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Jun. 29th, 2010 06:33 pmKnock off at 1pm and drive home in plenty of time for Oranje v Slovakia - that was the plan yesterday, but it went out of the window when, despite ten minutes of trying, my car resolutely refused to start. Whether because of overheating, moisture (the windows were fogged with condensation) or having lain idle for a few days, I have no idea. What I did know was that this meant getting a later bus and arriving at work at 7.30.
And with the lost half hour, plus the sheer length of time a bus journey home takes, there was no way I'd be getting home to see my team. That meant working until 2.30 then watching the match in the office coffee lounge. But there was a complication : Ann was coming over in the evening to join me for Brazil v Chile. If Holland went to extra time and penalties there'd be no way of getting home by bus in time for her. I had no option but to book a taxi. No jokes about how I wouldn't have had to stay to watch a penalty shoot-out because we'd have known the Dutch would lose, please.
I thought I'd at least had some luck when, early in the morning, my PC connected to the Wimbledon website, but my hopes of keeping tabs on Kim were dashed by an email to us all at twelve o'clock - the internet filtering service was on the fritz, so all internet access was blocked except in the library and the coffee lounge.
I had on my bright orange 'Nederland Rave On' number 14 shirt. The brightness of the orange drew a few remarks from the ladies on my floor, then in the canteen at lunch time a guy came up beside me and said "Well done on the Cruyff shirt" in a Dutch accent. He added that he wasn't sure Holland would win as Slovakia had a strong team. Just before going back upstairs I nipped into the lounge and learned Kim was losing the first set.
At 2.30 I said my goodbyes and hit the coffee lounge, where I learned Kim had won, switched on the TV and bagged a prime seat out of the sun. The Dutchman joined me in the lounge seconds before kick-off (just too late to hear my rendition of Het Wilhelmus). A few others drifted in from time to time, including a young man who was supporting Slovakia - we forgave him as he had them in his department's sweepstake - and one guy who came in a couple of times just to keep track on Wimbledon via the internet. Again the performance wasn't pretty, but Arjan eased our nerves with a beauty from 20 yards in the 25th minute and then, with less than twenty minutes remaining, Dirk Kuyt spurted down the wing and sent a gorgeous cross over for Wes Sneijder to roll home. Sue #5 popped by to watch the closing minutes with me - we weren't ruffled by Slovakia's consolation penalty as we knew the final whistle was due.
And so I had an hour to kill before the taxi arrived. I wandered up to my now deserted department and updated our World Cup wallchart, then moseyed down to the library to look at my emails.
With a bit of traffic on the roads, the ride home cost £20. Ouch. But at least Holland were in the quarter-finals, and I had time to give the car a test rev (it started), change out of my sweat-minging football shirt and have a quick splash before Ann arrived. We spent the evening drinking Pepsi (she was driving home) and compiling our Top 20 players of all time in between watching the Brazilians give Chile a footballing masterclass.
The car started fine this morning, sparing me from having to take the bus again and miss Paraguay v Japan - not that that would have been a great loss...
Goodbye Kim ;(
And with the lost half hour, plus the sheer length of time a bus journey home takes, there was no way I'd be getting home to see my team. That meant working until 2.30 then watching the match in the office coffee lounge. But there was a complication : Ann was coming over in the evening to join me for Brazil v Chile. If Holland went to extra time and penalties there'd be no way of getting home by bus in time for her. I had no option but to book a taxi. No jokes about how I wouldn't have had to stay to watch a penalty shoot-out because we'd have known the Dutch would lose, please.
I thought I'd at least had some luck when, early in the morning, my PC connected to the Wimbledon website, but my hopes of keeping tabs on Kim were dashed by an email to us all at twelve o'clock - the internet filtering service was on the fritz, so all internet access was blocked except in the library and the coffee lounge.
I had on my bright orange 'Nederland Rave On' number 14 shirt. The brightness of the orange drew a few remarks from the ladies on my floor, then in the canteen at lunch time a guy came up beside me and said "Well done on the Cruyff shirt" in a Dutch accent. He added that he wasn't sure Holland would win as Slovakia had a strong team. Just before going back upstairs I nipped into the lounge and learned Kim was losing the first set.
At 2.30 I said my goodbyes and hit the coffee lounge, where I learned Kim had won, switched on the TV and bagged a prime seat out of the sun. The Dutchman joined me in the lounge seconds before kick-off (just too late to hear my rendition of Het Wilhelmus). A few others drifted in from time to time, including a young man who was supporting Slovakia - we forgave him as he had them in his department's sweepstake - and one guy who came in a couple of times just to keep track on Wimbledon via the internet. Again the performance wasn't pretty, but Arjan eased our nerves with a beauty from 20 yards in the 25th minute and then, with less than twenty minutes remaining, Dirk Kuyt spurted down the wing and sent a gorgeous cross over for Wes Sneijder to roll home. Sue #5 popped by to watch the closing minutes with me - we weren't ruffled by Slovakia's consolation penalty as we knew the final whistle was due.
And so I had an hour to kill before the taxi arrived. I wandered up to my now deserted department and updated our World Cup wallchart, then moseyed down to the library to look at my emails.
With a bit of traffic on the roads, the ride home cost £20. Ouch. But at least Holland were in the quarter-finals, and I had time to give the car a test rev (it started), change out of my sweat-minging football shirt and have a quick splash before Ann arrived. We spent the evening drinking Pepsi (she was driving home) and compiling our Top 20 players of all time in between watching the Brazilians give Chile a footballing masterclass.
The car started fine this morning, sparing me from having to take the bus again and miss Paraguay v Japan - not that that would have been a great loss...
Goodbye Kim ;(
