Written before the critical 3pm watershed:
In much the same way that soldiers scratch their last will and testament on the back of an envelope before going into battle, I thought I’d better write this before the QPR match. My good fortune must begin crumbling soon, with the West Ham clash an ideal starting point.
So I find myself in an internet café on Shepherds Bush Green, gleaming with smug pleasure at my morning’s work.
Up early to drive to Edgware to collect a new laptop. You won’t have heard of Tiptop Laptops, but I’ve decided to give them a chance after grave customer service disappointments with Dell and Toshiba in recent times.
It’s probably a boy thing, but new electronic gadgetry sends waves of delight through me. I’ll enjoy its top-of-the-rangery while it lasts. I’ll give it four weeks at the most. By then, helpful work colleagues will have made me aware that newer machines have appeared on the scene with faster-beating hearts as standard; bigger screens, lower weight; improved battery life, faster DVD speeds – you name it. And so the first twitchings of desire for the new generation will begin. But just for a while, let me enjoy it.
So I leave Edgware with this bundle of short-lived joy, and drive urgently to the QPR ground, to keep an appointment with the club’s video-meister, Billy Rice. He’s putting together a DVD to commemorate the club’s one and only League Cup triumph, in 1967. I was at the game, 9 years old, and he’d asked me to be interviewed for the DVD. How nice to be ushered through the clubs innards, then asked to rake over these 37-year-old memories.
I didn’t think I’d have much to say, given the passage of time. But rather typically for me (according to M), once I’d opened my mouth, that was it. Thirty minutes later, a drawer labelled 19670304 lay empty and upside-down in the far corner of my brain, and I became silent once again.
Then a recuperative wander round Books Etc, two large mugs of potent coffee, and these notes.
Later:
One-nil to the Super’oops, One nil…
We won. And no one had nicked my car with the laptop in the boot. Hurrah!
