broncos

Having lived in Brisbane for the past twenty-odd years (the parents and I immigrated here from Hong Kong around October 1990) and being a rugby league, not rugby union, fan, it should come as no surprise to you when I proudly declare that I’m a supporter of the Brisbane Broncos!

I’ve only ever been to see one live match, though, and that was more than twenty years ago! I went to ANZ Stadium with dad, Pole, Pole’s dad and her grandpa, although I must confess that I’ve forgotten who we played, where we sat and even if we won or lost the match! The only thing I remembered about the match is that they let off fireworks before play began, and poor Pole was scared of all the noise. XD

For the State of Origin decider this year, someone had actually offered my dad two free tickets, but unfortunately, dad had to turn them down coz he wasn’t sure if I’d be able to manage the stairs involved with sitting at a stadium.

However, when I asked my UQ physio facilitator about them, she said, “Of course you can manage the stairs, Em! Here, how about this: when you come on Friday, you can trying climbing the little staircase we’ve got here (it’s four steps); I’ll even deck it out in Broncos colours all for you, how does that sound?’

That sounded like a plan to me, but when I came on Friday, I practised taking those stairs about twelve times, sans decorations. Why? Because just after I arrived and gone once to the bathroom, another teacher came out to the waiting room and told mother and I, “Sorry, there’s a little emergency going on. One of our elderly patients may be having a minor heart attack; we’ve called an ambulance for him, just in case.”

Anyways, after dad came home with our tickets, I e-mailed my UQ teacher, Jess, and she quickly responded, “Cool. My boyfriend and I have season tickets; I promise I’ll come find you during the match, okay?” Awesome~

The only thing I was debating about was what to wear. See, mother owns a Broncos polo, but I’ve only got a Queenslander State of Origin jersey. I thought I’d just wear that, but my awesome father goes out somewhere and buys a Broncos jersey for me, too! :D

Monday afternoon, and mother stops at the Runcorn Plaza bakery to buy us pork salad rolls, which she says will serve as our dinner that night.

And all too soon, it’s time to head off! Dad drives us all to the Eight Mile Plains busway station, where we board a special bus directly headed for Suncorp stadium!

When we arrive, dad leads me into the stadium. There’s people handing out these broncos coloured cardboard things; I take one, telling myself we’ll investigate it once we find our seats.

As we approach the seats, there’s a man standing there, taking our tickets. As I walk up to him, I cheer, “Go the Broncos!” He laughs, then apologises, “Sorry, I’m an Eels supporter.” I point my palm to his face – “In that case, sir, speak to the hand.” He laughs again, and then asks for our tickets. Mother hands them over to him; he takes a quick look, and then looks back at me, eyes twinkling. “Sorry, miss; there are only two tickets here. One for your mum and one for your dad. Guess you’ll haveta turn around and go home.”

“Damn, you win,” I grumbled back at him, and he laughs again before pointing us in the direction of our seats.

And dad found us very good seats, indeed! We were just slightly to the side of the goal posts!

The teams come out to warm-up, as do the cheerleaders. There’s even a courier mail blimp flying around the stadium somewhere!

For some odd reason, I was expecting the national anthem to get played, although of course it wasn’t; that only gets played for tests against other counties, grand finals and the like!

The teams come out, and all too soon, the whistle gets blown and the game starts! I cheer loudly every time I hear the Broncos supporters sitting directly in front of me cheer. XD

Because it was still the end of July, it was still fairly cold, and mother had put a beanie onto my head; actually, it was the bunny rabbit-ish hat that my cousin Carrie had sent me along with the rabbit head hat my uncle Dick Dick had sent me from Hong Kong early 2011. Anyways, I was watching the game, when I felt someone tugging at one of the rabbit ears. Annoyed, I turned around to tell dad off, but he was intently watching the match. Perhaps I’d imagined it, then. So I turned back around and continued to watch the game, only for the tugging to start again! This time, I turned my whole body around to try and see who the hell was playing with my hat, and there, grinning maniacally at me, was my UQ teacher, Jess! “Hey, Emilah,” she laughs. I may just tell you now that she finds ‘Emily’ too boring a name for me, and has come up with all these ones starting with ‘em’; like, Emilah, Embo, Eminem, etc. XD I said ‘no’ to Embo coz it made me sound like a bogan, and ‘no’ to Eminem coz I’m not a rapper! XD

So I introduce her to dad, and they shake hands. Then Jess tells me that she’s actually here with her boyfriend and some of his mates. “Just out of curiosity,’ I ask her, “how long did you play with my beanie until I noticed and turned around? Please don’t tell me that you’ve been sitting behind me doing that for the last twenty minutes, and I’ve only just noticed!’ ><’ “Oh, no, no,” Jess laughs. “Only like ten seconds.” Phew! XD

Unfortunately, the time that Jess wanders over to visit is about the time the Eels quickly pile on two more tries, and Jess stands to take her leave of us. “I’d better get back,’ she explains, “need to make sure my boyfriend hasn’t done anything drastic like commit seppuku or something because of those two tries.” XD

Anyways, once the half-time siren sounds, mother takes me to the bathroom once. As I climb the stairs, I see the guy who’d taken our tickets before the match and I moaned to him. “You must be happy; the poor Broncos are losing!’ he grins and says, “Don’t worry, here’s what we’ll do; we’re gonna plant a bomb in the Parramatta dressing room, okay?” Suspicious, I ask him, “But when will the bomb go off?’ he considers for a second, then replies, “when they’re coming back out of the change room.” I shake my head at him. “No, that won’t do at all, sir, I need the bomb to go off while all the players are still INSIDE the change room, not when they’re all starting to come out, coz that way, the bomb blast will miss some of them! No, for the biggest number of casualties, the bomb must go off while they’re all still INSIDE their dressing room.” He laughs and replies, “I’ll see what I can do.”

Anyways, after mother helps me once in the loo, I sit back down and munch like 2/3 of a pork salad roll for dinner, while waiting for the lads to come back out and play the second half.

Oh, and those cardboard things handed out before the match? They’re called ‘clappers’, and after you fold them up like a fan and bang them against any surface, they produce a really loud clapping sound! How cool~XD

When the players come back out and resume play, I watch the second half with great enthusiasm. For a short while, it looks like the Broncos are making a strong comeback, but in the end, the Eels whop the lads by twenty points. *cringe* XD

After the match, I leave the stadium with the parents. There’s about a five minute wait for the buses; we make it into the third or fourth bus that comes our way.

This time, it’s a female bus driver that takes us all back to the Eight Mile Plains busway station. Oh, something else I forgot to mention; the male bus driver that drove us to Suncorp Stadium, he didn’t know the way! Dad ended up standing beside him and giving him directions! XD

Once we get back into our 4WD, I was actually quite starving! 2/3 of a pork salad roll really isn’t that filling for dinner, see. But Mum tells dad to get us some Maccas! Dad orders a Mc Chicken medium meal for himself, then a Filet-o-fish for mother and I to share. Hey, does anyone know, are those burgers pronounced ‘fillet-o-fish,’ or ‘fill-aye-o-fish’?

Anyways, back home, I happily munch on my half a fillet-o-fish burger. Mother only gives me nine chips, but I ask dad please for one more, just to reach double digits, and he gives me two! :D

So ends the adventure of this Chan family going to watch the NRL last Monday night, actually, wait! Mother was so grumpy that we got flogged by Parramatta, I think she demanded dad take us to see another game next next Friday or sth like that! XD

Next post here … perhaps this Thursday night, after the monthly book club! The book we are doing for august is a HORROR novel, eep! XD righteo, until then!

Cheers,

Em. ^^