Poo, Panic, Bowling & a Cake

Seems like forever that Ben has been telling people he is "five and three quarters".  Also only seems like yesterday that I was making him the West Ham birthday cake in the shape of a jersey with a 5 on the back. But it's official Ben is now 6.

He wakes up me and my aching tired body (after the squash yesterday) and we give him his carefully chosen presents, all of which have one think in common.  Small.  Have I mentioned how good Transformers are.  Designed to be small and compact when in auto mode.  Perfect.

9.30 and we pick up Auntie I (I as in Ei-leen) and set off for the Chester Zoo. Not everyday you see a chimpanzee eat his own poo like its coming out of a soft serve mister whippy machine (euwww) and that's not the thing that got the biggest reaction from Carole. There might have been some screaming and some panic when we went into the fruit bat exhibit complete with its pitch black free flight area.  Carole realized what was going on and ran for the exit.  Only trouble was she ran into a narrow tunnel that the bats loved flying straight through...'get me outa here'.  Was very impressive.  The bats that is.

Later on we go out to ten pin bowling with Jo & Trev where the birthday boy manages to get a strike without touching the bumpers and a meal at Cronkinson Farm Pub where Jo produces a groovy caterpillar cake. (barely had room after my amazing chicken breast and ribs combo (2-4-1 means it cost £6.50 or about $10 or $11).  Ben walked in ahead of us to the pub and he's happily waving at someone through the window...but turns out its someone he knows.  Right little regular.  Jim & Trish are there for tea and later on Ben takes some cake over to them. 

Ben had a great day and it's to be our last in Nantwich this trip as we head south for the last time.   

I want to say again how much we appreciate Jo, Trev and the boys accommodating our come and go travel methods.  A nicer family you would not meet and we can't thank them enough for disrupting their home & already hectic lives & making us feel so welcome.

Z is for Zeitgeist.

So no football for West Ham this weekend means no football for us. I did go to watch Chris play rugby for his team, the Nantwich Nomads though. Took Ben along and there were plenty of opportunities to show him why he won't be playing ra ra on my watch. Mud and blood and one call of "I heard something snap" resulting in one of the opposition being carried off after Big Chris had smashed him without the ball. As you do. Anyway Ben insists he'll be playing rugby when he gets older (as well as football not instead of) but it will be over Carole's dead body!

Anyway I lost count at 44-0 to the good guys and off we toddled to get ready for a night out on the tiles at the Bhurtpore Inn, home of a once a year beer festival where people come from all over to sample over 130 ales on tap. Take a second to think about the logistics of that. But tonight's just a normal night with 10 guest ales on backed up by a gazillion bottled beers. Up until tonight my A-Z list hasn't been getting too much attention but that's all about to change. P for Pendleton Witches Brew gets us started, a strong Lancashire pale ale followed by Y is for Yorkshire Blonde, S is for St Edmunds a premium golden Suffolk bitter, an Ossett's Treacle Stout from Yorkshire that I'm not sure whether to file under O or T. Some dinner doesn't slow us down (pigeon starter dish! followed by a curry for me) and we're back into it. A 7.4% Ratsputin Ale from Huddersfield leads on to a New World Pale Ale, an Old Dog premium Cheshire Bitter, a Salopian Sienna from Shrewsbury (say that 5 times fast Kenny Calender)...and well you get the picture. I bemoan my lack of a Z. And the barman disappears down the cellar and comes back with a bottled beer called Zeitgeist. Z tick, thank you very much my good man.

Our driver the wonderful Sarah shuttles us back into Nantwich in two trips where we kick on at the Black Lion. By this stage my documentation got a little overlooked in the blur of the night but never mind....The washup is that my all time UK beer list now only needs a Q and my list for this trip only needs a A Q & W. Great night was had by all.

