17th August part 1

Blimey, its been a looooong 7 days since I posted anything on here, so I have decided to do this in two parts. A bit now before I go to bed and then a bit more tomorrow, when I can be bothered.
I was sat in Northampton last Sunday, the 8th August watching England wrap up the 2nd test against Pakistan and was a little down heartened that the game didn't finish and seemed to be going on to a quiet 4th day......... But then the commentator on the telly announced that as only half a days play was expected, the £60 admission fee for the Monday would be reduced to just £20....Well as I was only 40 minutes drive away and had no work to go to .....for the foreseeable future, it would be rude to watch on the telly. So I was up at 7.30 on a Monday morning for the first time in 8 weeks and off to Edgbaston.
I arrived at the ground about 9ish and after finding a bit of free parking I wandered to the ground through a nice park, chatting to a dad and his kid who had had the same idea and driven up from oxford for the day.

As I got to the entrance I was offered a ticket from a tout for a bargain £30!! When I pointed out that it was only£20 for a genuine ticket and to politely go away, he wasn't too happy. I wandered down to the official ticket office and got my ticket for the press box stand (£20) and then a radio for commentary and a programme to read before play started and then had a wander around before taking my seat. Its a pretty goo ground with a lot of pre-match entertainment and a massive new stand being built!!


It was a lovely sunny day and me and the 3000 odd spectators had a great time watching the last Pakistan wicket followed by a 100 partnership between Strauss and Trott to win the match for England. I also managed to get a few pics of the players and some ex players like Shane Warne and Michael Vaughn.It was a great day out and a good way to prepare for the games I will see down at the MCG and SCG. I cant wait.I got home with a little bit of sunburn (Must remember the sun lotion for Oz) and prepared for a few days down in Cornwall.

The next day I was up early again, packed my car and set off for Redditch to meet up with Dan and then after he finally got ready we set off for a short holiday in Cornwall.
The drive down was uneventful and we arrived in Newquay at Hotel Sunnyside about 6.30pm.

The hotel is right on the seafront and only 100yds from the town centre and when we met the receptionist (Fleur???) we found out that she was Dutch and were able to test all our rubbish dutch sayings on her - Hooooooeeeeeee arrrvonds and Room twee ein twee etc. She wasn't very impressed but played along anyway....haahaa!!

View from Hotel Sunnyside

The first night we went out to a few local bars and witnessed a lot of fancy dress including a lone smurf failing to find the toilets and loads more kids in varying states of drunkenness, basically having a good time. This all being a quiet Tuesday evening!!The Hotel is just above the cliff in the photo

A few beers went down well and after a long day we decided to go home and get up the next day to visit Lizard point and Goonhilly satellite station and maybe do a Segway tour........................
Ill continue tomorrow!!