I've always wanted to watch a football match here, and friends back home have been going "huh you mean you haven't watched?? After so long?!" Yes yes I know.. I really want to, but just no chance. No one jio, what to do?
And finally after 3 years of patience, Jag who is here with Cynthia, jio-ed me to watch a local derby match with them! haha I know I sound pathetic... and then the teams playing are -get this- QPR and Crystal Palace. Pardon my football ignorance but Crystal Palace..? I know this as a train station on the new East London line, relatively close to where I was staying... and... QPR? What is QPR? [Queens Park Rangers!] Anyway better don't hiam so much, for I was indeed excited to go!
The guys sitting around me at work know I am going to watch my first ever football match and have been telling me it's gonna be a big game in London and QPR is quite a good team this season, they should be in the Premier League next year. Ooh ok! And then they told me the colours of the two teams, and asked me where I was sitting- DO NOT wear the wrong colours, they warned. I should either wear blue and white, or something neutral. Wearing red and blue stripes sitting with the home team is totally inviting trouble. And yada yada yada.. all the while I was making mental notes hehe
Then Mark the Essex lad sitting behind me heard my conversation about football (he is crazy over it), said "oh you wanna watch a game? Just tell me, I will bring you to my club. I am a member of Colchester." I think I gave a blank look and went "err Col-what?" "Colchester. It's one hour outside London. You take the train from Liverpool St station." was his reply. And then on, he was really keen to jio me to Colchester. hahah it's really quite amusing coz I have never heard of this team before... I know I know, very ignorant of me. And I will always smile and say "yeah sure..." So I happened to tell WH about it and he is such a funny guy. He said "ok you tell him you support Gombak United. Just like how he support Colchester. And you are not asking him to watch GU, so it's ok lah.. Colchester. Go Tottenham Hotspurs!!" (Yes he is their huge fan.) I know he was being mean but hilarious nonetheless I couldn't help but burst out laughing.
(Sorry if you happen to be reading this and is a fan of Colchester or Gombak United, my apologies.)
That day arrived and when we walked in toward the Loftus Road stadium, can I say that not only were we the only Chinese looking people, it was 90% (burly) guys. Jag looked strange walking in with two ladies. As usual, we took photos outside and gave ourselves away. Jag even patronised by buying a QPR scarf as a momento for a fiver outside the tube station hahaha
It was a relatively small stadium in comparison to say, the Emirates stadium (which I have yet to go), and the total number of spectators were just over 18,000 which I thought was quite impressive. I shall not comment on how the game was played lest I embarrass myself with my zilch knowledge of football. But instead allow me to describe how scary the CP fans were. They were merely 30% of the crowd but they were full on fans. They stood up for most of the game, chanting, clapping, singing, waving their Crystal Palace scarves and what have you. QPR fans however were very subdued and were milder compared to the away team. I even joked to Jag and Cynthia that they were the "happening crowd".
QPR's winning shot
Happening crowd it was. When QPR scored the second goal which was a penalty, the CP fans went totally mental. They started hurling their beer bottles at the QPR goalkeeper! And we just froze. The police had to rush in and stand a line facing the fans and shouted for them to stop hurling. omg. Scary or what? I was glad to be sitting with the civilised fans for sure. Quite an experience. And to end off the adventure, when we reached Shephard's Bush station to travel home, we were met with a whole dozen Met Policemen escorting a whole group of drunkened fans into the tube station. We were wondering what was happening and ahem, I actually went up to a policeman and asked him. He merely shrugged and said "yea just drunk fans that's all. We need to make sure they leave this place. Quite normal, really." How embarrassing I thought.
"Wah you experienced firsthand football hooligans" was what WH told me. Hmm well, I am just hoping this won't be my first and last experience of watching a football match. And when I went back to work on Monday, again Mark asked "So Colchester?"
And finally after 3 years of patience, Jag who is here with Cynthia, jio-ed me to watch a local derby match with them! haha I know I sound pathetic... and then the teams playing are -get this- QPR and Crystal Palace. Pardon my football ignorance but Crystal Palace..? I know this as a train station on the new East London line, relatively close to where I was staying... and... QPR? What is QPR? [Queens Park Rangers!] Anyway better don't hiam so much, for I was indeed excited to go!
The guys sitting around me at work know I am going to watch my first ever football match and have been telling me it's gonna be a big game in London and QPR is quite a good team this season, they should be in the Premier League next year. Ooh ok! And then they told me the colours of the two teams, and asked me where I was sitting- DO NOT wear the wrong colours, they warned. I should either wear blue and white, or something neutral. Wearing red and blue stripes sitting with the home team is totally inviting trouble. And yada yada yada.. all the while I was making mental notes hehe
Then Mark the Essex lad sitting behind me heard my conversation about football (he is crazy over it), said "oh you wanna watch a game? Just tell me, I will bring you to my club. I am a member of Colchester." I think I gave a blank look and went "err Col-what?" "Colchester. It's one hour outside London. You take the train from Liverpool St station." was his reply. And then on, he was really keen to jio me to Colchester. hahah it's really quite amusing coz I have never heard of this team before... I know I know, very ignorant of me. And I will always smile and say "yeah sure..." So I happened to tell WH about it and he is such a funny guy. He said "ok you tell him you support Gombak United. Just like how he support Colchester. And you are not asking him to watch GU, so it's ok lah.. Colchester. Go Tottenham Hotspurs!!" (Yes he is their huge fan.) I know he was being mean but hilarious nonetheless I couldn't help but burst out laughing.
(Sorry if you happen to be reading this and is a fan of Colchester or Gombak United, my apologies.)
That day arrived and when we walked in toward the Loftus Road stadium, can I say that not only were we the only Chinese looking people, it was 90% (burly) guys. Jag looked strange walking in with two ladies. As usual, we took photos outside and gave ourselves away. Jag even patronised by buying a QPR scarf as a momento for a fiver outside the tube station hahaha
It was a relatively small stadium in comparison to say, the Emirates stadium (which I have yet to go), and the total number of spectators were just over 18,000 which I thought was quite impressive. I shall not comment on how the game was played lest I embarrass myself with my zilch knowledge of football. But instead allow me to describe how scary the CP fans were. They were merely 30% of the crowd but they were full on fans. They stood up for most of the game, chanting, clapping, singing, waving their Crystal Palace scarves and what have you. QPR fans however were very subdued and were milder compared to the away team. I even joked to Jag and Cynthia that they were the "happening crowd".
QPR's winning shotHappening crowd it was. When QPR scored the second goal which was a penalty, the CP fans went totally mental. They started hurling their beer bottles at the QPR goalkeeper! And we just froze. The police had to rush in and stand a line facing the fans and shouted for them to stop hurling. omg. Scary or what? I was glad to be sitting with the civilised fans for sure. Quite an experience. And to end off the adventure, when we reached Shephard's Bush station to travel home, we were met with a whole dozen Met Policemen escorting a whole group of drunkened fans into the tube station. We were wondering what was happening and ahem, I actually went up to a policeman and asked him. He merely shrugged and said "yea just drunk fans that's all. We need to make sure they leave this place. Quite normal, really." How embarrassing I thought.
"Wah you experienced firsthand football hooligans" was what WH told me. Hmm well, I am just hoping this won't be my first and last experience of watching a football match. And when I went back to work on Monday, again Mark asked "So Colchester?"
Comments
You are too cute really... :)
Miss ya loads! x
u know what I was told Millwall fans are in a league of their own.. I cannot imagine... oh well.
miss ya too!