It’s late

​I’m going to write a blog about all the Saints games that I attend this season. So that’s a treat for you all!! 

The first home game of the 26/27 Championship season was against Stoke City. We had started the season away to Watford and had lost 2-1, our defence having given away two entirely avoidable goals, so pre season hopes were already wobbling. 

The teams are announced 75 minutes before kick off (no I don’t why it’s 75 minutes either!). Although it does give ample time to share your thoughts on the selection with your fellow fans on WhatsApp . This weeks comments were mainly around Taylor Harwood-Bellis not being on the squad and with just over a week left in the transfer window, that meant that he was obviously “on his way”! Otherwise the team was close to what you’d expect. 

We started positively and scored in the first 10 minutes after Flynn Downes threaded the ball through to Cyle Larin who ran from the centre circle outpacing a Stoke centre half (who looked like he had diving boots on!) and then stuck the ball through the legs of the Stoke goal keeper Victor Johansson. 1-0 and all is good until the 26th minute! 

Then Stoke bring the ball forward and pass it out wide to ex Saints player Sam Gallagher who despite being a strapping centre forward when at Saints now plays on the wing! He does what he should do and crosses the ball into the Saints penalty area aided by no Saints player being anywhere near him to stop the cross. But it’s fine as there are 5 Saints players in the box (and a goalkeeper) so they’ll deal with it. Except they decide to play “after you Maud” or musical statues which allows Ethan Galbraith, Stokes big summer signing,  to glide in the area and put the ball into the Saints goal largely unchallenged. 1-1! 

The rest of the first half and the start of the second half are fairly mundane, with Saints playing better after half time as Stoke start show that they’re happy with a point. This gets worse as they start to show they know all the dark arts required to waste time. This is best illustrated by after a delay for some serious injury like a broken finger nail, their goalkeeper has to run back from the half way line as he’s been chatting to the coaching team!! And this is meant to be being stamped out this season!! 

Something has to change and it does after 78 minutes as we take off what should be our two best chances of scoring, Cyle Larin and Leo Scienza. To be fair Larin regularly got hooked after an hour last season and Scienza was never in the game having been doubled marked and therefore nullified. So on came two new signings, Divin Mubama and Lewis Dobbin, one on loan from Man City and one we bought from Aston Villa to give some Premier League quality and so it proved albeit there was another 10 minutes of life threatening cramp and the like before we scored. 

When it came the goal was simple and a thing of beauty. Dobbin goes through the middle of the pitch passes to Finn Azaz in the “D “ of the Stoke box, first touch he plays a perfectly weighted pass the Mubama, he takes a touch and then scores in the far corner of the Stoke goal with his favoured left foot. Cue wild celebrations including Saints captain Jack Stephens collapsing in the Stoke penalty area with an attack of cramp, just to make a point! 

2-1 and we steady ourselves for Stoke raising their game and 5 minutes of back to the wall defending but instead we score a third and it’s a comedy of errors. Flynn Downes plays another lazer guided pass into the feet of another late substitute, Sam Edozie, who looks and probably is a yard offside. No flag is raised and he takes the ball into the area where upon Stoke defender Svante Ingelsson, brought on to shore up the defence, bundles him to the ground giving away a penalty and getting a second yellow card and hence a red card for his troubles. We have two penalty takers, Larin and Scienza, neither of whom are on the pitch so Mubama and Edozie have a game of “rock paper scissors” to decide who’ll take it before Jack Stephens as captain intervenes and tells them the manager has told him Ryan Manning is to take it. This is does and sticks it in the bottom right hand corner just past the dive of Johanssen. 3-1 and shortly after the final whistle goes.

So on paper a comfortable win, but in reality had Stoke upped their game and stopped all the dark arts they could have caused us a problem or two. They chose, however, to try to protect the point they had and ultimately were well beaten by the end. 

Glass Onion

 The Beatles "White Album" is an album  that I don't think I've ever played from beginning to end. Or even from beginning to part way through. It's not clear to me why or how that's happened, it just has. One clue might be that as Apple Music describes it, it's an "eclectic, 30- track album of largely stripped down music". I sort of knew that and I suspect somewhere in my subconscious is that knowledge which has stopped me from playing it or at least starting to do so. Anyway "Glass Onion" from that album popped up on a playlist today and firstly it's a great song that I had no memory of ever hearing before and secondly it made me think about never hearing the album and then about what other albums by bands I love, I have never played.

I need to be clear here, these are not albums that I've heard and didn't like (much of Genesis after "Duke") it's albums to which I've just never listened. Which sounds daft (and it is to be honest) but, for example, Physical Graffiti was another album that until it was bought for me a couple of Christmases ago, I had never sat down and played all the way through. Now both of those are double albums so maybe that's one barrier, but "Afraid of Sunlight" and "Somewhere Else" by Marillion are not and I've never played either of them! Nor is "Let it be" by The Beatles and I've not listened to that either. Another example is Bruce Spingsteen's "High Hopes and I loved it's predecessor "Wrecking Ball". 

