My Adventures at Sheffield

Hey everyone,

This is the first non-bookish/literature/writey-related post I have done on my blog. I have been away for the past week in Sheffield (went up to watch the semi-finals and the final of the World Snooker Championship. Had an absolutely epic time. In a very rare (literally the first time, I think) moment, there is a picture of me on my blog. I’m that dashingly handsome (a guy can dream, right?) chap in the middle, squinting into the sun, wearing the pink shirt, black sweater combo. Here is a little bit about my time away.

The first part of my time away was probably the worst. We stayed in a hotel chain known as Novotel. I have stayed there before and have enjoyed my stay in the past. The stay this time was fine, but the room was not. Upon entering, I found that my shower had damage to it (it still worked, but was still damaged), the carpet had either droplets of blood or red ink on it at random intervals around the bed, the safe was locked so I had to go back down to reception to have them open it for me and … strangest of all, there was a three foot inflatable banana underneath my bed … seriously:

I took the banana home with me. There was also a child’s toy in the safe when it was unlocked. I gave that to the room attendant who unlocked the safe as payment. He seemed pleased.

My friends and I are huge snooker fans so were absolutely buzzing with excitement to get to the Crucible. I would insert another pic, but it would have been the feature pic. So feel free to gaze at that as often as you please.

Upon walking out of the winter garden really loud rap music started playing and I immediately thought ‘dear Lord, this is awful’. I immediately changed my tune when this, accompanied by two more similarly dressed guys came whizzing around the corner on their grannified segways to the beat of the music:

The one in my pic followed me until I agreed to fist-bump him … he then very loudly pronounced to the crowd that I had ‘fisted him in public’. Not ashamed at all 😛

The snooker itself was a bit hit and miss. The semi-final between Mark Selby and Ding Junhui was one of the greatest matches I had ever witnessed and that was worth the ticket price alone. Sadly, John Higgins vs Barry Hawkins will be remembered as one of the worst semi-final matches. Thankfully the final between Mark Selby and John Higgins made up for that poor semi-final … well not in John Higgins’ eyes as he lost 18-15 to Selby, but it was a far better show for us spectators.

I bought one heck of a cool shirt whilst at the Crucible, instantly fell in love with it as it kind of implies I get way more action than I actually do. In other words, it implies that I get any haha:

Another highlight for me was getting onto one of the proper tournament standard tables at the Cue Zone in the Winter Garden, getting to play a few shots in-front of a crowd:

I look like I know what I’m doing there. Good form, stance, elbow held right. Ready to take on the world … Then cut to a pic of me standing there thinking how everything was about to go wrong:

Only one more picture, honest. It’s probably one of the funnier moments of the trip. Happened to come across one of the newer ‘Famous Five’ books. ‘Five on Brexit Island’ has the most hilarious blurb. Absolutely laced with innuendo …