That's Another Miami Dolphins...

(Originally Posted 6th Nov 07)

As you may or may not care / know, I’ve been off gallivanting somewhat these past couple of weekends, the most recent of which I shall blog about later.

The first one, some two weeks ago now, encompassed my long overdue trip down to Leatherhead (in Surrey) to visit good friend Matthew Jones which would also include a long awaited trip to watch my first ever live NFL game at Wembley stadium.

I’d had my train tickets secured for approximately ten weeks before my journey and was assured of seat 20 in carriage D on the Virgin trains service to London Euston. So you can imagine that I was less than enthused to discover that when the train pulled into Chester that there was a carriage A,B, C and…..F. Apparently they’d oversubscribed the train and so elongated carriage C by a further two carriages and as some very camp fat man told us with D section tickets – “This is carriage C, there are no reserved seats on carriage C” – Yeah? So where is carriage D then dickhead!

I was so angry I was all ready planning my letter of disgust whilst sprinting back up the train trying find a nook or cranny in the now full boarding sections that I could squeeze onto. Luckily, I literally just managed to squeeze on (carriage B for those keeping tabs!) and so the disgruntled murmurs of unsatisfied passengers began.

The train was scheduled to stop at Crewe and we had an announcement from the train driver saying that there was a train waiting for those passengers without seats to get onto there. An announcement to say “Sorry, we’re a bunch of cocks and sold more tickets than there are seats, we feel a bit twattish now” may have been more welcome, but somewhat surprisingly, no such announcement of that nature was forthcoming…

I decided that I wouldn’t risk changing at Crewe as I only had myself to look after and would take a chance on there being a spare seat once the passengers at Crewe had got off. So the doors closed and there was me and one other passenger left in the bit by the doors. I had a quick scout to see if there were any nearby seating opportunities but alas my plan would be thwarted and so me and my fellow passenger would be destined to sit on the floor, each by a door for the journey down - at least we had window seats!

Anyway, I got talking to my fellow passenger and had the most enjoyable train journey I’ve ever had – if a little uncomfortable, though my bum always goes numb on long train journeys anyway! In the end we decided that she was travelling third class and me fourth – cos she had a plug socket her side and I had the toilet on mine (and no plug socket).

So, finally we get to Euston. Worst part over or so I think! After queuing for a ticket and asking for a single to Leatherhead (it was where I was going after all) I departed my new found friend and headed for the tube. Couldn’t get through those ticket machines at the tube and so went over to this dude on a gate who let me through. When I subsequently got to Vauxhall (where I need to change to get aboard my Leatherhead train, I know, boring, keep with me!) I encountered the same problem.

Approaching a member of staff I explained my predicament – she looked at my ticket and then said to me accusingly “THIS isn’t a tube ticket – you need a tube ticket” Terrified that I was being thought of as some sort of criminal I protested my innocence and explained that I had asked at Euston for a ticket to Leatherhead. “You will have buy a tube ticket to get off here” the scary stern woman proceeded to tell me.

I was then pointed in the vague direction of this kiosk thing whereby a wonky eyed, large and intimidating eastern European woman appeared. Once again explaining my quandry to this lady she looked at my ticket and again said accusingly “THIS is not a tube ticket”. I explained that I was now aware of this and wished to secure my departure from this station by paying for the oft mentioned but deviously difficult to attain tube ticket. “You’ll have to pay FOUR pounds to get off here” she said to me, as if she were asking me for a grand! “Ok” I said and promptly paid her the money. Looking a little deflated she wandered off with my money and gave me the precious tube ticket. I swear it was like they were protecting the Holy Grail!

Bloody hell – all that typing and I haven’t even had a beer on this weekend away yet! Don’t worry though, when I get the bits relating to drinking that’s when the memory loss kicks in!

Thankfully my final train journey of the day passed without incident though I was convinced I’d wind up being mugged or something. Or should that be me mugging someone? I can’t remember whether I’m a criminal or not now!So I arrived at Leatherhead at about half three where I was met by Matt. We sauntered off to the pub and proceeded to consume vast quantities of alcohol. Some time later, some of Matt’s friends had the dubious pleasure of meeting me, most for the first time apart from Nick who all ready knew me. Still a good night was had by all (I think, probably, well maybe) and I had a very enjoyable time in their company though that feeling may or may not be reciprocated (I was a tad inebriated). At one juncture we went for a curry, I had a chicken tikka rogan josh and it was bloody lovely (though much scorn was sent my way from Mr. Jones for removing all the tomatoes).

