The Anonymous Widower

To Glasgow and Back

I’d been to Glasgow a few times before in my life.  The first was when I was a student and I hitched to see Spurs play in the Glasgow Cup, the second and third  were when I passed through on the way to and from Skye with my family and the last time was many years ago, when C took her first flight with me in Tango-Tango, my Piper Arrow.  In the last case, we were actually aiming for Prestwick, but weather meant a diversion to Glasgow Airport.  It’s sad to think, that the two people who accompanied me that day,  C and my youngest son, have both passed away. I can still remember us all getting out of the small plane at the General Aviation Terminal and saying to a pilot with a smart uniform, that today had been my wife’s first flight.  He suggested that because of the weather, that she deserved a Purple Heart!

I’m not sure now, where I’d hitched to Glasgow from in I suppose the summer of 1966 or 1967, but it could either have been Liverpool or perhaps London, where I was working at the time in Enfield Rolling Mills.  I do remember though going over Shap in an old Albion truck in the pouring rain, as there was no M6 in those days.  I also remember waiting perhaps two or three hours for a lift on the A74 to somewhere nearer to my destination.  In the end I got a lift from a driver in a van that had been delivering the Scottish Daily Express.  I think, it’s the only time in my life that I’ve had any positive thoughts to that rag in any of its guises!  I remember that the match was at the old Hampden Park and Celtic were the opponents.  Searching the Internet I did find this program, which sets the match in 1967, which must be right.  But then I must have known C at the time, so it’s surprising she let me go off hitching around the country.  Unless this was when she was being a mother’s help in Ireland for the Wright family from Norfolk!  Two of their daughters; Amanda and Caroline were later bridesmaids at our wedding.  They also had a brother Tim.

I also remember passing that day on the beach at Wemyss Bay after taking one of the Blue Trains from the centre of Glasgow.

I don’t remember much of the match, but I think Spurs won and I also remember a Rangers supporter who turned up getting thumped for his trouble!

After my troubles getting lifts in Scotland coming up, I took the late train down to Manchester.  It was very late and I remember I wrote a letter of complaint, about having to use a taxi to get to my friend’s house in Manchester.  I think they sent me a cheque for about nine shillings!  It gave me my first reward in the art of complaining.

So that trip shows, I’m just reverting to type after over forty years, by travelling around!

But on Monday, the trip was different!  My host kindly dropped me at Waverley, I bought a ticket from the machine and fairly soon, I was on my way to Glasgow in a smart new train. It’s when you do this sort of journey you realise how far trains have come in the last twenty years or so.  And also how far, some of the lines have still to go!

September 30, 2010 Posted by | Sport, Transport/Travel | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Three Good Things About Scunthorpe

Other than the coffee and Raz and his excellent taxi, there is only one other thing good about Scunthorpe.  Or should we be polite and call it Shorpe! And that is the TransPennine Express, that gets you out of the town.

TransPennine Express at Scunthorpe

 I took one of these trains as far as Doncaster, where I headed north towards Edinburgh.

September 29, 2010 Posted by | Sport, Transport/Travel | , , , | 1 Comment

Scunthorpe 1 – Ipswich 1

It was not a good match and who’s to say it wasn’t down to the cold.

Glanford Park

 Interestingly, Glanford Park istill a ground with a standing terrace and they are getting a campaign together to save it.  In my view, they need completely closed terraces with some form of heating.

September 29, 2010 Posted by | Sport | , , | 1 Comment

A Welcoming Coffee

I’ll say one thing for Glanford Park though!  The Douwe Egberts coffee was good and it warmed me up.

To be fair, all the stewards and staff seemed to be very welcoming.

September 29, 2010 Posted by | Food, Sport | , , | Leave a comment

A Taxi to Glanford Park

As the bus was still nowhere to be seen, I got a taxi from the station to the ground about two.  The driver, Raz, was helpful and I booked him to pick me up at 4:30, as I really felt that to spend more time than I wanted in the town was not a good idea. Especially, as I was getting chilled to the bone!

At least by the ground there was a large Tesco, so I suspect, I could have got something there, but as you can see from this picture, the various eating places were not renowned as being coeliac friendly.

Eating Places at Glanford Park

September 29, 2010 Posted by | Sport, Transport/Travel | , | Leave a comment

Edward Elgar and the First Football Chant

This may seem surprising, but it’s reported in the local paper.

September 25, 2010 Posted by | Sport | , | Leave a comment

Liverpool Get A Good Kicking from the Cobblers

There is nothing better than to see one of the big four teams of the Premier League get their come uppance from a lower league team in the Cup.

Northampton Town, a.k.a. The Cobblers, did just that yesterday when they beat Liverpool on penalties in the Carling Cup. I just wish I could think of a better headline for this post.  I also hope that Liverpool’s American owners were there to see the match!