In the morning I vaguely remover agreeing to play squash with Glen who true to his word has improved out of sight since I played him last. He wiped the floor with me much to my chagrin and Sarah's joy (Carole informs me that I was sledging a bit hard the night before which would explain Sarah's clap & giggle when told of the result lol).

Sleet & Snow

Heading back from Yorkshire we planned to drive back through (and over) the northern part of the Peak District national park having a nice pub lunch along the way. The pub lunch worked out well at the Dog & Partridge Inn. Snow was falling as we entered...after we finished lunch the landlady informed us the road through the park had just closed due to a jack knifed lorry and the heavy snow which was causing cars to slide all over the place.

We went out to the car to find it white. Wound down my window to clear the snow but it all tumbled in on my lap. Lol. Had to hike up to Huddersfield to come back via the M62 motorway but the snow going over the Pennines got very heavy indeed. I commented to Carole that if we got snowed in on the motorway we would be the best prepared with all of our bedding and food from the caravan stay. But we made it down eventually and things speeded up.

Our current car is a Vauxhall (Holden) Astra Estate (Wagon) and I have been struggling with it at night since the low beam is terrible and dangerous. After getting back to Nantwich I mentioned to Trev that I thought it would fail its MOT (roadworthy). He said to double check it didn't have an electronic adjustment. Frustratingly there were no owners manuals in the glove box but sure enough after some fiddling and experimenting I found an adjustment that raised the headlight angle!

Rare weekend without a match since we're already out of the FA Cup so there's a night out planned with the cousins at the excellent Bhurtpore Inn (http://www.bhurtpore.co.uk/) which is a beer lovers nirvana featuring a swag of guest ales on tap. My A to Z is going to get some attention!

I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside

Ventured to the coast in Yorkshire at Flamborough and Bempton. Cold windy and wild. We weren't game to play golf at the course shown in one of the photos but it would have been spectacular and challenging!

Further along at Bempton Cliffs there is a nature sanctuary run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (http://www.rspb.org.uk/). At other times of year it is one of the best vantage points to observe birds migrating from Europe but we were lucky to see dozens of guillemots amongst the cliff crevices. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillemot .

Both Flamborough & Bempton featured striking chalky cliffs and caves.

The Grand Old Duke Of...

York is a fascinating city with a rich history including Roman settlement and fortifications and Viking takeovers and occupation. We walked the walls surrounding the city and visited the excellent Jorvik Viking museum (Jorvik being the Viking name for York). And speaking of names for York, the racing aficionados amongst you may be interested that the well known Ebor Handicap run at York each August that features in the form of many of the foreign Melb Cup raiders takes its name from the Roman name for York, Eboracum. The race dates back to 1843 and is the most valuable flat race in Europe.

York Minster is a very impressive gothic cathedral. Continuing the trivia, a minster originally meant a monastery style church where there was a communal life style carried on but later has come to more generally refer to any very large or important church.

The Roman wall doesn't look very intimidating in the photo but remember that is the inside. There is a much larger drop on the other side!

Sherwood Forest Take 2

On the way north after the last game we stopped in at Sherwood Forest as we didn't get the chance to go and see the famous oak tree and see the visitor centre while we were at Center Parcs up the road.

Golfing Grandma

We're staying at a caravan park in Yorkshire about 20 miles south of York. We collected some tokens out of the Daily Mirror newspaper that got us a £9/night holiday break and you choose from a list of places around England. I like York, it's a very cool medieval walled city with a lot of Viking history so we chose this place. Carole told me it was a 3 bdrm caravan and I was picturing an old crappy caravan in the middle of a muddy field in the middle of winter with nobody else around. But we ended up in a near new static caravan (think mobile home) that is very swish and comfortable indeed.

Anyway, the place has a very decent 18 hole golf course and driving range. So I'm hitting a bucket of balls with some loaner clubs and I come into the adjoining bar to get a pint (as you do). The barman, Richard says to me "did you not bring your own clubs?".

Me - no too far from Oz.

Richard - so you like the driving range?

