Sunday 14 September 2008

Madonna and the Yomp

This week I went to see Madonna at Wembley Stadium with Nicole, Andrew and Crystal.

Madonna put on a fantastic show despite her late appearance, sound problems and London transport.

With the 2012 Olympics on its way I suggest that Boris sorts out the transportation problems at Wembley once and for all, and I also suggest the underground system is open 24 hours.

We parked in North Harrow and got the tube into Wembley Park Station no problem at all, and enjoyed the show even with the shoddy sound system.
Then as we were crammed into Olympic Way with around 60,000 others all heading to Wembley Park station they decided to shut it early. Stranding us a mile away from our car, as we started to walk people were asking us which way to North Greenwich and which way to Victoria station... Oh Dear, Sort it out Boris.
On an amusing note, I have got to take my hat off to the Police Officer who after the station announced it was closed, calmly asked around 60,000 people to turn around and head back to Wembley stadium. Very brave man indeed.

Yesterday Captain Dog, SAS Steve and I completed the 2008 Thanet Yomp. We had a beautiful day and what we considered to be excellent Yomping weather.

Starting at eight thirty this year we went the other way around towards Broadstairs from Ramsgate. Last year we noticed there was a lot of graffiti and started counting all the homophobic statements, the count was high. The count this year was to be swastikas and I am pleased to announce that we counted only one. We also noted that Thanet council has cleaned up the graffiti around the sea wall.

On our way into Minis bay we were overwhelmed by the smell of rotting sea weed, one of the most disgusting smells I have ever smelt, is this a normal occurrence at the seaside? I have never seen it before the sea looked like an oil slick.

Once on to the country half of the Yomp we decided to stop at three Pubs.

First stop was The Bell at St Nicolas at Wade, where I had probably the finest pint of Adnams broadside I have ever had. Here we met up with about 30 cyclists on an organised country pub crawl, what a fantastic idea. We then headed off to Minster and The Bell Inn, a very nice pub indeed where I had a pint of Sharps Doon bar from Rock in Cornwall.

We then moved on for the final stretch back to Ramsgate stopping at The Sir Stanley Gray in Pewell bay for a quick pint of Pheasant Pucker.

We finished at about 5.30 on Ramsgate seafront.

Well done to my fellow Yompers and we are all ready in discussion about next year’s direction. Although, today my legs are in tatters and I am currently considering retiring from the Yomp.

KK