. . . . Ricks Extra Long Summer . . . .: 10 mile run, Meeting the Queen and impressions of a cat.

So after getting back to Northampton I had a quiet night in before getting up the next day and going out for a run. I had already decided to just run until I got tired, but after an hour and 15 minutes I still wasn’t tired, but my legs had started to ache. I eventually ran for a little over 90 minutes and got back to the house having ran 10.1 miles. The longest run I have done in well over 2 years and later on I found out that I had ran past the house where one of my mates off Ozbus mums lives!

I spent the next couple of hours stretching and relaxing in the bath and then trying to keep my legs moving so that they don’t seize up over the next few days.

Wednesday came around and after getting a haircut – my first real haircut in 9 months since I last had it done in Perth, Australia last June – I got the bus into town and then the train to Redditch, where after a chippy dinner me and Dan went to the local pub for the Wednesday night quiz night.

We did ok this time coming about 12^th out of 25 teams. While we were there, Neil, one of Dans mate came into the pub on his way home from Afghanistan. He flew home this afternoon and needed to pick up his car from work and as Dan had the keys he met us in the pub and stayed for a coffee. It was good to see him home after a 6 month tour.

Dribbly train man

Waiting on Crewe Station

Thursday was another travel day. So after a breakfast in Redditch it was another train journey up to Manchester via Birmingham New Street.

I ended up sat opposite a bloke on the train who fell asleep and had dribble hanging out of his mouth as the ticket collector woman came along and woke him up before having a conversation about which trains are the best ones to catch if you want to avoid buying a ticket!! A strange thing for a ticket collector to chat about but according to her, its best to travel on a Saturday lunchtime train as there are loads of people and a lack of ticket collectors, so less chance of being checked!! Thanks for that.

She is just one of the people I have come across on my travels in the last couple of weeks. On the way to Skegness last week there was a woman who was doing a loud impression of her cat. She sat there purring and meowing whilst explaining to her friend about how friendly her cat was. I looked around the bus and saw a few people trying to curb their laughter.

Also on the train yesterday was woman talking on her phone in a quiet carriage. A big bloke sat behind her made a fuss about her talking loudly and then asked if she spoke English – she obviously did as she was talking it into her phone. He then pointed out the sign about the quiet zone and she ended up moving seats.

There was also a couple on the bus to Skegness from Peterborough who had been on holiday. They were explaining to a woman behind them about how they had been up most of the night due to staying in a hotel near the airport in UK after their foreign holiday. They said this was due to the jetlag they were suffering. I nearly laughed out loud when they explained that there was a massive 2 hour time difference to get over and that they would be early to bed tonight. Maybe it’s their first trip abroad.

On the same bus was a woman going to Butlins in order to attend a Country music festival. She spoke very loudly into her phone whilst asking to jump the queue when she arrived as she’ Didn’t like to waste time’. When they told her that she should join the queue with everyone else, she put the phone down and had a rant to her friend about the poor customer service (She used a lot more words than ’poor’.)A few other people on the bus also smiled at this. I do like travelling and seeing different people as well as listening to their conversations.

So it’s been a good week for people watching and today myself and James did a bit more of it. We went down to Media City, where the Queen was there to open the new facility officially. We got there early and stood waiting for the queen whilst chatting to a few of the people around us including Scouse copper who was a good bloke and took our attempts at Manc/Scouse humour well - even admitting that he has to get his passport stamped to come to Manchester but only gets a short Visa. James also got interviewed by a reporter for the Manchester Evening News and we got our photos taken by the her. There is a big pullout in the paper over the weekend, so we will see if we make it into the final copy.

James and teh Manchester Evening News reporter

The Queens car, my hand and phone and the friendly scouse copper.

Then the Queen arrived, but headed straight into the Studio building without a word to the crowd. But we weren’t disappointed as when she left the building she headed straight across from the door and walked past us within 2 feet. I was really cool to get that close and we got a lot of photos and a video of her as she passed.

Me in the sunshiiiiiiiiiiiiine

The Queen arrives

Starting her walkabout

We then moved to the other side of the plaza where there was a Charity mile run for Sport Relief to be started by the queen and we stood and watched that as it started and then finished about 10 minutes later. We did have a good laugh taking the piss out of one security guard whose sole job was to stop people standing on the wire that started the fireworks. There was also a massive conga line of people dancing their way around the mile long run.

She came quite close...

...then even closer!!

Then she went past...see the video at the end of the blog.

It was a really lovely sunny day and me and James had a really good time messing about in the crowd and getting as close as we did to The Queen.

She starts the Sport relief run

Off they go


Conga time

BBC Sport studio

After the run had finished and The Queen had left we had a look around and took a photo at the plaque that Queen had unveiled as well as looking more closely at The Tardis and Daleks. It turns out that the Tardis door has a smaller door in it that we opened, so see inside and discover that the Tardis isnt bigger on the inside and in fact is used as a storeroom to keep some spray paint and a broken plastic box lid. You dont see that on Dr Who!! Haahaa!