A Rugby Match, A Picnic and Some Apologetic Words

I went to the rugby, girls and boys.

What an experience.

The following photos are shown in chronological order of them being taken.

Angus and I, prematch. At this moment, we were surrounded by people shouting "U! S! A!" but there were definitely more South Africans in the stadium than USA supporters. This match made me see how many South Africans actually are in England. The answer? Plenty. Loads. It was actually quite nice. 

How good were our seats? We were close enough that I saw the faces of the players who were on our side of the field. When somebody got an injury they would get the big players on the side to do stretches and warm-ups that was more like a display of their muscles to take up time. I'm not complaining though. 

Proud South African in this pic. As you can see the flag is ripped down the side. That's because it was attached to a stick but I waved it with such enthusiasm that it ripped off the stick. 

The last moments of the match. Although we were kind of flattening USA I was impressed with the fans who were still shouting "U!S!A!" at this point in the match. 

After the match with Jess - the reason for my ticket. What a precious slice of comfort this girl is. 

A little bit less contained picture, but who could blame us. The bokke had won some Rugby!

I so enjoyed the gees ("gees" kind of means "spirit" or "excited atmosphere") of being at that Rugby match. I think my favourite moment (not including watching the actual match) was when we were going home on the tube and a whole load of people started singing Shosholoza. That was a skin-tingling moment. 

(In place of these brackets I had a paragraph on the protests going on in SA right now but I realised I actually don't have the energy at this second to be as radical as I want to be. Does being away from a problem mean I am exempt from doing anything about it? Obviously not. Do I stink of white privilege? Maybe. Oh dear. Moving on.) 

Another part of my trip has been spending time with my long-time best man Alexander John Middlebrook. Here's the evidence: 

This was our lunch from the Shake Shack. Treat yourself to a Shake Shack meal if you can at some point. Not bad. I was savouring every bite. 

Not a fab picture of either of us but its the only pic I have of us from this particular day. 

Picnic at Green Park! Health! Also I love the leaves on the grass. 

I don't think this needs a caption. Basically we're looking at a stud here. 

My favourite picture of the day and of the two of us I think. I so adore this human!

Maybe you can tell from the writing but this isn't my best post. To be 100% honest with you all, my team, I am a bit tired and feeling very much like I want to come home. That's not a great mindset to be in when you want to write fantastic and witty blogposts. But I also don't want to forget any of this stuff so that's good motivation to get it down here.

Until next time,

Jen x