The excitement building up to this game was unbearable, I don’t think we’d slept since the semi-final against Brentford.
My heart is still pounding now thinking back over it all, this last wonderful, golden period in our club’s history. It’s been filled with such joy, so getting up on this morning… THE morning that would either crown it all off or bring us down with such a loud crash I doubt we’d ever recover.
It didn’t take us long to get loaded up and bid Mrs Beastie a fond farewell… would we ever see her again after this? Did she even care?
The plan was to drive down to Bristol which is where we’d decided to set up Camp Beastie, at the Thistle Hotel, the plan being to have a good night out, settle in, get up tomorrow and make the short train journey to Cardiff.
As we’re driving down the motorway we kept passing car after car stuffed to the gunwales with optimum Owls flaggage and every time we overtook one there were waves, thumbs up and huge beaming smiles from both cars.
Other than that the drive down was pretty uneventful, well, I say uneventful, except for the turn we needed to take actual in Bristol to get to our hotel had a road block and diversion sign…
Was SatNav around in 2005? Not that it would have helped Beastie…
That meant we had to find another way in and the diversion was determined that it wasn’t going to be easy…it sent us around the city one way system… not once… not even twice… FIVE CHUFFIN TIMES!
I know what ya thinking: ‘You were lost Beastie!’
We weren’t exactly lost, we knew exactly where we were at any given time, chuff me, we got to know Bristol very well indeed by the fifth time round… I think people were queuing up to wave to us as we passed them.
“COOEE! Look Mabel, they’re here again….wave to the Northerners!”
Oh hell yeah, we weren’t lost, we knew exactly where we were and what we were doing at every twist and turn, we just didn’t know how to get off the ride and find where we needed to be.
As we reversed up a side street (the same side street we’d reversed up 3 times already) a bloke sussed we were lost, no idea how, and gave us directions. Fortunately they were very good, CONCISE directions (plus a little mime to make sure I understood what ‘turn’ meant). Oh aye, easy this direction finding lark.
Just as we’re approaching the hotel Oldskool rings and asks which one we’re in…
“Something called the Thistle mate….”
“WAH! That’s the same as us”
“Aye… Didn’t I tell you?”
I hadn’t told him on purpose so it would be a nice surprise… or shock, whichever way ya look at it.
We got settled into our room, got changed and we were ready for a nice steady night out.
Down in the bar we meet and greet both Oldskool and Neet Owl who are also changed looking dapper and are ready to go.
This was a new city for us so me, Hollie and Neet Owl didn’t have a clue about Bristol… not a clue… we needn’t have worried though as Oldskool chirps in with ‘I love Bristol, I know this place like the back of my hand!’
Excellent stuff, should be good then!
‘I’ll take you to where all the good pubs and bars are, trust me!
Too much effort for a pint?
We must have walked 5 miles, I kid you not.
5 long, arduous, soul searching miles… any longer and I was gonna start eating Neet Owl to survive. Worse than that, worse than the struggle of body and mind, we actually passed the starting point 3 times and when we eventually got to the pub Oldskool had in mind, it was 20 feet away… literally 20 feet away from the front doorstep of our hotel.
How can anyone know a city less than this? If Oldskool knew this place like the back of his hand, when was the last time he saw his hand?
Had it been in an industrial accident? It was the only explanation!
Still it was good fun finding our way about, stopping at pubs along the way, teasing Oldskool about us three already knowing Bristol better than he did!
Several drinks and one very expensive curry later it was beddy-byes time, we needed our sleep to be ready for a long day tomorrow…
Steve:Beastie
This first appeared at: http://www.owlsalive.com/rambles/2015/05/31/cardiff-10-years-on-wednesday-v-hartlepool-ramble/
Memory added on July 29, 2015
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