Me - yep

Richard - my Grandma's out there?

Me - I didn't see any Grandma out there. She's not out collecting balls is she, I hope I didn't hit her.

Richard - no she's in Perth, in Australia.

Smiling at the Exchange Rate

It's actually fun to spend money here knowing how good the exchange rate is. So I thought it might be interesting to list the cost of some things in the UK and their equivalent value in $AUD with the current strong exchange rate. Since most financial institutions snip you nearly 3% over the spot rate to convert I have used $1 = 64.5p rather than the spot rate of 67.5p

Pint (568ml) of bitter / lager ~ £3 ($4.65)

Box of 15 x 440ml cans of Boddingtons bitter £10 ($15.50) on special

Ditto a box of fosters lager which is hugely popular here despite not being marketed or sold at home £9.20 ($14.25) on special.

Litre of petrol £1.30 ($2.00)
Litre of diesel £1.40 ($2.17)

Loaf of bread £1.20 ($1.86)
2 Litre of milk £1.20 ($1.86)

4 muffins - £1 ($1.55)

Meals in a pub £5-£12 ($7.75-$18.60)

Accommodation :-

- we have had many nights in Travelodges including central London for £10, £12, £15 ($15.50, $18.60, $23.25) but those were booked well in advance during special sales.

- Stayed in a Novatel for £30 ($46.50), a Holiday Inn for £49 ($76) incl breakfast, a Premier Inn for £59 ($91.50) but that was a late decision.

- We paid £540 ($837) for a week in a 2 bdrm apartment in London docklands

- 4 nights in a 3 brm static caravan in Yorkshire for £9 ($13.95) /night using vouchers out of the paper..pretty impressive it is too!

- £200 ($310) for a week in a 2brm cottage in Kent

- 4 night holiday in a 2brm Villa in Center Parcs Sherwood Forest was £259 ($400) off peak. Christmas week would have cost £899 ($1395) for 5 nights.

Matchday 6 - Nottingham Forest at home

Left it late to organise accommodation for this game so we ha to pay £59 for the Barking Premier Inn with free parking.  We were going to catch the tube 2 stops but met a Welsh couple in the foyer who were doing the 20 min walk so we went with them.   They drive over for a game from Pembrokeshire in South Wales about once a month.

Dave and I had ordered some custom WHU-AU and Brisbane Hammers badges through Big Al and they were ready to be collected, so I grabbed them and a match badge and headed straight into the ground.  In the Bobby Moore lower for the last time about 6 rows back behind the goal to the left a bit.

Watched the players warming up wearing their "get well soon Dylan" t-shirts in support of young Aussie academy player Dylan Tombides who sadly has had a relapse with leukaemia.   Ben high fiver Hammerhead, and celebrity fan Kris Akabusi (former British Olympic sprinter) announced the line ups in his typical hyperactive way.  

Forest are struggling and we again had high hopes of clicking into gear and blowing a team away and in the 1st half we were running towards our end so fingers were crossed for some goals up our end in the opening 45min.    Unfortunately we were very poor making a lot of errors and failing to boss the game like we should be doing against teams at the wrong end of the table.  The ref was not giving us anything but thIngs started to go our way in injury time right on half time when we were awarded a penalty that was a bit harsh on the defender.  Marky Mark stepped up to smash it home even tho the keeper guessed correctly and got a hand on it.  Half time and an undeserved lead but we'll take it. 

2nd half started and we weren't much better until another soft penalty was again awarded and slotted home by Noble to make it 2-0. All of a sudden the nerves disappeared and we started to stroke it about and look like a good side.    Deep in injury time Forest smashed one in to silence around the ground and we had a nervous 30 secs or so before the ref blew his whistle. 

So for at least 48 hours (when Southmpton play) we are top of the league. 

