(no subject)

Went for my assessment session with the counsellor. She had me fill in a questionnaire, which yielded the good news that I'm more mentally healthy than the usual threshold for which counselling is recommended, and spent the rest of the time asking me all sorts of things about my lifestyle today, what my problems are and what I hoped to achieve from six sessions with her. She picked up on my hesitating quite a bit when I answered her and asked if that was down to stress and nerves; I explained that it was mostly because I'd had to have a serious think about my answers to quite a few of her searching questions. She agreed to put me on her waiting list and said she'd be in touch, probably in a few months' time.

I need a cold drink.

(no subject)

Westleigh Park for Hawks v Welling. Angie was in the clubhouse, but again I only got to say hello as she was deep in conversation with a group of other fans whom I only vaguely know.

Headed into the ground with a quarter of an hour to kick-off, stopped off at the club shop to give Simon his marathon sponsor money as it's the last time I'll see him this season, and thought of going for a hot dog but the queue at the tea bar was eight miles long and just then it started to rain, so I dived for the stand.

Just before kick-off Trevor, spotting me, asked if I was over yesterday. "We'll see Thursday," I replied.

The queue at the tea bar remained ridiculously long all through the first half. With it being a cold night with occasional showers, I guess more people wanted something warm to eat or drink than usual, and the tea bar on the other side of the ground didn't help either. After half an hour of hit and hope on the pitch, needing the loo I made my way down to the Gents adjacent to the tea hut, then joined the queue, since I guessed I'd need to start queuing around then to have a chance of getting to the front during half time. As the queue slowly inched along, and the three young lads in front of me earnestly discussed Formula 1, with a few minutes left before the break Sergeant Wilko fired in a beautiful goal from outside the box. My punch to the air and shout of "YES!!" juddered the F1 fans into realising Hawks had taken the lead.

I got back to my seat with my hot dog and chips just before the half time whistle. The second half was marked mostly by whistle- and card-happy refereeing, then in the closing minutes Welling had us on the edge of our seats, threatening from a throw-in, a free kick and corners, but Scrivs and the Hawk defence were right on the button for once, and Craig twice took the ball to the safety of the other end with great foraging runs. After four agonising minutes of time added on, the ref blew for time - 3 points in the bag and, for the first time, everyone's confident that we will beat the drop.

Made the light rain all through the walk back to the station bearable.