Modest Mango

I’ve grown accustomed to the landscape of Scotland in the last couple of years. It’s a pretty bleak place to be honest. However, it is bleak in a desolate, wild and charming kind of way. England on the other hand is bleak in a slightly more depressing way. Once you get a bit past Manchester the people become notably less friendly, the vista loses that certain post-industrial charm, and the air becomes thicker with smoke every inch closer you get to London. However, as we hurtled down the A1 in our little Fiat Punto our spirits would not be dampened. We embraced the Englishmen and their ways, particularly the accent. Even the sore sight of Bedfordshire couldn’t ruin our mood. Why? Because we were going to Wembley to watch the New York Giants take on the Miami Dolphins in the National Football League. (Baby!)

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After a day seeing the sights of London we were well and truly “pumped” about the prospect of Wembley. Of course we got our tourism on beforehand – St Paul’s Cathedral, the Tate Modern, Westminster, the Eye. We even found ourselves some Krispy Kreme doughnuts…

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But come Sunday 2pm it was time to hit the Underground at Piccadilly Station, and patiently wait on our train until we finally arrived in Wembley Central. A short walk and we were there – Wembley Stadium, London. Considering neither Ireland nor the Bears were playing, I could not have been more excited and I wasn’t disappointed on entering. When you sit down in Wembley you know you’re going to have a perfect seat wherever you are. You know that you are only 60 seconds away from a queueless food stall or queueless toilets. You know just everything is going to be awesome.

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And then there were the Miami cheerleaders…

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My five Philadelphia compadres and I enjoyed a full hour and a half of dogs, doughnuts and jeering the Giants team as they warmed up on the field. It may have developed into a tough, wet, horrible game of football, but the experience was phenomenal, climaxing with the ultimate high five with Glen when the Dolphins finally scored a touchdown with a minute left on the clock. “Touchdown, Dolphins! T – O – U – C – H – D – O – W – N! Touchdown!”

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So the Giants won again in London, England and those fuckers, Green Bay won too. However it turns out not knowing what is happening in a Bears game only makes me more anxious about them. Particularly when they’re taking on their bitter NFC North rivals at Soldier Field. Of course they lost. And as I said, their even more bitter rivals then won in overtime on Monday Night to go 6 – 1 for the season. Though I guess things could be worse – I could be supporting the Minnesota Vikings and losing my hair.

Green Bay Packers 19
Denver Broncos 13

Detroit Lions 16
Chicago Bears 7

Philadelphia Eagles 23
Minnesota Vikings 16

New York Giants 13
Miami Dolphins 10

It was a cold, clear Saturday morning in capital city as we made our way to the Meadowbank Sports Centre. There, the first day of matches were to take place. The One-Day in Glasgow was amazing, but Edinburgh Beginners? It was set to be the pinnacle of our careers as new talent in the world of ultimate frisbee.

Things were different this time. For a start, I knew everyone who was on my team; we even managed to practise together. FarFlung had two teams entered into the tournament, and having one less team compared to last time meant that, thankfully, we had subs. I was to play with the creatively titled FarFlung 2, and over the two days of the competition, we were to achieve great things.

Ultimate is a sport that somehow manages to stay competitive whilst at the same time not taking itself too seriously. Since Edinburgh Beginners is always held during Halloween weekend, there is a tradition for the coaches of each team to wear ridiculous hats when playing. FarFlung did not disappoint.

Seeing the variety of stupid and at times intricate headgear on display set the mood for the start of the tournament. The whole point of the weekend was for beginners to have fun, get to know each other better, and to get some experience playing against other people of similar ability. Right at the start of our careers, it allows us to feel like we’re actually achieving something; it allows us to see how much we’ve improved over the mere weeks or months we’ve been playing.

Our first match was against Flatball, and as I got down to fix the ankle support around my right ankle, I knew I had to play well against the team I was robbed of the opportunity to play last time. Before we had so much as thrown two backhands each during the warm-up, our match was to begin. Coach Phil called for five on the line. I walked to my spot, turned round to face the opposition, and stuck my hand up in the air to signal that we were ready for the pull.

We had a shaky start. Easy catches were dropped or D’ed, easy passes were rushed or incomplete; and this is just talking about me. Most of our players were dwarfed by the height of the Flatball team, and they used this to their advantage. Right from the get go they would have two players in the end zone, waiting to catch long hammers for easy points. They managed to do this four times and eventually we lost 4-3. The most gutting thing about it is that we knew we shouldn’t have. We really, really shouldn’t have.

So after 5 or more weeks I finally have internet in my new abode.
Much updating will follow soon but untill then…

Details to follow.

The National Football League never fails to startle and amaze, Week 7 being no exception. We started the season as seven hopefuls, dreaming that we may hold aloft the Lomburrdi Trophy in Glasgow, Sunday 3rd February 2008. However, tonight were two matches which could have reduced the number of hopefuls to six. The Chicago Bears simply needed to beat Philly in Philly, otherwise they would go 2 – 5 for the season, and to be honest, though still technically possible, my playoff dreams would have been over. Superburrl I would have been over.

Similarily, The Baby was desperate for his beloved Eagles to get the home win and go 3 – 3. However, our respective rivals, Nik’s Cowboys and Thomas’ Vikings were also scrapping it out in Dallas. I wanted Minnesota to go down. Mullet Man wanted the Cowboys to lose their hats. Complicated and badly worded I know, but pretty much shit was guaranteed to go down.

(Oh yeah. Detroit and the Giants were playing too.)

Minnesota Vikings 14
Dallas Cowboys 24

Chicago Bears 19
Philadelphia Eagles 16

San Francisco 49ers 15
New York Giants 33

Tampa Bay 16
Detroit Lions 23

Lastly, be sure to tune in for Week 8 where I will be providing you with the most extensive coverage yet, live and direct from Wembley Stadium where in a season one-off the Miami Dolphins are playing their home game against Christopher Porter’s very own Giants (and I don’t mean his guns!) Yep. I’ll be there. So if you can make it down, the dogs are on me!