Sounded like a plan

I have been attending international matches at Twickenham for over 50 years, always with a group of chums called 'The S Club'. This season though I decided to embrace the events in a different way.

For some time now we have said that the match has been the low point of the weekend, and, with kick-off scheduled for 16:45, the night life has become less appealing to a group of 70 somethings at 9pm than it is after normal 3pm kick-off  times.

Couple that with hotel room's now costing in excess of £120 per night, and the match tickets themselves being between £130 and £150 for an 'average' view, and the whole experience needed to be revisited. 

So, my plan was to catch an early train from Liverpool, have a few beers and a meal with 'The S Club' and then travel back to Liverpool watching the game on the train. So first part of the plan was executed as I got a cheap day return ticket and was all ready with technology and food supplies for the train journeys.

Imagine then my nervousness when the day before travel I got a warning note from Avanti North West trains saying my train may be cancelled. OK I thought I can get the earlier train, albeit that was 07:40.

So an early alarm got me up only to see that train had been cancelled. My scheduled train was still running but the train afterwards had also been cancelled. Then just as I was about to leave a notification informed me my scheduled train had been cancelled too. To cancel one train is unfortunate, to cancel three is carelessness, even incompetence.

So what options? Drive to Crewe? Ah, go from Chester, but then found out the Birkenhead to Chester service was delayed so I could not get a connecting train by going that route. So I am now consigned to a day at home watching on the television.

I don't use the train very  much these days so am not sure how often this sort of disruption occurs, but Liverpool Lime Street must be mental today with three train loads of people trying to find alternative ways to get to London, whether or not many of them are going to the rugby.

And what of Avanti and their bed fellow the dinosaur which is the Unite union. Their members are trying to bring the Country to it's knees when they are over paid already and clearly underworked as they have no trains to drive most of the time.

Virgin trains were never as poorly operated as Avanti but given there is little chance of the Avanti franchise being renewed, they don't give a toss about customer service.

Now I see three of the four evening return train services have been cancelled out of Euston so goodness knows whether I would have got back tonight anyway. Come on England  prove us wrong about the match and make our day!!

One down

So a Bank Holiday full of sporting activities comes to an end. Rory McIlroy won a cool $15m for winning the Fed Ex golf championship in Atlanta, Ben Stokes re-ignited the Ashes cricket with an unbelievable rear guard action in the test match at Headingley and Newcastle United parked the bus and snatched three points from Tottenham yesterday in a game I suspect Match of the Day struggled to find any highlights.

So guess which one I went to? Yes , with SWMBO playing Shirley Valentine in Greece, I thought I would just pop down to London and explore the new Tottenham Hotspur stadium for the day. The train down was fine, and then came the 35 minute slog from Seven Sisters tube station in 34 degree heat, a walk I have done many times in the past but not for a few years. I got to the stadium praying I would have a seat in the shade. Luck was going my way as, yes I did, on the fifth tier of the North stand. Looking around at the amazing auditorium it was clear they had reserved the sunny seats for the Georgie boys so they could get their kit off and fry. I bet there were some very sore bellies this morning.

The game was so dull that the lady sitting next to me left at half time, and her husband did the Express crossword through out the second half. I left early to ensure the walk back to the tube was not rushed as was the case.

The new stadium is huge. There are bag checks and security checks everywhere, and even when it was as hot as yesterday you could not take water bottles inside. The bars and food stalls were doing a roaring trade, and the sensible thing if you are local is to wait around afterwards , have a few beers and then head home. White Hart Lane station has been completely refurbished with Club money but I am unsure whether there are extra trains to get people away form the ground quicker.

The Club were sensible enough to have the cricket on the TV screens which made for a very different match day experience than would normally be the case, but I was delighted to watch the highlights again when I got home. I was disappointed with Virgin rains that the first class lounge now charges for alcohol. This I was informed is due to too many people getting drunk for free before their train leaves. Never mind that its all free on the train anyway!!  So I had a pint of Pride in the pub next door. If you are going to pay may as well have something you like.

