The Morning After

The Magician conjured up another performance and this was the reward

Yep, the picture above says it all. ManU and Rooney threatened at the beginning only to remain the promise that they are. Barcelona and Messi played football, displayed magic and danced away into the night holding the cup.

But let's rewind - 12 hours!

15:00 hours - Wanna sleep, girl wants to get stuff. Use non appearance of maid as excuse and get shut eye. Maid comes and goes, excuse runs out. Haul myself off bed, have a bath, appear presentable and move out of house.

17:30 hours - Girl getting stuff, dutifully driving her around, no parking though. Drive into one of the numerous small lanes, park in a corner, tilt seat fully backwards, grab shut eye!

P.S. shut eye is very important since there is a big match during the night and of late I have been needing to sleep so that I can stay awake. I think it's the ageing process. Not sure though.

19:20 hours - remember Big Moose and Ocean are coming home since BM is in town and need to get food, alcohol has been stocked since yesterday!

20:00 hours - BM and Ocean are frantically calling and girl and me are still driving. They have reached home and are waiting outside the house. More importantly, BM needs to use  the loo. Suggest the trees but it seems there are too many people around. Sigh, when a man has got to go, he has to go!

20:30 hours - reach home with girl, BM and Ocean come in, BM gets to finally use loo, drinks are opened! AH, we start with beer!
Some cricketing nonsense on TV, decide to lend vocal support to the Bangalore team since it is owned by the same chap who owns the beer I am drinking.

23:30 hours - things haven't gone too well on the sports field, beer team has lost, badly! Off the field, things couldn't be better. Girl is getting along magnificently with BM and Ocean. My trip is being taken!

24:00 hours -THE MATCH has started, lulled by the drinks, change channels late, reply to Popeye who wants to know which channel the match is coming on and finally gives up after realizing he doesn't get that channel.

And from here on it was all BARCELONA.

I missed the first 10 minutes of the match due to the aforesaid reasons and I seemed to have missed the only parts of the match where ManU dominated.

For  the next 80, I watched as Messi, Villa, Iniesta, Xavi and company played with the ball amongst themselves. The entire ManU team, bench and both sets of supporters were the audience as the ball moved from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 to 5 in Barca shirts, back to 4, 3, 2, 1 and all sorts of permutations and combinations possible. And then Pedro scored. Sigh, inevitable. More 1 to 5 passing. And then ManU scores, really they did. I was sober then. Rooney went into "a dog in heat has found bitch" frenzy of celebration but it never occurred to me that there was any other possible result than a Barca win.

Half time came and went, beer and had become more beer, then changed to vodka and vodka became more vodka! But the 1 to 5 went on.

And then inevitable. Messi scores! Barca 2 - ManU 1. All is well with the world again.

I sometimes think you cannot get it better even on a laptop playing FIFA XXXX, the way Barcelona play and pass. A little more magic from Messi and Villa scores. Barca 3 - ManU 1. Frenetic Facebook updating and smirks at ManU supporters simulataneously on from my side. And then it was over, although I think it was truly over when Barca won the semi-final and entered the final. More FB updates, more smirks, more showing tongue in face and then its time to sleep.

A nice evening with girl, BM and Ocean. For more such times! As I sign off, here is Big Ears!