"The Biggest Dump in English Football"

Another Tranmere awayday yesterday - I went with Matt Holsgrove to delightful Gillingham which was recently voted by The Observer readers as the worst football ground in the country.

It actually doesn't look too bad from the above photo, but bear in mind I took it from the uncovered away end which is a temporary stand (although as there are no plans to replace it, it seems quite permanent) piled on top of a large amount of scaffolding... A welcoming sign at the Away Fans entrance stated: "No tools, knives, bottles or wrenches allowed." They obviously forgot to add "pool cues" to that list.

The game was fairly awful (rather than horrendously awful) and we found the verbal exchanges between a section of Tranmere supporters just below us and Gillingham fans just above us far more diverting than the game itself.

Final score: Gillingham 1 Tranmere 1
(which was at least an improvement on Matt's prediction after the first 10 minutes that "this game has got 0-0 written all over it.")

Dave

Our Friends in the North

...well, family really. My mum and sister Colette popped down for a few days. It was Colette's birthday on Thursday (she looks 27 but is really 48!) so for a surprise birthday present we took her to see The Lion King musical. If you're in Warrington you probably got a text from Colette in the interval telling you where she was!




On Friday myself and mum visited the British Museum. The incentive for this was to find out what benefits Mum was entitled to for being a paid-up Friend of the British Museum, specifically what the 'Friends Room' was like. But our dreams of a Pall Mall Gentleman's Club-type lounge with plush red leather seats were dashed when we discovered the room was more like a dentists' waiting room and about the same size. However, the Museum are hoping to buy some curtains for the Room soon...

So we decamped to the famous Reading Room instead:



Mother and daughter have now been safely returned to Warrington.

Dave

Been There, Skied That

At the end of January we spent a week skiing in La Tania in the French Alps with our friends Andrew and Liz . Sara has now been on a few skiing holidays and is getting quite good on the red runs and was disappointed not to graduate to a black! Dave however was a 'debutante' and spent most of the week either snow-ploughing or falling down mountains. However, by the end of the week he was getting to grips with the green runs and even tried out a couple of blues.

Here's a few pics....

Apres ski with Andrew and Liz:

Evening colours over La Tania - that's mist in the valley....