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I bought a gift at the White Company last week. They wanted to know how things had gone and sent an email to Rechared Herring to find out. What were they aiming for there? Recharged? Rechaired? Recharred? Or just Wretched Red Herring?
A day of football craziness for Phoebe and me today. First we were up super early to drive down to Harpenden for her match. Her team is sponsored by RHLSTP and has so far lost every match (which is very much in the spirit of RHLSTP), but these girls are fighters and playing well together, just lacking the killer instinct in front of goal.
We then had to try and get from Harpenden to Tottenham to see Spurs Ladies take on Arsenal Ladies at 12.45pm. This was quite an enterprise as we didn't leave Phoebe's match til about 11.10am and just missed the 11.25 train as I tried to work out how to pay for parking.
We got the next train and got to St Pancras, before dashing through the station to the Victoria Line. We got to Seven Sisters, where we were meant to change to the Weaver line, but at the station there were loads of signs saying this way to the Tottenham ground, so I took a chance that it might be quicker to walk.
It was not quicker to walk.
Phoebe has insisted that she was OK to keep her football boots on all day and had not brought any trainers. I thought this was a mistake, but she knows her own mind. Though she went arse over tit on the wet pavement outside the tube and from then on we had to take it carefully. My phone made it clear that we were over 30 minutes to the ground with about 24 minutes to kick off, so we jogged along, as much as we could whilst taking care to keep Phoebe on her feet.
There were buses heading up the road and we decided to jump on one of them, but it stayed at the stop and then the driver announced it was being held there for at least 4 minutes, so we got off and carried on jogging/walking. Another bus that looked like it was heading in the right direction overtook us and we ran to catch it up at the next stop. But just as we approached (even with a kindly man signalling to the driver) it pulled off with us about 5 metres from the door. We kept chasing and the bus did the same thing at the next stop. Was this deliberate? I was at least making up for missing Park Run again.
We kept pace with the bus for a while, but the next stop was much further along and we decided we'd just walk it. And by the time we might have jumped on a bus, the road we needed was closed and buses being diverted around, so we did the whole trip on foot (except when Phoebe was on her arse).
When we got to the ground I realised I had our metal water bottle in my pocket (I was wearing my big North Face coat cos I anticipated some cold spectating today - plus thermal underwear so I was pretty sweaty from the run). Even for this family friendly afternoon match there were metal detectors at the ground and we were told we could not bring the bottle in. I know it wasn't likely that a 59 year old man and an 11 year old girl were going to smash anyone in the head, but I understand that the rules have to be applied to everyone. We were already late for kick off and we were told we could leave the bottle at another gate, but I decided we'd wasted enough time and effort and reluctantly put it in a recycling bin.
We'd only missed 12 minutes of the match and Tottenham were kind enough to wait until we were seated to score the first goal. We were right behind the goal at the other end and though only the lower tiers had spectators there was still an impressive and vocal crowd and it's a beautiful stadium. A little bit different than the astro turf pitches in Harpenden.
The match was fun. Arsenal (who Phoebe supports, even though we were at the Spurs end as they had gifted the tickets to the Hitchin football teams) won 2-1. I guess Spurs ladies always lose 2-1, just as the men always win 2-1. Both teams were very impressive and even though I had no skin in this game, it was a pleasure to be there.
The club seemed to have underestimated the desire for refreshment at half time. Only one place seemed to be opened and though there were five servers, the queues moved very slowly and I abandoned my mission to get Phoebe some chips.
After the match we headed towards White Hart Lane tube, having decided to take the train this time. We passed the bin where I'd put my water bottle and so I went to check to see if it was still there. It was and I rescued it, so no harm, no foul (there were some harm and some fouls on the pitch).
The train platform was thronging with fans and the first train south was very full. Slowly as we moved through the city the trains got gradually less packed and we managed to get back to Harpenden where we picked up the car, before driving home.
It had been non-stop and I was pretty tired out and my legs a bit wobbly and stiff from the run, but it had been quite an adventure and I loved spending the day with just me and my daughter.
