a rush of blood to the head

the signs were everywhere:

- the traffic info matrix displays on the highway read "RUGBY INTERNATIONAL PRIDE"
- there were stands everywhere selling welsh memorabilia - flags, scarves, etc.
- more tellingly, there were families walking around the city centre decked in welsh rugby jerseys, jester hats, scarves etc.

a bbc sports (national tv!) crew filmed me outside the stadium taking photos. dunno whether they did eventually use the footage.. at that time it did seem like an exciting prospect. though i had a sneaking suspicion that they'd mistaken me for a japanese tourist (never mind that i was with a fijian!).

inside the stadium, the crowd was fantastic, the atmosphere awesome, and the experience mind-blowing. obviously i'd never been to such a huge match before, and to see such a huge crowd celebrating (after 20 minutes it became clear that wales was going to run - literally - away with a win) and enjoying themselves. people started throwing paper aeroplanes, in the hope that the aeroplanes would find their way onto the pitch. a few aeroplanes managed to glide beautifully from the upper stands down all the way to the try area of the pitch.

during these moments, the crowd ignored the game and made "wooo"-ing noises as the aeroplanes descended... and then burst into rapturous cheering and applause when the aeroplanes landed on the pitch. the complete incongruity between the crowd's jubilant reaction and what was actually happening in the game was just hilarious. the more distracted players must have been puzzled by the sudden bursts of seemingly uncalled-for cheering.

there were 'kallang waves' too; i thought i'd seen it all at the national stadium back in s'pore, but then i thought again.

never mind if the actual match wasn't the most exciting and contested game in the history of rugby - i loved every minute of it. shane williams is my running and stepping idol *starry-eyed*. watching his dazzling nippy side-steps, colin charvis' charging to the tryline, gavin henson's record-breaking awesome 14 conversions (he didn't miss any!), rhys williams' approx. 80-metre touchline sprint to the tryline... if this was only a lower-end international, i can hardly wait to see what a top-class quality international test match will be like.

even if i have to scrimp and save for weeks in a row, i'll do it - one way or another, i have got to watch an international match at twickenham at least once in the next few years.

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more about cardiff - it's a small city, i was surprised by the compact-ness of the city centre. it's silly to take the bus when you can walk from one end of the city centre to the other. the population was quite small too - except for the centre of the city centre, everywhere else was kinda eerily deserted (a couple of people walking past, cars passing). it's not the most picturesque place - but it's a nice little city all the same (i'd call it a town!).

i visited cardiff with my ucl rugby teammate mer - a fijian girl from an american uni who's here at ucl for just a year. at first i was supposed to go to cardiff alone (well i do have a loner streak), but then i told mer i was going and she wanted to come as well. this was basically an extremely rugby-centric weekend trip: on saturday we watched 2 other rugby internationals on tv - england v australia at the local walkabout pub, and new zealand v france (gosh dan carter's looking more like spencer because of his hairstyle! although carter is becoming a quality flyhalf, i still prefer spencer and his 'bag of tricks').

i'm damn glad we went to cardiff together 'cos i now see what gim meant when he said "it's lonely to travel alone" (that doesn't mean i'll get put off solo travel though). somehow it wouldn't have been as fun to eat a kebab and fish & chips, watch rugby in pubs, stay in a hostel (cardiff backpackers, a bright purple and yellow building) - all alone. it was fun to have someone to talk to about things on the trip - and it helped that she was rugby-savvy as well. i think if i'd gone to cardiff with someone who was unfamiliar with rugby though, it wouldn't have been a nice trip (can imagine having to explain the 'offside', 'coming in from the side' and 'kicking out into touch' rules countless times - shudder).

cardiff's about 3 hours bus ride away from london. i'd like to visit it again some day - it's a good starting point from which to explore other parts of wales (which seems to be quite a village-y sort of place - little houses on undulating green mounds).

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they're raising the public transport prices next year - *#&^&$!

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jj williams (former welsh wing great):

"one thing i don't like about [the modern] game is the number of times the numbers 11 and 14 are at the bottom of the ruck, while numbers 1 and 3 are out on the wings - what use is a 12 stone winger in a ruck?

"in our day, the forwards put their heads down and bums up and they left the flash stuff to the flash boys.

"the game is in danger of being crowded out by forwards trying to be three-quarters."

hah. i used to see some thing similar happen in front of me every wednesday.

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gower place (which is just behind the main ucl building) has been closed off and there were policemen all over the street. at first i thought there was some heightened security alert issue there, but then i noticed a crowd of international students with digicams/handphone cameras at one end of the street, seemingly poised for action.

i asked one of the constables what was going on, and found out that the queen was coming to gower place (there's a spanking new building there, some medical research institute) any moment.

my initial reaction was 'hmm... should i hang around and wait to see?'

i mean, if it were some rugby great, or pop star, or famous actor/actress i would definitely have waited to catch a glimpse. but then i realised i didn't really care.

so i headed home.

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i can't take very late nights, i can't take big parties, and most of all i can't take a bunch of laddish boys making crude jokes.