Spotting 2025 – Weeks 6 & 7

Lets not beat about the bush – Life has been very disrupted over the last 2 weeks. I haven’t been able to do much of my normal Spotting or Football related activities. Lets talk things through…

Much of the period between my last Spotting post and the end of week 6 was spent handling funeral arrangements. In the middle of all that I had my own issues – an annual appointment with the diabetic nurse. A 6 monthly meet with my Optometrist and, additionally, it was time for the car to have its annual service and MoT test.

The car duly went in on the Thursday morning and I agreed with John, our friendly dealer of many years, that I would collect on the Friday morning as I had an Optometrists appointment that pm. It was on that evening while my extended family were having another of their ‘planning’ phone calls that I asked a pertinent question – Had they given the clothes they wanted Victor buried in to the undertaker? Of course… they hadn’t even thought about it 🙄 Sure, they’d decided what he should be buried in but not how to get the clothes to the funeral directors. Sometimes I should hush my big mouth because you can guess what I would wind up doing after collecting the car on Friday 😅

So I set off for Letchworth with Epi and a suit, gown and lawyers wig… Just past Welwyn Garden City on the A1M at 70mph, I got a tyre pressure alarm! Immediate concern – did I have a blow out!?- Unlikely or I’d be all over the road. I backed off and kept a soft grip on the steering to see if there was any obvious pulling to either side. I couldn’t feel any handling issues and as the alarm was for the front left I really should have been feeling some pulling to that side if the tyre was deflating.

I took it easy into Letchworth and drove through the town to Nyaradzo’s Funeral Parlour where we found a party getting ready to depart on a funeral procession. So all I could do was drop Epi with the clothing and proceed down the road to find a side street where I could park up until she was finished with the business. While I was parked up I used my ‘Pilot Skills’ – I kicked the tyres. As far I could see, they were all at a good pressure.

With the clothing delivery complete and Epi now needing a ride back, I headed to Mill Hill to get my mechanic to take a look. All the tyres were correct pressure and he thinks that they forgot to reset the alarm after the MoT service – apologies received.

The 8th was a great Saturday – Wingate & Finchley beat Dover Athletic 2-1 in a reprise of the famous win down at their ground earlier in the season. 10 out of 10 for our loaned in keeper Matteo Salamon – coming out and taking a big hit early on to deny Dover a goal scoring chance at the start of the first half…

Sadly a couple of the Dover ‘fans’ behaved badly after the match – An issue that their club seem to be aware of and are trying to deal with.

Wednesday was the day – Victor was travelling to Zimbabwe and Epi was on the same flight. I travelled with her down to Heathrow with three suitcases – two of them filled with his discarded clothing to be shared amongst the less well off of the family in Zim. The plan was that I would travel back in my usual ‘trainspotting’ way. I must have had some prescient feelings though because I decided to leave the camera at home. Just after leaving Hayes I got a call from Epi… The funeral directors wanted some payment before they would continue with dispatching the body on the plane! It was a Panic Call because the only person in a position to facilitate such a payment was me. Epi was already airside and Gabriel was en-route from France. And – Guess what – no one else has any money. End of my relaxed day out… Back home asap to chat with their accounts guy and pay around half the bill. That was my Birthday summed up in a nutshell. Epi only remembered when I WhatsApp’d her the Cookie Monster with a big heart on Valentines day…

I watched the flights using Radarbox and saw her safely down in Zim on Thursday evening. It didn’t take long for the Aunties to contact me – please send certain documents – Happy to do that 😎 Since then everything has been quiet… Too Quiet and I really don’t know where things are going.

I took the opportunity for a trip out on the 13th – I intended to get the 232 to New Southgate but I think they’ve re-jigged the service so the bus runs a little later and doesn’t connect. Knowing that I wouldn’t get the train I stayed on to Arnos Grove and found myself in the middle of a major Piccadilly Line disruption. A signal systems failure meant that the line was closed between Finsbury Park and Earls Court. Surprisingly I picked up 3 of the Piccadilly Line units I needed while just doing a hop to Cockfosters and back that day! I did actually pick up a lot of haulage too on a bitterly cold day during which I took no photographs!

Apart from that I’ve been here – waiting in case I need to do something else to progress things. Alasdair went to Leicester last Thursday but came home today. It was nice to have someone else in the house. Unfortunately his journey home was slightly affected by a tragic ‘struck by a train’ incident at Wellingborough. Our thoughts are with all those involved.

I hope next week will see some normality return to my ‘Spotting’ 😎👍