Fighting Talk & Barca.

On Saturday morning I was up with the larks, (if they have larks in Charlton) to head over to Broadcasting House.
We'd arranged to be there before 8:40am but I had an unscheduled Starbucks yearning on the way, so I didn't arrive until around 9:00.

I met Neil, first in the queue as always, then Phil joined us after around 5 minutes.

We were treated to Clive Anderson passing the time of day with us as we waited.
He seemed slightly surprised to hear we were aware of the programme 'Loose Ends' he was going to be a part of.
I noted he seemed remarkably full headed for somebody who has had his baldness commented upon for around 15 years.

Soon Colin Murray turned up but instead of rushing inside, he was happy to hang around on the other side of the street, chatting to mates and necking a few morning sharpeners from a huge coffee he was carrying.

After going through security and hanging around some more, we were finally allowed into the hallowed hall for the series finale of 'Fighting Talk'.
It was billed as the Champion of Champions show.

Defending champ Bob Mills, was pitted against Steve Bunce, Tom Watt and Martin Kelner.

The show isn't usually performed in front of an audience so it was a rare opportunity to see how it is put together.

We couldn't have had better seats.
When we were finally invited inside, the three of us managed to race to the centre of the front row.

I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the event won by Tom Watt, (maybe a little controversially).

Bob Mills made everybody laugh off air and Buncie wandered about, handing out flyers for his book while the news and weather were being read out.

                                          Colin Murray.

                                          Bob Mills and Tom Watt.

                                          Steve Bunce and Martin Kelner.

                                          The Sony Award, in the foreground.

After a bit of a wind down, when audience members were prompted to ask the guests their own questions or 'Any Other Business', Bob Mills told a few more jokes and then we were thanked and back onto the West End streets.

We went for a quick drink, then I headed to some of my favourite trainer shops, obviously with the intention of Just Looking but I must admit, my plastic did come out.

I didn't buy these Kopenhagens but they are next on my list.

Next it was Tokyo Diner.

 If I'd known they had a constant live webcam going I'd have waved but I didn't realise until just now. 

The Tokyo Diner way of doing business is no tipping, which takes some of the hassle out of paying.

I had a Bento box which was smaller than I remember having there before, so maybe I'll try something else on their menu next time.

London was completely taken over by fans of FC Barcelona.

There were very small pockets of Manchester United fans, sitting snarling at the locals or doing show off drinking outside pubs but really they were quite hard to find.

Everywhere I went there were huge crowds of happy Barca fans.

They were joyous, colourful and good natured. They seemed to be full of smiles rather than Stella. 

The prospect of any kind of trouble seemed to be highly unlikely.

They were well dressed, well behaved and as far as the travelling women were concerned, well gorgeous.

If the supporters of *Manchester United and Barca had decided to take over London, Barca had it in the bag by around 2pm.

* (There is the point of course, that many of the United supporters were still at home, cutting the grass or taking Tarquin to tennis sessions in Epsom and wouldn't be heading into town until much later.)

;-)

After heading home, I spent the rest of the afternoon doing preparation work for the annual reports the parents of the kids in my class will be expecting. 

It always takes such a long time but I like to make sure they are done properly and are most definitely individual rather than just blanket comments that could really be about anybody.

A curry, some beers and then it was me, Adrian Chiles, Manchester United and FC Barcelona for the rest of the evening.

WOW!

Sometimes finals are a bit of a let down but this year the final of the Champions League will be remembered as a bit of a cracker.

The young Barca star Messi most certainly stepped up to show the viewing public his label of 'Best Player In The World' is not hyperbole.

He is frighteningly good. 

He's only 23 and will probably get even better.

There are some quite tragic haircuts in the Barcelona team, (Puyol anybody?) but that is the only chink I can see in their armour.

They might be 'dodgy' in defence but when they can score almost at will, it doesn't seem to matter that much.

Manchester United are a fantastic club and they are quite rightly the current kings of English football. They can dominate other teams, often without playing particularly well.

Last night they looked very second best and were given a bit of a spanking by Barcelona.

Spain are the Kings of World football, European football and now European club football.

No wonder their supporters looked happy.