Strike Factory

I celebrated my blogs 10th anniversary with a few drinks around pubs in Burgess Hill on Saturday 30th May, with one survivor of that infamous Brighton pub crawl that led to blogs creation Andy Rumble. Also attending with us were young Bobby Rumble son of Andy and Scott McCarthy, cheers guys it was a great aftern

oon. Sadly my drivers licence being missing mean't I could not go out in Brighton later on. Plus loved this badge (pictured to the left) to celebrate the 10 years. Great to feel like a 10 year old again. lol

Other than that been mostly addicted to the French Open tennis the last week or so, as well as the usual business at Crawley CVS, and receiving an award yesterday at Tilgate Park for my loyal volunteering for the organisation since January this year, thank you it has been a pleasure and fun working with the people there and gaining experience. 

So that is all you need to know for this week. 

After the slight business and stress of last week, I decided to take a trip down the coast visiting the old Sussex Cinque Port Seaford and nearby Seven Sisters, plus visiting the sister Oxfam shop to the one in Crawley as under same regional area. Last night I attended play The Ghost Train written by Arnold Ridley at The Capitol Theatre in Horsham. A show featuring Jeffrey ) Corinne Wicks (Emmerdale, Doctors), Sophie Powles (Emmerdale), Tom Butcher (the Bill, Doctors) David Janson (Get Some In!, Allo Allo!, Keeping up Appearances), and Judy Buxton (General Hospital, On The Up).

The Ghost Train is set in 1920s and about 2 couples, a spinster and a buffon bloke being stranded at a rural railway station in Cornwall for the night after missing a connection and having a stationmaster tell them stories about the stations past and some ghost stories linked that freak them out but are they really true? It is a good comedy thriller that takes place entirely in the waiting room of the station. Its based on a true story of Arnold Ridley who is famous for Dads Army being stranded at Mangotsfield Station, something we can all relate to especially my experience of being stuck at a certain rural railway station down the road from Horsham. 

In 2003 during my brief adventure in youth politics after a weekend at a West Sussex Youth Parliament meeting at Lodge Hill on outskirts of Pulborough, me, Dave Smith and one or two other people (whose names I can't recall) were given a lift to Pulborough Station which serves a rural commuter village. Only problem was it was a Sunday and chilly evening, and it would be an hour before next train would arrive, so we were a bit stranded. The waiting rooms were locked, the main facilities was an interesting bookshelf in the ticket office, and keeping warm in the subway linking the platforms. It was a station with a curious Victorian charm that had 3 platforms however due to Beeching cuts in the 1960's one of the rail lines was taken out which mean't only 2 platforms are now used with an empty trackbed serving the third one. We mostly huddled together to keep warm chatted about various random stuff and when we got bored, Dave decided to have an adventure up and down the trackbed with no rail line thinking it would be harmless and we were the only humans in the station. However a minute into Mr Smiths adventure on the 'Ghost Line' suddenly out of the blue at the Signal building just outside the station a man emerged and promptly told Dave off that he was breaching health and safety, acting like a train would come even it was clear no train had come up this part of the station since about 1965 with no railway lines. Is there a 'Ghost Train' that uses this deserted platform I wonder hence warning Dave off the derelict trackbed?

So in the last week there has been a general election here in the UK, seen some change in government, and also the Crawley CVS where I volunteer will be renamed on 1st June 2015 to Mike, in a similar way to TV Channel Dave and drugs service Frank, partly in tribute to the great manager Michael Simpson. Only joking it will become Volunteer Crawley, next month and enjoying the experience.

I am feeling much brighter than last week after my post mentioning I was having a bit of a difficult week and keeping positive, with plans to see Ghost Train next week at the Capitol Theatre in Horsham, with ex Emmerdale stars Sophie Powle, Corinne Wicks, former The Bill star Tom Butcher and David Janson.  Also the 10th anniversary of this blog gets closer with plans going ahead of how best to mark the anniversary, with a few people keen on getting involved.

Finally giving tennis blog Smash Gazette a go, helping Simon Cardy out, and we could do with more contributers so if you like tennis and want to write the odd entry get in touch with me or Simon Cardy on Facebook or twitter.