Arsenal v Sunderland

I've lived in London for about 23 years now and have only been to a couple of matches. Yesterday I headed up to north London to The Emirates to watch Arsenal v Sunderland courtesy of an invite from PKR who have six season tickets and who invite VIP members to the games.

Jake O'Leary, the guy in charge of it all, met us outside the South Entrance which leads to the area for box and club members. A short ride up the escalator led us to the plush, carpeted area and after a swift pint we took our place for the match. First off - the view and and whole atmosphere was pretty stunning to say the least. The pitch seemed really close and the whole structure of the stadium was fantastic. It actually seemed really compact and I was surprised to see that the attendance was over 60000!

At half-time it was time to take advantage of the free beer - these are left on the table and are free to take as you wish - so I grabbed a couple and chatted away, mainly to a player who goes by the name of kanapes. She was here with her daughter and there was also another PKR member of staff along with a player called UwillLose (or something like that). As the area cleared for the second half, I stayed for about 5 or 10 minutes and continued to chat away with kanapes. Then, as I returned to my seat I saw the PKR guys coming back out for more drinks! Well, not to pass up on the opportunity, I joined them for another pint - and there we were, the four of us propping up the bar and chatting away while the game played on!

I have to say, Jake O'Leary was a fine host and, "invigorated" by the drinks and with the UwillLose fella chatting away like a good'un, we took our place for the final 25 minutes or so. Much excitement ensued and the guys were going crazy with a few near misses but it all ended 0-0.

A quick walk to the waiting taxi later, and a story from Jake about his "exploits" (which I won't go into), we arrived at his local in Camden and it was more beers and chat. Again, Jake talked of the night that Scott Shelley (a PKR member of staff) won his bracelet at the WSOPE; just a few pennies were won and spent that night shall we say.

As 6 o'clock approached I had to take my leave. It was a really enjoyable afternoon - the facilities at the ground for the box and club members are superb and the convenience of the easy access to free drinks, the taxi ride to Camden - and more free beers on the PKR tab at the pub afterwards meant a great time was had by all.

Anyway, after this it was a case of jumping on the tube for a visit to The Fox and The Empire which I will twaddle on about in my next post...