If you haven't read yesterday's blog, sctolł down first. I didn't post it til about 10pm Melbourne time.
GO WALLABIES! Final here we come, let's hope we can beat those pesky All Blacks.
So this morning I got my washing done and a few other things, then set off for the station. I left the house with two Australia flag tattoos on my face, but had my flag/cape in my bag. So at this point it was pretty easy for me to forget I was dressed as an Aussie. So when I was walking to the shop down the street and a man shouted "f*** off and go back to where you came from!" it took me a couple of seconds to realise he was talking to me.
Feeling a bit self conscious, I got on the tube. All was fine until I got to London bridge and changed from the northern line to the jubilee line. At this point four English lads in England rugby jerseys boarded. I could tell from their body language they were talking about me so I paused my iPod. And sure enough - "look at her with her stupid tattoos. It's too much. And she's wearing red and blue, doesn't she know those are our flag colours?" So I turned, smiled sweetly and said "so, boys, who are England playing in the semis today? Oh wait..." Not surprisingly they shut up after that. And I'm wearing your flag colours because YOUR FLAG IS ON OUR FLAG because YOU colonised US! Derrrrr! Jealousy is a curse.
At this point I was feeling a tiny bit upset. I hate to admit it but they had got to me. Oh well, got the national rail to Twickers and heaps of Aussies on board so all good.
The nastiness was soon forgotten as I met up with my friend James. We had a really great day! Had lunch at a local cafe and then walked to the stadium. James had a drink and then we headed in. I felt really sorry for all the Irish people outside selling their tickets. Though the ones who gave up and decided to come anyway had the right idea. They were all singing along to the 'masseoke' outside singing Aussie and other songs. We sang some John Farnham and others, and the best one was when we sang 'We Are The Champions' and the Irish were singing 'we AREN'T the champions'. Hehe. They were expected to beat Argentina last week but had a lot of injuries. If Bernard Foley hadn't kicked that penalty last week that would've been me too...!
Our seats were great. The back row but right on the aisle and a fab view. I think I even enjoyed the view better than my category A tickets vs Wales!
The festivities started and we had music and fireworks. I belted out the anthem with pride and you could very much notice because there were hardly any Aussies around me. A welsh couple to our right, lots of Argentinians and heaps of neutrals.
The match began and boy were the Argentinians vocal! I'm ashamed to say I didn't even know South American countries played rugby before the World Cup. Maradona was in the house and apparently flew over especially. We scored a try one minute in which I was THRILLED about because I didn't see any in the Wales match!!!
We ended up wining 29-15, but it was a great match. Really tough and though Argentina didn't score a try they played really well and suffered lots of injuries. They cheered and sang right til the end - "ole ole Pumas ole!"
All was good until another idiot tried to spoil my day. The welsh man, who, along with his wife before the game had a good old whinge to me and James about how arrogant and horrible English supporters are and their experiences playing England at Twickenham, decided he was going to have a go at me. I was stood up clapping and waving my flag because we had just won and are now in the final against NZ. But this flog decided to come up to me and say "you won't win next week!" Thinking he was being friendly due to our chat before the game I smiled and in a kind tone said "hey, more chance than Wales right!!" But he wasn't being kind. He got right up in my face, pointing and shouting at me about how we shouldn't have been playing today because we only won last week due to the penalty the ref gave us. Ok, that might be true, but hardly my fault (too long to explain the penalty but we kicked it right at end the of the game and won due to those 3 points). He kept ranting and raving and I just calmly kept agreeing and saying "yep, but we are". Eventually he finally left me alone, what an idiot. Please, I'm a Collingwood supporter, don't even START me on unfair decisions in finals (WAYNE HARMES ANYONE?!). But that's life, and you have to accept it.
So aside from idiots trying to ruin my day, I had a really great time! Due to daylight savings ending last night it now gets dark about 5pm though and it was so cold. James and I chose to walk 40 minutes to Richmond station to avoid the Twickenham crowds. It turned out to be a great idea as we got the district line and I just sat on it all the way to Monument then got the bus the short ride home.
Tmro I'm just going to finish packing and then my flight leaves at 2.15pm (I'm 11 hours behind Melbourne now in London) to Riga, Latvia. Country number 50! I'm really excited as I don't know that much about Latvia and am excited to find out about its history and culture. I'll be 9 hours behind Melbs again until Friday.
