I arrived back in on Wednesday morning, arriving in London at 5:25 am. Took the 7:15 Express Bus from the Heathrow Cental Bus Terminal, arriving in Cheltenham at 9:15 am. Aside from a car a driver, it seems to be the easiest way to get here from Heathrow...and very reasonable. I did have an upgrade on the overseas flight, so could sleep. Despite traveling internationally for almost 5 years, I still need a weekend to adjust. I think the 14 hour flights to Shanghai were easier. Perhaps it was the longer flight, perhaps it was the chance to get about 6-8 hours sleep. I do not do as well on the shorter US/ Europe flight.
I normally play golf on Saturday, but the forecast from the "beeb" was for rain on Saturday, nice on Sunday. So I decided to do chores on Saturday, golf on Sunday. I slept in, despite bright sunshine coming in my window (?) I finally got up, went for a run (in the sunshine ?), then came back and had breakfast.
I did see some clouds, so figured I should stick to my plan, and I headed out to post some mail, get Euros for my trip to Paris this week and do some shopping.
See first photo below of rainy saturday !
These photos are of High Street in Cheltenham. On a Saturday morning, it is always crowded. Everyone carrying bags going from store to store, On most days the stores close at 5:30 or so, so it is rare for me to do any shopping here as I am normally coming home about 6:00.
Marks & Spencer ..wonderful food floor...
WH Smith - Post Office, lovely books
I finished my shopping (still checking for the rain!!) and came back to the apartment. I boiled some eggs, made lunch, read part of the Saturday Telegraph and checked e-mail. Got a phone call from Susie. By now I was pretty sure it was not going to rain, so I headed out for the highlight of my day...attending a football match between the Cheltenham Robins and Stevenage FC scheduled for 3:00.
In case you have not heard about the Cheltenham Town Football Club...do not despair. Neither had I until I started walking to work here. I pass the football grounds every day. (Mira is a sponsor). English football is a vast organization. There are multiple leagues.. I looked up an alphabetical list of all the football clubs and counted 73...and that was only the teams with names beginning with the letter A ! There must be over a thousand !
Cheltenham is in the Football League, League 2, Level 4. If you measured it by levels below the top (Premier League..think Rooney, Beckham), it should be about the level of Single A baseball. But, not exactly, as there are many levels below Cheltenham. So, it is probably more like Double A.
The stadium looks to hold about 8,000. Best crowd so far this year was about 5,700 according to the program I bought. It is pretty casual. Once you buy a ticket (BP 19.50 !!) you can pretty much wander around anywhere. They do have boxes, but they looked pretty basic. I was a little concerned, as this was my first English Football match and memories of British soccer hoodlums and the 1985 Bradford Stadium fire were in my mind as I went to the game. I need not have worried. It was a very friendly environment. The canteen served only soft drinks and tea, the only people who looked a little scary and missing a few teeth were all over 80. I enjoyed the afternoon and the experience.
Start of the Game (notice the threatening weather !!)
Goalie Kick
Up close action
I came home after the game and had dinner...watching a lovely sunset over the church steeple I can see from my dining room. The forecast for tomorrow is sun, so my golf game will probably be rained out.
No comments:
Post a Comment