Northampton; Friday, 18 March, 2011

Apart from a 15 minute delay due to emergency engineering works in Watford, the journey up was pretty much uneventful and shortly after arriving I found myself in the hotel.

The fact the lobby was heaving with Police and security officers was a bit of an interesting introduction to Northampton. One of the Police officers explained that they had been dealing with a small “melee” which has now been dealt with and then checked me in, as the hotel staff were filling out statements.

With that slightly disturbing introduction I wandered up to my room, dropped off my stuff and then went for a short wander around the city centre.

I pretty quickly realised that Northampton appears to be a bit of a schizophrenic town. Some very nice buildings, in some quite posh looking areas, and yet also some really divey looking places, sadly the latter forming a ring around the hotel.

Getting slightly concerned about the thought of being out on the streets of Northampton on a Friday night I decided to head back to the hotel and visit the cinema that it’s built above to fill up my Friday evening.

On leaving the cinema to walk the 30 yards back to the hotel I passed at least two puddles of sick, saw three police vans racing towards the city centre and what appeared to be a couple being “very friendly” in a shop doorway.