Semi final TWO

Today dawned sunny and clear if a little chilly. There had been a frost overnight and the day took a bit longer to warm up. After breakfast I got myself organised for another day at Twickenham. Last night the UK shifted their clocks back so I did have an extra hour in bed which was nice. NZ is now 13 hours ahead of the UK which I assume makes it a little later for you to watch the final next weekend. Today we left an hour later for Twickenham which meant we did not arrive at the ground until around 1:30 which was much better. By the time I found myself a Cornish Pastie (surprisingly tasty for Stadium food) and a coffee the stadium itself was open and I could set off to find my seat. It is quite fun being in the ground for the warm up of the teams. It looks a bit like 'hide and seek' - we will train at the same time of you but we will not let you see any of our tricks'. Before long we were standing for the National Anthems. The Argentinian one has such a long introduction that you begin to think the choir has forgotten the script. However once you get to the singing part the Argentinians become very emotional and loud! The Argentinians did play well and never gave up but there did not seem to be a plan B when they could not break the Aussies with their constant going up the middle and bashing into the opposition. There was certainly a lot more blood than we have seen in any match so far so you are allowed to have a little hope that the Aussies are a bit bashed up with one less day to recover. It was surprising to me that there were not a lot of Australians in the crowd. There were blocks of yellow dotted around the stadium but not in the numbers I expected to see. After the game there did not seem to be a lot of celebrating Australians walking away. When I got back to the bus everyone commented on this so perhaps I was correct in my observations. At the end of the game it was a longer walk back to the bus in a clear frosty night. A brisk walk was the order of the evening. When you come out of the Stadium it is very dark and it feels like midnight even although it is around 6:45 pm. The trip back to the hotel takes almost two hours and the Thames looked quite stunning tonight with all the reflections on the water from the clear night atmosphere. I am sure I must have been in the UK during Autumn but I do not remember the stunning autumn colours in the trees. Right in the middle of London there are green spaces with trees just turning colour and it looks quite amazing. I took some photos from the bus but they weren't so successful as cars kept zooming into my lens.