Wember-lee!!

for Dig...

The Sports Cafe on Haymarket was the venue for a good Saturday night catching up with and meeting people. There was two games of rugby on with Ireland playing Scotland and England playing France. Plenty of fans for both, but we had more fun trying to get our table organised thanks to the venue stuffing our booking. A top night out anyway.

A small sleep in for Sunday thanks to Saturday night finishing a little later than it was supposed to. Breakfast was 11am at The Wren pub in Liverpool St station with fellow Spurs fans, before heading off towards Wembley itself. Several “warm up” pints in a nearby pub while a few more people joined the group and then it was on down the road to the stadium itself.

87,660 of us eventually made it into the stadium, and the vibe & atmosphere on the walk down Olympic Way was something to experience. Nothing like the crowds around a regular club match. While the biggest AFL game I’ve done is the big ANZAC day 95,000+ match at the MCG, this really was amazing as it built up as you got closer to the ground, to say nothing of once you were inside and the game was underway.

First it was co-ordinating getting together inside as we were all in different seats around the stadium. Dave, Paul & myself were at least within the same quarter so we got together at one of the bars inside - if you can see it in the pic.

Once seated, there really wasn’t much in the way of pre-match entertainment, unless you count some of the clowns in the stands! Most of it was just a drawn out introduction of the teams and which player was where (which they did via giant flags carried by what I’m guessing were very attractive women). Then came the national anthem, warm ups and the game got underway.
Hair on the back of your neck stuff as basically each half of the ground broke into their respective chants and songs. My seat was five seats from the gap between the two halves of fans, so you could say that I was right in the middle of it. Awesome stuff as the songs seemed to start at each end before literally moving across the stadium towards the opposing fans.

The game itself was quite an emotional rollercoaster. Not helped in part by what seemed like a referee doing the usual ‘favouritism’ bit. Cup final must-win game so to say we were all nervous and edgy on the result would be an understatement and it didn’t take much for the passion to come flowing out in spades around the ground. To go down to an early goal didn’t help things either as Chelsea is very much a bogey team for Spurs.
An equaliser part way through the second half quietened the Chelsea fans down remarkably, and we weren’t bashful in letting them know. To hear nearly 40,000 fans chanting “Your support is f@#kin’ sh*t!” and “Shall we sing a song for you?” was rather funny.
With the game going to extra time, the game itself was definitely still on, and so was a win for either team as well as the complete fraying of nerves for many in the stands. When Spurs scored early on in the 30mins of extra time, it created the longest 22minutes I and some 40,000 others have ever experienced! The number of near misses for both Chelsea to equalise and Spurs to seal the win didn’t help, but eventually the ref blew the whistle for the final time. The celebrations began, and I’m not ashamed to say that I did have teary eyes as I do remember watching Spurs win the FA Cup in the early hours of the morning back in 1981 with Dig. The old green couch and all. It was emotional. Here’s to you ol’ Boy!
Another thing of note was when I noticed quite a few hundred Tottenham fans appearing in the Chelsea end of the stadium. While all the Chelsea fans were leaving there were many jackets coming off to reveal Spurs shirts on people as they made their way towards us!!
Presentations and celebrations continued on in the stadium for quite some time before the team went back into the rooms leaving us the fun part of leaving the stadium and heading home with only one tube station available.

It took Paul and myself quite some time to make it home before we headed up to the Tottenham High Rd to kick on in the pub we frequent before and after the matches at White Hart Lane. A massive night too. Rather entertaining as everyone in the pub kept going despite the place running out of beer and turning the lights off to let us know they were closing. We did eventually leave and head home, but not before several of us failed to get into the only other place open at that time...

To unfortunately paraphrase a crappy magazine.. “What a day”

Running Tickets and Flags

Another regulation week? Hardly...
While training and commuting to work continues, its getting lighter in the mornings which makes for some nice early hints of spring as you can see on the right here. Nice to see some colour during early morning runs. Well, it’s just nice to be able to see really...

Anyway, Thursday night saw us at White Hart Lane again for Spurs v Slavia Prague in the knockout stages of the UEFA Cup (a European tournament for the clubs). Almost a full stadium and a good ‘European Night’ atmosphere to start off saw us only draw 1-1, but it was enough to see Tottenham through to the final 16 teams of the Cup.

Meanwhile, Friday saw the arrival (finally) of my ticket to this Sunday’s League Cup Final at Wembley stadium. To say I was happy about this, well... considering 31,000 tickets for Spurs, with 80,000 Spurs members, not including non-members, you can get an idea of how difficult it is to secure a ticket.
Because of this, my housemate and myself put our names down with the Supporters Trust to go to Wembley stadium today (Saturday) and help put out flags throughout the Tottenham seats. The day started at the club’s headquarters at White Hart Lane, where we were bussed over to Wembley. After security check-in, we were led in teams to different parts of the stadium where we then placed the flags at every seat for nearly one half of the stadium. Funnily enough, the section where my seat is just happened to be the block that my team started in!! So after giving my seat a quick try it was off to work. Several hours later we broke for a free lunch in the Wembley Canteen - excellent food too (not to mention a bit of a pigout!). Eventually once the job was done, it was a brief photo shoot down by the pitch including my sneak shot on the hallowed turf (see pic), before bussing back to WHL.