After the game we spent some more cash in the club shop. They had a deal where you get a £20 voucher if you buy an away shirt.  But we worked out that it also applied to kids kits which weren't that much more than £20 anyway so we got a kids shirts&shorts combo for £25.50 essentially only £5.50. We were last to leave the shop and by that time most people had gone home and the players were starting to come out to their fancy sports cars and most with the exception of keeper Rob Green stopped to sign autographs through the fence.  Managed to get Ben's shirt signed by Kevin Nolan, Mark Noble, Carlton Cole, Sammy Baldock, Jack Collison ("you alright down there little man?) & Danny Potts.  Nice one.  Carole also had her gym bag signed...poor Ben holding out the bright pink sack.  "what's that then" said Baldock?  My Mum's gym bag...

Team	P	Pts	Goals Diff	Goal Scored	Current Score
West Ham	27	53	19	43
Southampton	26	50	22	50	KO 19:45 (H)	v Leicester
Cardiff	27	49	15	44
Middlesbrough	27	45	3	31
Hull	27	45	3	28
Birmingham	26	43	16	42

Sherwood Forest

Having a 4 night stay at Sherwood Forest Center Parcs. http://www.centerparcs.co.uk are family orientated holiday parks where you stay in a massive holiday village with all sorts of facilities and activities. It's amazing really. There's a village square with shops, restaurants, a nature centre,a badminton arena, golf driving range, a sports bar, all manner of kids playgrounds, a massive indoor water park with heated pools and water slides, a bowling alley, ice skating, a 5 a side astro turf football pitch, all complete with squirrels, rabbits and all manner of birds wandering around. And you hire bikes to get around everywhere with bike racks at all the facilities And it's all so new and modern despite having been here 25 years. From our villa to all the facilities.

There are hundreds of people here but it is so well run and laid out that's you don't notice. Nothing is overcrowded. You book activities online or at one of the terminals or booking stations. Each has a fee but the prices are all reasonable.

Here's just some of the activities we have signed up to. Ben has done the soccer clinic each day conducted by the excellent Les McJanet, a former pro who now manages Carlton Town up the road. He is so good with the kids and a very funny scotsman. We've done an early morning guided woodland walk, kids aqua jet skidoos. And we're booked in for the Owl experience, father & son archery, junior fencing and bird feeding where you make your own bird feeder and seed mix.

Center Parcs is highly recommended.

The four photos are

1) getting some pointers at the soccer clinic
2) coming down the kids slide at the water park
3) with the ranger at breakfast after the woodland walk
4) cracked ice on the lake

No-fun Lights

Unfortunately no northern lights for us. It had been cloudy each night until the last night so I set off at 10.30pm (the optimal time is 10.30pm-1.30am) in search of the dark frozen lake. Carole's advice had been don't fall through! Met a young Dutch couple who had been looking for a good spot for hours and we hunkered down.

But damn it if the cloud didn't start to roll in after 30 or 40 mins :(. As they say in Finland "Poopi Happens".

So that's one Lapland check box unticked. Unfinished business.

Ski-topia

Our last day skiing was the best of the week. No lesson so just us and the mountain. And it was a beautiful clear day albeit a little cold at -14C. Ben went into child care for a couple of hours while Carole and I skied. Just great conditions with not many people about. Carole headed back for some warmth and I was having a ball on some black runs.

We went and picked Ben up and he did a bit of sledging before I took him out for a ski as well. He continues to improve flying down so fast I had a job keeping up! He's also a sponge. I had been practising 360 deg pirouettes and backward skiing while he was zipping about and at one stage I looked up and there was Ben skiing backwards and then trying to do the transition to forwards. Hopefully he can do a similar absorption job when watching the football!

Going to have a crack at the northern lights tonight since it is so clear. Heading out about 10.30pm with my camera and my fingers crossed. Need to get somewhere pitch black and then it will just be a matter of not freezing solid!

Poopi the Reindeer

A couple more excursions. Carole and Ben went to visit Santa in his secret hideaway. The premise being that this is where he recuperates after Christmas is over. Apparently they surprised him in his dressing gown. Not everyday you get to visit Santa on his home turf.

