Grand finals, Hens, Walkabout and Italy

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So Tim ended up playing in the Grand Finals for the Reading Roo’s. The final was held in London and they beat the Ealing Emus by 3 goals. Tim was excited beyond belief that he has now won a finals in Australia and one in England especially after he had so much grief about missing out on half a season with his team in Australia. I unfortunately could not be at the big match because one of my close friends had her hen show that day also in London, which had been arranged for quite some time (and I cannot make the wedding.) We had a very enjoyable day drinking cocktails, eating at an Italian restaurant and going to see ‘Thriller’ in the West End which had us all up singing and dancing along to Michael Jackson’s hits over his lifetime. That night we literally sprinted for the last fast train back to Reading and I decided that I would pop and see Tim as he was just around the corner from the train station. Tim had been celebrating since 1pm and it was now very late. The Reading Roos had their celebrations at a place called ‘Walkabout’ (an Australian themed bar.) I made my way there with some friends in the rain and then found there was a very long line up and I had to pay 10 quid to get in. Luckily thanks to Tally she managed to get me in for free and without the line up. Now I am just going to have a little whine here… I cannot stand it when people get on power trips just because they think they have a little authority over you and therefore talk down to you like a piece of rubbish. I have often found this with bouncers…okay they might have a challenging job at times but seriously its not that difficult to be nice to someone. The bouncers at Walkabout seemed to think they had the most important job in the world and were very rude to be honest…Anyway moving on, got inside and couldn’t see Tim so went up to the second floor. I found Tim and all his team mates bopping on the dance floor still in their football kits complete with medals around their necks… I was pleased to see that although Tim was very happy he wasn’t completely gone. Then… this idiot guy that was about 3 times my size just randomly shoved me really hard across the dance floor for no apparent reason. I turned around and looked at him and automatically shouted ‘what the…’

Then before I even got the words out my mouth this big thug decided that he was going to attempt to throw a punch at my face…here I was standing in the middle of the dance floor wearing my little cotton dress and flat shoes probably looking the most vulnerable person in the bar and he decides to throw a punch.

Tim then jumps in the way and the guy shoves Tim. Tim was fuming at this point and decided that in his own words he was going to ‘rack him, really hard.’ Luckily his mates pulled the idiot back and I was standing in the middle trying to drag Tim away. Thankfully the thug got kicked out at that point…and I only popped in to Walkabout for 5 minutes....Tim told me that later that night one of the thug’s mates actually came and apologized on behalf of him.



Getting a taxi back to Tally’s place we arrived at RAF Benson (her husband is in the RAF.) I talked non stop the whole way about the idiot in Walkabout and then carried on when we got to Guard house telling the RAF guys all about it. Catching up on gossip with the girls Tally’s sister Nicky comes in after quite a few drinks and tells us all about how she went to Walkabout and stole a trophy. She then showed us all these pictures of her drinking from the trophy. Looking at the pictures I suddenly realized that the trophy she had in fact stolen was the trophy that Tim and the Reading Kangaroos had won earlier that day…



Catching the plane we left at 4.15am this morning. Its always really hard leaving England as I guess its where my heart is and I have discovered the quicker goodbye the better as if you drag it out I sometimes get so upset that I cannot calm down for quite some time. Leaving close friends and family isn’t easy so I gave my bro Sam a very quick hug at the airport and then a ‘cya later.’ We then caught a plane to Germany and then got a connection to Rome. Arriving at Germany we found that we were in fact probably the furthest away point that we could possibly be from our connecting flight. Going on a shuttle bus, 2 lifts and various escalators we found ourselves running to get to the gate. The sole of one of my sandals got caught and half ripped right off so I ended up kind of running and sliding. We luckily made it to the gate with about 4 minutes to go. As we went towards the plane I saw our names flashing on the TV above with our seat numbers.



Arriving at Italy we were approached by a friendly man who asked if we needed a taxi. Climbing into his taxi van we waited and waited and waited. He told us we had to pay 15euro each and then went off to find 2 more people to fill the van with. After waiting for ages Tim went and told him we needed to go but he kept saying ‘one minute.’ So we got out the van, collected our luggage and got in the proper taxi line. I could not believe that I had fallen for the old trick of the unregistered taxi that tries to rip you off after the same thing had happened when we arrived tired and exhausted in China. Arriving at our rather charming Italian hotel, which is just around the corner from the Vatican we spent the rest of the day exploring the local area and eating delicious food. I have always envied the mediterian life style and fell in love with it after my brother lived in the South of France. Its warm and charming, the food is delicious, the architecture is beautiful, the people are gorgeous and in my experience are friendly and welcoming. They even have siesta… As you can tell I am quite looking forward to exploring more of Italy and Greece.



That’s all for now folks….

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