Saturday was spent in a state of hungoverness, playing Madden 08 on Matt’s xbox and eating diet busting fatty foodstuffs (I had a fry up AND a pizza!). In Madden we created the mighty Cheddar City Cheesy Poofs and took them to a very impressive 8-0 record – star receiver D. London scoring a lot of our touchdowns (I still maintain we should have traded our running back Matt!).

Sunday was the day of the game and after another fry up and a bit of dawdling we were ready for the off. After safely securing a tube ticket we ventured off to find our hotel which was located somewhere on The Strand. After finding said hotel, we dumped our stuff and headed off for the game.

Got to Wembley and I’m pleased to report the view from the moment you arrive at Wembley Park’s doors up Wembley way and towards the stadium is still as great as it once was.

Right I’ll cut this short now as I appreciated I have waffled on somewhat. The game was great, the pre match was a bit rubbish but was just pleased to be there. Wembley stadium itself is brilliant and I can’t wait to go back. The atmosphere was fairly good considering a majority of the crowd didn’t support the Giants or The Dolphins – the title of this entry is because when Miami would get a first down the Dolphins' announcer would say “That’s another Miami Dolphins…” and the fans yelled “FIRST DOWN” – I appreciate it doesn’t sound that good on paper but it worked really well and was fun to participate in.

After the game (I know, I’m still going!) my team the 49ers were on on Sky and so we ventured back to our hotel to see if any nearby pubs were showing the game. Apparently not. So we started to wander off looking for a bar I head read about called Cheers bar which apparently is an American themed bar and so the logic said – would be showing American sports. I vaguely remember traipsing over Trafalgar square which I didn’t even notice I was doing until Matt pointed it out - I recall responding with an ‘oh’. ‘Oh’ obviously meaning, I don’t give a toss – where’s the pub?

We didn’t find Cheers because we stumbled upon the Sports Café by accident and as soon as we saw they were showing not one but 3 games we were never going to leave. As we arrived the 49ers were just going 24-0 down (turns out we suck this year, again, for the 5th straight year) and so I was instantly regretting being in a pub full of American football fans sporting a 49ers jersey. Luckily for me I got chatting to some Washington Redskins fans whose team were also on the telly and lost 52 – 7. Much joviality was taken from cheering for each others’ teams of losers!

So a really good night was had and Me and Matt eventually left the Sports Café at about 2am (it was still open, showing the Boston Red Sox) both, a little worse for wear and both of us starving hungry as we had neglected to pay astronomical prices for crap food at Wembley. Instead we paid cheap prices for crap food at McDonalds. I remember being distinctly impressed that it was now 2am on a Monday morning and here I was getting a Maccy D’s - when you can’t get a kebab past half eleven in Ruthin, it is a marvellous thing!

So back to the hotel, ate my McDonalds (2 double cheeseburgers and a large fries, starvation + alcohol + McDonalds = pigout!) and continued to watch the Red Sox game. As a Red Sox fan I was gutted to have fallen asleep in the 7th inning as the Red Sox won the game and the World Series and I missed it again like I did in 2004! :o(

Monday saw a frustrating early rise and then on the tube back to Euston (again ensuring the relevant purchase of appropriate tube ticket). I had over an hour to wait for my train and so I continued to waste money on stuff I didn’t need. First of all I bought a CD and then I bought myself a cheese and ham baguette from the Upper Crust. Previous experience of cheese and ham baguettes from the aforementioned establishment have always been enjoyable as, as advertised said baguettes contained exclusively cheese and ham. However, they appear to have gone the misleading ways of other pre packed sandwich based manufacturers and have snuck mayo on them as well. So you can imagine my disappointment when biting into my £3.49 baguette my mouth was overrun with the taste of mayo – yuck!

And that was my trip dawn sarf! Really enjoyed it, t’was good to see Matt and nice to meet new people and see Nick again too. I even got new facebook friends out of it – huzzah!