France v Scotland (Part 1)
18 September 2007As almost a week has passed, it’s time to reflect on a glorious night for Scottish Football last Wednesday. Yes, James McFadden’s wonder strike gave us victory over the French and sent the 20,000 of us Scots in the stadium into dreamland.
I was lucky enough to be there, along with my good friends The King Of Bebo, Mr Bovril and Thierry Henry’s younger brother (hereafter referred to as THYB).
We departed by train from Glasgow to Liverpool at 8am on Tuesday morning, with a hearty Burger King breakfast in our belly and 16 warm Tennent’s for the journey. Spirits were high and after a few phone calls to “get it right up” those of our friends which were absent from the trip, we settled into a few games of cards. Now despite being dealt a dodgy hand whilst making an unscheduled pit stop, it gives me great pleasure to report that the final scores were: -
Swanson: 3 wins
Bovril: 2 wins
THYB: 2 wins
King of Bebo: 1 win
Much gloating followed this victory.
We arrived in Lime Street Station at around 11.30am and made a bee line (should that be beer line) for The Cavern Bar, spiritual home of The famous Beatles and favourite venue of the not quite so famous Surround. 4 cold pints were duly ordered and quickly consumed, followed by another 4. After said pintage, we decided that as were not flying until the evening we would visit Strawberry Field and Penny Lane. Bovril was far from impressed at this turn of events, making a strong case for staying in the warmth and safety of the ale house, rather than wasting money on a taxi to go and see “a bloody gate”.
Nevertheless, concensus ruled the day and with a vote of 3-1, it was off to Alerton and Strawberry Field. Yes, it’s just a gate, but I think even Bovril had a spec of dust in his eye as we etched our names into the famous wall. After a few photos and a listen to Strawberry Fields on my ipod, we jumped a local bus to Penny Lane to resume the days drinking.
Bovril and THYB decided to liven up the pub by putting a few Scottish songs on the juke box and, spotting 500 Miles by The Proclaimers, put it on 5 times on repeat. Alas! This was not the Proclaimers version, it was the Peter Kaye, Comic Relief travesty and we had to ask the barman to turn up some gangster rap on MTV to drown out this musical abomination.
There were a few games of pool… but I forget the score… oh, alright, The King Of Bebo won!
At 7.00PM a taxi was called for John Lennon airport and we were on our way to France! To be continued…
