Ok, so I’m a bit behind, but the good news is England are still in the World Cup (in Blogworld). Spent Saturday afternoon, watching Sweden capitulate to Germany, then possibly the game of the entire tournament for me Argentina v Mexico which whetted the appetite for England’s clash the following day with Ecuador. Saturday night was Tim’s (Essex) leaving bash, with Jim and his band providing the tunes, interspersed with ‘Rooney!’ chants over the mic.

Sunday morning (ok it was early afternoon, but it felt like Morning) and it was time for our pilgrimage to the Pump House, for the now – ritual of coffee followed by full English building up to a pint around an hour before kick-off and it’s down hill from there. The game was quite an anti-climax and we were all ready to apologise on behalf of the nation for anyone that had to sit through it, but we didn’t get chance to and at least we’d won.

We relocated to Leah and Jim’s place for some delightful homemade curry, ready for the Portugal v. Holland game, although at times we thought we’d got the wrong channel and were watching a World Cup themed Wrestling Special, our narrow victory against Ecuador was looking better by the minute as the suspensions racked up. There were mixed feelings as the full time whistle blew and England v Portugal was now a reality. If we were in any doubt, it became quite clear from the walk home as we walked down Avenida Liberdade which was now a sea of flags and bumper-to-bumper with cars overflowing with people celebrating the victory. Not that they needed any additional incitement, but the sight of a guy in an England shirt strolling down the road seemed to provide it.

The following week was the now-familiar rush between lessons and places to watch the World Cup, particularly now we were at the ‘business end’ of the tournament and the tactic of sampling different venues was working well, including the Swiss/ Ukraine bore draw (which sparked the idea for a big brother style system, where both teams could be eliminated for dull play, and a team who had played well but lost be re-instated by fans votes– say Mexico), Brazil/ Ghana in Outro Face da Lua (best salmon sandwiches in Lisbon? maybe) and France/ Spain in Sao Paulo square (unfortunately the result put a bit of a dampner on Juan’s birthday celebrations), and finally Germany/ Argentina in Bar Iberico.

 The week had all gone by too quickly (it was only a paragraph ago) and here we were on the eve of England v. Portugal, there had been plans for a pre-game night out, but a venue had not been agreed. I knew where I was heading, Quantic was playing at Estado Liquido, and I wasn’t gonna miss him. Not much danger of that as it happens, appears I’d turned up a bit early and would have been one of 3 people in the place when I arrived, so I checked what time he was due to play and made a hasty retreat to the Pump House. The second attempt was much more successful, a nice crowd building, warm-up dj playing and Will (to his friends) was floating around and fiddling with the odd record, so I got myself a beer and had a quick chat with him. Turns out he was heading to Porto in the morning, do couldn’t join us in the Pump House, but it was worth a try. Before long, a few of the gang started to arrive and they’d been at a bit of a party and brought everyone with them, which seemed to be about half of the teachers from Cambridge School. It was a really good night and everyone seemed to enjoy it, dancing along from anything from Funk and Soul to Hip-hop, House and Reggae later. It reminded me of the early Lights Down Low parties back in Sheffield. I was having so much fun I occasionally forgot about the match which got closer by the passing hour, but only occasionally.  

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PS - After Caty and Lisa's visit to Lisbon (see 'The Kop out Entry (sorry folks)', they've (well maybe Caty) set up the following website to help(?) other lost souls find the caminho of enlightenment. Who'd have thought the path would involve playing yankee soccer with a baby outide a church, but who said the path was on obvious one hey? Well anyway - there's more stuff on here - including pics of the gang and said bambino, enjoy(?)

http://www.hotchicascorporation.com/index.htm

...or are the photos on here, oh I don't know, look they are round here some where, ok!

http://thatcaty.spaces.msn.com/PersonalSpace.aspx (What doesn't kill us...Caty's blog)

Bye for now...