WORLD CUP EXCITEMENT
I am being swept along with the build up to the World Cup. Ah, memories of a faster heart beat and slight shortness of breath when I reinact previous England games I have watched during previous World Cup tournaments. I can recreate the electric atmosphere in a bar filled with England fans, the camaraderie, the hilarious banter, the red and white George Cross prominent. I get exciting and most of all I get patriotic.
SHORT MEMORY
You see for long periods of time I don't like football at all. I am only and exclusively interested in England games once every four years. I think it must be like having a baby. Women have more than one baby because they can't remember the pain of labour, they forget how terrible it was and embark upon second, third and even fourth pregnancies because they get carried away with the falling in love with the baby part and obliterate the part when they were screaming for mercy and any form of pain killer available.
ENGLISH RESPONSIBILITY
I can only remember the thrill of the win. I forget the disappointing empty feeling I am left with when they lose. That memory must be shelved somewhere in my hard drive waiting to be deleted forever. I can't help myself but will England to victory because it is my country. I can't let them play unsupported, it is my responsibility as an English citizen.
2am WAKE UP CALL
So when I realized that their first match in the World Cup against USA was not on our telly and was at 2.30am I had no hesitation but to commit to viewing it in a bar somewhere in Hong Kong. I just had to. OK OK to be honest I was horrified at the kick off time and spent Saturday thinking about watching it or not, but it's so late, so early, so inconvenient... but in the end I decided I would go to bed, set the alarm for 2am, get up and go to Sai Kung. It's only every four years after all.
SO PATRIOTIC
And that is what we did. The hard core, patriotic England supporters where in Sai Kung at 2.30am technically Sunday morning. POETS was our bar of choice. We were tucked in the corner with a great view of the screen and the pints of Guinness flowed. To my surprise there were Americans in the bar too. Oh well, live and let live! The thrill of the first goal five minutes in resulted in much cheering and merriment. It WAS worth getting up at such an unearthly hour. But then the USA scored. A plain stupid mistake by the England goalie with slippy gloves saw the score go to 1-1 and we all moaned in unison.
HALF TIME ACTIVITY
The score remained like that until half time when I had a walk around a very quiet Sai Kung to find The Duke of York, Bacco and Cheers all full of dedicated England watchers. Steamers was closed. I did spot one drunk at this point but she was causing no trouble, just meandering, staggering home. I called in the Golden Arches eatery and joined a queue of blokes buying half-time snacks and talking about football. Two wearing the obligatory football T-shirt and one wearing evening dress, white shirt, black bracers, silk stripe on the trouser. Wow! Such a high standard of attire for football viewing I thought. We all had to wait far too long for our fast food, McDonald's was not ready for a half time rush!
DISAPPOINTMENT
Back to POETS for the second half which was uneventful and unconvincing. That empty feeling was back. There was no further goal and our boys showed little in the way of creativity or determination to take the lead. I hope they read my blog and can fully understand the major effort it was to view their lack luster performance at 2.30am only to be let down. The next game is Friday 18th June against Algeria.
Come on England!
Hello there! I could have sworn I've been to this blog before but after reading through some of the post I realized it's new to me. Nonetheless, I'm definitely delighted I found it and I'll bee book-marking and checking back often!
Posted by: lace dress | November 18, 2013 at 07:34 PM
Why thank you Joran, what ever that means.
Posted by: LESLEY | August 24, 2010 at 09:57 AM
Man you are wonderful. Having these cool ideas not to talk about making it. Fantastic!
Posted by: Jordan 1 | August 20, 2010 at 10:22 AM