That Time of Year Again

The weather seems to have turned already despite it not even being September.  The warmish wind we had for a while has changed to a cool, damp one, resulting in me wearing socks and a hoodie. Of course we will all live in hope of a few more days to top up tans and get 'the legs out'.

I don't mind the cooler days. I start to think of Halloween and bonfire night, birthdays and then Christmas.  Yes, yes I know but autumn and winter have a lot more 'going on'.  What happens after Easter?  Nothing for months - especially when you have no summer holiday to look forward to....or to talk about when you come back.  

In fact it's pretty hard work when you have to find things to occupy bored children for days on end.  Then they go out to play, completely lose track of time and then you spend most of your evening trying to track them down.  When you do, comes the old chestnut "Can I have just five more minutes??  Pleeeeeeeese??  Followed by a tantrum of epic proportion because 'everyone else is staying out' and 'You're the worst parent ever'.  

My seat - far left of balcony above boxes

However, I digress.  The title of this post refers mainly to the fact that tomorrow I will be warming my cold grey plastic seat up in level 7 of The Milburn Stand in St. James' Park. It's like first day back at school when you're not sure who will be in the seats around you.  So far we have been lucky to have people who we actually know..spookily, three years ago we found ourselves between a good friend of hubby's and his son and Alexander's classmate and family.  How coincidental is that?  We have had some moron's behind us, but there are so many of them in there it's only to be expected. 

I don't look forward to the 14 flights of stairs I have to climb to get to my seat. It takes a good 3-4 weeks of regular home games to get to the top without needing medical attention, but still requires a few minutes of heavy breathing before I'm capable of asking for a coffee at the refreshment stand.

So today I will dust off my match day clothes, check my match bag has tissues, wipes, lip balm, hair bobbles, gloves, and headache tablets and head off with hubby and youngest for pre match pizza full of hope and excitement for a new season. Will this be the one that sees us booking trains to London?  It's been a long time since we had drinks in The Blackbird pub just outside Wembley...

 "Expect nothing and anything else will be a bonus" 

That should be our club motto.