On Saturday I played golf at 07:15, a time I was unaware was part of Saturday morning!! I was pleased how I played, and there were three 1's in our group. I got an 11 at hole 13 and one of my partners got a hole in 1 at the 5th. Drinks all round!!

Today I played again and was 5 under par after 6 holes, slipped to 4 under after 10 and finished 2 over, very much a nearly round, hey ho! Tomorrow is a day of rest which will probably involve cosmetic cleaning and ironing just to show willing, before the golf starts all over again, weather permitting. 

A little bit of everything Sir?

Not to be confused with a little something for the weekend......

I was transported back in time yesterday when I caught the Virgin trains Liverpool to london express yesterday. it was a short notice work trip so there was nothing for it but to travel 1st Class. You could have blown me over with t feather when i found out it featured the 'full English' on the menu.

Now in days gone by, when I travelled regularly in the chocolate and cream coloured coaches pulled by brunswick green locomotives like the Cornish Riviera express and the Flying Scotsman, I would regularly have time to grab the 'full English' between Paddington and Bristol or Bath.

The meals were served from huge silver platters by attendants in smart red and black uniforms, and the opportunity for an extra rasher or two eggs was always available. It was like a gentlemans club as the staff took great pride in their work and knew many of the regulars by first name terms.

So what of the modern equivalent? Well the menu could not be faulted, cereal, fruit juice, tea and coffee, toast and croissants followed by 'full English' or bacon or sausage baps. Both the sausage and bacon were top drawer, and the potato rosti with fried egg just hit the spot.

The only thing lacking was the 'service' mentality of the staff. Many of them were struggling to raise a smile or pass the time of day with their clients, and all gave the appearance of a jobsworth just waiting for it all to end. There was no opportunity to have extra tea or coffee if you missed the urn run, and it would have probably been unwise to ask for an extra banger. Hey, lets be positive though, it was a great start to the day, and at £129 for the ticket, probably the most expensive breakfast I have ever eaten!!

The journey home though was a nightmare, as the train was declassified due to route cancellations. So 1st Class was chocka and no food service was available except from the buffet car, the train was an hour late into Liverpool as it stopped at additional stations in and near Birmingham, consequently the £57 fare home did not even come close to value for money. I could have gone cattle for £12!!

Still the Wifi is fab and that kept me sane, and it was better than spending 7 hours on the motorway, after all, and it was not Virgins fault some little scrot wrecked the signalling system in the West Midlands, was it?

All change please

That could be the theme for 2008, when we all hope for a better year than that we have just had. In my case though it refers to my extended festive break up in Scouse.

But first things first, the blog has had a rest for a few weeks, so I would now like to wish all my regular and itinerant visitors a very happy new year, and I wish you all you wish yourselves for 2008, be it a new job, new home, different lifestyle, or just more of the same....go for it.

Clearly i was hoping for 2007 to present me with a new home, but for now I will just have to put myself in the hands of the local estate agents again and hope for a change of fortune sometime soon. A new job would also be handy, with something at the Olympic Games being favourite at the moment.

Now as tenuous links go, we have one here. My extended break up North was facilitated by some rather basic cock-ups by Network Rail, as they tried to cram too may engineering upgrades into the holiday period. As I was carless over the holiday, I was therefore faced with either a nine hour trip back to London, via Sheffield or waiting for the West Coast line to reopen.

So sitting on my Virgin train on Friday I was very disappointed that the world renowned Scouse humour seemed to desert the train driver and he missed the opportunity to apologise to the passengers for the train being two days late departing...Oh well, I made it back OK and am now ready to resume normal life.

Oh yes, the tenuous link. well, two high-profile figures are in the frame over the shambles that has blighted the railway system.

One is John Armitt, 61, who was the chief executive of Network Rail until he retired last July. He set the strategy to implement the improvement programme that has inflicted so much misery on the travelling public.

He had been credited for the recovery of the rail industry after the Railtrack debacle.
Now the inability of Network Rail to deliver a project on time will raise alarm in Whitehall, given that his new task is to make sure that London is ready for the 2012 Olympics.

I understand in some quarters the project is now being referred to as London 2014!!!!!