See you in Riga!
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
GO WALLABIES! Final here we come, let's hope we can beat those pesky All Blacks.
So this morning I got my washing done and a few other things, then set off for the station. I left the house with two Australia flag tattoos on my face, but had my flag/cape in my bag. So at this point it was pretty easy for me to forget I was dressed as an Aussie. So when I was walking to the shop down the street and a man shouted "f*** off and go back to where you came from!" it took me a couple of seconds to realise he was talking to me.
Feeling a bit self conscious, I got on the tube. All was fine until I got to London bridge and changed from the northern line to the jubilee line. At this point four English lads in England rugby jerseys boarded. I could tell from their body language they were talking about me so I paused my iPod. And sure enough - "look at her with her stupid tattoos. It's too much. And she's wearing red and blue, doesn't she know those are our flag colours?" So I turned, smiled sweetly and said "so, boys, who are England playing in the semis today? Oh wait..." Not surprisingly they shut up after that. And I'm wearing your flag colours because YOUR FLAG IS ON OUR FLAG because YOU colonised US! Derrrrr! Jealousy is a curse.
At this point I was feeling a tiny bit upset. I hate to admit it but they had got to me. Oh well, got the national rail to Twickers and heaps of Aussies on board so all good.
The nastiness was soon forgotten as I met up with my friend James. We had a really great day! Had lunch at a local cafe and then walked to the stadium. James had a drink and then we headed in. I felt really sorry for all the Irish people outside selling their tickets. Though the ones who gave up and decided to come anyway had the right idea. They were all singing along to the 'masseoke' outside singing Aussie and other songs. We sang some John Farnham and others, and the best one was when we sang 'We Are The Champions' and the Irish were singing 'we AREN'T the champions'. Hehe. They were expected to beat Argentina last week but had a lot of injuries. If Bernard Foley hadn't kicked that penalty last week that would've been me too...!
Our seats were great. The back row but right on the aisle and a fab view. I think I even enjoyed the view better than my category A tickets vs Wales!
The festivities started and we had music and fireworks. I belted out the anthem with pride and you could very much notice because there were hardly any Aussies around me. A welsh couple to our right, lots of Argentinians and heaps of neutrals.
The match began and boy were the Argentinians vocal! I'm ashamed to say I didn't even know South American countries played rugby before the World Cup. Maradona was in the house and apparently flew over especially. We scored a try one minute in which I was THRILLED about because I didn't see any in the Wales match!!!
We ended up wining 29-15, but it was a great match. Really tough and though Argentina didn't score a try they played really well and suffered lots of injuries. They cheered and sang right til the end - "ole ole Pumas ole!"
All was good until another idiot tried to spoil my day. The welsh man, who, along with his wife before the game had a good old whinge to me and James about how arrogant and horrible English supporters are and their experiences playing England at Twickenham, decided he was going to have a go at me. I was stood up clapping and waving my flag because we had just won and are now in the final against NZ. But this flog decided to come up to me and say "you won't win next week!" Thinking he was being friendly due to our chat before the game I smiled and in a kind tone said "hey, more chance than Wales right!!" But he wasn't being kind. He got right up in my face, pointing and shouting at me about how we shouldn't have been playing today because we only won last week due to the penalty the ref gave us. Ok, that might be true, but hardly my fault (too long to explain the penalty but we kicked it right at end the of the game and won due to those 3 points). He kept ranting and raving and I just calmly kept agreeing and saying "yep, but we are". Eventually he finally left me alone, what an idiot. Please, I'm a Collingwood supporter, don't even START me on unfair decisions in finals (WAYNE HARMES ANYONE?!). But that's life, and you have to accept it.
So aside from idiots trying to ruin my day, I had a really great time! Due to daylight savings ending last night it now gets dark about 5pm though and it was so cold. James and I chose to walk 40 minutes to Richmond station to avoid the Twickenham crowds. It turned out to be a great idea as we got the district line and I just sat on it all the way to Monument then got the bus the short ride home.
Tmro I'm just going to finish packing and then my flight leaves at 2.15pm (I'm 11 hours behind Melbourne now in London) to Riga, Latvia. Country number 50! I'm really excited as I don't know that much about Latvia and am excited to find out about its history and culture. I'll be 9 hours behind Melbs again until Friday.
See you in Riga!
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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