So I have realized that I’m no where near getting the whole tournament report finished, so I thought I would give you an introduction to the day. Don’t forget to check out my youtube site for an exclusive interview with Steve “The Kamiza” Garrett. Now without further ado onto the day of the nationals.
5:15 – Alarm Clock Sounds:
If you didn’t know 5:20am is really early in the morning and me, Joe and Rob had been up the quite late the night before at the Loughborough games club testing decks, trading cards and in my case playing in a heroclix tourney. Our train for London is at 6:20 and it is a 20 minute walk from my house to the train station – eek. Unfortunately for me and Joe, Rob is a big girl and needs to straighten his hair every morning. Once he finished we’ve only had about 10 minutes or so before we had to leave and the straighteners needed to be put away. But the straighteners were hot and needed to be cooled, the solution?
I’m not sure who’s Idea it was but when I came into my front room (where Rob & Joe were sleeping) after picking up my deck, trades and camera I was greeted with the above sight. Joe using my Airbed/Bike pump to “blow” on the straighteners to cool them down. The straighteners were sufficiently cooled and we headed off down the dark canal-side path to the train.
6:00 – 6:23 Race for the train:
Unfortunately I don’t have an amusing picture for the next step. The HoH crew had agreed to meet up at the train station at around 6am, giving us 20 minutes to spare to catch the train. However due to a miscommunication Ty was running a little late as he had to collect my fetching yellow T-shirt from the store so Artur went to pick him up from the shop. When they arrievd back at about 6:07 we still had no Oly – after a quick phone call, Artur was back in the car rushing to pick up Oly up from the same place where he had just collect Ty. Lucky for us “On time” for British rail, or at least it’s successor companies, actually means less than 5 minutes late. At 6:20 when the train was meant to be at the station we saw Artur’s car pulling up into the car park. As he and Oly were crossing the car park we could see the train in the distance. As they had to cross a bridge to get to the platform they we actually walking alongside the train as it was coming to a stop. As Oly, “One O, One L, One Y ” said his timeing was, of course, perfect.
8:00am Arrive in London:
After a blurry eyed ninety minute train ride and a few sleep hazed games we arrived into St Pancras.
8:15 – 10:30 Maccy D’s:
When we managed to find our way out of the re-designed international train terminal we decided it was time for some well earned breakfast. So we settled down in Maccy D’s. This was pretty much the first time Nick (that’s the fuzzy black head on the right) saw the DCL Secret Society Deck I’d built for him to play. He proceeded to beat my Family of Four deck with it twice in a row - thoroughly trouncing Rob’s deck left my confidence not too dented though.
An Omen of things to come…
Whilst in the toilet at Maccy D’s I saw this peace of graffiti:
When the rest of my report is written you’ll see exactly how much of a portent this was…
I’ll get the rest up for you as soon as I can.