Liverpool were not alone either, in that they were joined in their failure by Everton, Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester City, Blackburn, Bolton and Sunderland and Fulham

September 23, 2010 Posted by | Sport | , | Leave a comment

Thoughts on Transport to the Den

As I can’t drive, I rely heavily on three things, trains, buses and good old-fashioned walking.

On Tuesday night, I went to Canary Wharf for supper and for many places it is a good place to start an evening trip in London. The parking may be a bit expensive, but you can always get a couple of hours free, if you spend over £10 in  one of the shops there.  I used to buy something I needed like wine in Waitrose to get the token.  Incidentally, is there a more up-market supermarket anywhere in the UK, than this one?

The first step to your evening entertainment, after a meal in one of the many restaurants, is to take the Jubilee Line from Canary Wharf Station, that makes all other Metro stations in the world, look ordinary. I once took a C into the station on the escalator from the surface and asked her to close her eyes, once she was safely on the moving staircase.  I then told her to open her eyes a few metres down.  The look on her face summed it all up.

As I was going to the Den on Tuesday, I just took one station on the Jubilee Line to Canada Water.  From upstairs, I took a P12 bus, which stopped outside the ground.  what could have been simpler?

One of the problems at the Den, is that it is an area with very few pubs, restaurants and cafes.  My mate, Ian, chose to drive and he had quite a bit of difficulty parking and then finding anything to eat. I got the better deal by going to Canary Wharf.

There are plans to build a new station at Surrey Canal Road on the new East London Line extension to Clapham Junction.

This will make travelling to the Den easier, but it will probably do nothing for the quality of the hostelries in the area! I’m afraid at my age and with my medical conditions, greasy burgers, fish and chips and pints of gassy lager are not for me!

But it will give you more choices of getting to the ground, as  it will then be directly connected to many other areas with lots of easily accessible places to eat and drink.  For example, Ipswich fans coming in to Liverpool Street, might use the Spitalfields or Brick Lane areas, before going to the match from Shoreditch High Street.

Obviously Canary Wharf makes a good starting point for anything in the West End of London, but with just one simple interchange at Canada Water or Shadwell, it is also a good place to start for anything in South London, if you live north of the river. Crystal Palace, which used to be one of the more difficult grounds to reach is now a lot easier.  It’s just a pity that the interchange at Shadwell from the Docklands Light Railway to the East London Line isn’t better.

September 23, 2010 Posted by | Food, Sport, Transport/Travel | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Into the Lion’s Den

Millwall used to play at the Cold Blow Lane, which like Portsmouth was an Archibald Leitch-designed stadium, but moved to the New Den in 1993.  I never went to the old ground and this was my first visit to the new one.

The New Den

I arrived at the ground on a P12 bus from Canada Water after having an early supper at Carluccio’s in Canary Wharf. It was an easy way to get to the ground.

Millwall supporters have in the past not been noted for giving a warm reception to their visitors, but I found eveverybody friendly, even if you can see from the photograph, tha the crowd was a bit sparse.

The game wasn’t the best in terms of football, but the result was right, in that Ipswich won.

It was a struggle afterwards to get back to Liverpool Street for my train home, as I took the train to London Bridge and then used the Underground.  But I made my desired train with a few minutes to spare.

September 23, 2010 Posted by | Sport | , , | Leave a comment

Calcium and Vitamin D

Yesterday afternoon, I chewed a calcium tablet and took a small one for vitamin D, after a chat with my doctor about the results of the blood tests.

I hadn’t expected a quick effect, but did I get one last night, as I felt a lot better in the evening, with a lot less pain in my mouth and arm. I went to bed at half-ten and slept well until six in the morning, which is usually my time to start the day.

Typing seems a bit better this morning, so who knows if the pills have had an affect.  I can’t believe one of each can bring an improvement. It could be just psychological, in that I now know there’s nothing wrong!

Here’s hoping that they did.

Today, I’m off to London to see Ipswich play at Millwall.  I shall be exploring hidden parts of London for this blog.  So let’s see how my body holds up today!

If nothing though, I would argue that everybody needs a full set of blood tests at about forty to see if they have any underlying problems.  If I had it earlier, they might have picked up my coeliac disease, but reading about calcium deficiency and its symptoms, I may have suffered from that too at times.  I have always tended to have pins and needles in my left hand and even saw the doctor about it once.  We put it down to the break in the arm caused by the bully at school.  But could it have been a calcium deficiency?

Also, as I feel used to feel that all gluten-free bread was made from cardboard, I didn’t eat it.  so was I getting my recommended dose of cslcium, as by law bread in the UK has to have added calcium?

I knew that there was something wrong, as I lay in hospital and wanted them to do a full blood test because I felt it was a coeliac problem.  Should all of those recovering from a stroke, be given a full set of blood tests, to make sure they don’t have any underlying problems that are hindering their recovery?

September 21, 2010 Posted by | Health, Sport, Transport/Travel | , , , , | 1 Comment

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