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i’m finally back online. it was a good rest. probably better to not have access for a while. it was a very restful 6 nights in stratford-upon-avon. mostly sleeping and eating. i had an interesting burger from the baguette barge. stratford-upon-avon has canals with narrow boats which is pretty interesting. i believe it is largely connected into a much larger canal system throughout the country. people apparently will take out their narrow boats like r.v.’s. it reminded me of this ewan mcgregor movie “young adam“. although, not as dirty. it would definitely be a relaxing way to live. this one was docked outside where i was staying. there was another one that appeared to have a wind turbine that it erected when docked.

anyway, it was an interesting burger called “the lot” which had all their options including bacon and a fried egg fresh made. interesting, though i can’t say the fried egg really added too much to the taste. not really a fried egg fan. it also had hp/brown sauce which is apparently a big thing here. it’s a decent sauce. nothing like milo’s though. the brits really aren’t that great with the food. i keep seeing these fish & chips places that advertise “southern fried chicken”. i haven’t bothered to try it yet. most of the little food shops appear to owned by mediterranean/middle eastern people much like in birmingham. kind of like purple onion or sam’s, but with fish & chips too. speaking of which, the fish & chips i’ve had so far really isn’t that great. they just seem to deep fry the fish without any seasoning or anything. thumbs down. guthrie’s should probably open a fish & chips restaurant here. i bet they could clean up.

anyway, enough about the food. my left ear was still seeming to be a bit clogged so i flushed it out with hydrogen peroxide. a big lump of, i guess, ear wax came out similar to what had previously happened with the right ear. luckily, this time i took pictures (yes, i have that kind of time). it’s no surprise why my hearing was impaired. it was probably about a 1/4″ wide.

while i was there, i was able to catch a stratford town f.c. (amateur league) match. i would say it was about on par with some of the better birmingham league teams. interesting. the “stadium” holds about 150 people. 4 quid to get in, another 1.60 for a cheeseburger. they also did a raffle for a bottle of whiskey and wine that was a quid a go.

i went to see “v for vendetta” while i was there. i agree with robert. it’s good. surprisingly so. too bad it wouldn’t turn out that way in the united states.

here’s a shot down the street in stratford.

shockingly, pretty much everything revolves around some guy named shakespeare. he was apparently born there or something. it is an interesting mix of old buildings. however, there’s way to much traffic. i can’t imagine what it’s like in the peak season. everything tends to be focused on how you can see buildings that were there when shakespeare walked the streets and what not, but that’s just ridiculous. yes some of the buildings were there, but it’s hardly in the ballpark of how it was then. i can just see it now. shakespeare hopping around the corner from his house to the starbucks, chugging his grande cappachino latte with whip cream and a twist of lemon while not smoking and busted out a sonnet or two.

yep, it’s as if he was right there with me. not to mention the subway sandwiches 2 doors down from his house. that must have been convenient. i don’t get it. i clearly haven’t been assimilated properly and need to go back in for reprogramming to truly appreciate the exploitation. it’s a tourist trap. no neon signs, but that doesn’t make it so.

i have a few more pictures and could probably blather on, but i won’t. in the end, it was relaxing, but probably wasn’t really what i was looking for. i guess i needed smaller and no old famous, long dead guys born there.

i’m now back in london at the new place. it’s decent. not as good as the last place, but a big room considering some of the places i looked at. even by american standards. i’ll post more later. it sucks to have things back up even when not that much is happening. i need a ghost writer.

here’s a bbc article on the post match. this is a rare occurrence these days which should give you some sort of indication what a big when this was. i think on “match of the day” they said that fulham haven’t beaten chelsea at craven cottage (or maybe at all) since the 60’s.

i like chris coleman’s quote at the end. i’m just wondering, whose definition of idiots?

2 days, 2 games. surely, if you care, you already know the outcome of this game. beware, spoilers ahead.

what a match. you just can’t say enough. packed house. chelsea looked like that same average team that lost to barcelona. they had opportunities, but never really seemed like they were going to get on the board. mcbride was dominating terry on most headers. after fulham’s goal, mourinho made a double substitution at 25 minutes. are you kidding? no. he pulled joe cole and swp for drogba and duff. probably because the fulham defense was eating their lunch. no bocanegra though, not even on the bench. i don’t know why. then he subbed huth at the half completely using all subs. i can’t wait to hear what mourinho has to say tonight on “match of the day”. it should be classic. you can read a match report elsewhere. easily, it was the best match so far. onto the pictures.

this is approaching craven cottage, the stadium, from bishop’s park. that’s the back of the putney stand where i was sitting.

this is the, oddly named, riverside stand from the outside. the river is the thames.

this is the stevenage road stand outside, also oddly named. this is where all the entrances are. a few things to note, the mobile krispy kreme vendors (sure i’m going to pay p2.50 for 2 not even hot off the grease donuts?), mobile coca-cola vendor and that same religious nut with the megaphone (man she gets around). it was a little dissapointing that they didn’t have the same street vendor atmosphere like arsenal and west ham. i may not be able to support fulham.

this is a shot of the field from my seat. riverside stand to the left, stevenage road to the right. the far stand is the hammersmith. the warning sign on the field reads, “beware flying footballs”.

this is craven cottage, where the stadium name comes from, from inside the stadium. i believe it and the riverside and stevenage road stands are the original structures. you can even eat there or something. i think the 2 behind the goal stands were added as the expansion. the stadium only holds around 20,000. it’s a very cool stadium and one of fulham’s best features. too bad if they get big they’d have to tear it down or move. there was apparently an attempt to figure out how to build a new stadium to replace it, but it’s blocked by bishop’s park, the thames, and a neighborhood. no real room to expand.

rosenior: “man is swp short.”

i think john terry might have a thing for mcbride.

the goal celebration.

poor lamps, down a goal at half time.

maybe this’ll cheer him up. it’s the sw6es, the dance team. what are those girls doing? i think billy the badger might want to join in.

there’s more pictures and some videos. it turns out that i only took video of the celebrating after the game. a fair number of fulham fans ran out onto the pitch and taunting the chelsea fans. some chelsea fans started coming out onto the field and there were a few minor scuffles, but the police seemed to get it in check before anything major errupted.

what a fantastic day. i’m 3-0 for the homeside.

randomness

on the way to the match in the tube station some guy punched one of those posters of george bush that i posted the other day. i think he may have been french. i couldn’t really hear him talking very well.

it looks like i’m locked in for the apartment starting the 27th. i’m supposed to go tomorrow to meet them and give some sort of deposit. the other good news is that i found somewhere to stay until then. it’s a holiday rental studio apartment (i think it’s small, but has to be bigger than my current room). it’s supposed to be right in the middle of stratford-upon-avon. i just have to figure out how to get there. hopefully, there’s a train. maybe i’ll go ahead and try and buy a ticket tonight. hopefully, it will be nice and relaxing for 6 days. the pictures definitely look good. i needed a nice romantic getaway. it would appear that the only bed may be a sofa bed. although, it’s claimed to be “state of the art”. i wasn’t aware that making sofa beds was an art? the one thing i don’t know is if i’ll have any internet access once i get there. surely there’ll at least be a coffee shop or something. i guess i’ll have to go visit the birthplace of that hack. what was his name?

see, if you have patients, everything just seems to fall into place. let that be a lesson boys and girls.