Hi Mum,
Well the BBQ ended up being cancelled, Julie's friends daughter was ill so had to stay at home in Bristol!
Instead we went to watch England football qualifier game for the World Cup next year against Kazakhstan! We went with Julie, her boyfriend & her friends! It was good fun great to watch the game, England won - i am not sure if i should be happy or not as i am German, but i am living in the UK? Damien kept speaking about this one time when England beat Germany 5-1 in a match .....
I decided to do a little research on England Football Team & here is a brief summery for you:
England Stats:
England's first official International Match: England vs Scotland, 30th Nov 1872. At West of Scotland Cricket Club at Partick, near Glasgow.
Biggest Win: 1882 - Ireland 0 - 13 England
Biggest Defeat: 1954 - Hungary 7 - 1 England
World Cup: 12 Appearances & Winners in 1966
European Championships: 7 Appearances & best result - 3rd in 1968 & Semi Finals in 1996
Most Caps: Peter Shilton (125)
Top Scorer: Sir Bobby Charlton (49)
Home Stadium: Wembley (opened in 1924 in a match against Scotland, closed them in 2000 . The new 90,000 seater Wembley costing £800 million, hosted its first match on June 1 2007)
Traditional Colours: Home - white shirts, navy blue shorts and white socks. Away - red shirts, white shorts and red socks
Current Captain: John Terry - (Plays in Premiership for Chelsea)
Current Coach: Fabio Capello (Appointed 14 December 2007, Qualification for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa his objective.)
Because of a disagreement with FIFA over payments to amateur players, England did not enter the World Cups in 1930, '34 and '38.
After the Second World War, England rejoined FIFA and duly entered the World Cup in 1950, hosted by Brazil. England, hampered by climatic conditions, failed to progress beyond their qualifying group. And it didn't really egt any better for the years on from that either: In the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland, England fared better, losing in the quarter-finals to Uruguay. Four years later, England drew all their group games and failed to qualify for the knock-out phase. In 1962, England progressed to the quarter-finals where they were beaten by Brazil.
However - England's finest international hour came four years later in 1966, when Bobby Moore lifted the Jules Rimet trophy at Wembley on 30 July 1966. Grouped with Uruguay, Mexico and France, England drew one game and won the others to progress to the quarter-finals where Argentina lay in wait. England won a bruising encounter 1-0 and then beat Portugal 2-1 in the semis. In the final, England won 4-2, after extra time, with Geoff Hurst scoring a hat-trick, the only man to do so in a World Cup Final - how amazing is that?
Unfortunately though England's next-best performance wasn't until the World Cup was in 1990 when losing to West Germany on penalties in the semi-final!
England also enters the UEFA European Football Championship (formerly the European Nations Cup).
England first entered in 1962/63, losing in the first round to France. In 1968, England fared better, getting to the semi-finals, a feat they repeated in 1996.
Following the arrival of Sven-Goran Eriksson as Head Coach in January 2001, the England team enjoyed a period of inspired form, recording 5 successive World Cup victories against Finland, Albania (twice), Greece and Germany, before securing dramatic qualification for the Finals with captain David Beckham's last minute equaliser against Greece.
At the Finals in Korea and Japan, England qualified from the 'group of death' recording a memorable victory of Argentina in the Sapporo Dome. A three-nil win against Denmark in the pouring rain set up a quarter-final against Brazil and Michael Owen gave the Three Lions great hope when he opened the scoring early-on. However, goals from Rivaldo and Ronaldinho sent England home and crushed their hopes of lifting the World's biggest prize.
England also reached the quarter-finals at Euro 2004. having negotiated a tricky group involving France, Croatia and Switzerland, England crashed out on penalties to hosts Portugal.
In their last World Cup, in Germany, it was almost a case of Deja Vu as Portugal again knocked England out of the competition on penalties at the quarter-final stage. That game marked Eriksson's last in charge and new Head Coach Steve McClaren took over as England looked towards their Euro 2008 qualification campaign.
Steve McClaren was in charge of the Three Lions for 18 games, winning nine, but after missing out on qualification for Euro 2008 his contract was terminated on 22 November 2007.
Julie's camera decided to give up over the weekend though so no pictures to show you She is getting it fixed for this weekend though as on Friday afternoon we are all flying over to Amsterdam for Defqon 1, the dance festival on a beach @ Almere Strand - i wont be far away from home actually will i?
I cant wait - i am hoping the weather will be good as it has done nothing but rain all weekend here - there have even been problems with flooding and even a block of flats catching on fire in London due to lightning - this is crazy for June????
Off again for now, will post up all of my adventures from Amsterdam when i get home next week - we are away till next Monday!
Lots of love, Claire xxxx