Now it’s off to Haymarket to catch up with some folks and watch the England v France six nations rugby match tonight...

http://justgiving.com/aussierunner ;)

Edinburgh

So here I am, now hurtling back to London on another fast train. My first trip to Edinburgh run n done. A very pleasant, albeit cold, weekend. If I thought London was cold...
2C (apparently) was the temp when I arrived just after midnight. Nice to hear people speaking in English (alright, Scottish) instead of polish, Albanian, Sudanese, etc... that seem to just be a constant in London. Anyway, we went for a small walk from the station to the main street nearby before cabbing it home to meet Charity’s landlord before crashing for the night.

Saturday started out a little late, but once up Liz led us for a walk through the nearby Pentland hillsides where Robert Louis Stevenson had lived (left). Nice golf courses here too! The very wide scene you see here is actually the view we had of Edinburgh from where we were walking. Golf courses left and right with Edinburgh beyond them. That haze you can see isn’t pollution either as Edinburgh is far cleaner than London and the air easier to breathe - something I found very handy on Sunday. Quite a few mountain bikers around too, so there must be some good trails about as most had a good spattering of mud on them. Is it sad to pine for a bike?? CC, I’ll be in touch!
From here it was a casual afternoon in Edinburgh itself where we had to drop some things off at charity’s new workplaces. This took us through various parts of Edinburgh, many of which were paved with cobblestone streets. And yes, this had me contemplating a “Melburn Roo-baix” stylee ride through Edinburgh - especially as I also managed to find quite a decent bikeshop on our travels. One thing I noticed fairly quickly was the fact that unlike a rather flat London, Edinburgh is anything but. Still nice walking through it all. We made our way back towards the main hub of town and eventually found a seafood restaurant where we tucked into kilo pots of muscles (and sticky date pudding!). Full of seafood, we ventured back out into the cold night and checked out more of the town - Edinburgh castle and other monuments all lit up for night viewing. We even managed to find the Scottish variation on the Tardis, before deciding to head home and back to some warmth!

Sunday began with a run through the Pentland countryside on the outskirts of Edinburgh, and through the golf courses along with other runners, dog walkers and horse riders. Very pleasant despite the cold. Nice of the sun to show itself though!! A casual morning followed this with some friends of Liz’ dropping by before heading back into Edinburgh to the train station for the ride home...

Ends in Edinburgh

A rather interesting week so far - Induction training day with AXA, physio & training, scooting through the traffic while riding to and from work, and finally Charity moving to Edinburgh.
I’m currently typing this, or make that was as I’ll have finished if you’re reading this, on the Fast-train to Edinburgh. Not much to see out the window even though I have a window seat as it’s currently around 8pm... At least with free Wi-Fi I can catch up on things like the blog and check some emails - only 124 to read!!

Well, AXA were at it again with their training days - an interesting day, and never a dull moment. Excellent for an induction programme. If only the ones in Melbourne could have been as good! Maybe it’s just CGU...

Marathon training is progressing fairly well. Not pushing things while going through physio, but still heading back towards the original plan. I should be back to full training after the Reading Half Marathon on March 2nd. At least the mornings are getting lighter earlier, I just wish they could be a bit warmer! Single figure temperatures just aren’t right. Mad dogs n Englishmen may go out in the midday sun, but it looks like I’m the only dopey bugger going out in 2C!! Must admit that I do like running through the spooky mist/fog.

Don’t forget that if you haven’t donated/sponsored me yet check out http://www.justgiving.com/aussierunner and you can do this. And THANKS!! to those who have already donated! I’ve now reached the £300 mark, with another £60 (bloody exchange rate!) yet to be recorded from the group of folks that gave Mum n Dad some dosh for me - Thanks to you ALL!!
Only another £1150 to go!! (although I should be able to get the £150 out of AXA in a fundraising matching deal (£150 max.).

Next stop... Edinburgh (okay, it’s actually Newcastle-on-Tyne, which is what the picture is of)

A Taste of Africa in Borough Market

Not a huge amount going on last week. Physio’s going fairly well, and training is heading back towards normal. Managing to stay upright on the bike too, despite the best efforts of one bus driver, although I can’t blame him as the brainless moped rider was the one who caused it all. It must be so hard for Londoners to actually look around themselves when they’re doing anything on the road.

