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Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now
Apr. 12th, 2023 11:04 pmBrentford yesterday for the Lionesses match with Australia. Stayed at the Novotel, nice place. It was a 16 minute walk from the Express Tavern, the agreed England fan meeting point, but rain was absolutely pelting down so I had to heave a deep sigh and summon an Uber.
Debs was on Free Lionesses embassy duty and asked whether I’d got my key ring yet. I told her it was on order. She said “When it arrives, maybe that’ll be your lucky talisman”.
Rachel and Leanne were sitting at a table in the back section. I got a strawberry cider from the wooden bar at the rear and went over to join them. We ordered food. A chilly Rachel asked the waiter to put the tall pyramidal metal fires on. Soon after, one of the fires was turned on, but not the one near us - apparently the ones apart from the one that did get turned on weren’t working. It wasn’t long before Sue joined us, although she disappeared in search of an eaterie elsewhere (we saw from Facebook that she’d found an Italian near the ground) before returning to us just before it was time to make a move. We talked about the team selection and reminisced about past Lionesses trips abroad.
Soon after Sue returned we went to the loos then walked over to the stadium. It was my first time at Brentford’s new ground, a very slick set-up with a neat red on white colour scheme. I’d organised our tickets, so they’d been posted to me, then when Covid hit my household I sent all the others their tickets Special Delivery to ensure they wouldn’t dip out if I caught the virus and had to miss the trip. Alas, Rachel and Sue hadn’t been home for their deliveries and had been unable to get to the post office to collect them, so Rachel had bagged corporate seats from her office for herself and Sue. So outside the ground we parted company to different entrances.
Leanne and I made our way, via the refreshment kiosks, to our seats in the third row from the front at the goalmouth end of one of the long sides. With about a quarter of an hour to kick-off Crystal arrived and then Lisa. Crystal and I chatted, she asked “Are Rachel and Sue not with us?” I explained about the ticket brouhaha “which I feel dreadful about”. Crystal was a sweetheart and said not to feel bad, as my sending the tickets Special Delivery had really helped her.
Not much to say about the game. England were dire and Australia made their chances count. Chloe Kelly, and Jess Park when she was introduced, were our only players to have good games. Leanne briefly became excited when Jess Park warmed up and came on but that was as good as things got for us.
The four of us tried to put a brave face on in the stairwell on our way out, saying the end of the unbeaten run had taken the pressure off the team, that we needed a wake-up call ahead of the World Cup, and that it was better to get a bad game out of our system now than at the World Cup. But there was no disguising the downer that descended on us.
We made our way back to the Express Tavern where we met Rachel and Sue but there was no post-match pint. Londoners Crystal and Rachel had to be heading for home while Sue, and Leanne who was staying at hers, had a drive back to the Midlands ahead of them. So we just said our goodbyes. As I’m not going to Australia I said “Have a wonderful summer, see you in the autumn” to them all, but Rachel and Sue seemed pretty sure that one of our World Cup warm-up games would be played here in England before the squad fly out.
The rain was still coming down in torrents. Nothing for it but to call another Uber. Drowned my sorrows in the hotel bar with a lonely Leffe Blonde.
And so back home today, in a monsoon. Had to get off at Portsmouth & Southsea and go to the bank to deposit the notes I was carrying in my wallet, that never got used because the hotel was cashless, to cover the cost of the Ubers.
Arrived home feeling absolutely flat, still convinced that the Lionesses’ luck had vanished along with the lucky T-shirt, knowing I wouldn’t see my friends again until autumn, glum at the prospect of returning to work tomorrow with nothing to look forward to now that the impending root canal redo has blanked my social calendar for the next few months.
And still the rain came down.
Debs was on Free Lionesses embassy duty and asked whether I’d got my key ring yet. I told her it was on order. She said “When it arrives, maybe that’ll be your lucky talisman”.
Rachel and Leanne were sitting at a table in the back section. I got a strawberry cider from the wooden bar at the rear and went over to join them. We ordered food. A chilly Rachel asked the waiter to put the tall pyramidal metal fires on. Soon after, one of the fires was turned on, but not the one near us - apparently the ones apart from the one that did get turned on weren’t working. It wasn’t long before Sue joined us, although she disappeared in search of an eaterie elsewhere (we saw from Facebook that she’d found an Italian near the ground) before returning to us just before it was time to make a move. We talked about the team selection and reminisced about past Lionesses trips abroad.
Soon after Sue returned we went to the loos then walked over to the stadium. It was my first time at Brentford’s new ground, a very slick set-up with a neat red on white colour scheme. I’d organised our tickets, so they’d been posted to me, then when Covid hit my household I sent all the others their tickets Special Delivery to ensure they wouldn’t dip out if I caught the virus and had to miss the trip. Alas, Rachel and Sue hadn’t been home for their deliveries and had been unable to get to the post office to collect them, so Rachel had bagged corporate seats from her office for herself and Sue. So outside the ground we parted company to different entrances.
Leanne and I made our way, via the refreshment kiosks, to our seats in the third row from the front at the goalmouth end of one of the long sides. With about a quarter of an hour to kick-off Crystal arrived and then Lisa. Crystal and I chatted, she asked “Are Rachel and Sue not with us?” I explained about the ticket brouhaha “which I feel dreadful about”. Crystal was a sweetheart and said not to feel bad, as my sending the tickets Special Delivery had really helped her.
Not much to say about the game. England were dire and Australia made their chances count. Chloe Kelly, and Jess Park when she was introduced, were our only players to have good games. Leanne briefly became excited when Jess Park warmed up and came on but that was as good as things got for us.
The four of us tried to put a brave face on in the stairwell on our way out, saying the end of the unbeaten run had taken the pressure off the team, that we needed a wake-up call ahead of the World Cup, and that it was better to get a bad game out of our system now than at the World Cup. But there was no disguising the downer that descended on us.
We made our way back to the Express Tavern where we met Rachel and Sue but there was no post-match pint. Londoners Crystal and Rachel had to be heading for home while Sue, and Leanne who was staying at hers, had a drive back to the Midlands ahead of them. So we just said our goodbyes. As I’m not going to Australia I said “Have a wonderful summer, see you in the autumn” to them all, but Rachel and Sue seemed pretty sure that one of our World Cup warm-up games would be played here in England before the squad fly out.
The rain was still coming down in torrents. Nothing for it but to call another Uber. Drowned my sorrows in the hotel bar with a lonely Leffe Blonde.
And so back home today, in a monsoon. Had to get off at Portsmouth & Southsea and go to the bank to deposit the notes I was carrying in my wallet, that never got used because the hotel was cashless, to cover the cost of the Ubers.
Arrived home feeling absolutely flat, still convinced that the Lionesses’ luck had vanished along with the lucky T-shirt, knowing I wouldn’t see my friends again until autumn, glum at the prospect of returning to work tomorrow with nothing to look forward to now that the impending root canal redo has blanked my social calendar for the next few months.
And still the rain came down.
