The Run For Home
OK, some sports fanatics might like to look away at this point, just saying…right, have those crazy folk gone? 😉 Dont get me wrong, there are some sports I enjoy, baseball, and cricket being 2 of the obvious ones, but equally there are a few I cant stand, which include the soccer version of football (for US reader purposes) and boxing. So if you love those last 2 sports, and are still reading, get ready for ‘grumpy old woman’ moment lol!
I see myself as a sports follower, rather than a fan, in that yes, I have a few teams I follow, but none of whom do I get overly passionate about. No, not even the Dodgers lol!
Its fair to say I’ve been bored senseless by all the hype, and drivel that has been about over the Mayweather, and McGregor fight last night. Thank goodness its finally over, though I’ve no doubt its still going to get mentioned way too much over the next few days. Hopefully now, mighty mouth, aka McGregor will now keep quiet about it all, but I suspect that might be wishful thinking.
I’m sure most of the US sports actually have the infantile behaviour, relating to rookies joining the team, but I have to say that the NFL seems to take the biscuit. Fine, I know that by my standards, even the rookies in the NFL are on salaries beyond my wildest dreams, but why the senior players seem to find it amusing to get the rookies to pay absolutely preposterous amounts for a dinner, I have absolutely no idea? Seriously, does anyone with an IQ over 50 find this sort of behaviour amusing, because I dont! The latest team to involve themselves in this stupidity are the Green Bay Packers, where 12 players ‘took out’ some rookies to dinner, ordered the most ridiculous items, and presented them with a bill for over $34,000! Some of them will probably be cut before the season even starts, so how they are meant to afford this? Sadly, this isnt the first time, or even the second time I’ve read of this immature stuff this summer from NFL teams, so I really despair. Along with the whole Kaepernick based anthem stuff, I’m wondering if I really want to bother with the sport any more. Yes, CFL seems a lot more fun!
Ah, and finally the sport that inspired this rant, football. Though to be fair to the animals that support this sport, they were unlucky I saw this last night, because if First Buses ran a half decent service, I would have been out of Huddersfield before this happened. I got back into town last night, just before 5.00, and if the bus home had turned up, I would have missed the arrival back in town of the so called fans. Unfortunately it didnt, the next bus 10 minutes later (supposedly) actually left nearly 10 minutes late, so I saw the whole affair.
Not that I would have missed everything, because even as I was walking to the bus stop, I saw 2 fans having a punch up. Ironically, both were Huddersfield fans! Soon after I managed to see 4 people go by the bus stop, knocking 6 bells out of each other, but that was the more traditional 2 from each team stuff! Lastly I saw a group of about 20 men run by, shouting “Lets get the Bas****s” towards a group of visiting fans, but unluckily for them, a group of police were with said fans, so they were quickly cordoned off, and hopefully arrested!
Baseball at least seems to save all its punch ups to on the pitch, between players, most of which I see as pretty childish. Yes, I’m sure the Dodgers get involved in those, but never seen one yet!
But yes, all this only makes me grateful I dont get fanatical about sport, if thats what it does to you.
Fine, rant over!
Video time. A song from the 70’s, which I’m sure most will never have heard. But yes, I’m old, remember it, and it seems rather apt, given what I was trying to do last night
You’ve got to beat the crowds
The only problem I have with working Saturday’s in Bradford, during the football season, is getting out of town before the football (soccer, for US readers) crowds pile out of the stadium in Huddersfield. As in, if I make it, the bus from town takes 10-15 minutes to get up here from town. If I got caught up in the crowds, it would be more like 40-45 minutes! Yes, that bad, especially with road works between here, and town at present. And thats on a normal week, with a league game going on, which is once a fortnight, or so. Bad enough if you like football, but if like me, you cant stand the sport, even more annoying.
Oh, and yesterday wasnt a normal week, it was an FA Cup match crowd, playing against one of the top premier league teams, so the crowd would be huge, and if I got caught up in that, an hour to get home from town might be good! Now normally, the 4.10 bus is fine, gets me into town for 4.50, so I can get the bus up before they come out in too large a number. We sometimes meet a few sneaking out over the hill (back route) when almost home, but thats it.
So of course, yesterday, things didnt go to plan. It was time for the bus to leave, and he starts reversing out of the bay, fine. Until someone rushes through the door, he drives back into the bay to pick them up, and they take 5 minutes deciding where they want to go, and where the money for their fare is! Anyway, in theory I should have about 4 minutes (to allow for time to get to other bus stop) between buses, so all should be OK. Well, it was until someone in a wheelchair got off the bus in Brighouse, and couldnt direct his motorised chariot off the bus. In the end the bus driver assisted him, and we got back under way, but by now, it was cutting it close! Good news, got there, just in time, got the bus, and nearly got home fine. Yes, nearly, I ended up getting off one stop earlier than planned, as the queue down the road was so bad, it would have taken forever to cover the next 100 yards or so.
Oh, the result, Huddersfield got a draw, but thankfully the replay will be in Manchester sometime (I really dont care!), so the crowds wont be a challenge for me. But yes, roll on the end of the football season, please. Or move the football ground, or…anything?
