"Hope you're wearing your steel cap boots today..." - English Football at it's Best.

 Many of us will be familiar with the somewhat disturbing but priceless photo of the little English football fan who is expressing his immense dislike for what seems like perhaps a bad call on the refs part against England, or a general hatred for the opposing team. After going to watch an English football match south of London, this picture popped up in my mind which I feel more or less sums up the experience of watching football hooligans in their natural habitat. And I say habitat because yes, it was more or less like being at a zoo. Looking at this picture I like to think that this little fan is the ultimate poster boy for English football. Classy, polite and gentle natured, this little kid represents his fellow football fans by showing us what a true adoring fan acts like when displaying his patriotism and love for his country.


 On Saturday, 26th November I went and saw a Champion's League football match between Crystal Palace and Millwall at Selhurst Park in South Norwood. The game itself wasn't too eventful with a 0-0 draw, but the lack of goals was made up for with a display of an upstanding display of English football behaviour...just as I'd (secretly?) hoped.
I witnessed Millwall fans throw bottles and other forms of rubbish at a Crystal Palace player when he was tackled near their stand,  a Millwall fan hide among the Palace fans until Palace missed a penalty at which point he made himself known, started a massive brawl and when getting escorted out by police got spat on numerous times by Palace fans. Yep, just a typical English football game in all its glory. Most of the songs and chants the fans sung I couldn't really make out (I just joined in on the clapping), except a personal favourite, which the Palace fans yelled and screamed at the Millwall fans so aggressively I thought their heads red with rage and spitting all over the people in front of them might explode and their arms might fall off due to the verocity in which they were pointing at their much hated rivals yelling: "You're the scum of South London." Simply lovely. And seriously, when did little kids start swearing like that?!


Due to the nil all draw the mood at the end was pretty mellow, but this didn't stop the ridiculous amount of police out in force directing the Millwall fans in a completely different direction to the Palace fans. At one point walking to the car we looked up a street to see six police fans with sirens flashing, and in their shadows heading as far up the hill as you could see were dark hooded figures marching down the road chanting, "Millwall, Millwall" over and over again. It was actually pretty fricken frightening! The way the police watched us all as we left made me feel like I should have pulled my hood down, put my hands in my pockets and walked 'subtly passed' as many people were doing around us. Let me just say, as much as people criticize 'Green Street Hooligans' (2005) directed by Lexi Alexander to be a Hollywood version of what actually goes on at an English football match, I personally think the movie is pretty spot on in terms of what actually happens and how the football fans, or should we say hooligans? act. My cousin who is usually a gentle, friendly, upstanding British citizen spent the whole day with a menacing look on his face and constantly referred to Millwall as 'imbred (insert swearwords)' and 'dirty scum' to give just a couple examples. I think he was joking, but he asked Lucy's boyfriend Mat whether his boots had metal caps in them. Really....?

There were, I admit, points at which I did feel quite nervous, but at the same time I thought it was fantastic, the whole thing. And I only got to experience it once, these people live and breath football. It's a life choice, a calling, a religion I am told. There are many stereotypical and iconic aspects that one thinks of when they think England; Big Ben, the Queen, the rain and Jason Statham to name a few. Football however, well  This is England!

Time Starts to Slip Away... Goodbye to Portsmouth & Central London and Adventures at Hampton Court

I somehow found myself in my final weeks in Portsmouth, the last three months have flown by at a ridiculous pace. Not too much happened apart from trying to see everyone as much as possible, numerous nights out, lunches etc. I finished work on the 19th November at 11pm with a couple other people so we decided to stay for drinks and naturally ended up staying until close. Sunday was my last proper day as Monday was for packing so Jimmy held a BBQ at his house and invited everyone over, including the Yates's boys and we drank, ate and enjoyed each other's company before hitting Guild Hall to drink at the Lyberry one final time. Monday I just packed and did washing, Tuesday I made my goodbyes as quick as possible as I didn't want to get too sad about leaving, which I was, and Vinnie walked me to the train station around ten so I could go and meet Kirsty in Guildford for ten thirty. I am really sad to be leaving Portsmouth, I had such a fun time there and will miss everyone a lot, especially the ones I, in reality, probably won't see again. However Vinnie and Kerri are planning to visit in the next year and Sarg is moving to New Zealand so hopefully it's just see you later and not good bye to a few of them.