But is listening to an album still "a thing' these days? How many of us just ask Siri to "play my music" and skip what we don't like or are not in the mood to hear? (other voice activated services are available!). Or compose playlists and play them? Sitting and listening to an album was the only option in the past but you also had to own it, so maybe our listening tastes have been irreversible changed by "all you can eat" streaming services, but they also remove the excuse of not ever listened to something because you didn't own it. But it also means you can listen to the ones you like more easily, just look back at the end-of-year reviews that your streaming service of choice readily supply. 

Anyway what's your "missing" listening list look like? 

I'm off to  play the "White Album"! 

I’m gonna sit right down and write myself a letter

I’ve struggled with this blog for most of the time that I’ve had it. Latterly over “what or who is it for?”

In part it’s just so I can write, which is school of the blindly obvious I know, but true none the less. So in part is what I write is less important than that I actually write? But then I want the words to mean something. Which brings me to the next question. Who are my audience? Am I writing for myself or for others and if so, who are those “others”? All very deep and confusing.

My Dad wrote a “memoire” before he died, and I and my family have loved reading about parts of his life that we didn’t know about together with reading his take on stories of which we were aware. My sons have together encouraged me to do the same and I’m starting think about what that would look like (or read like, to be more specific!). There’s always that feeling that “my life” would be of no interest to anyone but reading what Dad wrote was fascinating and I only wish we’d talked about parts of it more before he died. So I hope my family might similarly talk to me?

l’m not planning to share it at this stage, but never say never!

Little pink houses

Im a bit behind with my travels, so I’ll cover a few stops in this one blog. 

After Pontevedra, I participated in some time travel. Unbeknown to me, Portugal and Spain are in different time zones so when you cross the border, you lose an hour, or travel back in time, 

(Crossing the border)

My first stop in Portugal was Viana Do Castelo and a mighty fine city it is as they switched on the Christmas lights as we arrived. Actually drove through the crowds for the big switch on. There was a medley of Christmas music that is co ordinated with a brilliant light show and it’s very well done. It plays every hour, on the hour for ten minutes or so until 10pm, except at weekends when it goes on to midnight. What’s slightly less good is when your hotel is yards away from said light show, oh and you’re there at the weekend!! I’ve eventually got the Mariah Carey ear worm out of my head!! It was a seriously good light show though. 

(The lights, but my poor photography doesn’t do them any justice!)

Viana do Castelo also has a funicular railway that goes up to the Sanctuary of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which is a Catholic Church high above the city. Of course I went on it! The church is worth the climb up both in its architecture and the views the site gives you all around the city and coast line. There was a mass under way while I was there so I only briefly saw the inside, but that was beautiful too. My step count is still important so I walked back down the 200 plus steps and was glad I took the train up! 

(The church and associated views)

My stay in Viana also included a day trip to Porto, but that will get its own blog.

After Viana I went to Esposende, a surfing resort with a great beach that stretched for miles which included an impossibly long boardwalk that also helped my step count. 

(The beach and church)

It also had one of the most effecting churches I’ve come across so far. Why, well it was empty which sounds silly but the silence and beauty of this simple building was what I needed at that time and it moved me. 

Next on my trip down the Portuguese coast was Costa Nova, which is a peninsular roughly 21 miles west of the city of Aveiro. Again a long beach with the power of the Atlantic  present, but this place had a charm of its own, based around the houses that lined the streets, which were mostly painted in stripes from top to bottom. The history is that originally the fishermen would paint their huts that they used for storing pots, lines and other equipment red and black stripes so they could see them on the shoreline. This developed into painting these huts a specific colour, say red, with white stripes so you knew that was your hut through the mist and fog and your neighbour would be yellow and another blue, etc etc. Over the years these designs have become the norm for all properties so that every one is more or less painted a different colour with white stripes and the whole effect is both charming and beautiful. Obviously I liked the red and white striped ones best!

(Striped houses)

As someone who has lived a largely black, white and grey colour scheme over the last few years, seeing such vivid colours reawakened a part of me that needed rediscovering. No more black hoodies, jeans and trainers. 

I’ll end this blog here as it’s getting too long. Stayed tuned for Aveiro and beyond! Oh and Porto!

Honesty

This trip is very much an exploration of foreign travel for me as the last time I went out side of the UK was over 20 years ago and my trips abroad have always been in a group or when I was married. Finding what I like about where I’m visiting is therefore a new experience and it’s taking time for me to understand that. If you had said to me this time last year that I’d be travelling around Spain/Portugal, I would have said you’d mistaken me for someone else. If I’m really honest, I was treading water, fooling myself I was ok and literally shutting out the world by keeping curtains closed as my garden was horribly overgrown. Over the last 8 months much has changed in my life and latterly very much for the better. This trip is a good way to bring this year to a close and begin 2025 in a new place with exciting possibilities. 

At first arriving somewhere without a place to sleep was rather daunting and finding a place to eat even more so, as my previously documented attempts to order dinner prove! But that changed as I got more confident. Now I’m arriving somewhere mid afternoon or later and booking a room there and then plus finding dinner in a place I don’t know, and it’s fun and I’m loving the variety and spontaneity of each place I visit. 

