My manager is currently monitoring network traffic at our office. Although I think he did not really want to let slip he was acting as Big Brother on our internet usage, it would be clear to see from the stats that the holidays are soon upon us. Guilty as charged officer. I will freely admit that I have been spending more time online on ‘personal’ business than work related items, but not without good reason. Chasing orders for items is not great. Particularly as the call centre is constantly engaged from 9am until 5pm. I sent an e-mail but they have not responded. I am not really that bothered to be honest. Although 99% of my online shopping experiences over the past seven years have been exemplary, I feel let down by the system on this particular web site. Never mind, this time next Friday I will have completely all my Christmas shopping in the good old fashioned way. The venue this year is Milton Keynes. One of my favourite destinations in the country (strange considering I have only been there a handful of occasions, 3 excluding two Christmas shopping trips in 2002 and 2004 respectively). Enough talk about Christmas shopping, there are more pressing things closer on the radar that I should be focusing on. The weekend is here again and most people will be taking it easy and getting the last bits of their shopping done. Then there is me, with a packed Saturday and busy Sunday with housekeeping. Pav is playing in a club over in Brixton and as I did not support his local gig in Maidenhead last weekend, I thought it only fair for me to make the trek into Central London and see him. I am looking forward to it. Not been out in London for a long long time, plus it makes a change from traveling in the opposite direction to Islington. My Oyster Card is topped up (well that is technically not true, I have loaded credit which will be collected at Marylebone tube station, as I touch in) and I am all set. When I was at the Hamburg game, just under a month ago, I was asked if I went to any away games. Of course I replied, no, but made clear my intentions to start making an effort, ‘next year’. I was of course actually referring to next season, not the next calendar year. This week, I decided that it was time I took my support for my beloved onto the road. Perhaps what triggered this decision was the Wigan game on Wednesday evening. As the first half was such a non-event, I noticed the great number of empty seats in the stadium. Could this really be a Premier League fixture against the team that (disputably) play the best free flowing football in the league? I was shocked at the lack of support for the home team, even if this was a mid week fixture that had been rescheduled from late August. I printed off the membership form, which this evening I have filled in. I thought I did not have a recent passport photograph and was heading out the door to ASDA to get some more taken, when I discovered I had two spare. These were from the time I had to apply for a photo card with Chiltern Railways for my Monthly Season Ticket, over two years in late June.

To be honest, I doubt my application will be processed for this season but no matter, it gives me a foot through the door. Slowly but surely I can build up my away credits, particularly with clubs in the local vicinity. The experience of a day on the road with the Red army, in itself would be different from my staple diet of trips (once a month) on the Piccadilly Line heading north. There is so much I want to do and see as an Arsenal supporter and I know that I am lucky already, so early to have been there to witness so many memories. The thought that there are, many years and many more moments of success and failure to come, gives me hope that football is indeed, the beautiful game.