Not sure if I mentioned this before, but I do the match ticket arrangements for the members of Spurs Australia, the Australian supporter’s club for Tottenham Hotspur FC. Well, with Spurs making the Final of the League Cup, you can imagine the sudden rush on tickets. With over 80,000 registered members (to THFC, not Australia) and only 31,000 tickets allocated to the club things have been rather interesting to say the least.

Anyway, I ended up attending a meeting on Thursday night with the Supporters Trust (a group that represents the voice of the supporters) and one of the club’s Executive Directors and the head of the ticketing department. This was basically a Q&A with the club’s hierarchy. A fantastic setup that I’ve never seen or heard of before where fans/supporters can actually discuss things with club executives. Brilliant! A very interesting night and being able to find out some information from behind the scenes was pretty cool.
In the end, the Supporters Trust have asked me if I would join their committee that is currently being put together to look after the supporter’s clubs specifically.

Saturday saw us make our way back to Borough Market again to check out parts that we hadn’t seen before as well as some of those that we had. Another interesting day at this market, whether it was having a laugh with one of the more interesting Big Issue sellers or trying the many samples on offer at the stalls, or discovering something completely new.
One of these new discoveries came in the way of what turned out to be an interesting dinner. The meat seller who also makes the ostrich burgers also sells several other meats from South Africa including; crocodile, springbok, zebra and wildebeest. They also sold kangaroo meat, so not all of their produce was from South Africa. We tried the wildebeest. He seems to be the one animal in all the African documentaries that all the other animals eat, so he couldn’t be too bad. No doubt you’ve seen the crocs nab them off the banks of the rivers, or lions have a good crack at them on the plains.
All up it was a superb meat too. Quite dark, very lean and didn’t take long to cook to a medium rare. Very nice taste too it as well! I highly recommend giving it a shot. Better than an eye fillet too.

Sunday started with a training run for just a few minutes short of 2hours. A few niggles, but nothing more, so things are getting better. After a casual day it was a nice chicken roast for dinner with Karyn n Marty, followed up with a blueberry pie that we picked up from Borough Market on the Saturday. Good food, wine n company. All Good.

Nice easy ride in this morning. Cruised through the fog. So cool. (literally!)

Camden Quest

A fairly quiet week, I guess. Busy, but not exactly exciting or all that interesting.
Getting tickets for the Cup final at Wembley is proving to be somewhat difficult.
Physio is going fairly well, the running has dropped off a bit due to a cold, so not much training while I get over it.
A few drinks out after work on Friday night with the work crew, which was a nice way to end the week, although it looks like I’ve somehow managed to get roped into organising a darts tournament for work. It should be easy enough, especially if I can wangle some sponsorship pounds out of it!!

Saturday was another trip to White Hart Lane to see Spurs take on Manchester United. Massive game in which Spurs took the lead part way through the first half, only to have Man U equalise after time before the ref blew his whistle for full time. Diabolical game all up, with the ref being either on the take for Manchester or completely incompetent. Leyton Hewitt would have called him a spastic one more than one occasion, for sure! And when you get an entire stadium including both sets of fans chanting “Can we have a referee!” you’d think he’d get the idea to pull his finger out and lift his game...

Sunday arvo saw us back to Camden Market with a lot more hours than last time to explore it. This market is HUGE. It just kept going and going and going. It was like a massive labyrinth, with so many stalls it was incredible. Cyber Dog, the rave store, was an amazing stall, that was its own maze, but unfortunately you weren’t allowed to take any pictures in there. You’ll have to just make do with this pic of a part of the market known as ‘The Stables’.
There was so much stuff on offer, I even managed to locate some of the old Matchbox Models of Yesteryear cars, and even the first ever one that I had as a kid - except that was before I worked out that they were collectable and actually played with them! This one was in mint condition and still in its box. I also found another old toy of mine - a Dinky Toys’ Thunderbird 2 - I sold mine years ago for $200, and this one was going for £300!!! (roughly $700)
But even with such a plethora of things to find, I didn’t end up finding what I was looking for - a long coat. Okay, I’ll admit to being rather fussy in exactly what style, colour and fit I was after. The fit was what proved to be the biggest problem as either all the English have short arms, or mine are just longer than average. The other problem was that when the arms did finally fit, the body of the coat was just too big - must be that obesity problem you keep hearing about over here... At least I managed to pick up an old style long sleeve cycling jersey and a cycling jacket for £10 (well, their tags showed £10 and £5 respectively, but when I said how’s the two for £10, they said ‘yes’) - so much for $45-$65 each back home!!
We also discovered that if you’re still there at the market at just before close, all the food stalls start dropping their prices considerably and are even open to haggling - two curries, rice and a naan for £2, thank you very much.

Just a quick note to say THANKS to those of you who have donated to my marathon effort!! It’s just broken £200!! Only £1,300 to go!!
http://www.justgiving.com/aussierunner if you’d be so kind, with all monies going to the Spinal Injuries Association who help paraplegics and quadriplegics regain a life.
Cheers!!