Monday, May 21, 2007

Football in a bag

11:01 pm | Edit Post
It was two o'clock Burkina time and I said I would get Joshua a seat to FA cup final between the mighty Man U and Chelsea at the new Wembley stadium.  Half past two (don't forget the hour time difference) came and they were already half an hour into the game when we finally took our seats.  The air was electric, and very sticky, as we took our place on a mat in front of a 17" TV in this makeshift cinema like thing.  It must have been 50oC in there, and to be honest the treat for Joshua didn't really feel like to much of a treat for me.  But that's what being a dad is all about, self sacrifice and all that stuff.  Besides I was convinced that Man U would come through in the end, even though my son was supporting Chelsea along with what seemed to be most of the 100 or so Burkinabe who were also crammed into this black plastic tent with only a limited amount of oxygen to share between us all.
 
When the full time whistle went with a disappointing 0 / 0 score I started to lose the will to live.  By this time I wasn't particularly bothered if the referee won the cup I just wanted to feel some sort of breeze again.  As long as it didn't go to penalty shootouts I kept telling myself.  What a relief it was when Chelsea scored in the second half of extra time, but what a scene it was in our black plastic bag.  The crowd went wild and there were people jumping in all directions with a great sense of elation at there men in being the lead with only minutes to go (many of the Chelsea players coming from some part of Africa).  Dust rose up into the air and mine and Joshua's lungs could take no more and in fear for our lives we thought we better head off before the final whistle went.
 
Well, we may not have had seats at Wembley, but we did save an approximate £179.80p as out tickets were only 10p each.  Not bad hey!!!

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