Thursday 8 July 2010

Shop Girl in Football Mania

I must’ve been to every Spanish bar in Bogotá.

La Basca full of bulls’ heads and flamenco posters,
La Tasca with its heavy wood beams,
La Puerta Grande with mosaics a la Gaudi and a white-washed terraza nicknamed ‘Ibiza’.
I wear my Spanish top with my name on the back and shout and scream at the television alongside the Fiancé.
My mother in-law bites her nails and gets as nervous as me while my father-in-law secretly supports the other side!
I’ll write my book when the world cup is over.
I’ll run off to the quiet of the country and write it word by word.
Meanwhile, I’ll wait for the octopus’s verdict while I quietly miss my family.
Because that’s the downside of the football, not being able to share the emotions with them!
I wish I could’ve seen my Dad’s reaction to those late in the game goals that got us through each time.
I imagine my Mum, walking in and out of the kitchen to watch bits and shout ‘Come on Wales!’
I want to be transported to Barcelona to see the game with my brother on a big screen by the beach.
You might not get it if you’re not into football.
So I’ll keep it short.
And when it’s over, I’ll write again.
If they win, if they lose, I’ll happily go through this all again.
Good luck to them all and Viva España!

7 comments:

Paui said...

A group of old anglo friends joined together at sergios new restaurant. (He did the paintings/decorations) Actually the last games we have been seeing them together. Nice table infront of a big plasma TV, keeping sergio busy bringing beers, piemientos, nachos, bravas and whatever we could think of to the table. Everything is great, the game is tense... The spanish team has that way of playing that gets your heart beating with emotion in the many unfinished plays that could have been yet keeping you calm and confident cause they have the ball most of the time saying, we are in control. The TVs have a little peculiarity. When the moments get at the tenses moments it decides to turn off.....Sin señal... What!! what!!! what!! what happend.. did they score? your shouts go from "venga.. podemos.. to nooooooooo.." then the signal come back.. but to our luck the play was over. you have a quick look at the scoreboard and still see a 0-0. Lucky for the repetitions, we were able to see with delay what had happend. The best one was when they scored the goal. Just as the corner was shot.. ball moves on over (camera following) ... "sin señal"... nooooooo.. Inside the kitchen there was another TV where the people watching yelled GOL and just as a domino effect.. with the TV black everyone starts shouting GOL... Celebrations, hugs and nobody was sure that they even scored...(the cook could have fooled everyone) but I guess you could say people in that environment normally wouldn't kid around with that.. hehe anyway.. 10 seconds later the signal comes back and you can verify that 0-1. Now the wait..

Anonymous said...

The Octopus picked Spain - so lets hope he's right :)

Bob Keim said...

Congratulations to Emily and your Mother! :)

Shop Girl said...

Wooooohooooo!!!Viva España y Viva el Pulpo! I hope youre TV didn't switch off when Iniesta scored Pau! XXX Much love

mserrano said...

Let me tell you a more ordinary run of the World Cup Finallast Sunday evening: I went to the house of a Spanish couple here in Cambridge and watched how this run-of-the-mill husband and wife went absolutely bonkers when Iniesta scored! They jumped to reach the ceiling and did a high 5! a la americaine. Yes, it was an exciting evening but talk about Spaniards carrying football in the blood! I guess that's why I am only a half-Spaniard.

Shop Girl said...

A high five? Is that all. How civilised! I had the best party ever in a Spanish bar in Bogota. Someone even had a real, but dead ocotpus on his head. As my brother said, fue una resaca muy importante. I'm half spanish in life, but fully spanish when it comes to football!

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