England v Brazil

Wembley Stadium, about 30 minutes before k/o.

Sam and I had managed to get our grubby little hands on a pair of tickets for England's first match at the rebuilt Wembley Stadium. You will be interested to learn that it is very big, has many escalators, and in case this fact hasn't already been rammed into your brain by the publicity, contains more toilets than any other building in the world.

The first half, if you didn't watch it, was better than if you did, generally.

In the second half, after a couple of near misses from England, the prodigal Beckham swung a free kick to the far post where it was nodded in by captain John Terry. This was one of the two moments when it became truly apparent how much noise 88000 people can make (the other time being when Beckham and Owen's names were announced in the line-up before the game).

Please note the Nicky Shoreyness of the English line-up.
Reading's first England player since the probably equally amazing Herbert Smith in 1907.

Due to our overall (and as it turns out, well founded) pessimism about the prospect of aforementioned 88 000 fans trying to catch the tube at once, we left a few minutes before the end and consequently missed the Brazil equaliser.

In completely unrelated news, both members of my team at work have gone on holiday which means I am rather overdone at the moment. Hence lack of blogentries due to general shatteredness. However, I was unaware you lot were so demanding. Spear, your attitude is shocking, I expect a full account of your recent adventures on my desk by Monday morning. Jumble, you are a bad girl, get on with your work.