It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… Since I haven't posted as much as my life has been consumed by two things during the summer (work and the World Cup) I decided to sum up what I did in-between sifting through lines of code and version control and all that geeky crap.

The World Cup
Most anticipated by me because of what I saw as a strong England squad. Yes, I support ze English (C'mon ENGLAND) and it's a long story how I came about to support them (which encompasses living in 3 countries on 3 different continents.) My Chelsea boys, JT, Lamps and Coley were all on the squad, along with other “big” names like Ashley Cole, Peter Crouch, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Owen, David Beckham, Steven Gerard, Wayne Rooney, and so on… Anyway, little did I know that at a crucial moment, our manager (the now-fired Sven Goran-Ericsson) would not deliver. My favorite player, Frank Lampard was not playing at a level that he normally plays whilst Joe Cole shone at the opportune moment. The summer was filled with pints, however, and friendship — so it's not at all a loss. Here are some photos from the experience:

Ye Olde Kings Head
A wonderful place. The servers rock (thanks Tibby!) and thinking about the place now makes me crave for a pint at 8AM again. Photos: Restaurant shot with a camera person from a local news station capturing the event. Me and Gary Richards, former-QPR footballer and co-host of the *best* Footy programme on radio The 2Gs.
  

Ben J. and me; Sarah, Ben (both Londoners) and me — all England supporters. Ben works for the same company where I do contract work
  

Me and Graham Bell (former FA official and co-host of the *best* Footy programme on radio The 2Gs.

Fox and Hounds
Me and Andy – it's the only time you'll see me hanging out with a Leeds fan!

The Underground
The place was ok and had England not lost, I'd definitely return there again. As you can see, the photo of me, Ben and Sarah was taken before England lost to Portugal in penalties.
  

Chelsea FC Off Season
The club I support (if you didn't know by now), Chelsea Football Club, are here in the United States for a friendly against the MLS All-Stars (August 5th @ 3:30PM if you have ESPN!). Anyway, if you have been keeping up with my minimalist posts, you might have noticed some photos from a ChelseaFC signing fiasco over @ the Adidas store. The manager of that store was obviously lacked in event-preparation skills. Here are some friends I made that morning:

Two days after that, I went to UCLA and watched my Blues train! I received several tips from the friends I've made on their training schedule and decided to just go and it paid off! Who cares if I was 2 hours late for work! Who cares if I sounded like a complete idiot when I told Joe Cole something like (I love you… as a player) — I MET MY BOYS IN BLUE AND IT WAS FANTASTIC. Surreal, fantastic, brilliant, and so on. I'm still in disbelief and as disappointed as I am that I cannot see them play in person @ Chicago (that's where the friendly match will be held), I'm so grateful that I was able to say “Obrigado” to the manager, Jos