The hotel review:
Since we arrived the night before we were able to attend the early morning (although 9:00am instead of 8:00am in Australia) local park run in South Croydon, the closest venue was about two kilometres away in Lloyd Park. I was already sweating a bit just jogging from the hotel to the park, since this was some freak hot day at the end of summer with a temperature above 30 degrees. The race was a nice 2.5 kilometre cross country track repeated twice, only I wasn't prepared for the steep hill that came about half way through each lap for a few hundred metres. I started off slowly, and after a week of intense walking my legs were really uncooperative, but I slowly made my way through the field and ended up at about the same time as Jason for 5th and 6th in a time of 19 minutes 50 seconds for approximately five kilometres.
The Crystal Palace football match wasn't until 3:00pm, but Jason had also booked a tour that is free to members and runs at the very inconvenient time of 11:45am on match days. This meant I couldn't plan much else for the day since I figured the tour would be about an hour, then lunch, then it would be close to match time, then the day would almost be over!
There was nearly fifty people showing up for the tour, so they split us into two groups. We got to go in the first group which was good, but the tour was a bit of a let down as it only lasted for thirty minutes at best, it was a bit rushed and we didn't get to see all that much or hang around at each stop for too long. We got to see:
After heading off for lunch we were heading back to the stadium just as an expensive looking Birmingham bus was turning up, I figured that could only be the Aston Villa team bus - arriving quite late actually. I only caught the last few players coming off and didn't recognise any, only the manager Tim Sherwood at the end. Moments later the Crystal Palace owner showed up in a fancy new yellow Ferrari, then Pape Souare in some random 4WD.
There was a bit of time to visit the modest Crystal Palace shop beforehand as well, Jason got the home shirt and I got a black casual t-shirt because I liked the design, I don't really mind that it's not my team, as long as it's not Manchester City really.
This time we were seated in the fifth row of the same sideline stand, but in direct sunlight for the entire game. It was roasting hot, the players even got a drink break in the middle of each half. The first period didn't have much action, Aston Villa controlled the wing on our side of the pitch and Palace were always scrambling to match up properly but it ended 0-0.
Crystal Palace made two subs at half time, which made a significant improvement, they had a goal disallowed before scoring from a corner. An own goal made it 1-1 again and it looked set to finish like that, only a lazy turnover in defense allowed Crystal Palace to score the winner.
We got dinner at Rio's Piri Piri, like a cheaper version of Nando's. It took at least five minutes for the guy to enter the order into the register, but it was good food and a good price too. Afterwards I picked up a one litre bottle of KX energy drink low calorie version (maybe too much energy), it tasted great at first, then dropped off a bit - 6 out of 10.
Thanks to all of that energy I was able to stay awake long enough to watch the rest of the days football highlights on Match Of The Day, it runs so ridiculously late on the BBC here though, starting at 10:30pm and ending almost at midnight, I don't know why they can't make it a bit earlier, particularly the Match Of The Day 2 edition that runs on Sunday nights.
- Got decent TV channels again
- Only one working lift
- Still no coin operated laundry
- The muesli had no taste, very disappointing
Since we arrived the night before we were able to attend the early morning (although 9:00am instead of 8:00am in Australia) local park run in South Croydon, the closest venue was about two kilometres away in Lloyd Park. I was already sweating a bit just jogging from the hotel to the park, since this was some freak hot day at the end of summer with a temperature above 30 degrees. The race was a nice 2.5 kilometre cross country track repeated twice, only I wasn't prepared for the steep hill that came about half way through each lap for a few hundred metres. I started off slowly, and after a week of intense walking my legs were really uncooperative, but I slowly made my way through the field and ended up at about the same time as Jason for 5th and 6th in a time of 19 minutes 50 seconds for approximately five kilometres.
 |
| The original Croydon. |
 |
| First lap of the park run. |
The Crystal Palace football match wasn't until 3:00pm, but Jason had also booked a tour that is free to members and runs at the very inconvenient time of 11:45am on match days. This meant I couldn't plan much else for the day since I figured the tour would be about an hour, then lunch, then it would be close to match time, then the day would almost be over!
There was nearly fifty people showing up for the tour, so they split us into two groups. We got to go in the first group which was good, but the tour was a bit of a let down as it only lasted for thirty minutes at best, it was a bit rushed and we didn't get to see all that much or hang around at each stop for too long. We got to see:
- Media rooms
- Home change rooms
- Ground
- Player benches
- Trophy cabinet (a little bare)
 |
| Selhurst Park again. |
 |
| Captain of the Kings Of Asia. |
 |
| Around the ground. |
 |
| Championship playoff trophy. |
After heading off for lunch we were heading back to the stadium just as an expensive looking Birmingham bus was turning up, I figured that could only be the Aston Villa team bus - arriving quite late actually. I only caught the last few players coming off and didn't recognise any, only the manager Tim Sherwood at the end. Moments later the Crystal Palace owner showed up in a fancy new yellow Ferrari, then Pape Souare in some random 4WD.
 |
| Here comes Tim Sherwood. |
 |
| And there goes Steve Parish. |
 |
| Pape Souare running late. |
There was a bit of time to visit the modest Crystal Palace shop beforehand as well, Jason got the home shirt and I got a black casual t-shirt because I liked the design, I don't really mind that it's not my team, as long as it's not Manchester City really.
This time we were seated in the fifth row of the same sideline stand, but in direct sunlight for the entire game. It was roasting hot, the players even got a drink break in the middle of each half. The first period didn't have much action, Aston Villa controlled the wing on our side of the pitch and Palace were always scrambling to match up properly but it ended 0-0.
Crystal Palace made two subs at half time, which made a significant improvement, they had a goal disallowed before scoring from a corner. An own goal made it 1-1 again and it looked set to finish like that, only a lazy turnover in defense allowed Crystal Palace to score the winner.
 |
| Yohan Cabaye. |
 |
| Game over. |
We got dinner at Rio's Piri Piri, like a cheaper version of Nando's. It took at least five minutes for the guy to enter the order into the register, but it was good food and a good price too. Afterwards I picked up a one litre bottle of KX energy drink low calorie version (maybe too much energy), it tasted great at first, then dropped off a bit - 6 out of 10.
 |
| It's piri piri, not peri peri. |
Thanks to all of that energy I was able to stay awake long enough to watch the rest of the days football highlights on Match Of The Day, it runs so ridiculously late on the BBC here though, starting at 10:30pm and ending almost at midnight, I don't know why they can't make it a bit earlier, particularly the Match Of The Day 2 edition that runs on Sunday nights.
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