6 inches, Thatchers, Roger Red hat

Keeping everyone informed.

This last 10 days I have been a bit quiet on the blog front. Just to advise you what I have been up to.

For anyone that doesn't know I cycle 10 miles to work and back on a weekday. So although I haven't done a 'big' cycle I have been keeping myself fit.

Last weekend I went on a stag do in Reading, on the Saturday we went canoeing, now this was good because it meant all day I was exercising my arms. Another fact about me is because I have never really been a gym goer I have big strong legs from cycling and comedy kids arms so it was good to exercise them.

A thought I had over the weekend is probably the same reason that my blog posts aren't full of vocab. Its down to my poor primary school education. I learnt all about Billy Blue hat and Roger Red hat and their activities. This is fine I could therefore understand that Red and Roger start with a 'R' and Billy and Blue start with a 'B'. However it has taken me just under 25 years to realise that John and Jennifer Yellow hats do not actually work. I think it was because this was the late 80s no-one had random names but boring ones. Therefore Yannick and Yolanda Yellow hat would have been strange. If anyone asks me how to spell Yellow its got to be J-e-l-l-o-w.

This week I went to Bike Polo again and have even been looking at the Internet for a second bike so I won't buckle my bike. This would mean I could be more aggressive in the game. Someone at work had picked up a second hand bike, so they told me about it, brought it into work and I was to give them the £15. What a bargain, however I got a little confused with the measurements when he said the wheels were 24 inch I thought perfect only a little smaller than my current bike. My bike's tyres are 25 mm in width and 30 inch in diameter, I got confused, the bike was tiny and I felt like a monkey in a circus going round in circles. It was far too small, amazing the difference six inches can make!

It has rained a couple of days this week and hopefully come September it will be drier for my cycle challenge to Land's End. Although it was quite warm and dry this evening so I went to Critical Mass. There were only 12 of us which made formations more important in stopping traffic, we still had amazing time, we were called all names under the sun and because of the weather that was technically correct.

A previous blog entry mentioned cycling to the Thatchers Cider farm, the great news is I have found a local shop four minutes walk away gets a regular delivery of two draught kegs so I can wont have to go back to the field to scrump the apples. This is probably also the reason this entry is only just coherent.

Signing off

Louis £545 raised so far looking for any sponsorship to boost this total nearer to £1000. You can make a difference

Tired Boy, Rest and Repair

Blog update

I have woken up today and I am still aching from football on Sunday. So I decided to have a rest and repair day. This is on two levels, fitness and my blogging. So you may see a couple of minor changes on my blog, I had upgraded my Justgiving widget to include how I am getting on with my fundraising target. Just to update you, with five and half weeks to go I have raised £535 for charity, increased my fitness levels and bored you to tears with over 7190 words. The last stat was because my Nan hasn't got access to the Internet, so I have had to copy and paste all the blogs onto a word document for my Mum to print off. This reminds me of a conversation I overheard when I went out for dinner with my Girlfriend, my Parents and Grandparents. My Grandad said to my Dad 'Doug, have you downloaded any tunes on your Ipod recently?' Yeah my Grandparents may not have the Internet but they are certainly 'down with the kids'! I have also added a web counter for everytime someone checks my blog, how exciting I can check its latest circulation figures. Also I amended my facebook page, with new details of my blog rather than a link to my Oxfam Cambodia/Vietnam entries of 2007, and removing the Wallbirds from my music likes and nearly removing Summer Heights High off TV programmes.
Thanks again to everyone who has sponsored me so far.

So to the second rest/repair, fitness, as I said my body is aching with the cycling and not warming down from football. Last season I started going to Yoga classes at a school, the main reason for this was a magazine article I read with Ryan Giggs who said he has prolonged his football career by using Yoga stretching exercises. If it is good for probably the best left winger in the history of the Premier League then I need to keep going, however as I am reminded constantly by status updates from teacher friends, schools are closed for the holidays so Tuesday night Yoga is off ufn. I thought I would go for a little cycle.

