A day of queuing

 



My alarm went off at 5.30 a.m. today - a reminder that I needed to get down to Southampton to queue for tickets for Saints' away game against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on 15th September.  I didn't get away quite as early as I had hoped and arrived at St. Mary's Stadium at 7.45 a.m. to find that the queue for tickets extended from the ticket office to halfway along the Northam Stand.  I was fortunate enough to be able to park my car in Rochester Street (one space left) and join the queue.  Before very long, the queue behind me extended around the corner and well down the Kingsland Stand.  I met Shaun, Andy's lad, who said that there were 1,000 tickets and I estimated that there were about 300 people in front of me. Two lads in front of me were getting 13 tickets and I also heard that one man was picking up 52 tickets.  A quick calculation told me that it might be touch and go to get the tickets as if each of the 300-odd ahead of me averaged 3 tickets then I might be okay but only by a thin margin.  At one stage, an official walked down the line with a "clicker" and when he reached the end of the queue he must have said something negative as quite a number of "hopefuls" left.  I finally reached the tick office window at 12.15 p.m - four and a half hours after joining the queue. At least I was successful and came away with two tickets!  Hurrah!  Today, Sara, Thom, Mary and Mary's friend Harriet spent the day at Thorpe Park enjoying the rides and, in one case, queuing for over two hours for a two minute ride!  As soon as I had got my ticket I jumped in the car and drove to Farnborough where I had a lunch meeting with a client (originally planned for 12 noon but put back to 2 p.m.)  I spent the rest of the afternoon in my meeting finally getting home at 6.30 p.m. - shattered.  I watched the end of the England v South Africa One Day International from the Ageas Bowl on the TV which resulted in an 80 run victory for South Africa thanks primarily to a 150 runs innings by Amla.  what a great cricketer he is.  South Africa now lead the world rankings in Test, T20 and ODI cricket.  Tonight, Southampton FC beat Stevenage 1-4 in the second round of the Capital One Cup (League Cup).