I didn’t think I was a museum person but then I went to Pontevedra museum! To be honest it was free and I’m ashamed to say that was what initially attracted me. It was amazing however and almost too big to take it all in. There was room after room  - 6 floors, half had 4 big rooms, half had up to 8 rooms - of paintings, sculptures, statues, furniture, relics and pottery/ceramics. Mostly it was art works and there were far too many to do justice to many here, but they were from the Middle Ages to this century, mainly Spanish artists and of all shapes and sizes (murals to miniatures). I loved the variety of styles, the way that emotion was expressed, that an artist could fill three massive mural size painting with life as he saw it. In some just the colours used spoke to me and there were modern paintings where parts were three dimensional with objects reaching out from the canvas. I left feeling lifted by the experience and grateful that notwithstanding my reason for going in I’d found something that I’ll always remember. 

Pretty green

We left Lugo for Foz, which is actually going backwards across northern Spain, but there was a reason for doing that which I’ll cover in the next blog. (Oh a bit of tension….)

Foz is a coastal town of c10k residents that like a lot of northern Spain, was once a fishing village but is now mainly dependant on tourism. 

After sourcing and checking in to my hotel, a walk along the coast was taken as it was late afternoon and slightly overcast, the colours of the scenery started to change as the sun started to set and some of my most scenic photos to date were taken. That walk reminded me that just being there in the moment is important, whatever the time of day.

Dinner was a local pizza restaurant and the owner was a fan of motorbikes as there were two on display (think Hard Rock Cafe, but motorbikes not guitars) and then one wall had 30 of so bike helmets from various sources. The pizzas were excellent and the sink in loo was great too!!

I can take no credit for many of the places I’ve been to as my friend and driver is far better at seeking out the jewels on her travels and this was especially true the next morning when we arrived at Playa de las Catedrales or Cathedral Beach. What a beach! It’s clearly a well known local tourist spot and was reminiscent of Durdle Door in Dorset. 

I was there late morning and it was quietly busy with other visitors, so I took myself off down one side of the steps down and started taking in the amazing beach and the even more impressive cliffs and rocks including the star of the show as per the picture below. Having moved along the beach to the other side from where we were parked, the wow moments continued. As part of the Gallic traditions of the area, a bagpiper was on the beach playing which just added to the must see element of this amazing place.

After a quick coffee break (with a green tray) it was on to the next stop, a lighthouse on a small island linked by a short bridge. This houses the two lighthouses of Ribadeo, one now accommodation and the other, built at the end of the last century, in traditional black and white. The sea surrounding the island was rugged and powerful, which made the experience all the better. Another great find.  

A great couple of stops, seeing our beautiful planet at it brooding and colourful best and it was time to return to Lugo, again!!

Another brick in the wall

My journey continued from Oviedo to Lugo. 

Lugo is a walled city and that’s a proper walled city where you can walk around the walls and I know that because I did! It’s 1.27 miles if you’re interested and to be honest it’s still that even if you’re not!! It was built in the 3rd Century BC by the Romans (what have they ever done for us?) and is apparently the only city in the world still surrounded by completely intact roman walls. This makes it a UNESCO world heritage site.

(the Wall or rather the path at the top of the Wall)

I stayed in two different places while there, one a 4 star hotel and the other an AirBnB. The hotel was amazing and when I checked in the receptionist uttered those magical words “I’ve given you an up grade” and I had a suite! A real proper lounge, bedroom and bathroom with two sinks! Free water, crisps and slippers too! My bed was big enough to be in two separate post codes back home! Ok no more exclamation marks. 

(The view from my suite!)

I loved Lugo - not just because of the suite - as for me every street had a view around the corner that made you smile, none more so that when I came across Lugo cathedral for the first time. It was around lunch time and I came at down a side street and there was just this beautiful church in the sun, which I walked around ending at the front in all its majesty. I took many photos of it from all over the city and at all times of day. 

The food in Lugo was also great with a couple of particularly good places for breakfast near the hotel and a square in the centre of the walled city with a row of excellent restaurants. I tried two of them and one I actually ate in or outside 4 times. My ordering is getting better and I mainly got what I wanted! 

After two nights of luxury, it was time for a bit of domesticity as I needed the use of a washing machine and AirBnB provided a very nice apartment with a washer drier and it was home from home for another two nights. 

I used this time to explore more of the walled city, including the aforementioned wall walk, and took in two amazing murals, one of which (Julius Caesar) I’ll admit I missed the first time, despite seeing it when we drove into the city. 

(Is this a dagger I see before me…. Well yes actually!)

My apartment had a Celtic theme to the rooms and I was in the “love knot” apartment!  🤣🤣🤣. Well I loved the washer/drier!! It was also slap bang in the middle of the walled city so all the good stuff was still close by!



I’ll remember Lugo for lots of reasons, all mainly good and for being the place they gave me an upgrade!