Cycle Ride

Then I had a lightbulb moment, I would do an entry with a few pictures cycling around Bristol, as a lot of the people I e-mail the blog updates to are not from round here. First off though just thought I would update on the Bin Men front (as I have just remembered my landlord is on the distribution list for links to my blog), I put the black bins out last night and they duly took them.

Now because it was a leisurely cycle ride I ended up getting carried away with the photos, so I will try and work out how to put the whole album on, rather than just a couple of images. After a few minutes I thought what has Bristol been famous for recently? Last year over 12 weeks more than 300,000 people, visited the Banksy vs Bristol Museum exhibition this matched the museum's own annual number of visits. I would take some pictures of Graffiti.

So Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property.[Wikipedia definition] There are number of debates with Graffiti, whether it is art or considered vandalism. It can be used as a gang symbol for tagging terrority, it can be used to decorate the side of a shop or an eyesore area. It can be used as political statement, someone even sold a Banksy mural with a free house included, as part of their house sale.

My two hours of cycling showed me a number of different displays and forms from just a simple tagline to elaborate wall paintings. It showed me how
People had made ugly old buildings look less derelict and jazzed up Railway stations.
People had made political and anti-corporate statements. Well there is a lot of unrest around with a new Tesco being built one person had even gone as far as putting posters up in their window showing a price match for local shops compared to the nearest Tesco stating, Think Tesco are cheaper?
People could remind other residents not to use their bins.
People can advertise their shops

But it also showed me the negative side of graffiti, how
People had defaced a local street signs from Cotham Park to Gotham City which is hilarious, but the postman may deliver to the wrong address.
A council worker had to clean a wall with taglines off costing the taxpayers money. (I took the picture after when he had gone round the corner for a break.)
People had even gone as far as vandalising fellow artists work.

My conclusion is there are some amazing street artists out there and they should have dedicated spaces where they can work. But what is with little taglines in black on people's houses it looks awful. Although as everything is subjective some people may like that thing.

If someone wants to go on a Louis' magical cycling tour taking in Graffiti let me know, I can widen the spectrum to Pirates and TV locations! (Only Fools and Horses, Casualty, Skins and Being Human)

After two hours of a gentle cycle I got back to see someone from the Top Floor Flat taking two of the four Black bins back onto our drive, (why he couldn't take all four in I don't know). He then proceeded to place Books, DVDs and empty Folders onto the wall. I was just having a relaxing tea when one of the Recycling Men who were just emptying the cardboard, paper, tins and bottles picked up one of the DVDs off the wall to take home. Now if only the Bin Men were as helpful someone would have picked up rubbish when the bins were on the drive two weeks ago! I then went out there myself picked up the rest of the stuff, put them in a bag and gave them to a Cancer Research charity shop minus a finder's fee (ironically Summer Heights High on DVD).

I am not looking forward to football training tonight.

Louis

Cycle to Football

Shadwell Rovers versus Stoke Bishop

Before today I had only clocked up about 140 miles, not including Bike Polo on Thursday night. Yes I went back to give it another go. I turned up and only three other people were there so it a little more obvious that I was a beginner although it meant I had more touches of the ball. I am really getting the hang of it. Since the previous week I have found that it is not going to be in the 2012 Olympics, it was two years ago when I saw a BBC Sport VT with Mike Bushell, he was trying out the sport at a time when people were campaigning for it to be re-introduced. Oh well it makes me feel better that I would not have been good enough for an Olympic squad.

So last night I made a decision to cycle to football and back. It was in Keynsham at the Cadbury's Chocolate factory so I picked up a friend in Southville and another in Whitchurch in a sort of cycling bus. This is the factory non-locals may have seen on the Television as it is due to close February 2011, so this may be my last chance to smell the Chocolate whilst playing football. I think that would be my favourite past time.

The good thing was my friend had an i-Phone with GPS signal which meant we could follow a route and have a map to follow which was handy as I didn't know the route we were going to take. This reminds me of normal journeys to football where I just sit in the back of the car and not really take much notice of the journey. Although after playing football in and around Bristol helped me realise there is much more to Bristol than Park Street, Gloucester Road and The Centre. The ride was going well, or I thought, we had got to a massive roundabout and even given someone directions. We cycled for another 15 minutes and ended up doing a massive loop ending up at the same roundabout. Ironically my friend worked out on his phone that we needed to take the road we had directed the lost pedestrian. I couldn't blame my friend as I hadn't take much notice of the signpost as I thought he had it under control.

