Away The Lads

I am not a great football fan, which might explain why I have been to four Swindon Town games in the last month or so. Yesterday's home match against Exeter was a little different - I watched it with a good friend sat amongst the away supporters. There were 950 of us in the green seats shown above. This gave some protection against the cold breeze, rather than being in the open Stratton Bank seating behind the goal (also known as the Adkins Family Stand and oddly sponsored by Divorce-Online.com).

A strange experience having to show contradicting emotions to those felt inside, but I justified my presence as both my parents hail from Devon and one of my grandmothers once died in Exeter . Though she was just a rubbish comedienne.

Fortunately, a 0-0 draw prevented too much chance of inappropriate reactions and nobody suspected a thing, even when I didn't join in the chanting. Sadly they used neither of the songs I had researched - Bob Marleys ' Exeters - Movement of The People' nor The Pointer Sisters 'I'm So Exetered'.

The away fans were generous in their comments toward Swindon and particularly for the rapid winger O'Brien who repeatedly skinned the right back. If only he could learn what to do with the ball from those positions. I have seen just one Swindon goal in the four matches, and now without Charlie Austen they have to do something about this to avoid relegation this season.

It is over 39 years since my first visit to The County Ground, where I watched Arsenal beat Swindon 2-0 in the FA Cup. The photo below is me, in my Arsenal Corner, from that time.

I Think I Would Like One Of Those

Thoroughly enjoyed the BBC's Stargazing Live at the start of the month. A welcome fix of Professor Brian Cox to kick off the year. Sadly the UK weather conditions did not allow good viewing of the solar eclipse and meteorite shower in the UK, but the programme made up for this.
There was the 'Funniest Live TV Moment of the Week' which you can see top right, where everyone was oblivious to the meteorite in the background. And the Pacman (not Jeremy) style photo above which not only shows the solar eclipse that day, but also the International Space Station passing across. I often see the ISS pass overhead, and the timetable for this can be seen on the NASA website.
After the show I really wanted a telescope. I could then see for myself the craters on the moon, the moons of jupiter, the rings of saturn and the fuzzy bit within Orion where stars are being born. And perhaps the occasional comet every 72 years. And lots of little light things.
A good telescope is not cheap, but it is something I might look into.