testmeat photoblog

to quote football365, a website i frequent, er, frequently: football is brilliant, and anyone who says otherwise is genuinely missing something in their lives. yesterday lunchtime arsenal played away at chelsea. with the time difference that worked out at 6:45am kick off over here. i could have woken up and watched it on the small, snowy cable tv in my room but decided to get a few more hours sleep and try and download it. this was a risky tactic as i do have an irrational belief in jinxes. i hate, for example, listening to arsenal play on the radio and am convinced that if i do we won't win. for a time that extended to the minute-by-minute match commentaries you get online, and for a shorter time to online streaming. if i got to the local pub to watch it the bar itself, and then the seat i choose inside, also factor into my decision making. so by this crazy logic spending the day downloading close to 1GB of football on peruvian internet sounded like i was setting myself up for a fall. it also meant that i had to avoid all sports, news, emails and social networking websites for the day in case i got a whiff of the result. when i was having dinner i conceded to an american couple that football matches can be low scoring and boring, however if it's your team that's playing it's still engrossing. a few hours later i was sat watching a game that was the polar opposite of boring - it was bat shit mental.

the match was littered with goal scoring opportunities, defensive mistakes and eventually goals - 3 of which we conceded but thankfully 5 of which we scored. i was sitting alone in a darkened hotel room with a speeding heart beat and punching the air each time the ball hit the back of chelsea's net. when the full time whistle sounded i was really, really happy. it was the reverse of how i felt a couple of months ago when man utd thumped us 8-2, but it came from the same place. it could accurately be described as a nonsensical reaction - both results didn't really directly impact on my everyday life. so why should they illicit such a strong emotional response? well referring back to my initial quote - that's why football is brilliant. i've supported arsenal for over 20 years, and there are not many things that have been a constant in my life for that period of time. when they let me down i feel upset and disappointed, when they come good i feel elated and proud. it seems as though we've been dipping into to the first pot for most of 2011, but that's what makes yesterdays result fell all the more special. in fact so joyous was i that no sooner had i finished watching the match, i downloaded and watched the highlights from match of the day. with the biggest grin on my face. there are countless occasions when i've seen my team fare badly and wished that i didn't care as much as i did. last night was an overdue reminder of why it means so much more, and feels so much sweeter, when you do care.

these fireworks were a prophetic celebration in the local plaza before i watched the match. i'll write more about them another time, but for now all i'll say is here's the original