We continued on the right road and met up with another team-mate and made it along to the Chocolate Factory playing fields. On arrival the sweet smell of chocolate hit my nostrils, I nearly started dribbling. Only 10 players turned up, usual pre-season friendly so the other team loaned us a goalkeeper and our goalkeeper played out on pitch. Yurka, a Czech the 1st one to play for the club. We played really well considering we had loads of players out and we hadn't played since the 1st week of May. To only lose 2-0 was a good result I think my fitness showed as I was running about for the full 90 when most others were struggling.

The journey back was tiring I saw it as a warm down, just taking it easy. I stopped off at the supermarket to get an Apple Juice and Pasty, Sportsman's snack you may think.

I managed to get out of taking the kit, perhaps I should cycle to every game, hmmm...

A very tired Louis

Childhood Memories

Bristol-Monmouth-Gloucester-Bristol

Its becoming a bit of a struggle now, finding new routes not the actual cycle itself! Then I thought why not visit the big country Wales, well I posted a comment on Facebook before last Tuesday's big cycle asking where to go? and only one person replied, stating 'Across the old Severn Bridge then up the river past Tintern Abbey towards Monmouth'. As I ignored the comment and went to Burnham I thought it would only be polite to go this week.

Then it clicked, why couldn't I re-live my childhood. Anyone who didn't know (which is probably most people) my primary school in its last year visited the Wye Valley, Monmouthshire. So I set off at 9.30am after the usual rituals, however I forgot I had run out of Ribena, so this time my drinks bottle was filled with Orange Squash. I took my usual route to work and then half a dozen more miles to the Severn Bridge. This is where my first bit of fun began. Right by the end of this entry you will know enough about me to go on Mastermind and have me as your specialist subject. As you now know I am massively afraid of heights, luckily it wasn't too windy but it still required me to recite the Arsenal 97-98 Double Winning team.

After that ordeal I had crossed borders into another country, Wales. The signposts are all in Welsh and English, so it always makes me chuckle as I feel I am on holiday. It was then I spied a potential guard for my Bike Polo, a For Sale post from Moon & Co, it was even in the shape of my wheels it seemed perfect, the only issue I had would be transporting it home.

I cycled along the A4166 towards my first tourist attraction of note, Tintern Abbey and Tintern Railwaay Station the route took me down a winding road like on an Alps stage of the Tour de France. It was amazing, I was picking up some pace, although it was at this stage I was hit by a fly which really hurt. I arrived at the Abbey took a picture, when I saw a mother and son and thought they could take my picture. This is the only downfall of cycling alone you get lots of pictures of nice scenery and none with you in. They took my pic, I asked them where they were cycling and they said Bristol and wanted to know where a good cycling shop was. So I let them know and advised of the impending hill category 1 climb.

I then went past taking the second photo of my school album, the Tintern Railway station, I was thinking of stopping for a cup of tea and cake but didn't want to ruin my appetite for my ready-made pasta. It then started raining hard, perfect timing to cycle past a sign stating 'Road liable to flooding'. I carried along the same road hoping the weather would get a bit better, who was I kidding? this was Wales, it always rains. This was a really picturesque route alongside the River Wye just shame the weather was out to see its fully beauty.

Next stop was Monmouth Lidl to pick up a few provisions. If you haven't shopped there before it is hilarious there are snide brands that look like the real deal but aren't. So I bought some chocolate which was called Landt to place in my bag and a bottle of water and on to the rest of my journey. It was then I saw signs for 3rd and 4th historic landmarks, Bibling bridge and Symonds Yat. This took me along a muddy path for 2 miles.The next 'Louis fact' is my Bike, trusty steed is what is called a Hybrid, where it is not a road bike and not a mountain bike so it didn't really handle the bumps and I could really feel it. I went passed the bridge and it reminded me of when 18 years ago I had to cross the bridge with a teacher and the 5 other kids who were scared. There was no time to reminisce, on and up to Symonds Yat Rock which I remembered was a spectacular view.

