The Polo Finals (part I)

It had gotten cloudy when my husband picked me up to go to the Polo Finals. I suggested I’d go back upstairs and get an umbrella but then we decided not to : we were running late. Sitting in the taxi I realised the sky was really dark and it really looked like it was going to rain. But it was too late.

There was a huge crowd at the Polo Court, music playing, people dancing. I am not really a polo fan. I like polo, but I don’t know much about it. I saw a really good game 2 years ago, between Ellerstina and La Dolfina (not finals at that time), and I was really impressed. The speed of the horses, when you think they are moving really fast they just accelerate even more. The power of the horses is really spectacular. The way they move is and turn is incredible. I knew I had seen an exceptional game at that time and I never really asked for more. So today -this was really typical me-, we were sitting down, watching the players go on the court, when I asked “Who is playing?”. Yes, shame on me! To be honest, the only reason why we were here in the first place is because my husband was having business relations from Colombia over and they wanted to see a polo game. My husband had to move heaven and earth to get tickets to the so called sold out game. And they had cost him a fortune.

It immediately was clear to me that the hard core fans were on the other side, and they were really into the game! But yes, it started raining. A little bit. We tried to cover ourselves with the magazine we got at the entrance while everyone was standing up to sing the national anthem, which was quite funny when you realised what happened later.

The game had only just started when a thunderstorm broke out right above the field. Surprisingly the horses didn’t seam to mind. WHile people yelled everytime you saw the lightning and at every loud roaring thunder, the teams just played on as if nothing happened. The horses too didn’t seem to notice. But then it started to poor and the players left the court. So did the supporters : under the poring rain we all went down, slowly, to look for shelter. But there wasn’t enough room for everyone. By the time we were down we were already soaking wet, as wet as you can be if you take a shower with all your clothes on (including shoes, purse, cellphone, money,…). Fortunately I was not wearing some light white T-shirt. We decided to go home, what else was there to do. We didn’t even run anymore : we couldn’t get any wetter. We didn’t try to evade big puddles : our shoes couldn’t get any wetter. Of course no taxi wanted to take us, not even if we offered him exhorbitant prices, and one of us decided we should take the bus. There was an exceptional nice, fun atmosphere in the bus – full of soaked people all coming from the polo game.

Of course the further from the Polo Court we went, the less soaked people like us you saw. It was quite funny how people stopped talking and started whispering, or just stared at us when we were passing. We were just laughing. My husband said it is probably the most expensive rain shower ever (our Colombian friends are leaving tomorrow, so they will not have seen the polo finals), while I was thinking about my shoes -last year collection that go perfectly with my dress- and my nice leather handbag -that went perfectly with the shoes- all soaked. The biggest shock was yet to come. When I arrived home to plug my Brand New Camera to my computer, I realised it was….. dead.

So I ‘m sorry, no nice pictures to accompany this post, although I had taken some real nice ones.

Hopefully we’ll have The Polo Finals (part II) tomorrow.