The cherry blossoms came and went last week and Korea went
crazy for them. Everyone was telling me to go out and see them before it was
too late. So I did just that, I soon realised how my life has changed. I left
my apartment on two different occasions to go and look at flowers. We care so
little about nature in the Fennell household that we haven’t even bothered to
put up a Christmas tree in the last two years.
The flowers were nice, and it gave me the opportunity to feature in the
most Asian picture I’m ever likely to be in.
During the week I also managed to find a football team to
play for. I’d be craving to play football having not kicked a ball in over 4
months. I turned up and no one spoke English and rather predictably I couldn’t
speak Korean but as we all know I had no concerns, football is a universal
language and I got on just fine. Playing with an entire team that you don’t
know can be awkward but it makes it even more so when you can’t communicate at
all. Hopefully it doesn't lead to me picking up a stupid accent like Joey Barton.
I watched Arsenal not win again on Saturday night. Despite
not winning they still managed to (unconvincingly) progress to the FA Cup
final. It’s slightly disappointing to say that the most celebrated goal of the
season was a late equaliser against Wigan but even so football is about success
and we won a huge game, an FA Cup semi-final. Having said that Arsenal have
been getting a lot of stick about celebrating the victory too much as it was “just
Wigan”. But it’s more than that, the celebrations were about getting to the
final, getting the monkey off our backs, the possibility of tasting success for
the first time in almost a decade, it shows how much this win meant to the
players and the fans. In 21 games against Wigan we’ve beaten them 15 times so
it’s not the victory we we’re celebrating. When it seems that the media is
constantly against you, every set back is mocked, and Arsenal’s lack of a
trophy for 9 years is highlighted every game, and when the team qualifies for
the FA Cup final it’s still marked as they shouldn’t celebrate as they’ve only
beaten Wigan (who are the current cup holders and the team who knocked out the
favourites in the previous round). You can only tolerate this for so long so I
say they can poke their opinion up their arses. I’m rather bored of hearing the
same old drivel from the likes of Andy Townsend, Garth Crooks, Mark Lawrenson,
Jamie Radknapp, Stan Collymore, David Pleat, Roy Keane, Michael Owen, Alan
Shearer, the list goes on… Why aren’t these punditry jobs given to
statisticians who can back up opinions with facts and figures, or to respected
journalists who have a record of being unbiased and informative? Instead they
go to former professionals who offer no insight. As Karl Pilkington put it
these people are like dung beetles pushing bullshit around the room.
Arsenal won the penalty shoot-out, they progressed to the FA
Cup final, and I for one am going to enjoy it. I’m just hoping we can see
another fortunate result in the final against Hull City (just less stressful
this time, please).
On Sunday we did a spot of sightseeing and went to Berlin
Square. It was less of a square and more of a corner. Interesting to see the
wall but it is still only 3 blocks of concrete.
Here are a series of pictures of me with famous walls. Wall-to-wall walls.
The Berlin Wall
The Great Wall of China
Hadrian’s Wall
Wall-e
No bullshit.
After we went to an all you can drink makgeolli bar.
Makgeolli’s not bad, it’s basically alcoholic milk. All you can drink is always
a challenge, not the best idea on a Sunday evening but it’s never stopped me
before.
Anyway, off to Busan this weekend for a peasant reunion.
