Football, at last, is less of an issue; Ireland got knocked out of the World Cup last Sunday when Spain beat us. It was odd. I dreamed, the night before it, of the match (how sad is that?). In my dream, the score was three-all, it went to a penalty shoot-out, and Spain won three-and-a-half to one-and-a-half on the penalties. (This made perfect sense in my dream, though I have no idea in waking life how one could win half a penalty!) In real life, the score was one-all, it went to a penalty shoot-out, and Spain won three to two on the penalties. Patrick says that next time I have a dream like that he's going to the bookie's; he could probably have made a tidy packet betting on a draw, with Spain to win the penalty shoot-out. I just hope, if I'm going to make a habit of having semi-prophetic dreams, that they're going to be about more interesting things than football matches!
So anyway. Our team came home on Tuesday and a big concert was organised to celebrate them in the Phoenix Park. Apparently something in the region of 100,000 people went. Well, to quote Flanders & Swann, "for those who like that sort of thing, that's the sort of thing they like". Personally I was out for a quiet pint or two with Patrick and a mate of ours; we had to share the last bus home with a lot of boisterous football fans. Ah well, could be worse!
Meanwhile, the World Cup still provides some entertainment. The other day, South Korea (utterly unknown in football terms; I think this is their first World Cup) beat Italy (well known as a Good Team Who Win Things). That was amusing enough. Then the Italian club for whom one of the South Korean team plays, in a stunning display of pettiness, announced that they would not be renewing said player's contract. Oh my. Are the grapes a little sour today? Given that said player scored, if I understand correctly, the winning goal in the match, I don't think he'll have too much trouble finding another club to play with. South Korea are playing Spain this weekend. I think it would be very funny if SK won. No, my grapes aren't sour. I just have this schadenfreude sense of humour, and it seems to me that it would be far funnier for Spain to be knocked out of the tournament by a bunch of unknowns than by a bunch of never-quite-make-its.
In the meantime, the tabloids are worrying about the possible fate of Irish football fans attending our European Cup qualifying match in Georgia (something like a year away, I think), given that foreigners apparently get kidnapped all the time in Georgia. I imagine a big warehouse with foreign kidnappees stacked six deep on ceiling-high metal shelves. With little tags to say who each person is and from whom the ransom is expected and what the due date of the ransom is. Industrialised kidnapping. Heh.
On the other hand, the Japanese organisers of the World Cup have voted the Irish fans the Nicest Football Fans In The World Ever. I assume that football, especially European football, is not something that the Japanese normally pay much attention to; ever since we first made it into the European Cup (back in 1988), national authorities have been making happy noises about the behaviour of our fans. Apparently they all think we're going to behave like the English, them being the next-door island and having a very bad repution for hooliganism, so they get all surprised and pleased when the Irish fans behave like Irish people generally - get drunk, sing, laugh, fall down. In a generally harmless and happy way.
Enough football for one entry. I don't even like the game!
Training on Sunday was decidedly interrupted. Several people were watching the football, and several who were there were frantically phoning their friends to find out the score. And it rained. Patrick and I got there, ate our rolls (hadn't had time for breakfast) - and then the heavens opened! We retreated to a car park beneath an office building (ground level carpark, building on "stilts" above) by the entrance to the park. Yes, it was private property. No, no-one came to tell us to go away. All good.
The main plot-line of the day involved a bar brawl involving both Tribe and Armengar, in which an Armengarian got killed (oops!). We had to deal with the aftermath. We were half-way through dealing when it (more or less) stopped raining and we went back to the park. It caused a lot of trouble and ate up far too much of the Volksraad's time. Eventually the instigators of the brawl (two Tribe members fighting over who got to chat up a barmaid, apparently) got sent to the Box - more, I suspect, because everyone wanted the stupid argument over with than because people thought that was a fit punishment - and we moved on to the serious business. Which, in the nature of things, took hardly any time to settle. Sod's Law.
Our diplomatic team at the Heartlands brought back a sample treaty between a group and the Lions (the faction we're arguing about joining); it took about two minutes to decide that we would base our proposed treaty on that. We agreed that the Lawkeeper would decide on a team to investigate the death of the bloke killed in the bar brawl. We decided to let the Praetorians stay on our island (now that we know they're there!). Zoom, bang, whizz, all over.
Patrick has gone to the first Moot this weekend. This means I have to take what I can get in the way of weaponry at training this week (grr) and when he comes back next week he'll be full of stories about the Moot - and he only just stopped talking about the Heartlands! Ah well, I know I'm the same when I've just been/done something really neat. Can't stop babbling. And on the good side, I gave him the money to put a deposit on my sword, so I should be able to collect it at the Gathering! Yay!
My armour is coming along nicely; I've put the front facing back on, sewed all the buckles in place, and done the first patch over an ex-pocket. Thanks to Katherine, who suggested using a pair of pliers to pull the needle through the leather. This makes sewing tedious, but less painful, so I was able to do all four buckles (and straps) in one evening. Two more patches to go, and then I just have to cut out the bracers from the ex-sleeves, punch all the holes (Kevin wasn't at training on Sunday), and do a little finishing off, in the way of removing the last traces of old seams (bits of thread still hanging in places) and possible glueing some bits down.
And that's about it. I had flu over Monday and Tuesday, complete with temperature and associated bad stuff. Still a bit wobbly yesterday, but okay now.
posted by Dorian at
8:52 PM
