gloucestershire. This is looking north up the River Wye.
Peregrines and goshawks nest in the cliffs here.
Well fed and only a few miles away, we were all ready for Chepstow Races tomorrow!
Friday, 6 April 2012
Tuesday, 3 April 2012
LILY LOUISE
This little beauty has just received my first attempt at an Australian name picture with a koala, a kanga and a red spotted spider.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)