18th November 2002
Hi all,
We're taking another step back in history today. I have two days in the year that I've become extremely wary of. One of these I can never really speak about as it is December the 24th, and I'm sure I'd receive a few e-mails accusing me of lacking in Christmas spirit if I went into the full story of a dog bite, a hernia diagnosis and several other misfortunes. Instead I'll tell you about the other date, November the 18th.
(Actually, there's July the 3rd as well, but for the sake of artistic licence, just forget I mentioned it.)
Let's go back to nine years ago. I had been at University for less than two months, when one night the artist formerly known as Snoop Nikky-Nik, a female friend who we'll call "Larocine" (interpret as you wish) and myself decided that we were going to forget our frustrations as single people and have an enjoyable night. In my case I was going to enjoy myself with the help of some Bacardi, followed by some swift pints of a certain Danish lager and some rather stupid "toasts". After walking home I got to the front door of my Hall of Residence where I proceeded to list left and right like the family yacht at the end of "Message In A Bottle". Somehow I managed to walk forward, stick my key in the lock, climb up the stairs, put another key in another lock and enter my room.
Now I know what some people out there are thinking. "Tony's gloryfying alcohol." Well, I'm not. And the aftermath is why:
1) On the coldest night of the year I had inexplicably opened my window, and left it that way all night. Needless to say my room was freezing when I woke up.
2) I'd left my door unlocked, and just after I woke up I found two members of the rugby team visiting me. The rugby team at my University were well-known for two things - drinking and stealing. As they were sober my remaining Hot Chocolate sachets went missing (looking back I guess I'm lucky that was all that went missing).
3) It was the second time I had been drunk in my life. Unlike the first time I had a hangover on this occasion. I felt horrible.
4) *** THIS IS THE IMPORTANT ONE - PAY CLOSE ATTENTION *** I was still single. I still had to face the girl I really liked on a daily basis. I still had the same problems, and now I was also about ?20 worse off as well. The alcohol hadn't solved anything. It was a good lesson to learn. The next time I saw "Larocine" she was getting drunk again. She still sought an answer in alcohol, an answer I don't believe she ever would have found.
(Hey, I'm patronising people and I'm not even a parent yet! Doesn't the Daily Mirror hand out awards for things like this?)
So let's talk about November 18th, 1995, the start of a pretty big five days for me. It would start that day, with Palace playing at Southend. The next day I would be going to watch the Warrington rugby league team play in London with my best mate at Uni, Chris. On Tuesday would be Palace vs Wolves, followed by a Beautiful South concert on the Wednesday.
What happened? Well it all went pear-shaped. The Southend-Palace game ended up being live on ITV... on the Sunday. With a tough decision to make I opted to watch the Rugby League on the Sunday (as I'd never seen a Rugby League game before), but the ITV-mess-making didn't end there. Because Palace's game with Southend was moved back a day so was the game with Wolves. As the Beautiful South ticket worked out at being far more expensive than one game off my season ticket I went to Wembley Arena instead of Selhurst Park, missing Palace's first home win in the league since August! Thank you ITV, I hope I mess up one of your weeks in such a big way at some point in my life!
Fast forward to November 18th, 2000. Wait a minute...
(Looks for old Palace programmes... drops box on foot... makes startling discovery...)
Yikes, Palace beat Tranmere Rovers 3-2 that day. An exception that proves the rule!
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to bed until today is over.
Have a good week!
Tony
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