I thought it was now time to crack open the lunch, eating in the picnic area I was cursing that I hadn't brought hand gel with but I did have a fork thank goodness. I then spotted the way to the view point (across a bridge) I was too nervous to make it so I bought a post card of the view. It looked better anyway because in the picture it was brilliant sunshine.


From here I made my way on, I had ticked all the Woodlands Primary School boxes. I thought against turning round and looping my journey because of the massive climb but also because I had already seen that part of the countryside. So I carried on up towards Gloucester where I had another slab of chocolate and met a lovely dog which I would have given some chocolate but I didn't know if I may require it further along the journey. This was at a place called Longhope which was funny because there was no hope of me cycling the hill so I got off the Bike and walked the hill for 2 minutes.

I then continued to cycle on to Gloucester where I went into the centre at about 3.15to have a look around and to find out if there was any other routes back to Bristol apart from the A38. After visiting the Tourist Information centre (unhelpful) and the local bike shop, who told me Bristol wasn't as far away as it actually was. I decided to take the A38 into Bristol and this was about 16.15 by now. I had under 2.5hours to cycle about 36 miles to get to Ashton Gate to meet my friends to collect tickets for the England Under 21 game.

This brought me back to another childhood memory that an easy way of me to achieve the unachievable is to think there is football at the end. My parents would always say think Football related, it was an easy way of getting me to do my homework. Always no Football till it is done, which worked until I got old enough to think for myself and I didn't let them know I had homework. It would get to Sunday evening I would then remember I had homework and asked my Mum for help, right in the middle of HeartBeat where she would reluctantly help as she didn't really want to miss it. If only we had ITV2,3,4 2+1.3+1,4+1 back in the day.

Anyway I met my friends outside the stadium at 18.45, dumped my Bike at a friends house and back to watch the football. I was still in my cycling leotard with a t-shirt over the top I got a few strange looks that night.

95 Miles what a day and I did sleep well that night.

Louis

Bike Polo

The Olympic Dream

Last Friday at the Critical Mass (before we set off) someone piped up to say that a group of people on a Thursday 6.30 in Bedminster meet up to play Polo on bikes.
I spent the whole of yesterday at work discussing certain aspects, Although like me no-one had come across this sport. Even down to the fact with an article I had seen on BBC sports buletin mentioning the potential of it becomming an olympic sport, I was wondering whether to get a tattoo of the Olypmic rings on my forearm or just below my shoulders. However the main discussion was with how to hold the mallet, whether to use my strong arm(left)and hover my other hand over the front brake which could mean I may end up over the handlebars. Or hold it in my right hand and use the back brake which would mean I could struggle hitting the ball. Actually I should edit that to my strongest arm because I probably have the strength of a 12 year old.

So, 6.20 I turned up at Dean Lane Skate Park, a bit early to soak up the atmosphere. This was 2 guys doing some graffiti, some lads pulling off some rad tricks on their skateboards and a pissed/strange man playing 'give us a clue' on his own. I thought I better become cool before everyone turns up, so I took off my cycling helmet and bum bag and put these in my cycling panniers. It was now getting to 6.40, no-one was about so I cycled the park looking around for other athletes, no joy. So I then rang my girfriend to use a search engine to look for Bike+Polo+Bedminster and up came BS3 Ghetto Polo(where I stole the photo!) She confirmed that it was at Dean Lane and after I hung up on the phone three other people turned up. I had a little practice when someone said it would be easier if you took the pannier bags off your bike, smooth.

The sport Polo was the real reason I was blogging so I better mention something of it. Two teams of three compete in a tennis hard court with small goals. It starts with a joust where someone shouts 3-2-1 Polo and you cycle towards a little ball in the centre to contest. Now I saw this as a car crash waiting to happen so everytime we stated a game I held back slightly to save my bike's paintwork. If you put a foot on the floor you had to 'tap out' which consisted of cycling to the mid point and tapping your mallet on the side. The only other rules were no hitting of bikes, no throwing mallets and the only way you could score was from the end of the mallet not the side.

