The Jane Genie

I'm back from my weekend in Carlisle. Some of it was awesome and some of it alright and some of it just cool.
We travelled up on Saturday morning, and we were at Gma's at 11ish after exactly 5 hours, including breakfast in Tescos. We dumped stuff and then went in her car to the ground where everyone was assembling for the guided tour of Brunton Park. I didn't really know what to do at this point, there wasn't anyone for me to talk to so I just kinda stood there and ogled the place.

We went inside and stood in the trophy room which was cool and then we walked down the corridor which led into the changing room and this was one of the best bits of the weekend for me. All the shirts and kit were folded neatly around the room and they said we could walk round and take pictures. Neil told me to get a picture of Peter Murphy's shirt, because he's his favourite player (and rightly so, he's a legend). I got stupidly excited when I saw Danny Graham's shirt and went over to it and took a picture and touched it and wondered if he'd notice if it went missing. We left that room (reluctantly) and went across to the boot room, the medical room and the away changing rooms. We then got led down the tunnel, and out onto the pitch. We weren't allowed on the pitch itself, but we sat in the dugouts and got a feel from the managers point of view. We walked round the pitch and took pictures before going up to the sponsors lounge for lunch.

It took a while for lunch to come through, and during the couple of hours we spent in the lounge, we had guest visitors in the form of Jimmy Glass (a Carlisle United hero; the goalie who scored a goal in the last minute of a match which kept us in the league in 1999. Wiki him.), and Hughie McIlmoyle, who many consider to be one of Carlisle's greatest ever players. After lunch, we went and took our seats and watched the teams warm up and all that jazz. My presentation was shown several times over the period of the match, and it looked alright I think.

The match was fantastic. The weather was perfect, and Graham Kavanagh scored a screamer in the first half, followed by another great goal from Paul Thirlwell. We won 2-0 and everyone was ecstatic, although the joy was ruined slightly when the army of chavs in the unison stand decided to jump the barriers and swarm the pitch before the final whistle was blown. The players were screaming at them to get off the pitch, and when the whistle went, the pitch was completely invaded. The players did what I would have done and left the field as quickly as possible. Player of the Match went to Kavanagh, who came up to the lounge after the match to get his new watch as his prize.

After this, everyone seemed to just be waiting around. I was so tired, and not desperate to go for a meal. We did anyway and it was nice for the first hour, until Dad got drunk and I ended up trying to persuade a bunch of his friends that I didn't drop football because I got into boys like Dad had apparently told them. I got really quite pissed off at the fact they wouldn't believe me, and tried to tell them that they don't know me, so how could they possibly believe that. I ended up feeling pretty uncomfortable and I just wanted to go home.

This morning we got up and went to the training ground where the London Branch supporters football squad, PLUS Jimmy Glass (!) were playing the Norwiegan branch (?). They won 3-0 or something, Jimmy scoring most, or all, of the goals. I was busy trying not to freeze my baps off. And after that we went and grabbed some sandwiches and came home.

PICTURES. I did take like, one million, but here are some of the best:






Hughie McIlmoyle:


Jimmy Glass:








♥