Chicago Addick living in Bermuda
Wednesday 16 January 2008
  My 2007 I'm one for lists, and as this blog has basically supplanted a diary and my memory these days is rubbish I'm about to bore the hell out of everyone with my best bits of 2007, albeit slightly late.

For the majority of my life I have lived, breathed, and watched Charlton Athletic. Living overseas and relegation to the fizzies means I now just have the breathing and the eating to contend with, neither easy whilst trying to follow the Addicks by modern-day teletext, online.

I did however get to see the boys in the flesh 5 times in 2007, and amazingly after my previous appalling expatriated record, I didn't see us lose. I was also witness to three stirring away days. Fratton Park in January saw us put pay to an abysmal away record. It was my son's first ever away game and we celebrated wildly at the end with the other 800 hardy souls.

The fightback at Vicarage Road didn't mean an awful lot in the end but it was a spirited performance and kept the hope alive, and it was the hope that finally did for us.

However the highlight for me in 2007 was being at St Marys when a superb run and cross by Luke Varney picked out the much recently maligned Chris Iwelumo to head home in front of the away end sparking jubiliant scenes among the Addickted. Moo2kil joining in the celebrations and then the player's reactions afterwards kept my faith in a team I have followed through thick and thin for 33 years, despite one of the toughest years we have had in recent history.

Travelling is another great passion of mine, and as Rick recently pointed out, my carbon footprint is nothing to be proud off, however I'd rather see some places than read about them and I saw some wonderful places in 2007. I spent time in Argentina, Uruguay and Japan as well as numerous places in this vast nation. My favourite place was a tie between Buenos Aires and Kyoto, two places 11,620 miles apart, and different in about as many ways.

And it was in Buenos Aires that I experienced my favourite non-Charlton football moment of 2007. We went to the River Plate v Lanus game and what an adventure that was as surprise eventual champions Lanus (a bit like Bolton winning the Premier League) lost to a last minute River goal on what was the opening day of the season. The passion of the home crowd was indescribable, however this was tainted by news afterwards of crowd trouble before the game resulting in River's famous El Monumental being closed for their next 5 home matches.

My favourite trip within the U.S., was to Las Vegas, a place where what happens there stays there but the most beautiful was the mountains of Beaver Creek, which were freshly covered with snow when we arrived there in November.

2007 was a year for family visits to the Windy City. My parents came for two weeks in June which was a great time. They embraced the city and it was very sad when it was time for them to go home. My brother made another trip here in October, which was a great laugh and my son spent 2 weeks with me in August which was fantastic. In fact my joint favourite day of 2007 was playing football and winning the summer league title, and scoring whilst my son watched from the sidelines. He patrolled the touchline the whole game like he was a lino and he still can't understand why he wasn't allowed to play.

This tied with my very good mate's 40th birthday. This is a mate whose friendship grows the older we get. It was a surprise party at his parents house. Of course he knew all about it, but pretended he didn't and it was an absolute cracking day.

My favourite night was a dinner we had with my Mum & Dad in an old school restaurant in Chicago called Gene & Georgetti's. They loved the place with it's slightly querulous style and it was a truly good time and added to the wonderful memories I have of their first ever trip here.

Talking of restaurants, I am lucky to be able to eat out a lot although I don't reckon I will ever have a meal like we did in Kyoto at the Hiiragiya Ryokan. 12 courses of food heaven. My favourite restaurant meal though was at Spago in Beaver Creek, with Wolfgang Puck himself sat at the next table with his family. Chicago was once the bastion of meat and potatoes, so it is not surprising that they have some of the finest steak restaurants in the country and one of those was my favourite Chicago restaurant of 2007, Custom House.

I stayed in 21 hotels in 2007, that's one every two and a half weeks and my favourite was The Peninsula in Tokyo. It was luxurious with all the gadgets that you would expect from the Japanese and a location that could not be more perfect.