We had a load of mini games as it is the first team to score five wins. Luckily there where two other Polo virgins, so when it came to picking teams I was always picked on one side and one of them were on the other. It was harder than I thought and my Olympic dream was dashed within the 1st game where I spent most of the game tapping out or going round in circles to get the ball. It is harder than you think cycling for a large period of time leaning over your handle bars with your fingers twitching over the front brake and trying to swing a Ski pole with a bit of UPVC tubing at a small ball. It was at this point I now noticed why people had cut Estate Agent signs into the shape of their wheels to attatch to their bikes, to save their spokes!

After around 3 hours my first experience of Bike Polo, it was over, I had scored a couple of goals, set-up a few but most of all I had a bucket full of fun. The highlights for me were looking down at the ball aiming to shoot when I forgot to apply the brake and ended up crashing into an opponent(a lesson learnt quickly). Also when someone tried to shoulder barge me which I anticipated and leaned in at the same time, this meant we locked horns and cycled together for two seconds. When I got off my bike my hand was locked in a claw shape and I had worn away a big bit of my glove but I had seriously enjoyed myself meeting some very friendly people. After the games they invited me back next Thursday and I accepted, however I may try and practice in the garden with a broom and tennis ball.

I cycled back and made myself a well deserved Fish and Chips supper.

Louis

3 Piers Cycle Tour (well sort of)

Right this is the most nervous I have been about writing a journal, The success of my previous posts, well I got a thumbs up from my Mum and Girlfriend, means I need to better it. So much so I was contemplating getting a Dictaphone to strap to my handlebars to capture as much detail as possible.

As I knew I was going on a 'big' ride I thought it would be better to be prepared. I ate a bowl of porridge, had a cup of coffee and a glass of smoothie. I filled my bag with leftovers pasta from the previous night's dinner, a spare inner tube and a copy of the Daily Mail's free Britain Road atlas(forgot to mention in last blog my Dad handed me their copy last Saturday). It was at this stage I thought, I wonder if Mark Cavendish has to pack his own bag on the tour? Actually my mind wandered completely off track.

The question to pop up was what was more rules gone mad; when Lance Armstrong and his Team squad wore black jerseys featuring the number 28 (to signify the number of millions of people worldwide dealing with cancer) and were advised to change in the recent tour or the fact the bin men couldn't go on our drive to pick up our black bin. Yes I forgot to put the bins out again! Oh well another two weeks hopefully they won't be overfilled otherwise bureaucracy suggests the bin men wont be able to take them in case of injury. Right rant over, 9:15 off on my cycle.

Now I realise with my writings I have some Bristolians and a lot of non-locals so thought I would add tips from time to time. After pumping my tyres I set off on my travels the way the AA website suggests is the best non-motorway a follows a scenic route (which if non-locals ever come to visit) I cycled past Bristol Zoo now this reminds me of a story forever floating round normally around April fools, the car park attendant is official do not believe anything else about a guy grifting money for 6 years or more so do get a ticket. I cycled past this only to find out the road after was closed off.

So I detoured back around the Durdham Downs and down Park Street and next to the River Avon passed the SS Great Britain (40th year going worth a visit). I then got on the A370, I have travelled to Weston-Super-Mare on many occasion so I thought the easiest way would be to put my head down and cycle the way the Romans wanted us to. Within the 20 Miles there were only a couple of highlights, an Eddie Stobart lorry which I tried to get to use their horn but they weren't playing the game. Also a restaurant called Flavours an exclusive Indian restaurant, which I couldn't work out if that meant it only sold Indian food or it sold Indian food to a certain clientele.

