Of Footwear And Footie

I didn’t pay much attention when I first heard of Blackburn at uni. I wasn’t yet supporting any footie club but even then I knew it’d be ABU*.

I did sit up and pay attention one day, however, when my friend told me that he’d bought a pair of Clarks shoes for five quids at Blackburn. See, there is this shoes outlet there. While I was happy to hear about this piece of info, I was not happy that he went without telling me. He explained that he and a few other chaps went to Blackburn to watch a footie match. OK, he was forgiven then. Still, it was all I could do to stop myself from hopping on the next train to Blackburn.

I journeyed solo to Blackburn at the first opportunity I had. One thing that I could still remember to this day as I stepped out of the train station on that cold winter day was hearing the call for prayers. Eh? It was when I strolled through the city later that I discovered that there were a lot of Asians in the city.

For someone with a fetish for shoes, I was in shoe heaven that day despite it being a dreary, bleak winter day. I remember thinking the weather that day befitted the city’s name.

And I must confess, for a while after that visit to Blackburn, I did kind of support Blackburn Rovers. And I still watch them play once in a while (I do watch other clubs’ matches besides Arsenal. Well, anything that involves ManUre that is). ABU!

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Arsenal kids (with an average age of less than 21 years old) visited Ewood Park last night for the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup. They led until the dishy Santa Cruz equalised with his goals. And it looked as if Arsenal’s fate was sealed when Denilson was sent off. But still, they persevered and Eduardo became the hero for the Gunners. Kudos to the Arsenal kids!

* ABU = Anything But (Manchester) United