The 3 of us also went on a reindeer safari that was a lot more sedate than the husky equivalent that we did in Sweden 2 years ago. Struck a beautiful day for it, we sat in a large wooden sleigh with a big blanket to keep us warm, they hooked us up to a single reindeer and away we went. We were told the length of the safari depended entirely on the will of the reindeer as sometimes they happily went the whole distance and other times turned back of their own accord after 15 mins. Our guys went the distance! There was a guide who hung way back and it was just us and our four footed haulers...we were literally 500m away from the guide and plodding merrily along.

We nicknamed our reindeer Poopi for self evident reasons.

Quite enjoyed it and Carole & Ben really loved the reindeers.

It's All About The Root-Em.

Our ski instructor Pasi's English is excellent but he struggles with pronunciation of certain words. It took us an hour one day to work out that when he said root-em to describe a technique to all ski down like synchronised swimmers with the same turns/speed etc that he was actually saying rhythm. We thought root-em was some sort of Finnish word that was the name of the technique lol.

Winter came to Finland 6 weeks late this year confirming my deep seated faith in Julia Gillard's carbon tax (cough cough) but it did have us worried that there would be enough snow by the time we went. There is tons. And Tuesday night it snowed heavily and dumped a mountain of fresh powder.

The other significant thing is that there is hardly anyone skiing. There are just a handful of people on the mountain each day and the lines for the lifts are non existent.

So tons of fresh snow + no lines = ski nirvana.

Carole spent ages pouring over the different resorts in many different countries in Europe (every few days I'd ask what she had come up with and it was always a different country) but she did very well finding Levi in Finland.

I'm skiing as well as I have ever skied and in the last couple of days it has all come together. I think I've just gotten over one of the big humps...I'm now finding I'm not having to think about things too much, I just get into a good root-em and everything is just occurring naturally. Done some black runs and a bit of natural half pipe stuff but no real off piste skiing.

Today we also got to go skiing as a family for the 1st time since Ben has also come ahead in leaps and bounds. We're not just playing around with Ben on the nursery slopes, we're all skiing together. Pretty special.

Barnstorming

Tuesday night I went on a 28 km snowmobile safari.  Was expecting it to be follow the tour guide at a gentle pace type of thing.  Wrong. Quick lesson on how to operate them and then he started off like a shower of poo and proceeded to get faster!  There were 9 snowmobiles in between 2 guides and I was 2nd of the 9 in line as we set off into the forest.  Did I mention it was pitch black?  2 of us kept up with the guides cracking pace.  Every now and then when we got to a fork in the track the lead guide would stop and wait and sometimes this took several minutes for the other 7 to catch up!  Loved every minute of it and couldn't get the smile off my face for hours afterwards. 

I collected a gps route of the safari :-

http://gps.motionx.com/maps/3b17620e2878944f947b472e8d9ec5a7

Ski Dude

Quick Pix

Photographs tend to take a backseat when skiing, and throw in the short days and the snow falling etc and it's a wonder any photos get taken at all. But here's a couple that Carole took. The skiers are our instructor Pasi in orange and me in yellow.

Now this *is* a Winter Wonderland.

Carole may have been disappointed with the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park but initial impressions of Lapland in Finland more than make up for it. We set off at 4.20am on the shuttle bus to catch our 6.45am flight with Budget carrier Jet2.  Fortunate to check in just before the rush as about 50 people turned up while we were being processed. Bonus. Bit of breakfast and a bit of a wander round Manchester Airport.  I won't go too much into the argument that Carole had with security over confiscating Ben's liquid panadol. Suffice to say that it is unusual for me to be the peacemaker!

