Schadenfraude too

I have been gone too long. After two months of insufflation in La Paz, we have all but completed two weeks of volunteering at animal refuge La Senda Verde near Coroico in Bolivia (the website will be improved in the near future). In the meantime, Watford have sold all their best players (Tommy Smith eventually went to Portsmouth and was followed by a petulant Mike Williamson, Tamas Priskin went to Ipswich, Jobi McAnuff and Grzegorz Rasiak followed Brendan Rogers to Reading). The latter two players combined to put Reading ahead in our Saturday showdown but Danny Graham continued his scoring form (six already in nine matches) to get us a point at the Madjeski. There is great satisfaction at seeing Ipswich and Reading poach from us and now struggle in the bottom four while we sit in a far better-than-expected seventh (Newcastle are threatening to run away with it), which makes us closer in position to bottom-of-the-Premiership Portsmouth than to either of our championship rivals.
We got old-boy Heidar Helguson back and he scored twice in a recent 3-3 "thriller" with Leicester and although now injured, I´d back him to beat Saturday´s red-carded Nathan Ellington in the goals tally even if H didn´t find the net again all year. Coventry at home tonight and if we can send them back pointless to whence they came, we might even nick a play-off position. Okay, okay: it is early days.

Horns away and home

The Golden Boys got a fantastic three points at Darlington on Saturday to take us above them, Don Cowie getting his third WFC goal a few minutes after they scored a 13th minute own goal. Tonight, though, we let in another late one to draw 2-2 with second from bottom Southampton. Another new boy, Aleksandrs Cauna, put us equal in the first half and Tamas Priskin looked to have sealed it in the second. We`re in a safe looking 15th now, though with no games in hand.

Two more steps...

No text from the younger Watford Boy to let me know last night so I checked the BBC today to see we had got another three home points in our relegation clash with Forest. Tanas Priskin and Grzegorz Rasiak again did the business and, unlike last season, it is the home record this year that is so much better than the teams around us. 2-1 and another place up in the table.

Two steps forward...

Joss texted me to let me know the Horns had triumphed at the Valley. After Don Cowie had got his second goal for WFC, Charlton scored twice to be ahead at the break but second half goals from Grzegorz Rasiak and Tamas Priskin must give us confidence for the home game against Notts Forest.

New Watford Boy

Waiting at Esquel bus terminal to take Ruta 40 south after we had hitched into Argentina the day before my last entries, I got talking to a Californian, Clay, who is a Chelsea fan. We chewed the football fat and compared travellers' tales and spent some time together in El Chalten too (when we arrived some 26 hours later). The trekking there to the Fitz Roy range was good but Jun was ill and pissed off that I went out for a few drinks so we left the following day for El Calafate.
Clay caught up before we took advantage of the town's access to Perito Moreno glacier, probably the single most impressive sight of my travels so far, so we did that together too. WFC have a new fan (second-team status) but I have not rethought my views on Chelsea. His new allegiance coincided with important away victories for both sides, Tamas Priskin and new boy Mike Williamson both scoring as we won 2-0 at Blackpool.
We got to Peurto Natales the same day and met up with our Chilean friend Jackie, who has taken a holiday to head south from the capital. I travelled with her and her friend Ximena to Parque Nacional Paine for an eight-and-a-half-hour trek that took in the towers there. Unfortunately, that was all I managed, leaving the same evening with a temperature and a nose that wouldn't stop dripping. We head north tomorrow.

Tommy Smith

He gets the ball, he scores a goal, Tommy Tommy Smith. The Horns beat the Swans at the Vic 2-0 tonight and moved out of the relegation zone with games in hand over the teams around us. If they can keep the home form....

Living the dream

Waiting out fifteen and a half hours in a small town for a long bus journey, we had time to see if our computer could be sorted (no), buy a mobile, a hat and a top to replace the WFC hoodie I left on a bus a week ago, dawdle over dinner, do twelve laps of the centre, walk up a hill and down again and sit down in the same park twice. This is the second time I´ve been on the internet, and if this place weren´t closing in an hour, I´d be here for four.
As we cut up boiled eggs for rolls in the park with nowhere else to go at about one o´clock, Jun commented that we were "living the dream". We laughed about that. Having hitchhiked into Argentina yesterday, we can´t really complain about how things are going but I missed out on the chance to white-water raft one of the world´s best rivers (Futaleufu) because I chose a "family company" and we were unable to climb a volcano in Pucon because of the weather.
Still, mustn´t grumble. We´ve seen sealions in Valdivia, penguins in Ancud and scenery to sit down and contemplate throughout the Andes regions. My Spanish is beginning to improve at last and Jun is learning too. We trekked to the top of an Andean peak (a small one) two days ago and head into deepest Patagonia when our bus leaves this depot at two in the morning.
In Watford, Joss was unable to go to the Chelsea FA Cup match (I guess his dad hadn´t sussed that he needed to buy tickets before a certain point). Tamas Priskin put us ahead in the second half, but Nicolas Anelka got a hattrick for them. A home league game was postponed and we still sit third bottom and in real relegation trouble. Did I mention I lost my WFC hoodie?

