Strike Factory

We at Strike Towers are happy to hear of the birth of Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, daughter of Prince William Duke of Cambridge and Catherine Duchess of Cambridge, and it got me thinking of one of her distant ancestors also Princess Charlie, called Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales (Princess CEDs first cousin seven times removed).

Princess Charlotte Augusta was in the time of her short life the only legitimate granddaughter of the reigning King George III (Plus was a Capricorn who like had misfortune to celebrate birthday in early January). She was a result of the short lived arranged marriage of Prince George of Wales (later King George IV), and his wife Caroline of Brunswick, who apparently disliked each other so much that only had sexual intercourse once that resulted in Charlottes birth, which means her existence was a bit of a miracle. Her parents separated after her birth and she saw little of her mother Caroline growing up as she was blocked from the Royal Estates in the UK, and also in the care of servants and governesses saw little of her father who was married illegally to his mistress Maria Fitzherbert and had other women in his life whilst having fun at his home the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, which meant the Prince Regent was not a popular figure to take over from his father George III who was deemed mad, so Princess Charlotte Augusta was seen as a ray of hope for the Royal Family and the British Empire as a future Queen Of Great Britain.

As an adult she married Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfield, despite her father pressuring her to marry a Dutch prince that would go on to be King William of the Netherlands, the marriage seemed a perfect match, and she became pregnant. However tragedy struck when on 6^th November 1817, she died giving birth to a stillborn son.  It left the nation in shock and deeply mourning similar to the death of Diana in 1997, her former suggested partner Prince George of Orange although married to another lady wept with grief and his wife ordered the ladies of their court into mourning.

Most effected by her death was her heartbroken husband Leopold who took some time to get over the death of his beloved Charlotte and stillborn son, however he remarried and became the first King Of the newly formed nation of Belgium in 1831. Meanwhile the Royal family was in a serious crisis, as Prince George had no other legitimate children and his brothers were mostly middle aged single and had no children of their own. Eventually the Royal British and Hanoverian siblings scoured Europe to find ideal spouses to bear children that would the heirs to the throne of Great Britain, eventually it was Prince Edward Of Kent who succeeded and 2 years later his newly married wife Victoria gave birth to Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent, who in 1837 became Queen Victoria of Great Britain.

Lest we forget Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales

So in the last week or so we have had yet another St Georges Day or Shakespeares birth/death day (It is believed that its possible he not have been born on the 23rd April though he certainly died on the day), and also ANZAC Day with the start of the 100th anniversary of the Battle Of Gallipoli, where many British, Australian and New Zealander soldiers lost their lives. It also has a link with my family as my brother Stephen was born on 25th April, and its become annual tradition for him to receive ANZAC biscuits on his birthday. 

So this time next month (30th May 2015), will be the 10th anniversary of this blog, and I recently got reminded of a night out in Brighton just 2 days before this blog was born with Andy Rumble and his friends going on a pub crawl, seeing USA Vs England and chatting up girls that liked a bit of tennis at pub formerly known as The Prodigal, and was one of the influences that led to this blog being born. So there are plans to recreate that crazy night out next month to mark 10 years of Strike Factory, at a venue yet to be decided but most likely will be various venues in Crawley and Brighton, more details to come soon.

I will be also attending #Insomnia55 in Coventry in August a games convention, and possible I will bump into the We Got Game duo of Matt and Darren, who I had the pleasure of meeting, when they were filming a project in Greenwich last year and I came along to assist as spectator and give my usual random knowledge of wisdom and where Amy Willerton got the word 'tubby station' from me. 

Finally will be getting out and about in parks and maybe a trip to Seaford so if you see me, give me a wave. :)

For my brother Stephen sorry I forgot the ANZAC biscuits but here is the flags of Australia and New Zealand.

On Saturday I traveled up to Wigan to watch the Albion play (my first Albion away match since seeing them beat Portsmouth at Fratton Park in 2011 though later that season I also traveled to Upton Park to watch Albion play FA Youth Cup match), but seeing as I arrived in Wigan at 9.25am (originally there was a plan to play some tennis with a Wigan supporting friend, but work came up for him, so Plan B) I decided to get a train down to Manchester for the morning, seeing the sights of this fine city and to visit the National Football Museum. 

The museum is certainly worth a visit if you are a casual or diehard football fan, although based in Manchester and thinking it would be full of Man U and Man City stuff though you can't beat an Eric Cantona art mural, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of Albion stuff in the museum, from the FA Cup final shirt, to stuff about BHAFC during World War I. Indeed the Footballers in World War I exhibition on the top floor was certainly a highlight esp discussing about football amongest soldiers in the trenches, and that apparently the infamous Christmas Day 1914 football match truce is a bit of a myth, though there was occasions that English and German soldiers played football against each other whilst there was fighting elsewhere on the Franco-German borders. 

After getting some lunch I boarded a train from Manchester Victoria (a 19th century station in the final stages of getting refurbished with a fine map of the Yorkshire and Lancashire Railways in 1900), I traveled to Wigan Wallgate, and from there walked in the sunshine to the DW Stadium about a mile away. Have to say the football was pretty forgettable, and felt a waste of a journey esp as not exactly the richest person about Albion boys let me down and hope they bounce back next week or results go our way (at the time of writing Brighton are not virtually or mathematically safe). After the football, and a bit of booze at the pubs, with the gang, and a little selfie. We got the train back down to Euston, though I had to get a slightly later one than Scott McCarthy, Mark Potter and co, and had to change at Crewe to avoid being on train that would virtually stop at every West Midland station before arriving at Euston though about an hour later than the rest but had a bit of a knees up at Bree Louise pub, before jumping on the Drunklink service from St Pancras International back to Three Bridges and ensuring Mark Raven got home safe and sound. 

Would like to thank Garys Gang for helping me set up Soap Babes facebook page, which I recommend liking if you like ladies of soap opera the link is at left hand side of the screen, and finally also thank you to Carley Stenson, a lady I have mentioned about in the past having seen a few of her shows on TV and in theatre, for the retweet about me welcoming her to the blogging community with her new blog about her love for animals and acknowledging Strike Factortys upcoming 10th anniversary next month. Always knew some of the ex Hollyoaks cast gang were secret readers/ fans of this blog.