A “Lost” Weekend In Cheltenham

So hard to know where to begin with the adventures in Cheltenham.

The journey there wasn’t that great. A large hen party had taken over most of the train from Liverpool. They got off at Crewe, thankfully.. Then, after a dramatic change at New Street (making the train by the skin of my teeth), I sat in a seat where someone had spilt a drink, which was…unpleasant.

Once at the station, I was met by my gig companion for the trip, Phil, and off we set for the hotel. I was banned from using my phone and the map app to find the way. Phil had a map. It was on the back of a Post-it note. On the front of the post-it note was a map of Gloucester, which had got him to the hotel and venue there with no problem. Sadly, the back of the Post-it was somehow faulty as it didn’t really get us anywhere but lost. (Taking the wrong turn out of the wrong side of the station probably didn’t help much either.) Asking directions resulted in me (not Phil) being wished luck as the first couple who chuckled at his map. The next two people we asked were my favourites though. They seemed like a friendly couple of chaps, and they were very helpful with directions, at least to the town centre. One of them asked if we were from Liverpool, recognising Phil’s accent. When Phil confirmed that was where we’d travelled from, the reply was “I was in Walton prison” The only thing Phil could come back with was that he’d seen Gloucester prison the day before.

Anyway, after finally starting to head in the correct direction (via Google Maps!) we conceded defeat and hopped in a taxi to the hotel. A quick change of clothes and a bite to eat later, it was time for another taxi out to the venue. This trip included a lengthy wait at a level crossing. Once at the venue, we realised that the tickets were back at the hotel! Are you sensing a theme with this trip yet? Thankfully, Phil had spoken to the promoter the day before in Gloucester, as there wasa problem with our Monday tickets, and this meant that when we explained the situation to him, he gave us replacement tickets to get in with instructions that we could probably sit in any empty seats.

I think that all the excitement caught up with me that night, and I had a rather nasty headache start up during the second half of the show, causing me to miss some of it. Hurrah for going two nights!
After a bit of a faff to get a taxi back out to the hotel, the night was over. I was still fighting the headache, so it was straight into my jammies and off to bed!
The next day was spent in the company of Alex, who picked us up at the hotel and took us around for the day. Before we set off, we made sure we had the tickets this time. (The original ones, two of which were wrong and we needed to exchange for Monday ones.)

Alex took us to some fabulous shops, and she caused us to spend far too much money on a tidy haul of goodies, including for me – two Eagle annuals from the sixties, a Circus Boy annual and some Marvel books, plus a few other bits and pieces.
After an unexpected mystery tour of Cheltenham – we weren’t lost, Alex knew where she was going, just not from where we started – and another wait for a train at the level crossing, we were back at the venue for my second gig of the trip, Phil’s third and the very first Wakeman gig for Alex and her mum. I hope they enjoyed it.

Alex gave us a lift back to the hotel, and guess what, there was another wait at the level crossing. Alex had commented that she’d not seen the lights flash at the crossing for years…!
After a hearty breakfast, where we were joined by Alex again, it was time to drag our now very heavy bags onto a train. Another quick, but thankfully less dramatic change at New Street, and we were on the train home…and relax! Erm….no…
There were a couple of “wrong” announcements that it was the train to New Street, not Lime Street, and then came the news that there was a signalling fault around Wolverhampton. This caused a delay of about 40 minutes and eventually led to us being told the train was going to terminate at Runcorn. In the end, we were told to get off at Crewe and change onto the train after ours to get back to Liverpool. Getting in about 50 minutes later than we were due to it was good to be back at last. A short jaunt into the town centre to pop into work was followed by me grabbing a taxi home to examine my purchases and go through my photos of the trip.
While not everything went as planned on the trip, it was quite an adventure and is already entering into legend. In years to come, long songs shall be sung of our epic journey to the centre of Cheltenham and environs.