Not too long ago I wrote about an annual reunion that we seem to have for all the people from my old work place back home who are in London at the right time. Well, today it was another reunion but this time with the addition of a crazy couple who managed to actually score tickets for every Australian (first round) match in the World Cup. They are blowing a lot of money on it but I’m sure they will have an absolute ball.

The venue this time was Lizzie’s (one half of the crazy couple) old drinking hole – the Stanhope Arms. Apparently back when she worked in London a year and a half or two ago she and her then partner in crime, Deb, used to come in every day after work for a cheeky pint. It seems to be an okay pub but was staffed by some quite disinterested bar tenders. Not sure if it was because it was a Sunday but there was definitely no rushing to fill our orders. In true World Cup spirit its been done up with flags all over the place but we noted that Australia’s was missing – not sure I’ll come here to watch an Aussie game then! 🙂

A win for our side at last! After having Boro lose their last two matches it was nice to finally see a team I was supporting, Liverpool, bring home a win as they took West Ham in today’s FA Cup Final. Although Liverpool was actually favoured to win, West Ham had all the luck on their side. They were staying in the lucky hotel (apparently out of the last 32 finals, 29 winners had stayed at this hotel or something like that) and the lucky locker room.

Sir Jules chose the Angel Walkabout as today’s match watching venue as its his “lucky” venue. I have sworn never to step into a Walkabout but today was an exception. While we were there I thought I might as well take advantage of one of their nicer cocktails – Illusion. I suffered my usual allergic reaction but it really was yummy. 🙂 Actually, as a venue, there was pretty good atmosphere at the Walkabout. I’d say that Liverpool supporters JUST outnumbered West Ham supporters (or they were the most vocal anyway.)

But on to the game. As I said Liverpool did take the match but they didn’t make it easy for themselves. First there was an own goal in the 21st minute and then there was a fumble by the Liverpool keeper that allowed West Ham to score an easy second goal not too long after. With hearts in our mouths the seconds were ticking away just a bit too quickly as we approached half-time but Liverpool were able to scrape at least one back to make it 1-2 going into the break.

The second half started off in a flurry as Gerrard scored the first of two brilliant goals to make it 2-2. West Ham made it 2-3 in answer after a freakish long-range goal by Konchesky. It was heart in the mouth sort of stuff again as we approached the end of the game and then in the 90th minute Gerrard scored his second brilliant goal to take it to extra time. Despite some great football by West Ham in extra time they just couldn’t capitalize on their opportunities and Liverpool were able to hold it to 3-3 to take it to a penalty shoot out. And this is where their class showed taking it 3-1 after some awesome saves by the keeper.

Was Sir Jules happy? It would be fair to say that’s somewhat of an understatement!

After going to see Whistle Down the Wind, I dropped into the Pint Pot to see how Chicken and Sir Jules were feeling after the UEFA final between Boro and Sevilla. Sadly for Chicken Boro went down to Sevilla 4-0. She wasn’t too happy about that but even knowing as little as I do about football over here I know that Boro’s year was a pretty good one so she can’t be too unhappy about their performance overall. There’s always next year!

Almost a year ago there was a reunion of sorts of a group of us from my old work place at home and this now seems to be an annual event on the calendar. Back then there were about 8 or 9 of us and amazingly, even though only 7 of us could make tonights drinks, there are still about the same number of us over here somewhere. In fact the numbers could actually be increasing. The only difference is that about half of us have gone home to be replaced be some newbies. Its actually a pretty good indication of how good the leave opportunities are back home – its not every employer that will let you take a year off knowing full well that there is a greater than 90% chance you won’t come back!

Tonight’s venue was the Porterhouse. Not my favourite venue for finding people (as its a real maze) but once you’re settled its actually pretty cozy and for those into their beer they have some great home brewed ones on tap. It was good to hear from some of the new arrivals and their thoughts on London. I still think its a fab place but its always nice to get someone else’s perspective.

Tonight we had our third in a series of London wide “sporting” events for work. I’ve already written up the first effort in the Bowling. (The second was the netball at which I wasn’t present as I was in Oz at the time but I’m told we did shockingly …) What was tonight’s event? Well, its pretty obvious from the title – it was Darts. It was a very good turn out at Princess Alice Pub near Aldgate East and everyone was in a very competitive (and extremely loud) spirit. It was almost too rowdy to even take pics so the ones below are some from the end of the night when there were only a few of us left:

Overall it was a pretty good night. Although we didn’t win we didn’t come last (and we didn’t have to rely on team numbers to boost our position) which was a nice change!