Halloween 2006
Not long ago, I mentioned that I would rather pay 80euros to watch a Liverpool match from the last row of the Anfield Main Stand than to run in the Paris Marathon. Truth was, I was ready to pay more than that.
Guan and I paid 65 pounds each to watch Liverpool-Bordeaux last Halloween. 65 pounds would have gotten us around 95euros from the money changer at Rue Daulphine today. 95 euros. We could have had New Year's Eve buffet dinner at Madarin Marina and still would have enough cash to return 365 days later for another NYE dinner. Or we could have purchased front row tickets to a Mayday concert and we might even get invited backstage for cocktail with Ah Xin. But we chose to spend it to experience 90mins on the last row of the Anfield Main Stand.
Actually, we did not know that we were paying for seats at the last row before we entered the stadium. We had arrived rather late at Anfield and we were afraid that we could not get tickets for the match. We bought our tickets from the first guy we met offering black market tickets as we walked - never alone - with the rest of the also-late crowd up to Anfield. The guy initially offered us around 80pounds for 1 ticket and we were quite glad when we actually managed to bargain it down to 65pounds. Our initial plan was to not spend more than 60 pounds for one ticket but the adrenaline of knowing that we would soon be stepping into the sacred terraces of Anfield probably swept the plan to the back of our mind.
The guy told us that he offers the 'best tickets' around - by that, I guessed he meant best seats - and even left us his handphone number so that we could contact him next time we are in town for a match again. That gave me hope that we might be housed in the Kop. However, after entering the stadium and making our endless climb to the highest end of Anfield's Main Stand, I doubt we're ever going to ring him up.
I attach three photos below which we took from where we were inside Anfield on the night of 31 Oct 2006. The first photo might look like it was taken in front of a fenced up construction site but it's really just how it looks like at the last row of the Main Stand.
The view sans zoom for the last row of the Main Stand.
We were seated beside the camera man. Whoever was watching the Liverpool-Bordeaux match on tv that day (for one, I know there's Yeoman), you're probably watching the match from the same angle as us, but you probably had a better view of the match thanks to the superieur zoom of the video camera lens compared to that of the human eyes.
If my memory hasn't failed me, the photo above was taken right after Liverpool had opened the scoring. The reason why Guan wasn't jumping with joy was because during the day, we had went to William Hill in Liverpool City and betted on Dirk Kuyt to get the first goal and Liverpool to win by two-nil. If we had won our bet, we would each have been 50pounds richer. But Luis Garcia got the first goal in the 23rd minute and that effectively ended our 50pounds dream. We didn't quite know how to react to the goal.
At William Hill, I witnessed one scene I can never ever forget. We had placed our bet and we asked the lady at the counter how to get to Anfield. Anfield wasn't in Liverpool city so we had to take a bus there. The lady did not know which bus we could take so she asked her colleague. The colleague had a distinct Souscer accent, very much like Carragher and very much incomprehensible. She was explaining to us what buses we could take, where we could take them from when suddenly, very naturally, she reached into her polo-T to adjust her soutien-gorge (en anglais: bra) I swear she had her whole hand in her polo-T and she wasn't adjusting the strap but more like the cup. But her movement was so naturally executed that it seems like she goes through this routine of adjustment every half an hour or so. Guan and I left William Hill having a good laugh about it. It was definitely one of those images that even amnesia won't be able to erase off my memory.
Liverpool won 3-0 against Bordeaux. We didn't stay for the whole of the 'You'll never walk alone' rendition at the end of the match because we had to rush for a bus back to Manchester.
Tonight, those in Anfield are probably going to set new decibel records for YNWA. There will, however, be one person humming the tune to himself in Champs-sur-Marne. Scarves will be raised...
and hopefully, when the final whistle is blown, those in red will be the ones fisting the air.
Guan and I paid 65 pounds each to watch Liverpool-Bordeaux last Halloween. 65 pounds would have gotten us around 95euros from the money changer at Rue Daulphine today. 95 euros. We could have had New Year's Eve buffet dinner at Madarin Marina and still would have enough cash to return 365 days later for another NYE dinner. Or we could have purchased front row tickets to a Mayday concert and we might even get invited backstage for cocktail with Ah Xin. But we chose to spend it to experience 90mins on the last row of the Anfield Main Stand.
Actually, we did not know that we were paying for seats at the last row before we entered the stadium. We had arrived rather late at Anfield and we were afraid that we could not get tickets for the match. We bought our tickets from the first guy we met offering black market tickets as we walked - never alone - with the rest of the also-late crowd up to Anfield. The guy initially offered us around 80pounds for 1 ticket and we were quite glad when we actually managed to bargain it down to 65pounds. Our initial plan was to not spend more than 60 pounds for one ticket but the adrenaline of knowing that we would soon be stepping into the sacred terraces of Anfield probably swept the plan to the back of our mind.
The guy told us that he offers the 'best tickets' around - by that, I guessed he meant best seats - and even left us his handphone number so that we could contact him next time we are in town for a match again. That gave me hope that we might be housed in the Kop. However, after entering the stadium and making our endless climb to the highest end of Anfield's Main Stand, I doubt we're ever going to ring him up.
I attach three photos below which we took from where we were inside Anfield on the night of 31 Oct 2006. The first photo might look like it was taken in front of a fenced up construction site but it's really just how it looks like at the last row of the Main Stand.
The view sans zoom for the last row of the Main Stand.
We were seated beside the camera man. Whoever was watching the Liverpool-Bordeaux match on tv that day (for one, I know there's Yeoman), you're probably watching the match from the same angle as us, but you probably had a better view of the match thanks to the superieur zoom of the video camera lens compared to that of the human eyes.
If my memory hasn't failed me, the photo above was taken right after Liverpool had opened the scoring. The reason why Guan wasn't jumping with joy was because during the day, we had went to William Hill in Liverpool City and betted on Dirk Kuyt to get the first goal and Liverpool to win by two-nil. If we had won our bet, we would each have been 50pounds richer. But Luis Garcia got the first goal in the 23rd minute and that effectively ended our 50pounds dream. We didn't quite know how to react to the goal.
At William Hill, I witnessed one scene I can never ever forget. We had placed our bet and we asked the lady at the counter how to get to Anfield. Anfield wasn't in Liverpool city so we had to take a bus there. The lady did not know which bus we could take so she asked her colleague. The colleague had a distinct Souscer accent, very much like Carragher and very much incomprehensible. She was explaining to us what buses we could take, where we could take them from when suddenly, very naturally, she reached into her polo-T to adjust her soutien-gorge (en anglais: bra) I swear she had her whole hand in her polo-T and she wasn't adjusting the strap but more like the cup. But her movement was so naturally executed that it seems like she goes through this routine of adjustment every half an hour or so. Guan and I left William Hill having a good laugh about it. It was definitely one of those images that even amnesia won't be able to erase off my memory.
Liverpool won 3-0 against Bordeaux. We didn't stay for the whole of the 'You'll never walk alone' rendition at the end of the match because we had to rush for a bus back to Manchester.
Tonight, those in Anfield are probably going to set new decibel records for YNWA. There will, however, be one person humming the tune to himself in Champs-sur-Marne. Scarves will be raised...
and hopefully, when the final whistle is blown, those in red will be the ones fisting the air.
posted by le chye at
3:55 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home