First Impressions of a Future

Towards the end of the eight-hour BA flight (with movies on demand and tasty veggie meals), we flew over hundreds of miles of chocolate-coloured mountains, which seemed from above like a combination of millions of toblerone and a vast crumpled blanket. Breathtaking. We had a very short carousel wait for the packs we need and the cases of presents I lugged and were then out of the enormous Beijing terminal onto an equally outsized expressway to the city centre, replete with the obligatory “bad” drivers, including a police car straddling lanes as he spoke on his mobile. Before we reached the forest of fluted high rises, toasting rapid growth, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of greenery lining both airport transit tracks and the Olympic-sign-blazoned route to the heart of the world’s economic beast, even spying a mountain-biking group in full lycra get-up between the trees.

Not long after I spotted my first foreigner (also cycling), we were at “Convenient Hotel” waiting for our room (we got there before check-out time and the place was busy, as an angry rant from a turned-away almost-guest attested). I decided to wander down a smaller road and passed two street/communal toilets (many homes didn’t/still don’t have their own) before settling on a likely place for a haircut. As I smiled at the hairdresser, she offered “massa massa” but I gestured that I wanted my head shaved. This was gigglingly achieved and then the offer of a massage re-emerged as hands stroked my groin, lips were flexed and I was shown a bed behind a curtain. “Ni bai” (200) was the price but my refusal lead to a halving. Excuses were made but not understood and I got away with nothing more than a blush and an overpriced cut (about £2.50).

After a rest when the room became available, we ate tofu, noodles, mushrooms, spinach and slices of an unidentified root vegetable from an enormous hotpot bowl and I washed it down with Yanjing beer from the bottle, forgoing the use of the shrink-wrapped crockery. Then we taxied it to a bar area near a lake that translates as “back sea”, joined in ti zhenzu (keepy-uppie with a coloured and weighted shuttlecock) and people-watched in a few locations. One of the main points of discussion was the changes that have led to the sort of prices some of the places could charge and Jun put it down to the number of foreigners and the endemic corruption. With absolutely no evidence, I was inclined to believe that at least some of the young locals we saw enjoying their Saturday night had legitimately earned large amounts in the boom this country has enjoyed.

We got back and our forty-hour day was iced with the news that Watford had won their first away match of the season, 3-0 at Southampton. Tamas Priskin scored two and Richard Lee made a penalty-save double. Result!

Carling relief

Watford v Darlington (Carling Cup 2nd Round)
Tuesday 26th August

Realised at a Euston bike-stand that I’d left my keys at home; boarded a train 25 mins later that was cancelled after another 10; squeezed onto a second train which was also cancelled (lost my earphone plastic); had to sort out the fact that Joss’ season ticket hadn’t loaded the payment. We hadn’t missed much when we got in though. Watford were shooting towards us in the Rookery and Tamas Priskin did have a chance not long later. As against Bristol Rovers in the first round, the team was a combination of the young and the bloodied. Lewis Young started and showed potential but Tamas Priskin and Will Hoskins up front together only once produced a move that impressed: a touch and flick that came to nothing.
Young had a shot prevented from crossing the line by Hoskins but Damien Francis scored not long afterwards and we were more concerned with half-time breaks than our lack of domination against a League Two side with two points in three games (a mere 28 more than our erstwhile rivals). There were warning signs as the second half dragged, not least Scott Loach making a very good save low to his left. It was how the evening started, however, that means I could have predicted an injry-time equaliser and extra time. Penalties loomed until substitute John Joe O’Toole netted to relieved cheers with minutes left.

Fruitful away days (from a stay-at-home fan)

Colchester United v Watford

Tuesday 4^th December

Got back from work to watch the BBC live-text service describe Watford’s progress from being two-down to win 3-2 after goals from Marlon King, John Joe O’Toole (who’d started for Gavin Mahon, now being linked with QPR and Wycombe Wanderers) and Tamas Priskin (in for Darius Henderson). Aidy Boothroyd, who’d seemed reluctant to change things during our successive defeats, did what was necessary and as West Brom faultered (going down 4-2 at home to Coventry), the gap opened to four points again. Stoke, Sunday’s opponents, thrashed Shefffield United 3-0 at Brammall Lane.

Stoke City v Watford

Sunday 9^th December

I checked train services to Stoke on Saturday but it wasn’t conducive to a fun day out and instead I slept through the match. A goalless draw meant we doubled our lead to two points following WBA’s win at Leicester yesterday. I have decided our new nickname should be the “Weebles” because we wobble but we don’t fall down (off top of the league).

I now have £100 on a three-year bet with Luke that on 7^th December 2010, we will be in a higher league position than Oldham Athletic. Baby candy.

Life is just a game

Watford v Gillingham (Carling Cup 1^st Round)

Tuesday 14^th August

When I bought the tickets on ebay, I didn’t think that Watford might be playing the same evening and so it was that Prince came first. This time I went with Julie. Prince has said that it will be a different show each night and began with 1999, which got the evening off to a more upbeat start than Saturday. The set was better too, with longer guitar solos that left Julie wanting to come back.

We went to the after-show party at Indigo2 and the purple one turned up about 1 and jammed and played some more of his tracks. We danced near the front for a couple of hours and left satiated about half four. It was only the following afternoon that I found out Watford had changed ten men in their starting line-up (Tamas Priskin remained from Saturday) and cruised 3-0 past Gillingham with Priskin, Douglas Rinaldi and Alex Campana scoring and Richard Lee saving a penalty at 0-0.