England Vs Australia 

12 February 2003

Ari and I  drove over to pick Ian up from school and  then caught a train into London -  so far so good.  When  we  went to  get the underground across London to the stadium the trouble started ...  They  closed the underground -  The train pulled in, then they  announced the line  was closed.  OK, we thought -  and  we  hot footed it out to  catch a bus,  and  we  got  one  fairly  quickly,  but a mile or  so into the  journey, it  ground to a halt ...  So  we  got  out  and  walked.  At  least  we  found out  what the problem  was -  the police  had  closed King's cross station, and  cordoned off all the  roads  for about 200 yards  all the way  around.  So  we  walked, and  after  about 45 minutes hard walking we made it around the station, and  then managed to get a cab to the stadium.  We  got into the ground  about  5 minutes  before the delayed kickoff. 

The England  team  came out  and  we  all cheered  and  waved our flags -  then  the match  started  and they were abysmal.  By half  time  we  were two  goals  down and  were being completely outplayed by the Aussies.  Then the  England  coach  changed the team -  all 11 of them -  and they deserved it.  At least the youngsters in the second half  put up a fight  and  managed  to hold their own.  Eventually  Australia  won 3-1,  and they  deserved it.  Good game  you  Aussies.

Then on the way home -  well   we  got  directed to the  queue  for the Tube  station -  BUT  the line  was nearly a mile long - just  to  get to the station.  So  we walked on to the next station.  By the time  we  got there  we were all tired and fractious -  the  delay  meant  we missed our  train  and  had to  catch one that stopped at every station.  Ian  got  home  at  about 1:45am  -  and then got into  trouble  for  being sleepy in class next day.  We  got in at  about 2:45am  and I  was  so  tired I  didn't  make  work the next day.

In the end  we  only took one  picture that was any good.  And, appropriately, that was Australia attacking the England goal. The  rest of the time  we  sat there  almost slack jawed in disappointment at the England team.   Thanks a bunch England!