Back from my trip to London. I arrived early on Saturday morning from Newark, getting into Gatwick before sunrise. It was the first time I'd ever flown into Gatwick. It's a little cleaner than Heathrow, and probably easier to get in and out of, but it's not serviced by the Tube, so you have to take the Gatwick express to Victoria Station. The ride takes about 30 minutes, through parts of Surrey and the outskirts of scenic Croydon. You know you're getting close when you see the massive smokestacks of the now defunct Battersea power station, just across the Thames from Chelsea.
I had some business to attend to after checking into my hotel on Bloomsbury Street, near the British Museum, but I was free in the evening. I had made plans to meet a couple of my friends I had met through the Elvis Costello fans forum at a pub called the Coal Hole, a short walk from Charing Cross Station, on the Strand. We spent about four hours there, drinking Guinness and whiskey, talking about our families, music, books, politics, sports - great fun. Here's a picture of me and Paul (aka So Lacklustre), the board's resident Arsenal fan, from Basingstoke:
With the big Arsenal-Chelsea match looming the next day (I was able to attend after some welcome help with tickets), we also spoke about soccer (or footy, as they call it in the UK) quite a bit. Sheik, another one of the board regulars, plays in a Sunday league, but supports no particular club. Paul's been an Arsenal fan since he was a child. I just got into footy in a big way in the 1990s and Chelsea is my team. This season, Chelsea, who have not won the League since the 1950s, are in first place with about half the season gone. The match on Sunday at Highbury, Arsenal's home in North London, would have a big impact on this year's championship. A win and Arsenal would close the gap on Chelsea to two points (a win is worth three); a draw would see the gap remain at five points; a Chelsea win and the gap would be eight, an enormous mountain for Arsenal to climb.
I got up to the ground on Sunday about two hours before the 4PM kickoff. Highbury couldn't be more different from Chelsea's ground, Stamford Bridge, in West London. Stamford Bridge is surrounded by shops and pubs. At Highbury, you exit the Arsenal tube station straight into a residential neighborhood. Vendors set out stalls selling everything from burgers to meat pies to scarves and programs. It's a lot like an English version of Fenway Park. The ground itself is hemmed in on two sides by row houses, and you actually enter the North and West stands through wooden gates between residences. The gates opened early, around 2:30, and I made my way through the turnstile to the North Stand, where my seat was located. The North Bank, as they call it, is home to the most vocal part of the Arsenal crowd (which, Chelsea supporters would argue, ain't saying much). It would have been unwise of me to wear my Chelsea shirt or make any other outward demonstration of my allegiance (that is just not done in England), so when Chelsea scored I had to sit quietly and just mutter a quiet "Get in there!" between clenched teeth.
The match was tremendously entertaining. Arsenal scored quickly, with a goal from their prolific French striker, Thierry Henry. But Chelsea got it back with a bullet header from their captain, John Terry, straight into the goal at my side of the pitch. Henry scored another goal just before half time with a quickly-taken free kick. But then Chelsea equalized at the beginning of the second half with another headed goal, this time from their Icelandic striker Eidur Gudjohnsen. It finished 2-2, which was much more satisfying for Chelsea's supporters than it was for Arsenal's. Arsenal needed the win. A draw was a good result for Chelsea - their record at Highbury over the years has been abysmal.
What's hard for an American sports fan to understand is the special atmosphere and sustained intensity of an English soccer match. Television does not nearly do it justice. The fans chants and songs (one set of fans "taking the piss" out of the other), the history, the regional pride, the ebb and flow of the match, the fact that it is played against a clock, the skill of the players, the closeness of the players to the spectators - all of this and more makes it a very special experience. There's nothing that even comes close in American sports. College football or a Red Sox-Yankees game, perhaps, but even those do not compare. Each club in England has its own song book and its own set of derogatory chants aimed at the opposition. All (or at least mostly) in good fun. Arsenal supporters chide Chelsea for not having won the league in 50 years. Chelsea lays into Arsenal's snobbishness, its players propensity to "dive" and its dour French manager, Arsène Wenger.
In any case, the match was certainly a highlight of the trip. Hopefully next time I can bring Marna along to a match.
Late Monday afternoon I was free to do some shopping. I checked out some of the excellent book shops along Charing Cross Road and met my friend Peter, who now lives in London, for a pint over near Fulham Road, around the corner from Stamford Bridge. Then I was off home again on Tuesday morning.
One the way back to Gatwick on the train, I managed to whack my left knee against a table, so I was in pain the entire way home and am still limping around today. Sitting in coach for eight hours didn't help. Then I got to Newark and had to schlep my bags to the Grand Central shuttle bus. By the time I got home I was thoroughly beat, but it was great to see Marna and the kids again. I got the kids each a new book for bedtime and a few other little goodies. Marna had been stranded inside the house for most of the weekend, as Kieran came down with a touch of the flu. It always seems to work that way - they don't seem to get sick until it's the least convenient time possible. Oh well.
This weekend we'll get our tree and do some odds and ends around the house. Christmas shopping is nearly complete now. Marna's folks arrive during the middle of next week and my sister Jen is going to be here too, so we'll be all full at the inn. Hope we get some snow - it's just been windy and cold so far. London was positively balmy in comparison.
2:43:16 PM 
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