The video, some vintage Sparks. They’re doing a world tour later this year. Oh they play LA in May when I’m there! That would be one crowd I’d happily get caught up in!
Its a shame, does it always have to be the way?
Yes, if you use a few cryptic clues there, you can work out the video, if not, just read on.
Yesterday, I finished work at 6.00, the last shift before the holiday, which actually started today, but more on that during the week. So therefore I was lined up to get the 6.40 train back to Huddersfield, on a train starting from Newcastle, and heading to Manchester.
Now, the football fans, or indeed, people like me who have to know about football will know that there was a match yesterday afternoon, between Newcastle, and Manchester City. if you dont know, and care about the result, look it up, I know Man City won, but beyond that…That isnt what this blog is about, unsurprisingly.
Yes, when the train rolled up, more or less on time, which is something for Trans Pennine Express, it was pretty full, and yes, full of football fans at that. No, I had no problems with anyone on board, but…we were also greeted by 6 Transport Police on board, and not hard to work out why, lets face it. Now, dont get me wrong, things have improved dramatically from how they were with football hooligans 30-40 years ago, but even so…
I didnt see any actual problems in my carriage, though the underlying atmosphere amongst the football crowd wasnt pleasant. My main amusement was 1 guy, with one of those e-cigarette things, who clearly wasnt certain whether he could ‘smoke’ it on the train or not (I neither know, nor care), and trying to do so surreptitiously. Judging by the police reaction, he was either fine, or they were more concerned with other issues!
Sad to say, their radios crackled into life, just before we pulled into Huddersfield, and when the doors opened, all moved forward to the front carriage, I heard someone saying that there were threats of trouble in the tunnel, so they were taking no chances, clearly. To me, its just a shame that grown men still have to act like animals on board a train, just because they like football, and seemingly like alcohol too!
No, I’m not suggesting that away fans shouldnt travel, though in these days of blanket TV coverage (Yes, it was on Sky), do they really need to? What might be more practical though, is a total ban on alcohol on such trains, and not just in terms of actual drink. In other words, if someone is showing signs of being drunk, and aggressive, stop them travelling! They wouldnt do it again, thats for sure! But no, in the real world, in a land when football is seemingly king, its not going to happen, is it?
The video, as I say, there’s been a few clues
Now I remember why I dont go out on a Saturday!
And no, before anyone shows any concerns, absolutely nothing to do with transgender issues in the slightest. One Indian man did ask his teen son if that was a man or a woman who had just passed them, but his son, I suspect taken in by my boobs, replied with confidence, woman. I was too far past them to hear more lol! More on the other entertaining moment shortly.
No, the reason I do trips out, and shopping midweek, is because of the number of people about, midweek is quieter, and so much easier. Snag was, this week, one of my days off was today. Yes, shock horror, a Saturday off, no idea what happened there? But given I wanted to do some shopping, and I have an appointment on Monday lunchtime, it was a bit now or never, given a space on the reading front from updates. And feeling mad, I went over to Manchester, for a change.
Wrong move lol! I had to stand on the train going over, it was absolutely packed. I only found out later that there is some concert on over there tonight (Stone Roses, whoever they are?) and lots of young folk were travelling across for that, even at 11.15 in the morning. Even worse, they were the football fans type, and the whole journey was set off by their continued swearing (mainly in Leeds United (football team) related songs), and lots of alcohol.
I must have passed lol, quite grateful in all honesty, given the state of them, and their behaviour. One did drunkenly ask if I was ‘one of those ladyboys’ as I was about to get off, but firmly got told ‘no, she isnt, so shut the f… up’ by one of the others lol!
I headed for Primark (US people, think Old Navy, its as close as I can get), because I wanted some cheap sandals for my September holiday, and they obliged. I have got a pair already, but they were slip on ones, and I dont feel comfortable with them, because I always think I’m going to fire them off my feet, and have done, at least once lol! Picked up a few other bits and pieces as well, nothing vital, but handy all the same. Oh, including a pair of silver trousers that appealed to me no end. Also looked at a couple of bras, but was positive I didnt have the money. Snag was, I got near the pay desk, and saw socks, something I did need. Problem, as I said, I only had limited money on me, and thought I was close to the limit of my funds, so with regret, I put the silver trousers back, and went to pay for my purchases. The queue to pay, well lets just say it was very long, and leave it at that.
I was right, I did only have limited funds, but that was still £10 more than I’d thought I had. So in the end, I could have got the trousers, and a couple of basic bras too, aargh! After lunch, and a lookaround, I did go back in to see if the queues had calmed down, but they were even worse. So no, I didnt bother.
I got back to Huddersfield, and tried Primark there, but as I suspected, the much smaller store didnt have the trousers, and I didnt even bother to check for bras lol. Yes, it was busy, but nothing like Manchester lol!
Oh well… and the next time I’ll be in Manchester in all likelihood in November, by which time I’ll have forgotten all about them, and doubt they will still be stocked anyway. C’est la vie, i guess?
Alright, the video. It has a Manchester connection, it sums up both the gender, and shopping ‘entertainment’ I had today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iKyPMXQb5o
I’ll try and post again Monday, certainly wont be before then. As would be said, you dont want to know my shift tomorrow lol!
stevielounicks 
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