Attendees - JB, Dave, Harry, Peter
Due to work committments I was unable to join the gang for the Oxford trip... therefore I hand the review over to JB, our guest blogger for the day.
Dear all
As you know, some of us went to see Southend play at Oxford on Saturday – as this took in a pre match curry, I thought I should try and report back in Mr Goodson’s absence. I don’t actually know how to Blog, so you’ll all have to do with a good old fashioned Email. Here goes:
So, the day had arrived, our annual trip to Oxford, but there was something missing, or rather someone! I couldn’t quite get my head round the fact that Malcolm wasn’t joining us. Malcolm is always a given for these days out, and I just don’t know how Gill had been allowed to book up a weekend away with friends without Malcolm’s knowledge!! Luckily, he sent his brother Peter along instead, who has exactly the same voice, so as long as we didn’t look at him, no-one knew the difference. We also lost Mike (another weekend away, but not so surprising as he’s under the thumb!), Bill (on holiday – again!) and Mr Goodson himself, who had some sort of excuse about being busy at work?!?!?! What does that mean?
Anyway, there were just four of us, a small group but perfectly formed – Peter, me, Harry and Dave. Unfortunately, Mark’s late change of plans meant that Dave had to drive – I think anyone who’s been in a car with Dave recently knows what that means. We set off on time from my house, Dave narrowly missing a car whilst pulling away from the house. How we laughed and teased. Last time Dave drove he hit a stationary car in Nelson Drive. We thought it was particularly funny that we might have had our first bump before actually getting out of my road! Still at least we wouldn’t be going down Nelson Drive this time. Far more sensibly we were going along Leigh Road – no chance of Dave clipping a stationary white van mirror this SSSMMMACCKKKKKKKKKK. He hit a stationary white van’s mirror!! The noise shocked the life out of poor Harry, who’s becoming quite the expert at putting the wing mirror back together again! It turns out that it was the van man’s fault for not turning his wing mirror in, and also apparently my fault – for being in the car!! Dave only hits vehicles when I’m in the car?? So, I apologise for this Dave and will pay your Insurance Premium next year – the least I can do.
The rest of the journey was relatively quiet – good conversation about our chances on the day – the Tutts and Peter were very confident, I thought we were in for a hammering. We were also looking forward to meeting up with Dave (6ft 4ins) Kitson, Oxford’s towering Centre Forward after the game for a beer and an insight into how the game had gone from a player’s perspective.
The slight difference on this away trip is that we decided to eat Thai food instead of Indian, mainly because the Indian restaurant was in the heart of Oxford and I know that getting in and out of the City on a Saturday is a real pain. Dave has a particularly fine Good Pub Food app that we used when we went to Crewe a couple of years back, and once again the App pointed us to a great looking country pub - The White Horse – see picture. What a brilliant choice. By the way, I should point out that Dave couldn’t actually see the pub when it was right in front of him. I think I now know why he keeps hitting things!! The sooner Harry passes his test the better! Anyway, inside the pub and not many people there, maybe three or four tables, we had an excellent hostess who had our drinks on the table in no time. So what to eat? This is what we went for:
Dave – a green chicken curry, a little limp wristed in my opinion.
Harry – Phad Prig – not sure if I’ve spelt that correctly
Peter – I can’t remember, I’m really not up to this job am I?
Me – a red chicken curry and easily the most manly of the choices
We shared starter of Crispy Wontons, spring rolls and chicken on toast – very nice indeed!
The food was excellent, and as we chomped happily in this most scenic of pubs, we started once again to discuss the match and how awful it would be if Dave Kitson scored a hat trick. On mentioning this, Harry broke down in tears, seriously blubbing, and we worried that the whole football experience was getting too much for him. Turns out that he mistook a chilli for a pepper and ate the whole thing in one go! What a man we now have in our midst, and quite the modern man too for letting out his emotions in public!
Scores for the pub:
Positioning 10
Service 10
Food 9, would have been 10 but for Harry’s chilli!
Company 11
And so on to the game itself – probably the best performance of the season from the Blues – totally outplayed Oxford, and could easily have been 5 or 6 goals. And a goal from Prosser, which was followed by the song How Shit Must You Be, How Shit Must You Be, How Shit Must You Be If Prosser Has Scored – a classic! Had a cast iron penalty turned down, and missed two one on ones! At the end of the match the players came over to the fans and there was a hint of a tear in Prosser’s eye when he realised that Mike was a no show! Dave Kitson ended up being a no show also, I suspect because he would have had to walk through a load of disgruntled Oxford fans in Frankie and Bennie’s to talk to Southend fans. He’s NOT popular there. Anyway, I asked him how he thought the game had gone and this was his text reply
Thought you played well even though we gifted you two goals. So many chances for both teams. We were crap but life goes on! – so there you have it.
Good banter on the way back. Somewhere along the line ‘Phad Prig’ became Fat Prick which was very funny at the time. Harry bought a huge KFC banquet (surely a misnomer!) which smelt disgusting, and possibly tasted just as bad. Probably need a chilli to help it along!
We had the best day – please make sure you check your diaries for the future – can’t have you missing another day out like this.
I love you all.
Jb
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