"While We Sing Together"

While Rob was snug up in bed with the Liverpool v Everton game on the radio, the rest of us went to check out some quality football at the Ricoh Arena--Home of Coventry City FC. It had only been 20 years since the last time Bob went to a footie match so you can imagine our excitement! All of it nearly went to waste when the parking proved to be difficult and Bob threatened to just drop us off and go home. Luckily, we soon found something or I'm afraid even my American charm couldn't have held him back.

We hadn't even made it to our seats yet when Jo started to say hello to people. It's remarkable the number of people she runs into around town but we hardly expected Bob Brolly to be one of them. Bob Brolly is a "singer, TV and radio presenter" who has a radio show on the local BBC station in town. Rob and I have heard quite a lot about Bob Brolly from Jo, who listens to his show every day and has an unbelievable talent for winning phone-in prizes including tickets to the theater, to Cov City matches and to the cinemas, to name a few. In fact, before I arrived in England for Christmas, Jo took Rob into town and made him walk past the radio station where you can watch Bob Brolly through a glass window as he does his radio show. At any rate, I knew Rob would really appreciate a photo of his wife with Bob Brolly--


I'm sure he didn't, however, appreciate the smell of Bob's aftershave which you could still smell on me several hours after the match. I'm sorry to say Bob didn't remember me two days later when Rob's dad and I went into town and waved at him through that glass window.

Anyway, we soon made our way to our seats for the match. Julie and I delighted in shouting our new "Ernesford Dynamos" chant every time Gary McSheffrey came to our end of the pitch. We never managed to inspire the crowd to join us, however. I also became a sudden hero in the Carey family when I busted out 4 chocolate bars at the beginning of the second half. After seeing a player sent off, and then another come off due to injury after all the subs were used up, Coventry were down to 9 men. The referee made a few interesting decisions to which the crowd had a strong reaction. Jules, Rich, Jo and I sat in suspense, wondering if the crowds anti-ref chants would steer Bob (Carey, not Brolly!) away for another 20 years but he took it in good humour. And then, with only a minute left to go, Crewe Alexandria managed to score a goal bringing the final score to 1-1. A very disappointing result. The good news was, back at home, Liverpool beat Everton 3-1.