Those girls from Birmingham, Alabama really sprinted out of the pub!!

On Friday, all the qualities of the beautiful English game were on display,from the pretty grueseome performance on the pitch to the raucous post-match party, which took place in the Fountain. Obviously, we missed Spizz,
who always bring a bit of colour to events with his brightly coloured yellow hair.

So making fun in the Fountain is often a pretty low-key affair but last Friday I had a pretty hazy memory of Big Ian G. giving me a big bear hug welcoming back the Guvnor of old to
true form.

I have to admit it was pretty much my fault that the quiet post-match drinks turned into a complete drunken spree, and pretty whiskey filled at that!!! This was due to the extraodinary generosity of Mick K. and Yev, who kept the rounds coming even when the others had run out of money.

Sometimes, (birthdays and highdays), I buy a complete round of drams to celebrate. I am looking at 53. My hair is falling out and I can't run and hack that Keir down like I want to.
But I got some plaudits for my steady play last Friday. So I wanted to buy everybody drinks (I must be mad, the drugs of choice at the moment are sodium valporate and olanzapine). However, I had run out of money. Gashead Simon refused to give me a loan (is that a junk credit rating or what!!) and then run out of the pub. However, Mick K. and Yev stepped in and bought the drinks.

Then, suddenly Steve A. was doing full blast the "Ode to the Haggis" and then singing the "Flower of Scotland". What was more amazing was that the old sassenach Ian G. knew all the words.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/robertburns/works/address_to_a_haggis/

The other young people in the pub studiously ignored us, when we were standing up singing Scottish chants, songs and poems at top volume. Big Sam was putting in a heroic performance. He had played footie straight sfter arriving from New York and after spending a night at JFK. Big Sam was getting stuck into the drinks and so he is a true athlete in every way.

There were two girls sitting on their own next to our mob. So Yev put on
his "I LIKE GIRLZ AND I AM AN INVESTMENT BANKER" smile and charged in.
Mick K. (a bit diffidently), went up to
say hi.

The less pretty one was all smiles but soon the pretty one's face was registering shock and horror. The girls were U.S citizens, who came from Birmingham, Alabama.
Mick K. could not understand why they had'nt gone to see the Villa in the UK's second city but went to terrible places such as Brighton. (The Holte End is not the centre of the universe Mick!)

Anyway, our lads, being the gentlemen they are, politely withdrew. Soon afterwards the Birmingham, Alabama girls fairly sprinted out of the pub. They were so fast I thought about signing them for our team!!

You simply had to be there because it was a pure comedy moment. Steve A. and I just collapsed in giggles. I suddenly thought of all the boys in the team, who had missed it and somehow I thought of Shakespeare:

Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

Alright the pub was no way a battle scene but I quite like the words and here is a toast to "Sweet Home Alabama"!!!