London: The Showstopping Finale! (Act One)

I left my story on Wednesday with me preparing to head to Cadogan Arms for Chelsea's Champions' League match with Bordeaux. Apparently, the group's dinner plans went pear-shaped when some people showed up late and set the whole group back. That was going to make them late for the play so that they might not be able to be seated until intermission. Thus, Dan shuffled in the door just as I was about to leave. We left at the same time and it came out that Tom and Dan were heading to Riley's, the Chelsea bar that Tom and his friends frequent. I wasn't explicitly invited (perhaps because I had already stated my intent to go to Cadogan), but I took the liberty of inviting myself. After all, it's a Chelsea bar, Dan is an Arsenal fan, and Tom is a Chelsea fan but couldn't name more than three Chelsea players. I belonged as much as or more than either of them.

We arrived at the bar and it was still 10 minutes or so before the match so it was relatively empty. We had been warned by Tom that there might be some rough characters, but it was actually quite friendly and nobody troubled us at all. The music selections were odd, though. The first song I heard playing was an old country song, which I couldn't identify. The second was Jeannie C. Riley's hit "Harper Valley PTA." Keep in mind that we are in London, one of the world's poshest cities, in Chelsea, one of London's poshest neighborhoods, and on King's Road, Chelsea's poshest streets. And we are listening to Harper Valley PTA in a dive bar and drinking Strongbow. It was tremendous.

As the game started, the crowd started to shuffle in. Apparently, according to Tom many of the regulars weren't there, which I imagine can be chalked up to a midweek game as opposed to a weekend fixture. Chelsea began sluggishly. Bordeaux was playing beyond a loud home crowd and simply had more urgency. One of the ways you can tell how well a football team is playing is how much space there is in midfield. A motivated team is challenging everything in midfield while a lethargic one gives up tons of space to move. Bordeaux were having there way in that department. Neither team had many strong chances, though and all told it was a boring first half. The second half saw Nicolas Anelka put Chelsea in front. He beat the offsides trap and coolly slotted the ball past the goalkeeper. One on one's look easy when the striker handles them correctly but an unbelievable amount of them are botched. Arsenal missed four against Burnley. It's a testament to Anelka's quality that he handled his so easily. Chelsea seemed to be cruising to the final 16 of the Champions League, but no one goal lead is safe and a defensive laps allowed Bordeaux to equalize with a late header. All in all it was disappointing. Chelsea should have won and been in position to control their own destiny against Cluj. As it happened, they would need to wait until Matchday Six to secure qualification.

Thursday was Thanksgiving, but it wasn't very festive for me. Although things have greatly improved on all fronts since, it sure didn't feel like there was much to give thanks for at the time. I think I had a cottage pie, watched some TV, and that was the extent of my celebration.

I had hoped to go shopping on Friday and maybe pick up a few things from Zaavi and/or Lilywhite's but I wanted to talk to Emily, who was coming back from Cambridge, so I got delayed and didn't get around to it during the day. Emily texted me when she came back from Cambridge and I talked to her. Basically, I was still needing someone to talk to regarding the Laura situation (which is now happily resolved!) and I felt like she was the only one around who would listen. That proved therapeutic and I hoped curry and bowling, which was planned for later in the evening would, too. Emily had told me that Laura would be there, but I thought that it wouldn't bother me. After walking to the Tube and waiting for the train, I realized it would bother me to be able to see Laura having fun but not be able to have fun with her, and I came up with the idea to just get off at Picadilly Circus, go to Zaavi, and spend the night listening to my purchases. I bought Out of Control by Girls Aloud, Tangled Up by Girls Aloud, Reasons To Be Cheerful: The Best of Ian Dury, Prospekt's March EP by Coldplay, Greatest Day (single) by Take That, a Chelsea FC poster, and a Region 2 copy of Save The Last Dance for my London: City of Nations paper. Then, I went to Tesco and bought food and a couple bottles of Magner's. I spent the night surfing the net, listening to my music, and slowly drinking a bottle of Magner's. I heard that bowling was extremely fun and was sad to miss it because I love bowling, but I don't know that it would have been fun for me so I think I made the right decision.

Saturday was the day of the last weekend of rugby union's fall internationals. New Zealand was set to take on England with Australia to face Wales. Given the pounding that England took at the hands of South Africa, I took the liberty of assuming that they wouldn't put up much fight against the All Blacks of New Zealand, who are currently the world's top team. Thus, with the games being played simultaneously, I chose to watch Wales rather than England. Wales had been in the game against both Wales and South Africa before suffering narrow defeats, so it seemed there was a very real chance they could pull it out and beat South Africa. Basically, in rugby union, the three southern hemisphere teams are the powerhouses. Not that the other teams can't beat them, but they are the constants. For a European squad to beat one of the southern hemsiphere teams is a rare and meaningful accomplishment.

