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For those that were unaware (although there cant be many, I chirped loud enough) I was lucky enough to win a comp on blonde with some superb added value from William Hills, an all expense package to go and watch Sweden v Brazil at the home of @rsenal, the Emirates stadium. The package included travel for 2 to London, an overnight stay in a top hotel, and match tickets in an executive box at the ground.

Going back to the day of the comp on blonde, I phoned my son Sam and told him I was playing this comp and I was gonna win it... and if i did I was going to take him as my guest ... of course he just laughed and said "yeah, ok dad, but you wont win" Oh yea of little faith !!

Well to cut a long story short, I somehow luckboxed the win and phoned Sam straight away.... "Who is the best dad in the world" was my opening salvo ... The reply comes back "Bloody hell dad, did you win it ?" .. I reminded him of his lack of faith and after some cross examination, I finally convinced him that I was serious and I did indeed win it LOL

So on to the day itself, I had arranged for Sam to get the train to London Liverpool street from Colchester, And I would get the train up from Portsmouth and meet him there ... that went to plan and we hooked up as arranged and set off on the underground to our hotel .. Russel  Hotel was the destination.. and what a posh place that was !! (pics to follow)

Sam was a bit taken aback at the poshness of the place, and we had a giggle about getting thrown out cos we were too common, we managed to check in ok and were surprised to find that we had been booked a room each !!!  ... now Im a liberal dad, easy going and trust my boys to know right from wrong and use common sense, but alarm bells were ringing inside my head ... MINI BAR, PORN CHANNELS,HOTEL PHONES  and a 15 year old Lad...GULP !  any way, he was so excited about getting his own room in a posh hotel, I didnt have the heart to stop it ... so after the Dad lecture (you know the sort, point out the consequences of doing anything i tell him not to will result in a slow and painful death :) )  We go up to our rooms , get changed and go down to the bar to meet James Lowe & Ken from Willam Hill, Introductions over and James & Ken get the drinks in... I wasnt to know it but we werent allowed to put our hands in our pockets all night, everything was "on the tab", when these boys offer you hospitality, you get exactly what it says on the tin !!

We were sat, just the 4 of us and I enquired as to who would be joining us, and found out that accompanying us to the game were some Swedish high rollers and a couple of English guys .... you might know the names ... it was only bloody Cupcake and Arsenal Dan from the forum LOLOL ... Dan had played in the comp and it was me that knocked him out, we have plenty of banter about our allegiances in football aplenty, so when i knocked him out I of course let him have both barrels about how i was going to wreck his beloved teams ground etc etc ...

Soon enough the Swedish guys came to join us and late as ever Pinky & Perky arrived, chirpy and friendly as always... despite our footballing differences, Dan & I have always got on, and as for John (Cupcake on blonde) I defy anyone to take a dislike to him, he is just a top top bloke.

Once the introductions had been done, we troughed a few more bevvies and left the hotel to make our way to the stadium.

To be continued ... but some pics of the hotel for you to take a butchers at ;)

We leave the hotel and before we are even on the tube, the banter starts with Dan winding Sam up about football in general ... Sam reaches into his coat pocket and produces his Spurs scarf .. 1-0 to us i believe :D.

The tube train reaches @rsenal station (Im sorry, I cant bring myself to type their name in full) .. we get off and I warn sam not to brush up against anything associated with @rsenal or we would have to burn his clothes and disinfect him LOL ... Dan was our leader as he has a season ticket for the filth, so knows his way around... we get out of the tube station, over a bridge/walkway and there it is !!  Now obviously I hate all things @rsenal, but WOW that is one impressive looking stadium (its ok, I have washed my mouth out with soap) ... its early, 5pm kick off isnt until 7.45 but we have a meal waiting for us in our box so we can get in at 5.30 ...

There were plenty of people milling about outside, Brazil flags everywhere and already quite a bit of noise was building up ... of course Sam took this opportunity to get the Spurs scarf out and get a few snaps of him at enemy HQ with the colours on display ;)

the doors to the executive entarance are opened and we make our way in to the stadium ...

Part 3 soon ... but here are the righteous colours being hoisted in full view of the enemy :D

MORE!!!

Great post Kev, glad you enjoyed it :)  Looking forward to more !

lol taking a beautiful young lady to the theatre in a couple of weeks and we staying in the Russell - had no idea it was so opulent, I might be in trouble.

Glad you had a good time Kev

fk me dont order the sandwiches

Thinly veiled brag post.

Into the stadium we go, and make our way up to our box .... Sam is the first one in (he had to be quick to beat Dan, it was a close call as to which one of them was more excited LOL) and it was also Sam who was first to slide open the doors from the box which open out onto our seats on a private balcony .. WOW what a view, absolutely amazing ... While the rest of our party were making full use of the drinks available and having a chat, Sam was sat outside for ages just surveying the stadium and trying to take it all in .. it was a magic moment for me, it brings a lump to your throat when you can do something for a loved one that you know is such a thrill for him, and i took great pleasure in knowing that he was awestruck and majorly happy.

