Yesterday was a fantastic day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Songs playing in my head on my morning walk this morning were One day like this - Elbow and London Calling - The Clash
OK, the planned walk. A few weeks back hubby said he'd like us to go to the Emirates stadium to watch the FA Cup final on the big screen. I wasn't that keen really, but he said we could walk first - from Kings Cross. Nope, not far enough, I negotiated upwards to walking from Piccadilly which I was happy with. However next day our elder son, always a great motivator, visited and I told him the plan and he said "That's only about 5 miles, you could do something really amazing and walk from Chelsea to Arsenal, you've walked from Chelsea to Piccadilly before so you know what those extra 3 miles will be like. Oh come on, just how much did you hate those 'little horse' comments from Mourinho ....walk from Chelsea to Arsenal wearing a yellow ribbon on the day we win the FA Cup, that would be awesome." And it was.
(But I didn't bother with the yellow ribbon)
So we got off the tube at Earl's Court, walked through Brompton Cemetery to Stamford Bridge. Hubby was a bit tense (well, he is a gooner)I was a bit grumpy because we had a couple of slight hiccups on the way. My younger son had a ticket for Wembley and we dropped him off at the station (he was going with friends) before we started our journey by car. A very excited young man showed his ticket to his Dad and then forgot where he had put it (takes after me, that one). Eventually it was found (inside his closed laptop) and we left. I spent a lot of time helping look for the ticket and hubby asked me if I had my Oyster card, I told him where it was and he got it for me. This was a bad idea, I should have insisted I got it for myself but I was otherwise engaged. We had driven about 7 miles when I remembered I didn't have my Arsenal membership card with me; I had left it on top of the Oyster card so that anyone who found the Oystercard would also find the membership card. Well I thought it was a fool proof system - apparently not. So we went back for it, no problem really we had plenty of time, just a bit annoying.
I was also a bit grumpy because of a few small incidents while we were walking to Stamford Bridge. The first one was when a woman whispered too loudly to her husband 'let's just get past these people, I don't want to be stuck behind
her' Yep, I'm very fat but that doesn't mean I'm slow. She did
not get past me I made sure of it. This has been a favourite pastime of mine for years, speed up so they don't have a hope of getting past me. Husband usually just smiles and speeds up too. After a Muse concert at Wembley, the same thing happened, and I declared I was going to always wear a jumper (see how prophetic that was!) when I was out and next time someone did that I would speed up, take off my jumper revealing a T-shirt saying 'I may be fat but I'm in front of you' . Never quite got around to it. Incident number 2 was when we were approached by a tourist asking the way to Arsenal because the Piccadilly line was closed. (It wasn't). Hubby told him he could walk with us, but he declined and looked at me and said it would take me till tomorrow to get there. This was a good thing to say to me because there was no way I was going to fail now. Incident no 3 was when hubby said did I want a photo of myself next to a photo of a Chelsea player to send to our sons to prove I was there. Then he said what about Frank Lampard. OMG FRANK LAMPARD???!!!! Just how fat and slow does he think I am???? I chose Ashley Cole, - seemed appropriate for the occasion.
I was so focussed on the walking that I had forgotten about food and water. We went to M&S and got lunch which we ate at Green Park. I was not too happy, I just wanted to do the walk as quickly as possible. Hubby soon got the hint that I was not waiting for the green man at crossings and ran across the road with me. Knightsbridge and Oxford Circus slowed us down - too many people. I needed a machete.( - you know, that episode of the Simpsons where Bart says to Lisa 'I am going to just stand here swinging my arms and if you get in the way.....') All went well until the hill after Kings Cross. A couple of weeks ago I found that I could no longer give my heart a workout by walking quickly on the flat. But now I'm a bit breathless again. I have a slight cough, so it's probably asthma. I usually get it mildly at this time of year. I needed to stop and check that my pulse was regular several times on that hill, I knew I was struggling but could push on through, but I didn't want to jeopardise my future health by being foolish now. Also having had so much chiropractic treatment only days before I found it difficult to maintain correct posture on the hill, my legs and lower and middle back were fine. The problem was my upper spine from my sternum up to the top of my neck. I had to keep stopping to do neck retraction exercises because I had a few muscle spasms which made me yelp, I also had to massage the tiny muscles near where the bones broke in November. So that hill really slowed me down and messed up the time. I would have liked to have done it more quickly.
We have measured the distance this morning and from Earls Court to Arsenal on the route we took was 9.47 miles. Total time was 3 hours 40 minutes including the stop for lunch (maybe 30 minutes). After the match we walked past Highbury and Islington tube station (another mile) to meet our elder son and his girlfriend who had watched the game in a pub there. We had a drink with them and the atmosphere was brilliant.
How long is it since Arsenal won a trophy? 16.5 hours.
