England v Italy

Sunday 24th June

Kiev

The morning started with a quick check to see if the Kiev Beach Club was as rubbish as we had been led to believe in order to strike it off as an option for a live location for a breakfast party should England win.

Kiev Bleach Club had been billed as "The Place to be"..

..not exactly full of fans..

..perhaps they didn't know that..

..it was possible to rent this armoured car!

On the way we stopped off at a brand new shopping mall fairly close to our hotel. 

If you ever wondered where the filthy neuvoux riche buy all their tasteless yet ludicrously expensive stuff well "Domostera" is the place.

There are three large floors of shops which would be better described as emporiums selling everything that most people could only afford after a big win on a roll over on the Euromillions lottery.

Rav was on the hunt for a set of nail clippers. We found a set which would have done the job perfectly. We did feel though that putting an expenses claim in for over £200 just so that the producer could have short nails might just raise the odd eyebrow in the finance department.

It has to be said that the little wallet that the set came in was very nice.

You can get a whole house decorated and furnished..

..or just a bedroom..

..some subtle mosaic tiling..

..lounging by an old master..

..never mind Canon or Nikon, only a Leica shop here..

..BBQ for the garden? a mere £5000..

of course bubbly is the only drink at about £450 a bottle

We were then into the calm before the game. The atmosphere in the busy city was great. The folks of Kiev mixed with the fans of both Italy and England. There were only a few who had taken over the Swedish Corner bringing the family feeling down a bit by belting out chorus after chorus of "Ten German Bombers".

One or two of the usual suspects

The good news for me was that thanks to Arthur the fixer in Kiev I was reunited with my hat. Sadly the crisp Grivna notes had not turned up. I hadn't expected them to because I couldn't remember leaving them on the hotel bed. More that likely they fell out of my pocket.

My hat all packaged up by hotel lost property

A spot of baking with Peppa Pig over lunch 

This time we were unable to get the usual observer tickets for the game. We started to watch the game in a very quiet media centre totally devoid of atmosphere.

So Tiffany and I decided to go into the stadium and watch from screens in there and at least soak up some of the excitement.

We were standing watching when one of the nice stewards pointed out that there were a couple of vacant seats.

Not quite as close to the pitch as usual..

..the England contingent over in the corner

As is customary we left ten minutes before the end to get the kit to be ready to do the vox pops, shots and piece to camera after the final whistle.

So, we did watch the extra time and penalties from the media centre.

It was bad news for England but good news for us. We would be heading home to see our families.

The next thing was to get the report edited and sent to London which we did from the media centre.

Rav setting up the mac for the edit..

..Tiffany works on the script..

..then Rav starts the edit..

..Tiff talks to London.

Carlsberg is one of the sponsors of the Euro 2012 competition and provides some of its products for thirsty journalists to enjoy. Beside the fridges that are full of water and soft drinks there are other fridges full of lager.

Knowing how very thirsty journalists get and not wishing to give away too much, the fridges are kept firmly padlocked until after the final whistle of the game.

When the locks come off it has to be said that there is a little bit of a rush to get a share of the thirst quenching liquid.

The locks are off..

..and in they go.

When the material had arrived in London and the news desk was happy with what they had we went back to our hotel for a short sleep before, thanks to England going out, our last series of broadcasts.