The William Hill duo of James & Ken presented us with our souvenir programmes and kept us all topped up with anything we wanted and even took a few bets on the game.
we tucked into an amazing pre match spread, all served in our box, and it was all i could do to get Sam in to eat as he was just soaking up the atmosphere around him as the ground started to fill up,  the noise and colour seemed to be hypnotising him it was amazing.

Kick off time approached and we made our way out of the box and into our little balcony of seats .... National anthems were soon out of the way and the game was underway ... Decent game it was too, plenty of talent on display as you would expect. Sam was enthusing over a brazilian player that was only 18 and in his words was "Superb, and will be the next Pele" ...  His Name was Pato, and when he was introduced as a sub in the second half, he immediately caught the eye, and ended up scoring the winning goal for Brazil with a goal of sheer natural ability and awareness ... Sam was right, that Pato is some player what a future he has in the game !!

All too quickly the game was over, and as everyone was making their way out of the ground, us lucky few retired to our box for some more drinks and a bit more to eat, and eventually left the stadium at about 11pm ..... on the way out Dan walked us through the corridors and made us stop at each framed photograph along the way so he could tell us about every one LOL .. we pretended to be impressed at his knowledge just to humour him OBV.

Back in the hotel and straight into the bar where again we were not allowed to buy a drink .... i tried to argue and insist on buying a drink, but wasnt allowed (phewwww got that bluff through ;) ) I think it was about 3am before we finally made our way to bed .... but not before we had the most expensive sarny in the world, £9 for a tiny ham butty with about 4 crisps ...i kid you not LOL we all praised the lord for the fact that we werent paying.

So that was it ... we did meet up with Dan and Cupcake for brekky the next morning but that was it ... our adventure was over ... It was time to check out, take Sam to Liverpool street, put him on his train and say our goodbyes ... he had had the time of his life and I would like to thank everyone who was there for making him feel so welcome and included in everything, especially Dan & John, who really got on well with him and he was telling me all the next day what a laugh he had and that they were top guys ... James & Ken from Hills were superb company and great ambassadors for their company, they really were top drawer and I would like to thank them for the hospitalty that they showed us all that night.

It really was a trip for the old memory bank, and one that I wont forget for a long time, and I dont think Sam will ever forget it !!

I will end with a couple of pics of Sam in the ground early in the evening .... So thats the colours hoisted INSIDE as well as outside the stadium ;)

Thanks for reading.

LOL yeah I mentioned them ... AVOID Nak, take her to maccy D's mate ;)

;applause; good stuff Kev.

 :goodpost:

Nice post kev glad you all had a good time.

Assumes Dan finished off what your son didn't eat...........

Truth is ... after the £9 sarny, Dan & Cupcake went on a quest to find a kebab LOLOL

great read Kev..........glad you all had a good time

 ;yellowcard;


 ;marks;

I could have written that myself the 3 days after Sam non-stop telling me about it. It sounds really good apart from the football bit! One question though, did you tell Sam not to smile in any of those pics, was it against the rules or something because he looks like hes just been told hes got three months to live. ::) :)

LOL thats his mean & moody "Im tough I am" look ;)

It was a good night and a good experience for me to be in a box at Arsenal as I am normally i'm in the cheap seats.

I was giving Kev some stick about Sam loving the stadium. It was good to catch up with Kev again and meet Sam, he was a great lad. As Kev said you could tell Sam was having a great time and Kev was too.

Like Kev said, many thanks to James from Hills and Ken also. I was very fortunate to be invited and we were looked after very well and I made sure I took advantage of the food and drink lol.

Just remember Kev, when you take Sam to WHL he will be thinking, how come this isnt as good as Arsenal's ground  :D

Great posts Kev - nice to know the prize was thoroughly enjoyed!

great read kev.

Great Post Kev, Thank you.

I was at the game as well, you could have waved at me.  ;)

great read Kev......more comps like this please! ;D

we ignored the peasants in the cheap seats :D :D :D

Top quality report Kev, glad you and Sam enjoyed the day.

Aren't those seats the most comfortable of any footie stadium, the cheap seats are exactly the same btw.

unless they had a yellow and green bikini top on.  :D

hadn't he paid to get his face put up on the screen?

great read m8 .glad you enjoyed yourself.

I had actually missed your win on this Kev, what thread is it on?  :dontask:

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=32085.0

there ya go :)

Well done mate..I didn't realise you'd win this comp (rigged OBV)..top post!

Cheers. As i was already going I didn't pay attention to the tourney. WP Kev. ;applause;

didn't know you'd won this either mug.but well done, and a great report.
Your right, it's all the better to give such a treat to on of yur sons, he'll dine out on it for years.