Rugby Bottoms

The weekend of the 17th saw us get all excited again as we disappeared off down to Reading.

In the days leading up to this little trip the pals we were visiting had warned us to wear sensible shoes and to wrap up warm. "You might even need a water proof." Our first reaction to these statements was a cry of "But our walking boots are in Adelaide!" For days we were convinced that we were off up another mountain or hiking cross country and we did our best to be prepared. As it turned out, we were off to see a Rugby match. I don't know if A new that if he'd have mentioned this to me earlier I might have pulled a face but I did admire his ability to make sure it happened ;)

As it turned out, once i knew, I was quite curious. I've never seen any kind of professional match in a stadium. I once watched "Eddy" a boy I 'fell in love with' on a cruise run around on a rugby pitch in Rochdale but that was the limit of my experience.

Approaching the stadium I was greated with loud bangs, drums and chants.... Not the warm up bands that I have grown accustomed to hearing as I enter such an establishment. Instead of plastic in the middle of the arena there was actual grass and no stage. Interesting!

I did ask a stupid question of a very symptathetic R... "So, if they're the Welsh Scarlets and they're the Irish why on earth are they playing in Reading??" R explained that they were actually the LONDON Irish and that they had moved up from london when the stadium was built. This was their home turf! RIGhhhht ;)

I watched the match. I squirmed (as usual) when the ball got even remotely close to me and it was quite fun! Being sat next to LOF meant I had to cheer on the chaps in the red shorts. I had my camera out and I tested "sports mode" and learnt all sorts of things about the game. I also noticed how much grabbing each other and rolling around on the floor there is in Rugby; just like when LOF and A get too drunk! ;)