A big couple of days for sport
So Britain won the cricket and as a result, yesterday was a madhouse here. There were parades, parties, and you have to love a place where you can freely give out coupons for free beer in the paper to celebrate....In other news, today was my last free day in London before work, so I got up early, bought my Oyster TravelCard, and set out to get a million things seen and done. (Though first, a little window shopping...)
Okay, so a little window shopping turned into an hour in TopShop - whatevs...
I made up for it by doing actual project research stuff - I met with a guy at Oxfam's Global Education office for an hour and got some excellent contacts for my project. (Seriously, the project is looking pretty promising now!) Then to the Tate Modern for a dose of culture (and for anyone who has met my dad, there was an exhibition showing some Russian Revolution poster art, and yes, the pictures of Lenin made me think of him. He really does look more like Lenin every day - ah, the irony...)
So after the Tate, I was on the bus headed into Kensington trying to track down a guidebook for the Architecture Open House here in London this weekend, when I saw a tricke of bue jerseys slo
wly become a sea of blue. Of course - the Chelsea home game was starting in 45 minutes. My friend Mike (Inwood) is a Chelsea fan, so I hopped back on the bus to see what his fellow fans were up to. I followed the sea of blue and there there were: young and old, boys and girls, dads with sons (like this happy family to the right - dusk is a terrible time for my digital camera, but I love the blazer-over-the-football-jersey look sported by both dad and son). The Chelsea fans headed in with no incidents, just high spirits. The neighbourhoods around were well-behaved - a little too well-behaved, in fact, because I couldn't find a lively pub around to watch the game in.Now, as I took the above picture, I knew that the other Michael in my life (a devoted Arsenal fan) would kill me if I caught Chelsea fans on film and missed the Gunners the following night. So knowing a trip out to Highbury was in order, I thought I'd make things interesting and have a bit of a competition - based solely on the fans, a sort of "Fanatics Deathmatch", if you will...
Got to Arsenal FC again around dusk - this time I'm a little late because the crowds
delayed the Piccadilly line about 20 minutes. This group, no rowdier, just a little louder. A fair bit of singing and cheering. (Like this guy to the right.) Surprised to see few packs of older men like I saw at Fulham Broadway station, but instead lots of men in well-tailored suits speed-walking to the stadium. Then, I saw them - the cutest football family you've ever seen, straight out of a movie. So cute, in fact, that I froze and couldn't get a picture in time. From right to left we had Mum, 7 yr old daughter, Dad, and 10 yr old son. They all looked like catologue models, all wearing jerseys (except the girl, who was wearing an I [heart] Arsenal shirt) and holding hands in a chain to make sure they didn't lose each other. I just about died.
Watching the barely-managed chaos that was the Clock End, I started chatting with the Evening Standard guy who was closing down his stand. A pleasant bloke, he offered to help me get a last minute ticket. Moot point though, because I realized that I only had 70p to my name, and I'd have to find an ATM if I wanted to even have dinner. Went into the pub suggested by Evening Standard guy (definitely lively!) but they only took cash, so started walking up the road to find a bank machine. And kept walking. More walking. How do people get money in this city????
Finally found one and popped into the nearest pub, starving by this point. Seems that while I was walking, Arsenal had a man sent off, and the game is now tied. Ordered some chips and a Carling, and headed to the large room at the back of the pub. The whole room was full of ordinary Londeners who obviously watched televised games regularly, so it was also pretty obvious I was a random stranger. One lady made room for an extra stool so I could sit down (bless you woman!) while the guy by her swore at the screen. Oh, these guys did everything a great fan is supposed to. And they we rewarded by a goal quite literally in the last minute of the game. Brilliant. So. All in all:
Chelsea
+1 point for sea of blue
+1 point for seemingly better crowd management
+ 1/2 point for Lampard (what? it's my game, I can do that)
-1 point for nearby pubs that were so boring, I went home and ended up watching Liverpool instead.
Total Points for Chelsea: 1 1/2
Arsenal
+1 point for all the singing
+1 point for the so-cute-it-hurt Arsenal family
+1 point for the Evening Standard brush with ticketness
-1 1/2 points for not having an ATM anywhere for ages
+1 1/2 points for the excellent fans at the Highbury Barn
Total points for Arsenal: 3
Winner: Arsenal.
In other news, I still haven't gotten hold of Jocelyn yet, so it looks like I am going to have to the sell the ticket and go alone. Grrr...
posted by Aleksandra @ 9:45 AM
4 Comments:
As Dad frequently reminds me, the area around Stamford Bridge has really changed a lot. Chelsea itself is far more up-market since the days when you could pay almost nothing for standing-only attendance in "The Shed."
A few years ago we decided to go on a pub crawl of the old neighbourhood and found that most of Dad's old haunts had turned into either fancy restaurants or horrible theme pubs (there was some sort of asian/tropical themed one that I particularly remember, with giant ferns and stone Chinese lions urgh)!
To find a good pub in the area you have to go pretty far down the Fulham Rd, as I recall.
glory, glory arsenal!
sniff ... i'm so happy... and so proud of you aleksandra.
of course, if the result went the other way, i'm sure i would have taken it with equal measures of grace and understanding.... *cough*
(on a side note, one wonders whether this is the only competition arsenal will win this year)
"there was some sort of asian/tropical themed one that I particularly remember, with giant ferns and stone Chinese lions"
By the intersection with Putney Bridge Road? Yeah, been there...it sucks.
"+1 point for the so-cute-it-hurt Arsenal family"
You're picking your sports teams based on the cuteness of its fans? You are such a girl.....
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