Pier 1 (Weston)

I arrived on Weston Seafront 2 hours later, what a disappointment, it could be known as the Blackpool of the South but at the moment it is in its transitional period renovations everywhere. On to the beach, there was a Sand sculpture exhibition, luckily there was a hole in the scaffolding so I could take a picture using my camera and we all can save ourselves £5. I followed my way around the seafront taking various pictures of the newly built pier, when I came to a place called Kewstoke and Sand Bay. My objective at the start of the day was to cycle round Weston then take the coastal road down to Burnham it all looked easy although my map reading skills aren't up to scratch so an hour later and a tour of Weston and its surroundings I was back on track on my tour. However if I hadn't got lost I would not have found Sparky. Basically there has been a number of Donkeys sponsored by companies placed around the town and I had found one.

Pier 2 (Burnham)
I then cycled via Bleadon, Berrow and on to Burnham on Sea. This is where I found the best poster, Pig & Donkey racing for charity near Berrow, £2 admission prams and pushchairs for free. However 100 yards down the road outside a pub was a sign for a hog roast on Saturday. I'd like to think that it was an extreme race and the slowest pig loses its life, a modern day Darwinism. So Pub quiz pens and paper at the ready the answer to the UK's smallest pier number 2 on the tour, Burnham on Sea. This is the spot I chose to take lunch, opposite a Morrison's and a Wetherspoons it was either my pasta or lunch at the Ritz, and the hotel isn't a patch on its sister establishment!



Cycling away from Burnham and Highbrige I cycled the B3139 towards a village called Mark this is where if you haven't been, there is a big resilience to Pylons, there campaign was Pylon moor pressure. Can you see what they did there, genius. I then cycled to Cross and stumbled across the Sustrans Strawberry Line between Winscombe and Axbridge, I didn't have a clue which way to go until an old boy said the route past Winscombe would take me towards Clevedon. This was the best cycle path as it took me through a pitch black tunnel which was scary and the Thatchers Cider orchard.

Pier 3
The track took me all the way to within 2 miles of Clevedon the third pier. But by this time I had about enough and the extra 4 miles would have been too much. So I followed another route to Nailsea and found out something amazing, I thought Nailsea was a little village and even stopped at the village shop to get a fizzy drink. On the outside there was a sign stating they sell Thatcher's cider in 2ft plastic re-usable containers, if only I had more storage on my bike. Anyway I cycled out of the village and past the town centre and a massive Tescos it is bigger than I thought! I cycled back via Long Ashton and through a solar panel speed checker which to my amazement picked me up at 14MPH. So I then cycled back home to a well deserved cup of tea and a nice bath at 5pm.

9-5 what a way to make a living. Yes after all that cycling I am still walking like John Wayne.

Day Out in London

What an eventful day

Okay normally I blog about cycling which involves training towards my charity challenge in September but I had such an amazing day that I thought I would share it.

I have never really understood how someone can say it has been a long day, as apart from when the clocks go back any day can surely only be 24 hours? However considering I woke at 5.45am and went to bed at 2am this morning, I made the most of it. This may have also contributed to me having a day of relaxing blogging rather than cycling.

The reason I woke so early was I had a train to catch at Bristol Temple Meads at 8am so I needed to leave just after 7am. This is where I had my first 'LOL' of the day, In carriage B, a child was playing with his handheld computer console when he got bored. So he got a pen and paper out, wrote A to Z down the left hand side of the paper and started to think of sports for each letter. A for Archery B for Baseball etc his mum helping when he seemed stuck. His mum then went to the buffet cart to get some snacks, this is when getting to L he put Lion Taming, classic, I can't wait for the 2028 Olympics in Africa when Lion Taming makes an appearance!

Which reminds me thought I better get something cycling related in. 2012 Olympics will be ther first time that Bike Polo makes an appearance. Like Polo but on bicycles, does exactly what it says on the tin. Bristol has a group of cyclists that get together on a Thursday at 6.30pm in Bedminster, Dean Lane. It was announced by someone in the Critical Mass Friday before we set off. I was thinking of going along in the next couple of weeks to see if I am any good as it will be the closest I may get to entering the Olympics. Unfortunately Baseball was his B, hopefully in the future on trains or other places of boredom kids in the will put down Bike Polo.