I can't remember the details of the game now except that Wales took the lead early and led all the way but never by very much. A quick google indicates that Wales ultimately won 21-18. As I recall, Wales recorded a late penalty to make it an eight point gap, which means that a converted try would still leave Australia short on points. However, Australia gave it a hell of an effort, scoring in the waning moments to cut the gap to three. Unfortunately for the Wallabies, Wales recovered and held on to close out the match. This was easily the best Rugby Union match that I saw while in London and was a perfect advertisement for the game. The players and fans were passionate, the game was intense and free-flowing, and it feature the full breadth of the Union game. There was great wide play, great tight play, excellent kicking (both goal and tactical), and all in all it was just a great showpiece game.

I had a mind that I should get out of the house on Saturday night. I didn't have anyone to go with and it was a pretty chilly night, but I still wanted to go to Warwick Avenue. For the unfamiliar, Warwick Avenue is the title of a number 3 hit by one of my favorite artists, Duffy. For me, Abbey Road held little appeal. Warwick Avenue was the musical location I wanted to see (having already been to Sloane Square, mentioned in the Morrissey song "Hairdresser on Fire"). So that's where I went. Warwick Avenue is on the Bakerloo line, which links with the Piccadilly line at Picadilly Circus.

The first thing I noticed about Warwick Avenue upon leaving the tube is that it is a pretty quiet, obviously residential neighborhood. It's the kind of place where people actually live, as opposed to Chelsea where only millionaires can afford to live. There are plenty of swank looking houses and the whole bit but not much action and much to see. To that end, I set off looking for something even vaguely resembling a high street where I might grab a bite to eat. I didn't really find it, at least not immediately. I saw the odd coffee shop, but I just wandered around until I ran into the canal and had to change direction. Eventually, I ended up on Harrow Road, which was quite busy. I felt a little bit sketchy on Harrow Road, though. I was alone, at night, in an unfamiliar part of an unfamiliar city, and judging by the amount of Arabic writing on the signs and the people walking the streets, I was the wrong color for this neighborhood. Still, it was a busy street so I didn't much fear a mugging if I minded my own business. I walked Harrow Road for a little while hoping I might find a suitable place to eat. There were a number of KFC/Harold's Chicken Shack type places, but I felt that knowing which one to choose and how to order is dependent on local knowledge that I don't possess, so I skipped it.

At this point, I had been walking for 45 minutes or so. It was my intention, in accordance with the song's lyrics, to spend "an hour but no more than two" around Warwick Avenue, so I decided it was soon enough to head back towards Warwick Avenue, which I was pretty far from at this point. I was briefly lost but soon found my way and arrived at the tube station. At this point, I decided to walk the other way from the tube station and see what there was. I arrived at little Venice, where two of the large canals meet each other. It's very pretty at night and would probably be a great place to visit on a summer night, but it being late November, everything was closed up. Still, it was pleasant, so I walked along the canal for a while. Eventually, I came to another Harrow Road-like high street, the name of which escapes me currently. Finally, my hands were numbed and I headed back home. All in all it was a pleasant night, but I couldn't escape the feeling that I would have rather shared it with someone else. Nonetheless, it was I'm sure worthwhile just to get me out of the dorm and seeing London.

I don't recall anything about Sunday or Monday. Tuesday, I finished my essay for Professor Hadley and watched Burnley v. Arsenal. Some of the others went to Avenue Q, but I missed the e-mail about tickets and it's just as well because I think Laura went I probably still wouldn't have been ready to face up to that. Burnley, as it happens, continued their incredible Carling Cup run by defeating Arsenal's youngsters 2-0. Arsenal's youngsters are absurdly talented, but Burnley's veterans just wore them out. They got the first goal, put the Gunners on the back foot, and never really looked in too much danger. That makes it three London clubs, Burnley has defeated in the Carling Cup: Fulham, Chelsea, and Arsenal. And they can make it four if they can manage to beat Tottenham. As for the essay, I thought it turned out decently. Perhaps, my argument was a bit of a stretch, but I got it done early enough that I hoped I could finish Royce's essay by the end of Friday. That did not happen.

Thursday we had been threatened with a double session of Royce's class. Royce, showing his merciful side, thankfully spared us that. In fact, not only did he cut it to a single session but he also only ran class until 1230 and let us out half and hour early. The poor guy was doing everything he could do to make up for earlier miscues in the class. Essentially, he set too ambitious of a syllabus and too large of readings. In addition, there were problems with the distribution of those readings, so doing the readings became incredibly difficult. Moreover, he at first seemed condescending and the class didn't take well to his teaching style of eliciting personal responses from students (hence the class's nickname of "Feelings"). All of this set the class against him early in the quarter and the demanding papers didn't help his case. However, in the last few weeks he realized his errors. He became very flexible about what sources he would allow to be used for the papers, he became very complimentary about us, he restructured his classes so as to make them more friendly and account for the difficulty of the reading, and generally tried to rectify his previous errors. I'm afraid he still got savaged on his evaluations, but I'm sure that it won't affect him too much. He's a good teacher that just needs experience. More annoyingly, many of the students were unnecessarily cruel with their IES evaluations, which led to resentment from the IES staff. Honestly, there were several issues with IES that were annoying, but they weren't things that badly damaged our experiences. That were just annoyances, but many of the people just ripped into IES. I feel like these people are probably rich and get spoiled at home or maybe they are just rotten people, but at any rate, I think they need to grow up.

Alright, that's enough typing for now...Act Two will come a bit a later.