My blogging impulse has been light of late (clearly). No reason, really, but I'll blame it on my wife's international itinerary. She zips out to some exotic locale, then staggers back in the grip of some exotic bug. She's just returned from Dusseldorf, Germany. You wouldn't expect her to come back with anything but a touch of World Cup Fever. Alas, it seems drinking the tap water in Dusseldorf is akin to drinking the tap water in Quito, Ecuador (not recommended).
To make matters worse, despite her proximity to real, live football and thousands of real, live football fans, she was unable to actually darken a stadium turnstile -- she was there to work, after all. She insists that physical attendance was a moot point, given how it was impossible to walk more than two metres without navigating around a Jumbotron or some other large-screen outdoor television. And she and an Aussie co-worker spent a pleasant afternoon in a biergarten, sipping pils and watching the Aussies beat Japan.
Which is more than I can claim. I've been reduced to catching the odd game on one of the city's "ethnic" channels, and talking soccer with my father in law (he loved watching the Czechs route America, even though his Montana background usually prompts him to cheer the home-team). I'm also thoroughly enjoying football commentary by Darko, whose beloved Croatian team "has character", as American sports-casters like to say. Also worthy of note, DV has managed to provoke commentary from the unusually taciturn F.C. Bearded, a Scot expat who hates the "fitba". Gouts of that beloved Scottish bile is expelled upon the subject, here.
4 comments:
Achhh, you poor guy. Well, I mean, your poor wife. Sounds like she should've been drinking more of the Dunkel or the Weizenbier, rather than that imported tap water from Quito. Slipping her into a comfy sofa (you do still have the Jetson couch !??!) in front of an ethnic tv staion's broadcast of any of today's games should do the trick.
That's Simpson - and yes, tonight we will be nursing martinis, watching football, and listening to commentary we can't understand.
I've tried to be a good international citizen as well and yet I find myself wistfully wondering what it would be like if Australian Rules Football was the world's game.
Still, your standard world variety football is pretty good if you have the patience to watch long enough to get a feel for the defensive aspect - which sadly seems to compass @ 89 minutes of a standard match.
You wouldn't have all these cry-baby theatrics every time a player catches the breeze from the leg-hair of the opposing team, for one thing. I think you may be onto something...
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