A trip to Wembley.

My day didn't get off to a very good start this morning when I had an argument with a woman van driver in Moulton! I was approaching a parked car on the other side of the road, so I had the right of way, and rather than stop and wait for me, she just barrelled her way through, even though she'd seen me coming, no doubt thinking I'd give way. I was fed up anyway, so I  just aimed for her and received a load of abuse. I gave some to her as well! I was able to squeeze past, but it left a bad taste in my mouth, and set the tone for a very trying day!

Work was fine but I was only there until 2pm as Sophie and I were going to see The Cure at Wembley this evening. Sophie had taken today off and had a terrible headache so I popped to the chemist in Moulton on my way home, bought her some extra-strength Nurofen and bought some more very posh cat food for Monty to tempt his appetite.

At home, I changed and freshened up and we left at 3pm. Google maps said we should get to the arena in about an hour and twenty minutes, but as it was bitterly cold today and icy, I wanted to leave some extra time. It was a good job we did!

The M1 was busy, no doubt because of another rail strike today. We made good progress but as we neared Toddington Services, Sophie said she needed the loo. We pulled off the M1 and I was amazed at how much lying snow there was! We made our way cautiously into the services, bought some chocolate and then headed back to the car. By now, it was getting dark and a bit foggy. Not a very good day for a journey!

As we drove out, astonishingly, we saw a car on its roof! How on earth it had ended up like that, I'll never know! I think the driver was OK as a young lad was sitting nearby looking a bit shocked! We drove back onto the M1 and I took it very carefully!

A little further on, as we approached Luton airport, the traffic slowed and we saw an ambulance and police car flash past. There's no hard shoulder here, so they had trouble getting through. I was feeling quite nervous, to be honest, and things got worse when we passed Luton, as the overhead gantry signs started to say  "Leave at next exit". Huh? 

There were four lanes of traffic now, all of us travelling slowly, and the signs were right - there'd been a serious accident and we had to leave the M1 and drive onto the A414. Getting four lanes of traffic into two is not easy but we managed and we relied heavily on Trish to get us where we wanted to go. Unfortunately, she couldn't cope so we turned on Googly who directed us through a series of pretty villages (beautifully decorated houses) and back onto the M1 near Watford. Phew! I hadn't a clue where we were!

We'd booked a table at Pizza Express for 6.15pm and I was very doubtful we'd make it, but once back on the M1 we made good progress, apart from the signs saying a lunatic cyclist had been spotted on the motorway, and Sophie actually saw him, dressed in dark clothing with no lights! What madness!

We parked easily at Wembley in the red car park, which was all undercover, and dashed to the hub of shops and restaurants. Eventually, we found Pizza Express and joined the throng of diners squeezed into the restaurant. It was packed! We ordered starters of mushroom arancini, doppio doughballs and a pizza each and soon relaxed. We speculated as to how many of our fellow diners were seeing The Cure as well!

And relax!

After we'd eaten and paid the bill we walked the short distance to Wembley Arena, passing the stadium on the way.

Part of Wembley Stadium

There was a throng of people going in and we were subjected to airport-like security, which was reassuring. Sophie wanted a tee shirt so we queued up before going into the arena.

Our seats were almost at the very top of the arena and I was terrified I'd fall! We squeezed into our tiny seats and I sat next to a young man who was definitely on the spectrum, as his behaviour was very erratic and he never stopped moving! When the band came on, and people were still finding their seats, he kept standing up and down trying to see them on the stage!

Sophie and I like The Cure and they played two of our favourites - Pictures of You and Lovesong, as well as a lot of songs we hadn't heard before. The audience was mostly made up of people my age, and surprisingly, they were quite rowdy! I don't think Sophie was in the right mood for a loud concert and the constant jostling and loud clapping got to both of us! We decided to leave before the first encore, which I think was the right decision as I didn't fancy trying to get out with thousands of other people!

We enjoyed the music and the lights and background visuals were brilliant, but I don't think either of us was in the mood for the crowds and noise! We walked back to the car and made our way easily out of London onto the M1. We had one more hurdle when junction 15 was closed, but we made it home for 11.30pm. Thank goodness we're both off work tomorrow!