“So tonight is football: Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur,” noted my cousin’s mate, Jim McClean, as we finished up dinner last Monday evening. Jim finished with, “Remember, you are watching with me.”
It was true even though it had been a long day, for earlier Diane and I had traipsed all over the Tower of London for hours, making note of the White Tower and amazing collection of medieval weapons and armour, and checking out the Bloody Tower where a number of luminaries literally lost their heads.
But, Jim was indeed correct, for I had committed to the English Premiere League (EPL) game. When in Rome, do as the Romans. And, the Romans did indeed plant the first stones in the area that would become London, and well, despite the recent influx of the NFL over the years, what we call soccer, the “real” football, still rules the roost over the rest of the planet.
In fact, both Jim and cousin Margaret’s mate, John Beanlands noted that the new field of the Tottenham Hot Spurs will feature a two-tiered pitch, so the stadium can indeed accommodate the spate of NFL games coming to the United Kingdom as well as the local EPL squad.
All of this was part of our sojourn to Northern Ireland, Ireland, and England for a long vacation visiting family overseas I have not only not seen for years, but that in all my life I had very little chance to get to know, at least until now.
Three weeks toddling around Belfast, Dublin, and then London took care of a lot of lost time, along with walking in 
the shadow of those Romans, and the Celts, along with Shakespeare and Dickens and even the Game of Thrones.
It was great fun, and particularly Northern Ireland caught Diane and me like nothing else, as we fell in love with the island, its wondrous scenery and lovely people, traveling with Jim, and my actual cousin, Evie, hooking up with my brother Eric and Jill Hedgecock — who know Evie and Jim from a previous trip — in Belfast and goofing around with them for four days as well.
Things were breathtaking. The Giants Causeway was majestic and the old castles, like Dunluce and countryside, not to mention wicked scones and more dubious black pudding (I did try it!) kept our bellies full and energy flowing.
Back in London, where Diane had not yet been, Parliament and the National Gallery along with the Tower were on the agenda, and a viewing of Hamilton plus a lot of getting to know family I never had a chance to know till now. (Such as the dinner pictured with my cousins Margaret and Eve, John and Jim, Diane and me.)
Of course I could not hide, for I have several contending teams that needed transactions, a handful of Strat-O-Matic games to play and two football drafts going on.
So tracking scores with a nine-hour time difference became interesting, but I muddled through without performing too much damage save holding up an online draft while flying home yesterday.
As for the “real” football, Jim and I did watch, and sadly his team Manchester United (Eric was actually watching in Cork at the same time) lost to Tottenham 3-0, sending Jim into the same funk I get when the Athletics or Raiders lose.
Such is sports, and such is life all over the planet, apparently. I was happy as hell to find it out first hand with a new found family I never had before.
