Magic Memories NO.1 and Barcelona Tickets

Two dream tickets for October 18th at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea v Barcelona and I am not going.

Why you ask? They are not my tickets you say, oh but that are I reply.

Six days after the game, my daughter celebrates her 21st birthday and as part of a selection of treats that me and Mrs Blueblood58 have in store for her one of those selections is a ticket for the Barcelona
game. Accompanying her will be her brother - who is I might add - totally made up, cos his ticket was paid for him and all I will get out of it is a 'bloody programme' LOL.

Unfortunately the Blueblood household simply CANNOT afford another £45 ticket plus £1.50 booking fee!! But am I or am I not a GOOD Dad!! mmmmmm that should be a VERY GOOD DAD LOL!

But this post isn't about the Barcelona game, that will come later. This post is about the two occasions back in 1997 when I was fortunate to see Chelsea play away in Europe twice in the space of two weeks.

The first game was against Slovan Bratislava in Slovakia. Chelsea were already 2-0 up from the first leg, and in extreme windy conditions Chelsea won 2-0 with one of the goals scored by Gianluca Vialli off his bum as a Bratislava defender tried to clear.

What struck me that night was at one end of the ground, and open end, there were huge giant sized conifer trees being blown left to right, right to left and forwards and backwards by the unrelenting wind and how the two teams managed to play football well only the players can relay that information.

On that day I saw two parts of Bratislava. Pre and post days of Communism. The old part of the City was run-down and ramshackled. How people lived and survived in buildings that were grey and depressing is beyond me. Buildings of flats or apartments crammed into small areas of brickwork although the outlining of the buildings were huge and never-ending.

Then a mile or so down the road, you stumbled across a completely different part and modern aspect of the City. Sky rise buildings both housing - flats and apartments - mixed in with healthy businesses and life. Life will all the energy and bustle that you would immediately expect from cities like New York and London.

Restaurants, cafes, supermarkets, bars and a sheer abundance of life and enthusiasm.

I will never ever forget the Bratislavian women. Every women I saw was a beauty in her own right. There was no middle ground - a ground between a stunner and an old hag - that ground never existed!!!

Anyway, two weeks later I was off again. This time to Norway, in fact 120 miles inside the Arctic Circle, to a place called Tromso a place where daylight is only seen for three months of the year.

Tromso, a picturesque idyll. A place where the mountains, peaks, ranges and snow take prominence and I mean prominence. The folk of Tromso live for the Snow, work on the Snow and play in the Snow.

Tromso''s ground was a short bus ride away, a bus that has snow chains on all its wheels. The ground was situated at the top of a hill, and in a sort of peninsula where surrounding log cabins with beaming bright lights from the non-footballing residents within, gave that Christmas Card feel and wish.

Freshly fallen snow as bright and crisp as a newly washed and ironed white shirt, shone brighter than the floodlights within the ground.

A cold cold night and more reasons why this day is a magic memory. Chelsea lost 3-2, the game was stopped twice for fallen snow to be swept off the pitch, Gianluca Vialli beating a path through the snow to score two crucial Chelsea goals. And.......

..... sitting on the plane for the return flight for an hour while the wings of the aircraft were being defrosted and on arrival back at Gatwick at about 4.30am realising that it was the 24th October, my daughters 12th birthday.

In less than four weeks time, she will be 21. My how time flies, even with frost and ice on your wings.

l8ter