Slightly less grandiose was my old Hornchurch local, which closed in June last year. The only gadget was the hand-dryer in the bog that never worked but sadly now it's a pizzeria. I spent a fair amount of the 18 months I lived in Essex at the bar in that place and spent a fair amount on bottles of Febreze too.

People ask me every day what I miss about 'home' and of course it is the people I miss. My family and my mates but the habitual thing about living and working abroad is that you invariably hook up with like-minded people, often expats themselves and what do expats do? They go home or move on. Two great couples and a girl from Germany who I was very friendly with all left Chicago this year to go to London, Zurich and Munich respectively and I miss them all too.

Chicago was on a number of bands tour dates this past year, I have always loved going to see bands live and I had superb nights out watching Snow Patrol and Keane, but Bloc Party because they rocked an American audience like none other I have seen was my best gig of 2007. I also saw The Fray, John Legend, Corinne Bailey-Rae and the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin play live in 2007.

Judging by my ITunes list it was Keane's Under The Iron Sea that was the album I listened to the most and over Christmas I loved Landon Pigg's Falling in love at a coffee shop. Just call me an old romantic, but for someone who a few years ago would have rather cancelled Christmas, this really did make me feel very festive.

I can safely say that American television does not hold my admittedly goldfish attention-span one iota. I even have trouble sitting down to watch a film on a small screen and that is why I love going to the movies, sorry cinema.

With the Oscars set to be impacted by the Hollywood writer's strike, I will dish out my own Chicago Addick statues in due course but my personal favourite film in 2007 was the controversial Kite Runner. And finally my favourite live production was a powerful take on The Diary of Anne Frank shown at the Steppenwolf Theatre in May.

So that was 2007 in a nutshell. Let's hope I and Charlton both crack it in 2008! 
|