I met Kirsty at Guildford around eleven and we then drove to Hampton Court, the royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, which was built in the 16th Century. I've always liked English Royal history and in particular the history of Henry VIII and his wives so going to Hampton Court, King Henry's home during his reign was really exciting for me. After meeting up with Elspeth and having a quick lunch we set off to explore the different sections of the Palace, half Tudor from Henry VIII's time and part Baroque from King William III's changes a century later. Firstly we looked around King Henry VIII's apartments and then his kitchens, then we moved to the Baroque sections of the palace and learnt about the rooms in which King William III resided during his reign, and then explored the gardens. We used the audio guides to learn about each room and I definitely learnt a lot, I especially enjoyed learning about the lives and infamous fates of all Henry's wives, especially Catherine Howard who's ghost is said to be seeing running through the grand hall screaming and begging for forgiveness...creepy or what! It was hard imagining these people, including such a monstrous tyrant such as Henry walking through the rooms we found ourselves in but it was clever how they designed the audio guides to talk you through exactly what would be happening in each room as if you were there when the palaces were inhabited by the different Kings and the King's people.

We then headed back to Elspeth's place for dinner and had a relaxing evening before saying goodbye to Kirsty. Wednesday was also really chilled out, we went shopping and had dinner at a curry house in town which was really nice. Thursday I said goodbye to Elspeth and set off for Old Street to meet up with Joe, a friend we'd met originally in Miami but had caught up with over the year. Old Street was a really trendy area, a little jealous of his location! We had tickets to go see Friendly Fires play in Brixton but first we decided to go and take a look at the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. Let's just say there's nothing like a chilly winter evening in Hyde Park lit up like day with lights, atmosphere and bars on carousels to celebrate and get into the spirit of Christmas. I love having New Years during summer but I always miss a white Christmas. While it wasn't exactly a snowy night, it was still nice to celebrate part of this years Festive Season in London. It was kind of a mixture between a cold Oktoberfest..with definite German influence with the stalls of food and drink, a town fair with the rides and then of course the ice rink in the middle which, honestly, became a big source of entertainment due to the number of people who perhaps were skating, or should i say bum sliding and falling over, everywhere around the rink. The carousel turned into a bar was a definite highlight for us! Got a bit dizzy though :)

After exploring the colourfully lit Christmas labrynth we then caught the underground to Brixton. Arriving at the arena we were immediately stopped and interviewed by camera about why we were there, what music we liked etc. Joe did really well, I unfortunately being pretty uneducated when it comes to Friendly Fires looked like a bit of a, [insert rude word here] but managed my way through without embarrassing myself too much then we headed into the arena. The concert itself was outrageously fun, I realised I did know a few of their songs and the ones I didn't know I liked. The lead singer Ed Macfarlane was an amazing performer, I have to admit I fell a little bit in love.

Leaving on a high we decided it would be best to get back to Old Street before the underground stopped at eleven thirty and hit some bars there. Old Street was a pretty trendy area and we didn't have any trouble finding somewhere fun to drink. We tried a cocktail bar/pub first and got into some creative shots, some swing dancing, hilarious people watching and some good old conversational banter. Next we went to this club, Mother Bar, that had no windows and from the outside looked like a creepy giant black box but inside was like a trendy, grungy lounge bar. I think we got home around four, so good effort by us, was definitely a great night to end my London experiences for 2011 with!


On Friday I battled a little bit to get to Jackie's due to deciding it was a really good idea to try and tackle the London Underground at peak hour, a hangover and a massive suitcase. People are very good at showing how unimpressed they were, on the last leg of the journey - the train from Victoria to Shortlands, I ended up having to make an apology announcement because it seemed I'd pissed off most of my surrounding fellow travellers. My last days abroad were to be spent in Shortlands with Jackie and Lucy. Although Friday night was very quiet, Saturday was action packed as we attended a Crystal Palace verses Millwall football match. The experience was so memorable I've decided to dedicate a separate blog just for the event. So stay tuned!