Wednesday 31 January 2007
Florida sunshine
Tomorrow I leave the –7F temperatures of Chicago to fly down to the 80F Florida sunshine. I arrive in St Petersburg late Thursday night to meet a fellow Addick, and 3 others including an American friend of ours, who we once dragged to a Grimsby away game. We never quite gave him an idea of where Grimsby was and he probably still doesn’t know. We won 1-0 and after a few pints we normally get him to regale us with a few stories and a couple of songs that he has sworn to heart.
I am there to join my mates' annual pilgrimage to the US for Superbowl weekend. They have been doing this for donkey’s years and I have joined them for the last four. We never normally get anywhere near the host city, although this time around we are only 270 miles from Miami where the mighty Chicago Bears take on the Indianapolis Colts.
It is with a heavy heart that I leave Chicago tomorrow night because the city is buzzing with expectancy with the Bears colours of orange and blue decked around the city including atop of many of the cities biggest skyscrapers. It has been explained to me many times how potty the city went in 1986 when the Bears won the Superbowl for the only time. The windy city is due a party and believe me the city is ready.
Back in November when we planned our sunshine break to Florida I suggested that we collect in Chicago suggesting the Bears will go all the way only to get laughed out of town, a view point that most of the country has held as the Bears chances have continuously been sneered at. Well they are there now, and although the underdogs, you wouldn't have thought so here.
Superbowl tickets are like gold dust with only a few thousand actually going to the team’s season ticket holders. Available tickets start at around $2,500 and amazingly I actually got offered the potential opportunity the own one the other night. Trouble is my plans have already been made and I travel onto Miami coincidentally after the weekend for a conference before flying to Argentina on holiday the end of next week, and to change my flights and hotel arrangements is a nightmare.
Flights in and out Miami plus hotel rooms for the weekend are also impossible to get this late in the day. I guess if I really wanted to go I could and I will probably kick myself but you know what? I want the Bears to win and win big but it ain’t Charlton. Not many things are. ¶ 23:38
Tomorrow I leave the –7F temperatures of Chicago to fly down to the 80F Florida sunshine. I arrive in St Petersburg late Thursday night to meet a fellow Addick, and 3 others including an American friend of ours, who we once dragged to a Grimsby away game. We never quite gave him an idea of where Grimsby was and he probably still doesn’t know. We won 1-0 and after a few pints we normally get him to regale us with a few stories and a couple of songs that he has sworn to heart.I am there to join my mates' annual pilgrimage to the US for Superbowl weekend. They have been doing this for donkey’s years and I have joined them for the last four. We never normally get anywhere near the host city, although this time around we are only 270 miles from Miami where the mighty Chicago Bears take on the Indianapolis Colts.
It is with a heavy heart that I leave Chicago tomorrow night because the city is buzzing with expectancy with the Bears colours of orange and blue decked around the city including atop of many of the cities biggest skyscrapers. It has been explained to me many times how potty the city went in 1986 when the Bears won the Superbowl for the only time. The windy city is due a party and believe me the city is ready.
Back in November when we planned our sunshine break to Florida I suggested that we collect in Chicago suggesting the Bears will go all the way only to get laughed out of town, a view point that most of the country has held as the Bears chances have continuously been sneered at. Well they are there now, and although the underdogs, you wouldn't have thought so here.
Superbowl tickets are like gold dust with only a few thousand actually going to the team’s season ticket holders. Available tickets start at around $2,500 and amazingly I actually got offered the potential opportunity the own one the other night. Trouble is my plans have already been made and I travel onto Miami coincidentally after the weekend for a conference before flying to Argentina on holiday the end of next week, and to change my flights and hotel arrangements is a nightmare.
Flights in and out Miami plus hotel rooms for the weekend are also impossible to get this late in the day. I guess if I really wanted to go I could and I will probably kick myself but you know what? I want the Bears to win and win big but it ain’t Charlton. Not many things are. ¶ 23:38
