The Abschluss Party!!

I managed to get home last night (sorry - this morning) at 5.30am with birds singing and the sun already in the sky. I think it has probably been far too long ago since I did this. The only real time I've stayed up till the early morning has been for Sports events on the other side of the globe - I remember a Lions tour to New Zealand and GB winning the hockey gold in Seoul as two examples. However, coming home from a great party at the end of a great five weeks seemed to be the least I could do!

On the Pitch Pre-Match

I'm pretty certain no one in the UK saw me last night on the pitch before the Semi-Final between Germany & Turkey. It was a last minute thing as I had been expecting to just be working in the Accreditation Centre as normal. However, some extra staff were needed to help with an Anti Racism banner due to expected high winds. So there I was, standing behind the Turkish team on the pitch as the National Anthems were played. Claire recorded some TV coverage on SF Zwei but watched the BBC. Apparently my 15 seconds of fame on UK TV lasted around 1 second as my nose appeared in shot. Along with this experience I also stayed on in the stadium to watch an enthralling match.

Trip to Geneva

Another beautiful, if rather hot, day in Switzerland and with no work today I took advantage of the free travel (for volunteers during Euro2008) to go to Geneva with one of the other volunteers, Alex. It's quite a long journey for one day, being around 2hrs 40 mins from Basel, but as usual the scenery was generally superb during the journey. Geneva's famous Jet D'eau now has a special Euro2008 ball floating above it but that's pretty much all we saw that indicated Switzerland were hosting a major sporting event.

Summer's here

Yesterday there was the first really hot day and today that weather continued, which was handy since some volunteer colleagues came round for a BBQ. The only problem was that it was almost too hot. In fact the fridge certainly gave up the ghost early in the evening and we had a real struggle to get any cold beers. I just wanted to post this picture of the wonderful cake made by one of the volunteers, Nicole- very appropriate.

Oranjeboom, Oranjeboom it's a lager not a tune

That song, for some strange reason, has remained in my head as one of those adverts you don't forget. It also was the first thing that came to mind as I witnessed the mad Dutch hordes straddling every square inch of Basel today. It was a truly wonderful, if slightly scary, orange fuelled sight.

Preparing for the Dutch Invasion

After my visit to Bern last week I think I've got a reasonable idea of what to expect this weekend as Basel anticipates the expected 100,000+ Oranje Army. After work today at the, yet again, very quiet accreditation centre, I cycled home via the Pratteln Fan Camp. What a difference a day makes! Last night Claire and I came down to the camp to watch the Germany v Portugal game and found the scouting parties for the Dutch hordes plus many Swiss locals. Today the camp was beginning to heave and it was a sea of Orange.

A Trip to Zurich

The trip had been planned by quite a few of the volunteers as soon as the fixtures had been finalised as it meant there was to be a showdown in largest Swiss city between the 2006 World Cup finalists, Italy & France. It's actually a very easy trip from Kaiseraugst or Basel, being just over one hour away. The afternoon was also made more enjoyable as we had a local guide in Eva, one of the volunteers, to take us to some wonderful viewpoints of the city.



You can see details of the game and the best football bar in the world here.

Digging Up the Pitch

I know I've a specific blog dedicated to football matters but this is slightly different, as I've decided I can include football comment where it is related to my working day. It's not my fault that my current work at EURO2008 is all football linked! Anyway, today it was another very quiet day in the accreditation centre but, luckily, I got out to work inside the stadium to modify some pitch/corridor signs. It also meant I could see, at first hand, the relaying of the pitch ready for the first quarter final on Wednesday.

Playing football at my age..

Yes I know, I shouldn't, but you just have to, when challenged by a German, in particular. Unfortunately, I went over on my ankle and ended up with a swelling like an apple this morning. this was all part of a day of "fun" games at the volunteer centre yesterday. I managed to complete the football skills challenges okay but also excelled at traditional English sports - Darts & pool!!

Soaked!

Blimey you always imagine the summer in Central Europe to be warm and sunny with the odd violent thunderstorm. We seem to have missed the warm and sunny bit but caught many of the storms. Yesterday, after working at the Accreditation Centre, I walked about 300 yards to the tram stop in some of the heaviest rainfall imaginable. Oh well it could be worse, it could have been cold as well.

Never go out for a "a quick one"

It's the worst phrase in the English language, "I'm just going out for a quick one". Inevitably you get home at 3.00am and wake up the following morning with a throbbing headache. This is made worse by the need to work on a hot day. The fanzone at Basel was very quiet, yesterday , for the Spain v Russia game but it was very nice to watch a game by the river. Even if , the view point is completely wrong - you should never have to watch a TV by staring to your right at 90 degrees.

That wasn't the major problem of the evening but the drinking till 2.00am was. Thankfully the extra train service home at least allowed me to get back to my own bed in the middle of the morning.

Bern & the Orangemen

Yesterday I went off to Bern to watch the Holland V Italy game in a fanzone in Bern. I think I knew there would be a few Dutch peeps there but, my god, there must have been around 100,000 of them. It was a world of orange wherever you looked. Here's the biggest orangeman we met!

Claire is off again

Unfortunately, just after being away in the US for a week, Claire is off again this week to Lucerne for a week's training course. I will have the Euro's to keep me company along with the other volunteers.

Basel goes Euro 2008 Crazy

It probably won't last very long but the city of Basel has gone very Euro 2008 crazy today, with nearly 100,000 people either at the game or watching it in the Fanzones. Yes, today was the opening game of the tournament, Switzerland v Czech Republic. Shame the result went against the hosts. Claire and I did enjoy the atmosphere around Basel with fans mingling all around town.

Wet and drizzly and listening to the cricket

Yep a pretty grey day here in Kaiseraugst. Claire bought me back a nice present from the USA in the shape of a Swiss watch (something about coals to Newcastle I suppose) that I've been hankering after. My discussions with the little old man at the shopping centre who does watch repairs was a little difficult but he managed to understand that I needed the strap adjusting.

I'm writing this whilst listening to TMS, one of those pleasures that makes any ex-pat's life so much more fun. I've also found a site where I can view the recorded Channel Five highlights that have been uploaded, even if it takes a day or so for them to appear.

Claire gets back - bag stays in JFK Airport!

The apparent main reason for losing baggage (aside from travelling with BA via terminal 5) is catching a connecting flight as part of your journey. It was, therefore, no great surprise when Claire got back from Chicago, via JFK & Heathrow, to discover her bag had not travelled with her. She was in good company, though, with ex-South African rugby captain, Francois Pienaar, suffering the same fate.

Counting sheep ( I mean seats)....

Yep an odd day at St Jakob's today as a few of us helped to check seat numbers and locations at the stadium to ensure people with tickets actually have a seat!

Claire's godparents stayed last night on their way back from a week in the Swiss Alps - which they thoroughly enjoyed.

A very early start....

Yep after last night's dinner I was regretting the fact that I had agreed to get to the Accreditation Centre for 8.00am on Sunday morning. Even the beautiful weather and cycle ride failed to wake me up. The early rush subsided quite quickly and we had a very slow morning (again) - I hope it picks up in the final week before the games start.

A Thai curry with the Germans

A quick trip to France in the morning to buy some essentials from the Géant supermarket was mildly ruined by the lack of a L'Equipe due to a strike in France (who would believe that hey!). I needed to plan for dinner in the evening as some of my German volunteer colleagues were coming over. Alex & Eva came over first to watch the Germany - Serbia friendly and Sonja/Maika arrived late due to having to work at the centre till 20.00. I think they all enjoyed it and it's been great to meet some many different people during the volunteering activity.