Monday, October 05, 2009

Day 204: T-Day!

Today's soundtrack: 'Til Tuesday - Coming Up Close - A Restrospective

Up early - very early - this morning, to catch as much of the Grand Prix as I could, then to sit at the computer pressing the F5 key until See Tickets coughed up a Glastonbury ticket for me.

Luckily, The Hunter was up for an early morning stakeout, so any chance of inadvertently oversleeping was removed. Six thirty, and I'm making coffee and watching cars driving round in circles.


The Grand Prix was a bit of an anticlimax really - missing the start didn't help, and by the time I was watching the shakedown for the final positions was all but complete. A win for Vettel keeps the championship race interesting for a couple more weeks, although points for Button and Barrichello really means the inevitable is just delayed slightly.

So - in front of the computer by 8:30, ready for the ticket rush. Really, I wasn't sure why I was bothering to get sorted so early - for the last couple of years, tickets have taken weeks, if not months, to sell out, and the level of 'noise' around ticket sales didn't give the impression it was going to be an almighty struggle this year.


But still, better to be sure than sorry. Last year, See Tickets had sneakily opened sales a good hour before the 'official' time of 9:00, so I thought it was worth trying early again this year. And sure enough, I managed to get onto a live sales site by about 8:50. Worryingly, the website 'fell over' a few times as I was going through the booking process, but I got the successful transaction screen just before nine - and the official confirmation email about an hour later. Simple - sorted. No mad panic.

Sent a text to The Boy just to make sure he was up and about, and getting himself sorted, then logged on to the Glastonbury forums to see how the day was unfolding (and to soak up just a bit of early Glasto 'vibe', man). To my surprise, it looked like things were getting a bit tough out there as the day went on - half the tickets sold by 10:00, according to the official Facebook page, with no sign of sales slowing down.

A few other successes - The Boy got a couple of tickets, as did Timmy and Moggsy, then Rhys - but one other member of the Wells Massive was having registration number difficulties.

A few issues with confirmation emails coming through, but again, updates from the organisers confirmed that they were taking ages to get issued...so don't panic, Captain Mainwaring! I was fine though, and could leave for the footy safe in the knowledge that I was sorted, at least.

And still the sales continued, and the website was rammed. Some early signs of mild panic on the forums, but no-one really believed they would sell out today, did they? Well - they did, apparently, 'Sold Out' notices going up at about 9:00pm.

Pleasing in one sense - it means that only the really committed will be there next year, not the people who decided to go on a whim - but also worrying that a good few mates might have been caught out by the rush.

Wonder who's going to be playing next year? A minor detail, though.

And so the footy. Had to go by myself today, father out at a birthday party and nephew playing football himself. You would ordinarily expect to be beating Stoke City at home - but they are a big, physical team and not really the sort of team you want to be playing on the back of a long European trip in midweek. Given recent injury problems, we had a pretty decent team out - but no Yobo or Pienaar meant starts for Bily on the left of midfield and Johnny Heitinga coming in at centre back.

And the game panned out pretty much as expected - a tough, physical game with few chances. Those chances that did arise in the first half came mainly to us - unfortunately we didn't put any of them away, something we would come to rue later in the game.

All square then at half time, but with us ahead on points. A situation that became irrelevant five minutes into the second half when Stoke took the lead from - inevitably - a set piece, Huth heading home from a corner.

Oh dear.


We continued to play pretty well, but with little penetration - but five minutes later we were level through a spectacular goal from Leon Osman. Captain for the day, and playing well, he exchanged passes with Johnny on the edge of the Stoke area before crashing in a left-footer from 25 yards off the underside of the bar. A lovely goal, totally out of character with the rest of the match.

After that, we kept pushing and should have taken the lead but Cahill's header from six yards was straight at the keeper. We flung on Jo and the Yak to add to the firepower, but this seemed to unbalance the team (Moyes, to his credit, admitted this was his mistake after the match) and the game fizzled out to a 1-1 draw.

Disappointing, but the unbeaten run stretches to six games now, and with more games under their belts, the newer players are beginning to settle in. With injured players still to come back, I remain optimistic for the season ahead.

'Til Tuesday on the soundtrack today. Mid '80s powerpop from the band that gave us Aimee Mann, and although it all sounds a little dated now, there's still some good stuff in there. They were never particularly successful in the UK - and not that much more successful in the States - but are worth seeking out.

Here they are performing 'Voices Carry' in New York back in 1985. Not convinced by the hair, chaps...

2 comments:

Simon said...

Oh well I guess I will just have to watch the coverage of Glasto on the BBC again next year from the comfort of my own living room! Apart from the music it is worth it just to see Mark Radcliffe get more and more "tired and emotional" as the evening progresses!

Like the choice of music today Paul. I must be one of the few people in the UK who was a fan of Til Tuesday before Aimee Mann's solo success here. I had picked up a promotional copy of "Everything's Different Now" in 1988 in the local second hand record shop (SellanBy!) and fell in love with it. Must have been my most played album for a few years. In pre-internet days I had to wait to my first trip to the US in 1990 to buy their other albums!

Simon said...

Oh well I guess I will just have to watch the coverage of Glasto on the BBC again next year from the comfort of my own living room! Apart from the music it is worth it just to see Mark Radcliffe get more and more "tired and emotional" as the evening progresses!

Like the choice of music today Paul. I must be one of the few people in the UK who was a fan of Til Tuesday before Aimee Mann's solo success here. I had picked up a promotional copy of "Everything's Different Now" in 1988 in the local second hand record shop (SellanBy!) and fell in love with it. Must have been my most played album for a few years. In pre-internet days I had to wait to my first trip to the US in 1990 to buy their other albums!