Our package was booked through an English travel company called Inghams and most on the plane were with them - all Mancs & Scousers as you'd expect flying out of Manchester. The trip was about 3.5 hours and we were soon touching down in Kittila.  One of the attractions was the close proximity of the airport to the Levi village & ski resort. 30 mins or so on the bus and we were checking in to our room in the Crazy Reindeer hotel. Personally I'd have gone with naming it the Coco Loco Reindeer (veiled Boxy & Pugsley reference) but what the hey ( hey meaning hello in Finnish, hey hey meaning good bye, hmm maybe the language will be easy.  Or not. )  The hotel is very nice but out room is a bit small and crowded with furniture we don't need. After some rearranging it's fine. I guess the small room is because we went for half board (breakfast & dinner included) rather than a self catering apartment. The bathroom is pretty swish complete with heated floor.  We have a veranda that is too cold to use but looks straight out onto a snow draped forest of trees. 

Levi is approx 170km inside the arctic circle and the day after we arrived is the coldest they have had this winter at -25C settling into mostly about -20C.  Unlike Sweden 2 years ago we are staying in the midst of the action and it's nice to stroll around the alpine village albeit you need to be rugged up! 

As usual getting organized for the 1st day skiing is a huge undertaking working out the logistics of times for our and Ben's lessons, where to go to get boots, drop him off at child care, getting him ready, getting Carole booted up etc etc.  but all that hassle is forgotten once you are cruising down your 1st slope.  And now we have our bearings the next day will be much smoother. 

Our lesson is at exactly the same time as Ben's which is a shame as we like to watch his progress.  His skis this year are much longer than last year and I briefly wonder if he will be up to it but he's off and gone before I complete the thought. Our instructors name is Pasi and we have two other people in our class from Rochedale near Manchester. Nice people. Pretty soon were off over the other side of the mountain as Pasi says it is much warmer and he is right.  By this time (2.30pm) the sun is going down but the scenery as it does is amazing. We are above the clouds and it is quite surreal to see the sun slide below the clouds. Darkness is not total. Visibility is still ok and the slopes are well lit with floodlights. The whole place is well set up for the short days - currently 4 hours. Every day the daylight increases by 8 mins which doesn't seem like much but that will be over half an hour more every 4 days. Gradually increasing until 24 hour days. 

No pictures yet but I'll leave you with a screen grab of the temperature. 

A Couple More Days At Moss Cottage

We slipped back up to Bolton to spend a couple more days with friends Louis & Dorrie in their cottage at Egerton which is officially in Bolton but is actually quite close to Blackburn.

Carole loves to get out in the fresh air so we spent the time wandering around the large Bold Venture Park in nearby Darwen where we did some geocaching and also drove up onto Rivington Moors and did some tramping on the former estate of Lord Leverhulme.

I also had to defend the Aussie honor and cook a BBQ feast. I looked like Capt Ahab in my yellow ski jacket with the hood up and the wind and rain lashing down. The sensor light kept going off and my hastily constructed wind break kept blowing over. We got there in the end and washed it down with a bunch of lagers.

Carole also took the opportunity to visit her Grandparents grave and with the help of Louis gave it a bit of a spruce up as she likes to do each trip. We then went and had a look at the home where her Dad grew up and also at his school.

Off to Manchester Airport Travel Lodge to return the car and be handy for the next morning's early flight to Lapland for a week skiing, visiting Santa and eating reindeer..not his reindeer obviously, since they're getting on & likely a bit tough and chewy.

Match Day 5 - Coventry at home.

Well after the Derby debacle it was back to London to play the bottom side. Coventry had narrowly avoided relegation last season and their 'reward' was the forced sale of 11 players. As you would expect they are struggling big time this season.  West Ham were welcoming back 4 players including Kevin Nolan, their mid field goal scoring captain and had a couple more having their 1st starts after injuries.  So the signs were good. 

