Football Bloody Hell! - Why I Love Football

This is why I love football, it can be so bloody unfair! A team that didn't deserve to win, an incompetent referee, a red card that wasn't a foul (the player tripped over a particularly robust blade of grass) and hysterical prima donna players who don't know how to lose with dignity...roll video and enjoy!

Football...Bloody Hell 2

I thought I would be happier. My football fans brain should have kicked into action last night. A football fan can be a rational and responsible member of society for much of the time. However, for 90 minutes a week a strange thing happens to them. They become tribal. If they are lucky enough to be able to afford to actually go and watch a match, they may chant songs invented by their tribe. Sometimes they steal other tribes songs and pretend they made them. Manchester Untied stole Glory, Glory Man Utd from Tottenham Hotspur and because it's been so bloody long since my beloved Spurs have won anything people believe it's a Utd song. Once the game has started, the football fan begins to believe utter nonsense. They believe that it's ok for a player on their team to dive to the ground if an opposing player gets too close but if the situation is reversed then it's a cynical act of cheating and how they howl and spit and swear at the wretch! They believe that the laws of the game only apply to the other team and have their own special laws when it comes to fouls. A crunching tackle becomes a career ending attack and vise versa. They believe the referee is a secret fan of the other team. Some even believe that it's acceptable to wear an amusing comedy hat to a game or God forbid, a wig!
I believed that last night I would sit down to watch a great game of football and was hoping for a Man Utd victory. What I saw was a boring game with Arsenal (spit!) rolling over on their backs like the submissive dogs they are...sorry about that, I promised myself I would be objective and unbiased. So Utd won, but for some reason I didn't feel all warm and glowing inside like I usually do when Arsenal (spit!) lose important matches. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that a few weeks ago my team Spurs were destroyed by a stunning 2nd half display from a fantastic Utd team. I think not, I'm used to Spurs throwing away impressive leads in games. In this instance we were 2-0 up at half time, only to lose 5-2! Still, at least we managed to score against them!
I think the problem was that the match, as a sporting competition , was effectively over after 15 minutes. It wasn't going to be the classic we all expected and hoped for, instead it turned into a damp squib, whatever that is...answers in comments if you know.

Video of the Day

Regular readers will understand the significance of this video, those who don't should read my very first post.

Trams

I always expected to have a problem driving on the wrong side of the road, as they do over here in Europe. It's not as bad as I thought, although there are some squeaky bum moments in Antwerp at times with some really imaginative road lay-outs!
I do have a problem with one mode of transport, apart from bloody bicycles, and that is the tram. Don't get me wrong, I like trams, they remind me of movies from the 1960's starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. But I have a blind spot when it comes to trams. Antwerp has an extensive network of tram-lines, they run a lot more often than buses and provide a great way of getting around town. When I was a kid, I was taught the green gross code, which is a little trick to help you get used to crossing the road. Look left, look right, look left again. Or was it look right, look left, look right again? Whatever, whilst looking both ways you look for cars, buses, lorries and bikes. Nothing about trams. Most tram-lines in Britain were dug up after WW2, if they survived that long. True, they still survive in some cities, but they are few. So, whenever I attempt to cross the road in Antwerp I usually find myself receiving a 'CLANK!!!!' from a passing tram. For those who don't know, the tram makes a wonderful warning 'CLANK', kind of like an out of tune church bell. I suspect that the new trams, as pictured above, have been painted with the same paint the Americans use on stealth bombers to make them invisible to radar, only the Belgians use paint that makes them invisible to Englishmen! I'm sure I will get used to them one day, if one doesn't kill me first!

Shut.

It's a beautiful day here in Flanders, much too nice to be sitting at my computer and writing. The sun is shining, the birds are singing and everything is right with the world. It's also a bank holiday, which means, apart from the bakers, everything is shut! Suddenly Belgium feels like Sunday did when I was a child. Sundays in the 70's were sooooooo boring.
It's not that I particularly feel the urge to go to any specific shop, it's just that if I did want to go to a shop for something...I can't. It leaves one feeling a tad...oh I don't know...deflated? It's not as if my civil rights have been violated.
Britain celebrates May Day on the first Monday of May, not the 1st May. Not sure why, maybe because a long weekend is preferable to a day off in the week. But on Monday every shop in the country will be open and not only that, the big stores will be doing special deals for the bank holiday. Over the past 10 years or so the traditional day of rest has been done away with so that now Sundays are just another day. Bank holidays are, as well, and some stores even open on Christmas Day. I can remember when I was younger, maybe 17 or so, walking to the pub for a traditional Christmas Day pint and discovering the local Indian owned newsagents open for business. The shock was palpable, I had to go into the shop, even though I didn't want anything. I walked in, did a circuit around the shelves of Dolly Mixtures and Black Jacks and walked out again. The owner gave me a world weary look that suggested I hadn't been the first person to do that, that day.
I like living in Belgium, but sometimes it is a bit like living in a real life version of the BBC programme Ashes to Ashes( a series about a bloke who finds himself in 1970's Britain). I still can't get over the fact that nearly every shop, Bank etc. closes for lunch! At lunch time...when people can nip out of work and do a bit of shopping!