BOXING DAY - AT THE MATCH

Newcastle United had a home game today - kick off 3pm. Buses were only every half hour and I wasn't sure how reliable the service would be so I got a bus at 1pm to get to town early. Newcastle was busy - all the sales were on. Had a look round the shops but didn't buy anything. Made my way to St James Park at about 2.30pm. My blip shows my route to the ground. Note the blue sky. It was a bright day but absolutely freezing cold.

It was a funny old game today. For the first half Newcastle weren't all that good and Stoke scored a goal at 29 mins. Then it all went wrong for the visitors. They had 2 players sent off. Then Newcastle missed a penalty. Then Newcastle scored a goal. Then it was half time. Whew!. In the second half with Stoke down to 9 men Newcastle had it easy. They scored 4 more goals. They could/should have scored more. So the final score was 5 -1. Lots of happy Newcastle fans left St James Park at around 5pm this evening.

I don't usually have too much to do with whoever sits next to me at the match but today I had Jonno and he was very chatty. He was there with his brother Daz - only Daz didn't get to the ground until half an hour of the match had been played - and he was quite drunk when he turned up. Jonno was a bit annoyed as he had paid for the tickets. Then Jonno missed the first 10 mins of the second half and when he did take his seat he had hiccups -- which lasted till the end of the match.... and beyond I guess. Every time Newcastle scored I was given a great big hug by both brothers. Not what I'm used to at all - but nice all the same.

After the match I looked around a couple of shops for bargains. Got some cheap jewellery, a nightie and a pair of socks. Also some grapes in Tesco before going for the bus home. Waited about 20 mins in the freezing cold till the bus arrived. I was back home around 7pm.

An evening of TV - Harry Potter ...... and now its Match of The Day. Looking forward to seeing Newcastle's 5 goals again. Howay the Lads!.

Neil sent a message via Facebook. He was at the Test match in Melbourne today and he also had a ticket for tomorrow as well. He must have managed to get tomorrow's ticket while he was there as he didn't have one before he left here.