Left the car in Nantwich and caught the early (and cheap) train down to London.  Had some time to kill before our early 12pm check in (which cost £10). Wasn't sure how to kill a couple of hours near Euston so we hopped on another magical mystery bus (I.e. the 1st red double decker to come along) which turned out to be Marble Arch. Rode it to the end and back again. Still time left, so  quick walk in the sun at a nearby park and off to check in@ London City Rd Travel Lodge near Old Street tube. Boom Shaka Laka and we were out the door and on our way to the match. 

It was another full house at home thanks to kids for a quid. I had been planning to superstitiously follow the same pre match routine as the home victory against Barnsley but when the line at Duncan's pie & mash was out the door and down the road 50m we threw superstition under the bus & headed to the chippy near the tube.   

Quickly grabbed a match badge from Al and into the ground. Good seats about 8 rows back behind the goal. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your preference) everybody again stood up which is not so good for height challenged Ben or Carole. Normally Ben stands on his seat for some of it and I hold him up for brief periods but Ben pushed his luck and moved into the aisle then slowly down to the front where he stood & watched with the disabled supporters & the stewards. On a different day with more experienced stewards he'd have been sent packing sharpish but kiddie charm works sometimes. 

To the game itself and we were much better. Unfortunately their keeper had a blinder and kept us out for the 1st half which was a shame since it would have been good to score right in front of us.  The 2nd half brought more of the same and just when we were thinking Coventry would steal a point, Capt Kev popped up and headed in to 35,000 sighs of relief. Coventry chucked everyone forward near the end and we rode our luck to close out a much needed 3 points. Even better were the other results with leaders Southampton losing 3 nil at home and Middlesborough (who had slipped ahead of us into 2nd on the table) also losing 3-0 at home. So back to 2nd and equal top for the rip roaring hammers who hopefully have left the poor spell behind them and can now push on to guarantee one of the 2 automatic promotions back into the Premier League. 

The next morning we had a few hours before our return journey on the train so we headed off to Lilly Whites sports superstore where we got Ben some new football boots (pretty swish, just ask him!) and also a quick look round Hamley's famous toy store. 

Sent from my iPad

Party Time, Happy New Year

We hot footed it back from Derby for New Years in Nantwich. Down the Red Cow or a couple then on to the Red Melon for a very nice curry washed down withe obligatory Cougar Indian lagers.

Back to Jo & Trev's to see in the New Year. Watched the fireworks from the front drive.

Derby's A S#!t Hole, I Want To Go Home

Not literally. I'm jut borrowing a chant sung by the away fans yesterday.

We travelled down the day before and checked into our £10 Travelodge room right opposite the ground. Nice cheap feed at the Harvester Hotel up the road. All 3 meals and the salad bar for £15.

In contrast however the day of the game wasn't so successful. Our day started off with being turned away from Frankie's & Benny's, a nearby restaurant for breakfast. No away fans allowed. Ben must have looked too aggressive lol.

Then our tickets which we bought within the 1st hour that they were on sale to members were in Row W, 2nd from the back.

Then the game itself. We were dreadful for the 1st 40 mins conceding 2 goals in the 1st 9 minutes. Diabolically bad. Poor young Danny Potts again was given a torrid time. Credit to the kid for his home debut and how he has stuck to the task but it will be good to have the experienced George McCartney back at left back on Monday.

Derby weren't a super skillful side they were just very committed and had genuine pace up front that we struggled to deal with. They closed us down and hassled and harrowed at every opportunity. We have always struggled to deal with that as do most teams I guess.

The ref and the linos gave us absolutely nothing. Every 50/50 decision went against us and they were very tolerant on fouls and did not protect the ball carrier. C'est La Vie but our lack of discipline was again shocking as we continue to rack up cards for dissent that are entirely avoidable.

We started to get into the game about 5 mins before halftime and scored soon after and we did create several opportunities to at least equalise in the 2nd half but it wasn't our day.

To top it off while trying to get out of the Travelodge car park after the game we were sat there motionless for 20 mins and a bird shat on our windscreen. Lovely.

So that's 4 games now for 2 losses a draw and an unconvincing win. Let's hope January is better than December.