<< Home
About Me
After living in Chicago for four and a half years, I moved to the beautiful if bewildering island of Bermuda in July 2008. This blog is about being an exiled and depressed Charlton Athletic fan and whatever else the day brings.
CAFC Links
  • Charlton Athletic FC
  • CAFC Player
  • Forever Charlton
  • CAFC Picks
  • CASC
  • City Addicks
  • Community Trust
  • Fans Forum
  • Charlton Life
  • / forum
  • Charlton Scrapbook
  • Addicks Downunder Forum
  • Fellow Addick Blogs
  • Addicks Diary
  • Doctor Kish
  • New York Addick
  • All Quiet in the East Stand
  • SE3 Addick
  • Jakartass
  • Charlton Athletic Online
  • Views from an Iberian Valley
  • Charlton North Downs
  • Blackheath Addicted
  • Drinking During the Game
  • Kings Hill Addick
  • A Red Divided
  • Deepest Darkest
  • All in a Day
  • Johnny73
  • Confidential Rick
  • Charlton Casual
  • Many Miles....
  • Croydon Addick
  • Stickleback
  • And Nothing Else Matters
  • Out in the rain
  • Hungry Ted
  • Bermuda - all 21 square miles of it
  • The Royal Gazette
  • Weather forecast
  • Discover Bermuda
  • Bermuda National Trust
  • Bernews.com
  • Bermuda Blogroll
  • Bermuda Shorts
  • Jen in Bermuda
  • Daily London fix
  • Diamond Geezer
  • Onionbagblog
  • 853
  • The Cabbies Capital
  • A piece of my heart still in Chicago
  • Chicago Tribune
  • Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid
  • Chicago Bulls
  • Chicago Bears
  • Chicago Blackhawks
  • Chicago White Sox
  • Chicago Cubs
  • Chicago Fire
  • My Chicago stuff
  • Andersonville
  • Bucktown
  • Chinatown
  • Evanston
  • Gold Coast
  • Greektown & Little Italy
  • Lincoln Park
  • Lincoln Square
  • The Magnificent Mile
  • Old Town
  • Oak Park
  • River North
  • Roscoe Village
  • South Loop
  • Streeterville
  • Ukrainian Village
  • Wicker Park
  • Wrigleyville
  • Ten things to do with a child
  • My Bermuda exploring
  • Paget Parish
  • Southampton Parish
  • Town of St George
  • Ten things to do with a child
  • Travelogue
  • Atlanta
  • Bahamas
  • Beachy Head
  • Beaver Creek, Colorado
  • Bermuda
  • Buenos Aires
  • Californian Hwy 1
  • Charleston
  • Cincinnati, Ohio
  • Dubai
  • Eastbourne
  • Ft Lauderdale, Florida
  • Grand Canyon
  • Hiroshima
  • Honolulu
  • Houston, Texas
  • Kohler, Wisconsin
  • Kyoto
  • Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
  • Las Vegas
  • Lille, France
  • Los Angeles
  • Mexico
  • Miami Beach
  • Mt Fuji & Hakone, Japan
  • Munich
  • New Orleans
  • New York
  • Old San Juan, Puerto Rico
  • Oman
  • Orlando
  • Palm Springs & Joshua Natl Park
  • Park City, Utah
  • Reykjavik
  • Route 66 and Hoover Dam
  • San Francisco
  • San Diego
  • Santa Fe
  • Saugatuck, Michigan
  • Sedona, Arizona
  • Sonoma & Napa Valley
  • St Petersburg, FL
  • Taos, New Mexico
  • Tokyo
  • Uruguay
  • Washington DC
  • The good old days?
  • The men in charge Parts I
  • / II / III / IV / V
  • Carlisle (a) 1986
  • Luton (a) 1989
  • Sunderland (h) 1975
  • Stoke City (a) 1994
  • Crystal Palarse (a) 2000
  • Norwich City (h) 1987
  • Coventry City (a) 2001
  • Barnsley (h) 1985
  • Bristol City (a) 1994
  • West Brom (a) 1995
  • Hull City (h) 1976
  • Burnley (h) 1978
  • Nottingham Forest (a) 1989
  • Sheffield Wednesday (h) 1986
  • Ipswich Town (a) 1981
  • Birmingham City (a) 1993
  • Hereford United (a) 1989
  • Interesting stuff
  • We're not on the telly much but who is?
  • Football Pyramid
  • Football Ground Guide
  • The Political Economy of Football
  • The Fiver
  • London 2012
  • TV Cream
  • Nice cup of tea and a sit down
  • Banksy
  • www.flickr.com
    This is a Flickr badge showing public photos and videos from ChicagoAddick. Make your own badge here.
    And not so interesting
    Weblog Commenting and Trackback by HaloScan.com Powered by Blogger
    EMail me
    ChicagoAddick@Gmail.com
    Follow me on Twitter
  • ChicagoAddick
  • CAFC on Twitter
  • Archives
    June 2004 / July 2004 / August 2004 / September 2004 / October 2004 / November 2004 / December 2004 / January 2005 / February 2005 / March 2005 / April 2005 / May 2005 / June 2005 / July 2005 / August 2005 / September 2005 / October 2005 / November 2005 / December 2005 / January 2006 / February 2006 / March 2006 / April 2006 / May 2006 / June 2006 / July 2006 / August 2006 / September 2006 / October 2006 / November 2006 / December 2006 / January 2007 / February 2007 / March 2007 / April 2007 / May 2007 / June 2007 / July 2007 / August 2007 / September 2007 / October 2007 / November 2007 / December 2007 / January 2008 / February 2008 / March 2008 / April 2008 / May 2008 / June 2008 / July 2008 / August 2008 / September 2008 / October 2008 / November 2008 / December 2008 / January 2009 / February 2009 / March 2009 / April 2009 / May 2009 / June 2009 / July 2009 / August 2009 / September 2009 / October 2009 / November 2009 / December 2009 / January 2010 / February 2010 / March 2010 / April 2010 / May 2010 / June 2010 / July 2010 / August 2010 /