I arrived in London went for a spot of brunch, then on to the main reason I went up, to watch Arsenal in the Emirates cup. This is when I got off the Tube and decided to see the flats at the old Highbury. We (me and my Dad) were looking round the outside when a resident went through a gate into the complex, left the door open and a few Arsenal fans ventured in, so we thought why not. The flats are in place where the stands used to be, even down to the point the address for the properties come East Stand etc. The communal garden is where the pitch used to be.


I think the Arsenal groundsman would be livid if he could see the state of the grass at Highbury now









After security asked everyone to move on we made a swift exit. We then walked to the Emirates where i bought two drink and some biscuits this will become clear later. Right a moneysving tip without a shouting tenor in sight. The shop didn't have any prices, slap bang outside the Emirates I knew it wouldn't be cheap so I bought products with promotional prices on the packaging and got 2x500ml of Irun Bru and packet of HobNob biscuits as I knew I couldn't get overcharged, £2.38, a bargain.

Next into the Arsenal shop i picked myself up a lunch box when the phone went, it was my friend saying did I really have a 42" chest? The suit company had given the wrong details to the Reading shop, amateurs.

We then went into the Stadium, had a couple of Beers and took our seats ready to watch Celtic v Lyon. The game was really good for a friendly, loads of action, when about 15 minutes in I clocked the party of people in the seats in front were two families linked by a newly married couple. Now you may well ask how did I know this? Because they spent the rest of the game looking at the Wedding and Honeymoon Albums. I love People watching, now back to the story, this is where the drinks come in. By this stage I was a little parched, so I opened up a bottle of Irun Bru and it must of fizzed up in my new lunch box, it went everywhere, like a Golden shower all over their photobook they weren't best impressed. The football game by the way ended 2-2.

Then on to the big game, Arsenal versus AC Milan it was a mixture of 1st Team and Squad players, forgotten how exciting it is to watch live football. Highlights were seeing new signings Koscielny and Chamakh and the youth of Wilshire and Frimpong. A tip for fantasy fans get Koscielny in he looks quality and had a great understanding with Vermaelen. The game ended 1-1 with Chamakh scoring for Arsenal on his home debut, after a man behind was moaning Arshavin hadn't done anything only for him to set the striker up 14 seconds later, comedy timing.

After the game we walked to Islington and had an amazing meal in a Turkish restaurant called Gallipoli 102 Upper Street. It was a little cramped but the service and food were excellent. In the middle of this I got a phone call from the suit company saying they had mixed up my measurements. I wondered if they were in fact having the longest day ever as it was now 7pm and still ringing customers! When it came to paying for the meal the waitress commented on how alike we were, which I couldn't work out to take as a compliment or insult.

We then went to a pub towards The Angel called the Bull, we had 3 pints. This might make me a tourist but it was amazing to get served in a pub in London, everytime a pint of Doombar and Peroni was bought the round came to a different amount. When then I realised I had a train to catch. Now here comes another moneysaving tip. Get yourself train tickets a soon as they are released off their website. So, First Great Western and other local providers will release tickets 9 weeks in advance, you will then be able to get a ticket like me, £12 from London to Bristol. However it means you have to get a particular train.

So it was 9.50pm we necked off our pints and after 6 beers and half a bottle of wine each we walked extremely fast to the Angel station, on the underground I changed tubes at King's Cross and arrived at Paddington with 10 minutes before my train left. I sat on the train reading my programme when I fell asleep, luckily the train ended at Bristol and not South Wales as I was woken by the cleaner 15 minutes after the train was due to arrive in.

This was now 12.30, I decided to start walking when it bucketed down with rain. Lesson to learn, now if you are a lass out on the town I understand you may have spent alot on your barnet but do not try to run for shelter in heals, in the rain. I must have seen 3 separate occasions where they tripped and fell. I then walked past a bus stop at 1am and found a night bus, this is where I made my 2nd 'LOL'. For anyone doesn't know, the bus is a flat £2.50 to any stop.

The driver asked everyone where they wanted to go, when a pissed up Bristolian quips "the moon, drive". He didn't even flinch and said "that will be £2.50".

It was then time to go to bed.