Tag it, tag it real good

And with that the 2010 Finsbury Park Tag Rugby Autumn competition draws to an end. The two juggernauts Jugs in Motion and East End Paddies, clearly the best two teams of the season finished first and second, respectively. However, special mention goes to the third place team, Lord of the Wings.

8 weeks ago, 2 Poms and a handful of Australians (mostly from Melbourne, AFL heartland) got together for some social, after-work, sport. For a lot of them rugby was a foreign concept. Calls of "play the ball", "take the tap" and "offside" were met with raised eyebrows and clumsy attempts. Their season opener exposed their lack of fitness as well as lack of game knowledge and with that were soundly defeated 13-0.

The dire conditions coupled with the previous week's flogging was not enough to dampen spirits as they came out with proper boots and posted their first try and more importantly, first win of the season. With the change in result, came a change in name, Lord of the Wings was born and on the back of flat, one in, one out attack, solid rush defense and individual flashes of brilliance saw them finish the regular season 4th on the league table. The first week of the semi finals saw them line up against the competition favourites, Jug in Motion and were simply outclassed.

With a near full strength squad they entered the Bronze medal game against the same team they had drawn against 2 weeks earlier. This game, was no different. Once again, they found themselves down 6-1 at the half, only to come back at 8-8 at half time, winning the game in golden point after a run away try to the team's leading try scorer. Excellent season to the rookie team - congratulations!

Oporto

The consensus with budget airlines was unanimous and simple, "Avoid Ryanair at all costs". Heeding this, I had for over a year, managed to comply with this caveat. It was only until early 2010 that I booked myself into my first Ryanair flight. Pisa, was the destination and I had braced myself for cranky staff, yielding flight times and to be charged for everything under the sun. As with all expectations, I was pleasantly surprised. Sure, they didn't have seat pockets or in flight magazines and that annoying audio-byte at the end of each "on time" flight. Overall, Ryanair is bearable and only marginally pipped by Easyjet. Saturday was slightly different. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 9:20 but had been pushed back to 11:05, normally this wouldn't irk me at all. However, an extra hour of sleep on morning weekend flights makes the world of difference! Excellent way to start the trip, not.

It still amazes me that after being here for almost 2 years I still hadn't set foot in Portugal. It's not that the desire wasn't there, it's just there was always somewhere "more interesting" to be sacrificed at the expense of a weekend. With my penultimate departure on the horizon we rounded up a small group (of 3) and headed over to Porto, Portugal. As previously mentioned, I had low expectations of Portugal, in fact my predetermined criteria for a good trip was as follows: Nice weather, drink Port, try some authentic Portuguese Charcoal Chicken and eat as many egg tarts humanly possible.

I can happily report that it was an excellent trip with all of the above points successfully completed (some checked more than once). The weather was a few degrees shy of being perfect but with 22 degrees blue skies it was always going to be better than the sub-10 degree Autumn currently plaguing London. We visited a couple of Port Cellars on the Vila Nova de Gaig and (for me, the first time) sampled locally produced Port. It was a complete mission to find Chicken with Peri-Peri but we eventually found it, each time we asked "Do you know where you can get Portuguese Chicken?" it was always received by a "you can get chicken from most restaurants in Porto". Another case of lost in translation. I must have consumed at least 5 eggs tarts over the two days, a little short of what I had expected still, they were delicious!

Saw an old man vomit on the street from excessive alcoholism. For some reason unknown, I had an affinity with this (approximately) 80 year old man. He slowly pulled a handkerchief from his tweed pocket and proceeded to wipe his mouth. Two older ladies were at his side rubbing his back while cleaning his face. Magenta waste spilled all over the pavement, the customary carrots also featured and in the middle of the mess were his dentures, just sitting there. You're never too old to get blind drunk.

Since 1982

Celebrating 10 years of legalised hedonism

NRL Grandfinal

Temple Walkabout. 6 am, plenty of Dragons and Rooster's supporters out early morning in London