Train of Thought

Revolution is a Track Cycling event at the National Cycling Centre (Velodrome) in Manchester. I’ve wanted to go and watch since it launched a few years ago, and last weekend I actually made the time to get there.

It was a lot of fun. The event packs in around 15 competitions in one evening, and so there is always something happening on the track. Track cycling is quite varied, and when I saw it for the first time a few years ago, I was surprised how dramatic it was.

Apparently, there’s another event at the velodrome in February. I may have to visit!

I turned the trip into an excuse for a short holiday - two days in Manchester, and two in Leeds. This meant I could take a trip to The Lowry (recommended!), and a stop in Leeds on the way home. In Leeds I caught up with some of my family I hadn’t seen in a while, which was a very pleasant evening.

The picture shows the limits of my compact camera. At least the blurring gives you an idea of their speed!

It seems a long time ago now (I’ve been travelling), but last Tuesday I was in Coventry for the first time in many years. Readers who know me well, or have a good memory, will know this is where I grew up. I was travelling with Andy, and we were there to watch some football.

I’ve been watching Bristol City for a couple of years with Andy, and as they are in a lower league to the Sky Blues, there’s been little risk of divided loyalties at a match. This year’s FA cup changed that, and Bristol vs Coventry was drawn. Of course, I had to watch that! For the first leg in Bristol, I just sat discreetly in the Bristol crowd (it was easy to applaud them too!), and we watched an exciting, if scrappy, 3-3 draw. Setting up, of course, a replay at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.

I was quietly hopeful of a win, even setting up the right feeder line in my last post, but it was not to be. Coventry are in the middle of a long run of bad form, and Bristol clearly wanted the win. 0-2 was the right result, if disappointing. The run has been so bad, Coventry ditched their manager the following morning, and the fans were chanting “We’re shit and we’re sick of it” at one point.

Still, it all seemed very appropriate in some way. Coventry are a team who rarely win anything (apart from the FA cup in ‘87 when I still lived there), and slipped without much fuss from the Premiership a few years ago. My first visit to see them at home, in their new Stadium, was a loss. Oh well.

It was fun to see Coventry again (it did all seem very familiar), and the evening out in Birmingham that followed was also good. Probably because at least Andy was celebrating :-)

If you look very closely at the picture, you can probably see Andy grinning already, the away fans were having a great match…

So I missed most of the first half of Sunday’s match, and I arrived with the score at 2-2. The Titans seemed to be playing quite well though, and after a bit of a pep talk at half time from their coach, proceeded to score a few more.

It’s all quite disorienting to a Coventry fan - turning up to a football match, and having the team I support win!

I’ve posted up a photo album for 2006. As usual I edit out the pictures of other people, on the assumption that they might not want to be on the web. In these days of myspace and flickr, I feel a little old fashioned doing that! It has the interesting side effect of making my photo albums appear to contain a lot of pictures of me. Still, that’s good for my ego!

Time to ring in the New Year on this blog, albeit a little behind the curve. The actual night seems a while ago now.

As you can see, I’ve added a picture of me to the template of this blog, and also refreshed the pictures elsewhere.

Thanks to Liam, who took a rather good set of pics of me at the weekend.