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31st March - We headed into Barnsley to sort out the problems we have been experiencing with the banks.Only time will tell whether all their promises are met, but based on previous experience we don't hold out much hope!We also went to the Barnsley Football Club Shop to get some car flags and scarves ready for the trip down to Wembley at the weekend before going to see my cousin Lisa's family, where we got treated to a tour around their new house which is still being built in a neighbouring area.Tonight we went for a wonderful Indian meal in Dodworth (an area of Barnsley).This being a Monday night we were the only people in there so we got first class service and very full stomachs! It's so good to get proper curry again.
1st April - A quiet day today but Kirsty's mum made a Sunday dinner on a Tuesday for the fact that we didn't have one on Sunday!Lovely!We are definitely getting used to British meals again but our waists are starting to show their appreciation too!!
2nd - Another day of not doing too much (we took the dog for a walk to the shop, post office etc. and even that feels like an adventure nowadays as most people are at work during the day and can only meet up with us at night).We went round to Kirsty's friend Jenny's house for tea and had a fantastic Chinese takeaway while chatting and watching The Apprentice and Ralph is now an official convert to the show!!Thanks Jen!!
3rd - Didn't get up to much today but in the evening we went to Huddersfield to meet up with our friends (who have recently celebrated their first wedding anniversary with a trip to Italy) Janet and Martin.The journey there through the hills and countryside of Barnsley and Huddersfield was lovely, and it was great to see Emley Moor Mast again!They took us to a lovely pub near Brighouse which did fantastic food and we enjoyed chatting so much the staff were sat waiting for us to leave so they could lock up!We went back to their house and Ralph was treated to one of Martin's special coffees, which Ralph says is the best he has ever tasted - even better than Starbucks!We will see Martin again at Wembley supporting the Super Reds on their FA Cup journey and so we headed back to Kirsty's parents shattered but having had a fantastic night out.
4th - We headed up to Annan in Scotland to see Kirsty's friend Helen and her two children David and Lucy.We were treated to a lovely lunch made by Helen of chicken and bacon pasta bake with garlic bread followed by a variety of beautiful homemade cakes made with brambles from their grounds - delicious!We were also offered Cheesestrings on the side by David but decided to turn those down!Helen lives in a beautiful farmhouse out in the wilds and it's a stunning place with wonderful scenery.After a lunch, a good old chat and some time in the playroom with the children (Kirsty's hair was much improved with all the clips and bobbles David and Lucy decided to add to it!) we headed back South to the Metro Shopping Centre in Gateshead where we met our friends Lisa and Tommy for tea at an Italian restaurant there (our poor bellies!).Lisa is currently 6 months pregnant with baby Abi and Kirsty is going to be a very doting Godmother, not that you could tell Lisa was 6 months pregnant as she was still as tiny as ever and wearing children's clothes!!It was great to see them and catch up with everything that's been going on while we have been away and Ralph and Tommy certainly enjoyed themselves - sinking so many shots of some lemon type stuff that the owner had to bring out the bottle!Leaving there we headed back to Brighouse as Kirsty had left her purse in the pub last night.Luckily it was still there with all its contents, so we left relieved and headed back to Barnsley.
5th - Kirsty was up at 6.20 to pick up her sister from her boyfriend's house so we could all get ready for the convoy down to Edgeware, London, ready for the match at Wembley tomorrow.We had an agreed meeting point and at 8 a.m. we joined the 6 car convoy down to Wembley.The car was decorated with scarves and flags and the mood was certainly excited and expectant as London drew closer.Once we arrived we went to a local pub to watch the other FA Cup semi final, which was being played today, West Brom v. Portsmouth.Unfortunately we were only able to watch part of the first half as, this being London, they had to switch over so their customers could watch the Arsenal v. Liverpool game!Never mind, my friend Tommy came up trumps again letting me know that Portsmouth had won and were therefore in the final - we were down to the last 3!!We went and checked into the hotel and then made our way into London (apart from Ralph who decided he would rather listen to the Nottingham Forest game on the internet.He obviously chose wisely because Forest won 3-1 and he backed the winning horse in the Grand National and won £50.00!)After getting into central London we took a walk around Leicester Square and Covent Garden (lots of celebrating Portsmouth fans and expectant Barnsley fans in Leicester Square) and then Kirsty, her mum and two sisters Kariss and Kaycia split off to go and see the musical Wicked at the Apollo Theatre.It was a wonderful show and we all had a great time - it's the story of how the wicked witch of the west came to be so and it ties in with the story of the Wizard of Oz fantastically.We could recommend it to anyone.We then made our way back to Edgeware where Ralph and Kirsty's dad were propping up the bar and made our way to bed.
6th - This is it - our big day!We were pretty surprised when we got up as it had been snowing over night and all the roofs and grass were covered in snow.It was pretty but all we could think was how cold it was going to be in that stadium!We had breakfast and got on the tube to Wembley fairly early and headed towards the Barnsley designated pubs - what a nightmare!They had only assigned two pubs (one of them was tiny) to the 33,000 travelling Barnsley fans and so we had to queue one-in-one-out style to get in to the only one that looked big enough.Once in there we had to queue at the 4 deep bar for about half an hour to get served and so two drinks for everyone was the only way to go!The pub was of course crammed to the rafters, as well as the space outside, with Barnsley flags being waved and songs being chanted, one of our (clean) favourites being "Tell me mam, me mam, to put the champagne on ice, we're going to Wembley twice, tell me mam, me mam!" (due to the cost of building Wembley both the semi finals and final are being held there to recoup some money).Once out of there it was time to make our way to the ground.There were some small instances of trouble between Cardiff and Barnsley fans and unfortunately it was not policed well enough for anything to be really done about it (they should have expected some trouble between a Welsh and an English side!), but luckily these incidents were few and we managed to steer the kids around the trouble.Once in the ground (oh how it needs the two towers back on the walk up towards that famous arch!) we split off from the family to meet up with our friend Martin who was steadily drinking with Janet's dad and brother before taking his seat.After a quick chat we headed to our seats and inside - what a stadium!Its really impressive and looked great covered with a sea of blue (Cardiff fans) and red (Barnsley obviously!).Barnsley's mascot Toby Tyke jeered up the supporters (not that it was needed on a day like today!) and then we kicked off.Unfortunately we conceded a goal in the ninth minute, which was a real shame as Barnsley were definitely the better side in the first half and missed loads of good chances.The second half came and our donkey of a 'goal scorer', Odejayi, missed an absolute sitter one-on-one with the keeper from only 8 yards out. As Kirsty's dad said, it was harder to miss the goal than to score it.From then on we knew we had blown it as we struggled to maintain possession, and when the final whistle went there were tears (mostly from Kirsty's mum!) but we felt we had done well in this great Cup.We just hope Portsmouth win now!!Once we got the tube (very well managed by the London Transport Authority) and walked back to the car we set off home, and it was pretty sad to see all the hundreds of Barnsley coaches heading back up the motorway with tired fans onboard, all decorated up in Barnsley colours for their big day out.
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