Having not slept well, and still feeling rubbish due to dehydration and tiredness it was a very early start on Tuesday with an alarm at 7 and leaving by 8.  This was due to us needing to get to my mums as quickly as possible as it was my Grandads funeral today.  Unfortunately the M25 had other ideas about us getting their as fast as I wanted and by the time we got to the M3 we’d been on the road over an hour and I was feeling even worse and my other half had to take over the driving.

As it turned out, by the time we made it to my mums everything was organised by her and her sisters so we could just sit, chat and watch the Olympics until after lunch when we went to the church.  The funeral was sad, but not too much so as he was 103 and had had a good life with a good family.  After the service, we drove to the cemetery for the burial before going back to my aunts.  There it was good to catch up with my aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces & nephews as we don’t see each other very often!  There was also a good spread, and we made up for missing setting up earlier by setting out the food and handing round teas and coffees – something that my life as a ministers daughter has made me rather used to! 😉

With my other halfs encouragement, and with my mum and everyone being fine about it we made our excuses and left around 4 as I had a ticket for the TeamGB women vs Brazil match at Wembley Stadium.  My other half had worked out that going to Brockenhurst station was the best option as we were about to hit rush hour traffic so she couldn’t get me anywhere closer.  Unfortunately we got stuck through the forest behind a hay lorry, and then at the level crossing so by the time I’d got my stuff together and bought a ticket I’d missed the first train and had to wait 30 mins for the next which did at least give me time to properly get my stuff together and leave my other half with my bag and stuff I didn’t need!

I didn’t know how much of the match I was going to miss, but thought it was worth a try and in actual fact all the trains worked in my favour – the train got into Waterloo a few minutes early and I got straight only a tube train and when I changed at Finchley Road again I only had to wait 1 min for another tube train so by the time I got to Wembley Park the match had only just started and I joined a stream of people heading towards the ground.  I thought one of the policeman said as I passed that we were 1-0 up but I thought that can’t be right against Brazil!  Getting into the ground was easier than either of the two previous venues but probably because I only had a carrier bag rather than a rucksack and then it was into the ground only 15 mins late to meet up with my father-in-law and discover that yes we were 1-0 up!!!

This was my first experience of Wembley Stadium and thanks to the pricing for Womens Football we were in Club Bobby Moore seats and they were fantastic – just behind the dugouts and very padded and wide seats with armrests.  They were very similar to the directors seats we had once at Brighton last season so very comfortable!  The atmosphere in the stadium was electric and with just over 70000 there was a very good attendance for a womens football match.  The quality of the football was high, and both sides had their chances but England probably had slightly better of it and were worthy winners despite their being no more score.  It was a shame to miss the goal, but so glad I went and despite the long day and journey didn’t miss much of the match!  We stayed behind a bit after the match to take photos and clap the team as they did a well deserved lap of honour.  I hoped to pick up a programme after the match but all the retail outlets were shut – very disappointing!  The other difference to going to mens football was the queue for the ladies which was enormous at each block – not a problem usually! 😉

When we came out, despite the result there were a group of Brazilian supporters samba dancing and just generally having a good time which was good to see and the atmosphere continued despite us being held several times on the way to Wembley Park station by the police in a huge crowd.  The only problem we had was trying to jump all the horse poo! 😉  Getting to the station it was so busy I was quite worried that the tube train would be rammed which I really don’t like, but moving to the end of the tube I may not have got a seat but it was actually not that busy otherwise which I was grateful for.

Getting to Green Park, I changed to the Victoria Line and got to Victoria in time to pick up a Burger King (hadn’t really had dinner!) and pick up the 11.34 home.  The effects of the last three days were starting to really kick in and I was feeling really tired and a bit rough.  The train wasn’t too busy (unsurprisingly at that time), and I was able to doze a little bit on the way home but even so getting home at 1am meant the day was very long!

Wouldn’t have missed any of the day, or the previous days though – just looking forward to a couple of days at home!!

Note : You can see the pictures and videos that I took by clicking here.