Final Day

My left over coffee pots

I am writing this blog for a second time. My first draft, all four hours work, disappeared from my screen before I could publish it. I am not happy.

Achilles: King George's accolade to the Duke of Wellington

Roma gamblers

It was May 23rd and the last day of the 14/15 premiership season. Sean and I had agreed to have our breakfast in the Cumberland Hotel. Having passed through Cork Airport unacknowledged once again I arrived in London on time at 8.55 am. I took the tube to Hyde Park Corner and walked across the park to meet Sean at the Cumberland. Achilles sword was glistening in the morning sun. Sean and I ate five course each. It was exceptionally good value for money. My 'food baby' as Caitriona would call my stomach was well and truly showing. We walked over to speakers corner. Two Muslim preacher and a buddist were spouting some guff. A few lonely people were listening and questioning them. Nearby a group of Roma gypsies were congregated under a statue of a gryphon. They were playing some kinf of gambling game using dice. I reckoned there were £100 in coins in front of each player. As soon as they saw we were watching the cash disappeared. It was so fast I don't know where it went.
One of the gypsy women came over to us and told us the game was Pachsi or something like that. We high tailed it out of there.

Turkish charity donation

Next we found ourselves next to a large Turkish flag. There were sallow skinned people laying out picnics. We asked what was going on. No one spoke English. They thought we were beggars and started to try to give us food and drink. We politely declined but not before one of the picnicers had forced a bag of something into my hand. They were some kind of nuts and they were warm. Neither I nor Sean had any room to eat them so we fed them to ducks and pigeons.

US Embassy baseball game

We were now in the middle of Hyde Park. We came across the staff of the US embassy playing a game of baseball. One of them asked us if we were on our honeymoon, a passing reference to the Irish referendum passed the day before allowing gay marriage.

Albert, sans leprechauns

 We neared the edge of the park and came across an amazing statue to Queen Victoria's husband Albert. The plinth of the statue was surrounded by smaller statues of figures dressed in the garb of the various parts of what was then the British empire. There were no leprechauns.

I'm not scared..honest

We left the park area and found a secret entrance to the Natural History Museum. This museum is free to enter. They suggest a £5 donation. You can guess at how much Sean and I left. There was no queue at this secret entrance whilst the main entrance was jammed. We spent about 45 minutes in there, 43 of those looking at dinosaurs. Emily would have been proud of her Da's bravery.

Free flags add to the party

When we left the museum we started to make our way towards Fulham Rd and Stamford Bridge. There was a party atmosphere at the ground. Neither Sunderland or Chelsea had anything riding on the game. We chatted with some Sunderland fans as we made our way into the ground. They really are sound football fans.

Fireworks

Sunderland went ahead after about twenty minutes. But we were never in danger. After 30 mins Costa came on for Drogba who was playing his last game for Chelsea. Within minutes we were awarded a penalty and Costa slotted it home even though the keeper guessed right. Remy, who I think is not good enough, scored twice in the second half and before you knew it, we had won the Premiership. The Sunderland fans were fantastic and stayed behind to view the presentation ceremony.

Defoe and other Sunderland players, trapped

After the game Sean and I came across the Sunderland team hemmed in to a small area below the stand, awaiting their bus. In the photo beside Defoe you can see about sixty empty pizza boxes stacked. Yes, pizza. Food of athletes.

Valerie

We passed through the Old Brompton graveyard on our way back to the tube. We went into the little chapel there where Valerie told a little of the history of the graveyard. She remained calm even as she told us of her husbands burial there last year. Sean advised them they needed to put up the price of the snacks they were selling as a fund raising drive. He repriced all the 50p items to £1. He gave them until next August to get the prices up. Valerie and her assistant Florence said they would.

Megan Shea, the mascot on the tube

My New Oyster Card

Sean and I parted company at Earls Court tube station. On the tube there was girl, about ten, all dressed in Chelsea kit accompanied by her parents. I asked her if she  the game. She said she did and that she really enjoyed meeting Hazard and Drogba. Her mum, who was from Belfast, explained she had been the mascot for the day.  I asked how she went about that. The Mum, who is a Chelsea fan, put her name down when she was born, 10 years before. It has taken ten years for her name to come up. They went on about how 'normal' the players, their wives and kids were. They were still on cloud nine. I reflected on how normal I would be if I earned John Terry's £200k a week. When I got to Heathrow I went to the ticket desk of the London Underground. I purchased, for £24, an Oyster card. Now I was well and truly ready for next season. Roll on 15/16