Well, continuing from our previous story Christmas was over and we were all snuggled in for another long winter’s nap. But, was it to be? No. Why you ask?....geez, you ask a lot of questions! Well for your information Jeremy and I had a certain thing called a Crystal Palace football match to go to!! Kick-off was scheduled for 1:00pm on Boxing Day so we had to make sure we got going fairly early as we needed to take a couple of buses. Crystal Palace plays in Croydon which is almost directly east of Colliers Wood…therefore no tube line connection. No problem though; we breakfasted up, geared up, and headed out towards our destination.
To be honest, the whole getting there part was not very exciting. It was a bus ride through urban south London…wooooooo..you didn’t miss much. Just finding the first bus stop proved to be a bit of a problem however and we ended up being severely behind in terms of schedule but still on our way to making kick-off. I was hoping to meet up with a friend, Richard. Now, Richard is a consultant at Protocol and also happens to be a Crystal Palace fan. He did my original induction at Protocol when I first arrived and our conversation inevitably came to football (I seem to do that to people here) and he mentioned he was a Palace fan. When I bought the tickets I was headed to a secondary team drinks night in the city with the secondary consultants. When I saw Richard I mentioned I had bought tickets and he gave me his number so we could all link up before the match for pints at his usual pub. He’s a season ticket holder see, so he has the same pub that he and his mates go to before every match and it is big Palace territory. He told me we’d have a “true south London football experience”…which I admit was both awesome and seriously frightening. Either way, I was excited.
Okay, now that the big lead-up is complete you’re probably wondering how amazing the game was. Well…it wasn’t. Not that it wasn’t a good game, just that there was no game period. I have no learned the lesson to always check online before leaving on a two bus journey to a different borough to make sure the game hasn’t been postponed. We arrived in Selhurst and on our walk towards the grounds I mentioned to Jeremy that it was eerily quiet. No roar of fans from the stands in Selhurst Park, no people coming out of pubs…nothing but dead silence. I knew this wasn’t good. We arrived up at the grounds and everything was closed off and not a soul in sight. We eventually ran into a couple of guys who were checking the grounds out and managed to catch a peek of the pitch covered up, meaning the game was definitely off for the day. Extremely pissed at this point we decided to walk around to find a pub and figure out exactly what had happened. Of course, I have no idea where pubs are in this area so we just started walking towards a train station…there’s always pubs near train stations. Sure enough we discovered one and it actually happened to be the one Richard was going to meet us at. Of course it was not nearly as busy as it could have been but the bartender was nice enough to let us know that the pitch was frozen over at Selhurst and the game had been postponed. Jer and I decided to console ourselves in a pint of Guinness each before heading out. The pub was small but seriously decked out in Palace and England flags and memorabilia…it would have been an amazing atmosphere to be in should the game have been on. We grabbed some food and headed back on the bus journey to Collier’s Wood.
There was however a silver lining to our grand day out. Neale and his wife Helen had invited the both of us over for a Boxing Day dinner at their place over in Wandsworth, which is about a half hour walk from my flat. We got back to Collier’s Wood, showered, changed, and headed out to an Off Licence to pick up a bottle of wine and some beers to bring along as a gift for inviting us into their home and made the walk over. When we arrived Neale invited us right in and immediately you could feel the hominess of this flat. There were trinkets, souvenirs, and photos everywhere (Neale and Helen are avid travelers and go all over the world whenever they can) and the hospitality that they both give was fantastic. Dinner was still simmering away so we all had a drink and caught up on how the holidays had been going, plus they asked Jeremy a lot of questions about what he was doing in Belfast and his studies there. Once dinner was ready we saddled up for the dining room and enjoyed a nice hors d’oeurvre of smoked salmon. Before dinner was ready for the table though, Neale ended up leaving the room and coming back in with a Christmas gift he had gotten me. Of course, I was not expecting this whatsoever. It was enough that they had invited myself and a friend into their home for a dinner but there was no need for a gift of any kind. Once I opened it I was so taken aback and could not believe my eyes. Before I say what he gave me, let me tell you a quick story…
Back in November I had gone to one of the Chelsea Champions League matches with Neale and his step-son Stefan. The match was against a league team from Slovakia called MSK Zilina. Neale had the coincidental opportunity to pick up the owner of this team at the airport a week prior to the match. He gave the owner his card and told him to give him a ring after wards when he was to fly out. Needless to say the owner does and before he gets out of the car Neale hands him the program that he bought at the match and asked if he might be able to get a couple of the players to sign it for him. The owner happily obliged and took Neale’s address so he could send it back. A couple of weeks later the program came back through the post and the owner had the entire team sign it on their profiles page! A wonderful move by this owner and a nice keepsake for Neale.
I’m sure at this point you can probably guess where I’m heading with this story. Neale had given me this signed program for Christmas. I didn’t even know what to say…this is an item to treasure and I couldn’t believe he’d part with it. He told me that he knew I’d like it and that’s why he gifted it. I will definitely treasure this program for the rest of my life.
Afterwards we tucked into a wonderful dinner of rooster (yeah, rooster!...tasted like chicken), potatoes, brussel sprouts, carrots and beans, stuffing, pigs in a blanket, and turnip. It was absolutely delicious and we were well stuffed once we were done. After dinner the conversation and the wine flowed quite well. About five bottles in total were opened between the four of us and in the middle of this Helen revealed that she was quite the scotch fan as well. She was really excited when Jer and I told her that we were quite partial to the stuff as well and bottles of scotch were broken out too. We had to try this kind and that kind and she kept filling both our scotch and wine for quite sometime, like they were never empty! All the while we were having wonderful conversation and watching highlights from The Ashes. Now, The Ashes are a biannual cricket competition between England and Australia. Neither Jeremy nor I know anything about cricket but as we were watching the highlights Neale graciously explained how the game works. I think I have a good grasp on it but not entirely. What I do understand is that a day’s match for a test lasts literally all day and spectators will go with a picnic basket full of food and drink. They’ll eat well and drink all day…sounds like my kind of a sport ha ha ha. Once it got a little late we said our good-byes, thanked them for their hospitality, and headed back our way home.
Even though the day didn’t begin the way I was hoping, it ended on quite an amazing note. I don’t know who was looking down on me to bring such amazing people into my life and being in their home and having the time we did made me feel a little less homesick for that kind of an atmosphere. We had a great time and I am truly thankful for that.
Next up: skating in London and a trip to Greenwich!
Until then…
Cheers and love!
Erik
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