What a way to end the WC 2006

World Cup Finals is here! Woo hoo! Let's make plans to watch it. Let's get everyone together and we'll have a party.

I'm surprised we went as far as we did. I tried to book a place at the Curve on Friday and they were closed for reservations. Apparently, I had to be there about 10pm to get a seat. No matter, I thought.. it's the finals and it's once every 4 years.

So on Sunday, I went at 10pm.. some came faithfully on time, the rest strolled in about 10.30. By 11pm, 7 of us had finished many beers and a bottle of wine. Some drinks and nonsensical chatter later, another 30 minutes passed. Then some fries, chicken wings and another 30 minutes pass. Time crawls when you're in anticipation.

Come 12.30, everyone is fidgeting and getting restless. The babble becomes shallow. Polite laughters for dull jokes. The beginning of the end.

"It's getting real warm here. Quite a humid night tonite. Why don't they have aircond out here?" said one.
"What time do you think the game will end? 4am? Hmm, I live in Putrajaya. It will take me 45 mins to get home" said another
"I'm supposed to have a meeting at 9am. My old boss would never do that on the morning after the finals. My new boss is totally insensitive."

A slight drizzle follows.

"Oh it's starting to rain. And they don't have umbrellas. I think we'll have to leave". Nobody moved. "So you thinking about going home?", another commented. "Only if you want to" "No, I'm fine, but if you really want to"

We spent another 30 minutes talking about leaving. The drizzle teased, coming on and off, as we spoke about the virtues of going home, with no one suggesting it. I sat quietly listening to the banter and while I didn't say a word, my mind was thinking "gosh, another 2 hours to go before the match starts and then 2 hours for the game. Another 1 hour if it goes into penalties" 5 hours? Will someone just say it?

They ran out of snacks. They ran out of bottled beer. You can't get more reasons than that, yet nobody wanted to be the party pooper. And we've come this far. To actually come out on a Sunday night at 10pm is a major feat on its own.

I think God finally got tired and intervened. There was a power failure and the big screen went off. We waited 2-3 minutes, deliberating still. And finally, as soon as we noticed the lights coming back on one section at a time, we decided to get out of there. I think we were afraid we'll run out of reasons. And so at 1am and 1 hour before the game started, we left the joint.

Lesson learnt: Ageing had made us forget that we're not 18 anymore. And watching repeats isn't so bad after all.