My First World Cup
How does anyone sleep on these rock hard piece of shit beds ? That was the first thing I thought when I woke up here in my shipping container room . Everything hurt when I rolled off this rock . I wish I was exaggerating but that first nights sleep sucked . Between the Arab music playing until 1 am outside and people talking loudly in the morning it really wasn’t a formula for happiness . Once I started feeling my limbs again we decided to walk over to Mall of Qatar which is spitting distance from my place . There is a Tim Hortons there and it says on google that it opens at 7 am .
Mall of Qatar is massive so we had to navigate to find the good stuff but when we arrived it was closed ? An employee told us it opens at 8:30 so we wandered around the mall which everything was closed in …. When we found our way back we found others waiting for the opening and of course they were all Canadians . Got my double double and sat down to share stories with the others over a coffee and one fella told us how his tickets to England vs Iran didn’t work and the staff couldn’t get it activated until after half time . Of course he wanted his money back but they said they would not honour his ticket since they activated it before end of game ! What kind of crock of shit is that eh ? I felt bad for the guy , he said he would fight tooth and nail to get his money back and I hope he does .
On our walk back to the room we decided to stop at Carefour which is a supermarket. Grabbed some fruits , and stuff to make sandwiches to stuff our fridge and save a few bucks . When we got back we had a decent meal then we were invited out to Aaron Jones’ place for a dip in the pool which is in a compound called Les Maisons Blanches . A couple hockey buddies live there also and I’m bringing my gear to get some shots taken on me up on the rooftop sports court .
We took an Uber from our place down there which is cheap as chips and once we arrived we were greeted with a beer . Aaron has some friends from Newfoundland staying at his place . Two brothers named Darren and Shane and these two are an absolute riot !!!! I could not stop laughing , these guys are like a comedy show , such great guys . We went for a dip and headed back to Aaron’s place and I got ready to head out to meet Greg Scott to face some rubber or plastic ? Not sure what those roller hockey pucks are made of ?
I first met Greg in 2004 when I went to play for Malta in Dubai and we lost the finals to the Qatar Qanucks . Greg was on that team with Robert Carter who also owns the zipline I was on in my gear in Newfoundland about a month or so ago . Unfortunately Rob is not here but he lives in this very same compound which is filled with expats that live here . Its really nice and maybe the word compound is inappropriate because it makes it sound like a prison camp which is more like where I’m staying hahaha ! Anyways we got some puck action and Dorian and Patrick showed up to take some shots on me also and one of Greg’s buds came by with his son also and we had some good fun on the rooftop with this beautiful view of Doha . Of course I took advantage of the view and got some great pictures !
Had a couple wobbly pops and listened to some tunes courtesy of Dorian . It was so much fun and thanks to the breeze up there it wasn’t too hot . I did get my sweat on . Thanks for hooking this up Greg ! Its been a while since we last met which was in 2008 or so when we played in the Singapore tourney . Hope to see you again soon .
Went back to Aaron’s place and had a shower and more friends arrived . Cant forget the Linda’s who are really nice people also . Everyone is gearing up for the big Canada game ! Our first since 1986 at the World Cup . We had a few more drinks and called an Uber to get my gear to my room then walk to the stadium since it is so close . We tried to find the march to the stadium but might have missed it by a minute or two …. No big deal . We all got in without problems and were very early . Without alcohol being served there is not much to do aside from chat with whoever sits beside you or in your circumference and lucky for us we had some interesting folks around us .
A guy named Todd Brandt sat beside me and he told me he’s from Winnipeg and I said I know someone else here from there and he asked who … Patrick Stewart , and wouldn’t you know it they are rooming together here ! Patrick was a few rows up so I sent him a message telling him who’s beside me and he snuck down to stand near us for the game as we are in the supporters section where standing is the norm . The atmosphere was electric and I shed a tear or two during our anthem then the game kicked off . Our boys played their hearts out against one of the best teams in the world ! We dominated play and were not very lucky as we lost
the game 1-0 and I wasn’t disappointed because in our hearts we know those Belgians really were scared of us . Our fans dominated the stadium with our voices and most of us lost them due to that 😝
After the match it was chaos getting out and to the metro station … thankfully we didn’t need to take transit and walked to our room where we promptly called it a night and went to bed . What an amazing day ! Met some good people , played hockey and got to see our national team play in their first World Cup match in 36 years and they did us proud ! Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings .
