Not motor racing of course. Athletics. In particular a chance for the domestic athletes who had performed so well out in Zurich at the European Championships to get a bit of glory in front of a capacity home crowd at the Alexandra stadium.
For me this was a bit of logistics nightmare. When I mooted the idea with friends I hadn't put two and two together, namely this was on a Sunday and it was August. Therefore railway engineering works were at their peak. What I had anticipated would be a nice jaunt to Birmingham taking some friends from Cheshire was suitably blighted by the trains. I could only get the slow train out of Marylebone to Birmingham. And in the end my mate Dave had to drive down with his son and his friend.
But meet up in the end we did, and watched some decent athletics in decent weather, although a bit grey to start.
Overall a good day. We escaped part way through the disabled section of the event - at least they had the decency to put the handicapped events on after the able-bodied so the crowd had the choice of what sport it wanted to watch. About half voted with their feet and escaped after the real athletics.
Bank Holiday Monday's main feature was going to another friend's 10th anniversary party in Manchester - which was always going to be pleasant but uneventful. My original intention of a train back that evening was thwarted when I saw I would need to change trains at Crewe, Nuneaton and Leicester and they would charge me over 70 quid for this unrequested tour of the industrial Midlands. So I opted to take Tuesday off and come back Tuesday evening. Unfortunately the adults had other plans - Dave at work and Ali out with friend - so I ended up staying home and successfully persuading the boys to suspend time on their computers for a walk. And very nice that was too.
And I liked having a quiet day after such a rushed bank holiday - theatre Friday, comedy night Saturday, athletics Sunday, party Monday. Zzzzz
No comments:
Post a Comment