Calling Dr Roberts

I went to attend a training session on chaperoning last wednesday. For those who aren't familiar with a medical chaperone it is someone who is present whilst a doctor/nurse does an intimate examination (smear, breast screening, rectal examination etc) to protect the patient from being abused or the doctor from being accused of such abuse. So why am I mentioning this? Well because when I was presented with my pack and name badge I discovered that I had become Dr Dale Roberts! (see below four lines down) I was thinking of keeping the name badge on and going into town to see what attention I could get from being a doctor!

So I imagine you all watched the fantastic and dramatic match between Australia and Croatia. Nicole, Bree, Selena and I watched it in the Walkabout again and after a beer drenched, sweaty, frustrating and nerve racking 90mins we were through to the next round and celebrated accordingly (a few of you received the drunken phone messages). The whole match got too much for poor Nic though and she burst into tears at the end! Randomly we also ran into my old next door neigbour Michael Bairdfrom back in Brisbane. He's also a pro footballer and played as a striker for Queensland Roar last year and is now based in Romania.

It may seem all I talk about is football at the moment but you just can not escape it! I'm off in an hour to watch the England v Ecuador game so hopefully they get through to keep the world cup buzz alive here. On a non football related theme - Wimbledon starts tomorrow and I can't wait to get down there for some pimms and strawberries and cream! It shall be my 3rd year of going and hopefully this year I get on centre court. Till next time...

The World Cup Effect

As much as I'm loving the world cup (see above) it is causing me a great deal of distress - financially. Each England and Australia game has involved copious amounts of alcohol and therefore quite a deal of money being spent. I wouldn't normally mind but I'm due to make a long and expensive trip back to Australia via San Francisco for my old friend Jason's wedding. It's not a disaster but I may just have slightly less spending money than first thought! Speaking of the world cup, did you all catch the Socceroos match on Sunday? I went to watch it with Nicole, Bree, Nicole's Chloe, Nicole's old work boss Ajaye and a couple of her gaelic friends - as well as Mike, Aaron and Damien. We watched it in a very packed Walkabout pub where we drank snakebites, crownies and tooheys and listened to some barnsey, farnsey and ol' Slim Dusty (very exciting when over here trust me! I even wore my novelty crocodile dundee hat!) I thought we put up a fantastic performance and really deserved a draw. I also think that most people respect our side a great deal more now - every non-Australian person I've spoken to said they were amazed how well we played. The Times newspaper here even voted Australia the biggest surprise of the tournament so far (that's the one and only time I'll ever say a positive about the The Times - conservative right wing paper that it is...).

The day before I also went to a street party in Clapham that was set up by a bar I go to. So to save a bit of dosh I had my first BBQ of the summer on the roof terrace at home with Mike and Aaron before heading out for it. The street party was really good without being fantastic but Kazbar and Two Brewers (bars I frequent) were heaving for a change so twas a really good day/night indeed. I've attached a picture of us at the beginning of the evening (I don't think we looked as fresh at 2am)



So now I'm off to yet another match - England v Sweden. Luckily for my finances drinks are only £1.50 so can have a decent night for under a fiver. Let's hope England win because if they lose they face the Germans in the 2nd round. I'm not sure I can handle a saturation of WWII references for the next few days! I must admit I am supporting England behind the socceroos so I do hope they put in a good performance.

Touching Base

I am absolutely useless in keeping touch with everybody back in Australia and even those in London. So because of this I’ve set up this blog to keep in touch – ok I know it’s a cop out but least I’m using some form of communication! I won’t go on about what I’ve been doing since I spoke to you all last so I’ll just start from today and move forward.

I’m typing this up on a very hung over Friday afternoon. Tis the after affects of watching the England v Trinidad and Tobago game with Mike in Soho – the game finished around 7pm but we decided to carry on. Something that also happened last Saturday for England’s first game. The game was on around 2pm and I don’t think I stopped drinking until 2am the next morning. In that time we had a spontaneous 90s dance party in Mike’s living room, lost a Styrofoam plane that was later used by a hobo and attended G-A-Y club to see Danni Minogue perform her greatest ‘hits’. I’m sure you’ve seen the reports but right at the end Kylie made an appearance so the place went mad. Imagine 2000 mostly gay men seeing a surprise first public appearance by Kylie – need I say more.

It’s been incredibly hot here – we hit 32 degrees at one point. On Sunday a few of us drank wine in Soho Square (you can drink outside here) and then continued on for a few more. Had an unusual experience though – the first pint I bought literally exploded in my hand. Very odd – apparently it’s not too uncommon (warm glass/cold drink). Was quite a shock though. So the heat has been fantastic in many ways but travelling on the tube and working has been a nightmare (our office bakes in the heat).

So for the weekend I'm planning to go to a street party in Clapham tomorrow and then watch the Socceroos on Sunday night against Brazil. Was a fantastic win against Japan – I did have my doubts, I thought we could equalise but never did I think we could come up with 3 goals in 8 minutes!

Anyway have a fantastic weekend and fingers crossed for the game on Sunday