Blog ≫ 2023 ≫ Long day with football
Up early for Parkrun, but drove in, as we had some complex juggling of transport options today. Not fast, not warm, but not actually icy this week.
Folkestone parkrun results for event #375. Your time was 00:24:16. Congratulations on completing your 115th parkrun and your 103rd at Folkestone parkrun today. You finished in 83rd place and were the 74th Male out of a field of 291 parkrunners and you came 12th in your age category VM50-54. Take a look at this week's full set of results on our website. Your PB at Folkestone parkrun remains 00:20:50. Your best time this year remains 00:23:24.
No volunteering this week because in a bit of a hurry. Drove home, changed, picked T1 up, picked friend Alwyn up and off to Folkestone West for a day of football. Very busy train, standing and packed in like sardines all the way to St Pancras. Quiet tube to Victoria and then a super lunch in Wagamamas. Then a train to Thornton Heath and a walk to meet people in The Railway Telegraph. It's a football day and it was a designated football pub, they were checking for match tickets on the way in. Odd, they only wanted people going to the game. We were with a regular so were just waved in, good as we did not have our match tickets yet. Had a great time and a couple of pints, while T2 politely answered everyone's enquiries and then went back to playing Plants Vs Zombies on his phone. Also watched the earlier football match on the big screen there, Liverpool being beaten 1-0 by Bournemouth. T1 was disappointed as Liverpool had just thrashed his team 7-0 the week before.
A walk to Selhurst Park next, via a carribean bakery for pasties, very good. Wish I'd had more cash in my pocket as they had a lot of interesting looking home made hot pepper sauce and picked chillis, but unfortunately not. And we would not walk back this way.
Into the game, now with tickets in hand. Very strange how narrow the entrance to the stadium is, to stup us riding a bike in or something? Very busy everywhere, our first premiership experience. We had seats right behind the goal, Manchester City's goal for the first half, so most of the action was down the other end. Second half the action was more down our end, but still no actual goals. City got a penalty which Erling Haaland scored easily, it was fired right at us.
So a disappointing but expected result for Crystal Palace. City have a ridiculously high spec team, so it was great to see so many "international" names, including Haaland, Jack Grealish, Phil Foden, and Kyle Walker and Kevin de Bruyne who came on as subs. Plus of course the Palace players include Wilfried Zaha.
Bit of a slow trek home, first a walk back to a different station, the streets absolutely heaving so big queues to get into the station meant we missed the perfect train. We couldn't find anywhere to sit in and get some food easily, so we walked round the other side of the station and got a train to London Bridge, then back to St Pancras. Snacks from Greggs, then a slow train home, change at Ashford. Luckily got a taxi home. My second taxi in two days.
A great day out, I hope we get more opportunities like this. Some gig history today, but not very round numbers. Neds Atomic Dustbin in 1991, and Soundgarden in 1994. This was the opening gig of Sheperds Bush Empire I think, first time it was used for music since being used by the BBC for things like Wogan. Tomorrow is the thirty-fourth anniversary of my first indoor gig...