Sunderland

Sunderland was not on my original itinerary, but as I have made good progress and Ian and Viv Duncan are fans so I decided to go and have a look at the Stadium of Light about 20 miles on from Hartlepool. I started to regret the choice when first another spoke broke then within a couple of minutes my GPS packed up again. After a bit of wandering around the city centre I saw the stadium and went to the main reception. It was full of security and I was told to go to the PR department as they were having a graduation ceremony in the stadium.

The reception for this is in a separate building so I cycled over there. The lady in reception was very friendly and said that Niall Quinn was in his office and she would ask if he would sign my shirt! The reply came back that he would come down and meet me in a few minutes. I was offered a cup of coffee while I waited. In fact, I had two! Then Niall came in and was really nice and applauded my efforts. We had photos taken and before he was called away by a phone call he gave me a £50note which he said was on behalf of Sunderland Football Club. I was stunned but I think I thanked him! Before I left I borrowed a paper clip to reset my GPS. As I cycled away I was quite emotional to think that 'the big man' had been so kind and friendly to little old me.