Yes, it was worth it. But it did require a lot of effort, and it was unexpectedly draining in terms of energy – and that was just us, not the players. Anyway Norwich City won the play-off final 2-0; so everything is fine. The EDP is making lots of money with its souvenir issues and add-ons, and that’s fine too.
We left Norwich around 9am, after picking up Naomi from a house in Alan Road (she had stayed the night there after the Radio 1 Big Weekend at Earlham Park) and a friend of Patrick’s case from a hotel on Newmarket Road. This is just one example of the number of things that had to be brought together for our mission to succeed.
There was lots of traffic on the road, of course, but no real problems until we stopped at South Mimms services on the A1 and Jonathan and Naomi decided to have a coffee. Since the services were crowded with supporters of one kind or another, this took a lot of time, and by the time we reached Stanmore station the car park was full. Not only that, but there were so many cars trying to find non-existent spaces that we took about 20 minutes to get out again.
We continued towards Wembley and a parking space that Jonathan had booked in someone’s drive through JustPark.com. We had no problem finding it, but the drive had two cars already parked in such a way that you couldn’t get a third in. Fortunately the owner was in and expressed astonishment that we had booked, since he had heard nothing from JustPark for two years. However, he was quite amenable to moving one of the other vehicles to give us space.
From there it was a longish walk to the stadium, and I was already feeling tired. We had to ask the way once, but then met Patrick’s brother William at Wembley Park Tube. He had booked us into a Nepali restaurant the other side of the stadium; we were already half an hour late, and it took about half an hour to walk there, by which time I was shattered. On the way we saw the Norwich City coach being barracked by Middlesbrough supporters, and Dot seized Patrick’s City shirt (he wasn’t wearing it) and waved it, receiving a thumbs-up from City skipper Russell Martin. We feel this was a key factor in their victory.
The restaurant was unexpectedly empty and the meal (very similar to Indian) very good, though I’m not sure curry and beer is the ideal meal to have in this situation. After it we walked back to the stadium, found the entrance and ascended into the sky, eventually reaching our seats three rows from the back. The view was unexpectedly good and clear, the only problem being that the people in front of us chose to stand all the way through the first half and most of the second. Very irritating.
Of course the match was pretty exciting, though not a classic, because Norwich were so much on top. The Middlesbrough supporters had mostly melted away by the time we joined the throng emerging for another long walk back to the car. I’m sure we didn’t go the quickest way, but I didn’t like to argue with William, who seemed to know the area. On the way we saw a genuine fight, with blood, between a small group of Middlesbrough supporters (no Norwich fans involved), followed by a number of police restraining another man near the Tube station.
We reached the car successfully (it seemed much further away than before) and after saying farewell to Patrick and William, took Naomi to Stanmore tube, where she was getting a train to stay with relatives in London. This was a slow journey, and at one point Naomi became desperate for the loo and had to rush into a Prezzo’s. Still, we made it and dropped her off.
The journey back to Norwich was incident-free, though I got us onto the M1 by mistake and we had to divert across by the St Albans route on tho the A1. But I don’t think it added much in the way of time. Jonathan dropped us off at about 9.20pm; we watched the cricket (England had beaten New Zealand in the first test, which David and Kevin had attended at Lord’s on the Saturday) and then fell into bed.
We spent all yesterday recovering, both of us being tired out. Dot chose this day to start us on a 5-2 diet (this was a 2), and I was too weak to argue.
The weekend, even without Wembley, was a full one. On Saturday we were invited to Adrian O’dell’s 70th birthday party, held at the CNS in their new Arc facility. I was surprised to see how much of the school was still recognisable. We sat at a table with a couple of blokes I don’t think I knew when I was at school (Harvey and Huggins) and their wives, and the evening was very enjoyable.
Since it was Adrian’s party, it was also highly organised and included a slide show of his life (exhausting even to watch, let alone live), plus a singing of the school song, a hog roast buffet, a quiz and various music, including a ukulele band, a very long eightsome reel, a choral group and a band called the Hobblers, who were actually quite good. Our table came equal first in the quiz but lost the actual prize on an extremely dubious tie-split. We were obviously gutted (not).
On Sunday, another party – this time Rodney’s 75th, at their Dereham home. It followed closely on a service which I not only preached at but led when the actual leader was double-booked. So we were half an hour late at Dereham, but this didn’t seem to matter. It was an excellent party, with fantastic buffet food, good company and even some games (crazy golf, boules) when it stopped raining.
Richard had his two daughters with him, and I spent some time talking to Charlotte’s newish husband, James, who turned out to be an estate agent. (Charlotte is Vicki’s tiny half-sister.) Vicki had recently broken up with her long-term partner Graham, so was not feeling on top of the world; she brought a female friend – Jane, I think – instead, and she was very nice. So all went well. They have giant fish in their pond. Very frightening. They are big fish in a small pond.