Man Pulls TV From House Fire to Watch Soccer
Reuters, BEIJING (June 29) - A Beijing soccer fan refused to let the small matter of his house burning down disturb his enjoyment of Tuesday's World Cup match between France and Spain.
A fire broke out in a hutong in the center of the Chinese capital at 3 a.m. local time Wednesday -- kickoff time in Hanover -- and gutted the traditional courtyard dwelling, the Beijing Daily Messenger reported.
"When the neighbors shouted 'fire!', I took my little baby and ran out in my nightclothes," the man's wife told the paper.
"My husband paid no attention to the danger, just grabbed the television and put it under his arm.
"After getting out of the house, he then set about finding an electric socket to plug in and continue watching his game."
The anti-social timing of the matches broadcast from Germany, which is six hours behind China, has forced some Chinese fans to go to great lengths to follow the action.
One man quit his job in Beijing to return to his hometown Chongqing so he could watch the whole tournament uninterrupted.
State news agency Xinhua reported that the 23-year-old's boss at the IT company had offered him a pay rise, but he turned it down flat, saying the World Cup was more important than his job.
The Guangzhou Daily reported that local police were forced to release a thief arrested for stealing a mobile phone when the victim refused to press charges because he did not want to miss the start of a match.
Although there are also many female World Cup fans in China, one man in the southeastern city had to sign a contract with his wife agreeing to do all the housework during the month of the finals so he could watch the matches at night.
Another from Putian, Fujian province, took a less diplomatic approach, Xinhua reported.
When his cheers during the Argentina-Ivory Coast match woke his wife and she switched off the television, he locked her in their bedroom and settled back down to watch the game ignoring her loud protests.
Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
The Beaver
Thank you Bananapouch in Baltimore for posting on my guestmap ! My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !
8 comments:
who knew Chinese were football fanatics?! can't decide which case was the funniest! they are all so raving mad!
t'es trop gentille Beav. Vraiment. Gros bisoux.
I have friends who play and avidly watch soccer. I was out for a drink with one of them the other day, and he would absentmindedly answer my questions as he stared at the TV (World Cup!) It definately seems to hook the male of the species...
And the best thing is that he made such a fuss just to see Spain playing at its worst :( Anyway, I've never had much hope in my national team...
May hate me, lady Beaver, but I would prefer a few original lines from you to Reuters. strudel
Nyasha, Yeah the Chinese are totally cracking me up !
*Toujours avec plaise, cherie ;o)*
Saur, yeah sports seem to tend to do that to males. Last week, CQFD (my sweet, sensitive, attentive and loving CQFD) actually stood me up because he was busy watching the hockey draft. Go figure !
Qalamana, na na na nee poo poo! If I remember well, the French actually defeated the Spanish that day! But don't worry, Spain has also produced some very fine elements in this field!
Giovanni, I know. I will *soon* write up some posts of my own. I've been a bit lazy recently. Being sick with a weird tropical illness and being home do that to me. But worry not, I will shortly come back with some words of my own !
Amias has been highlighted in LIP (www.livinginpoetry.blogspot.com)
Sorry to hear about your suffering through a fever. This sports post reminds me of the 1992 Olympics. I discovered "Simulcast" the night before, which allowed one to watch three channels 24 hours a day of all the events. This was so addicting for me that I quit my job and spent the most fantastic two weeks of my life watching the world play. I still remember the joy of seeing and hearing the announcers change their story from how Cuba always dominates in boxing (at 330 am my time) to their astonishment at Ireland's first gold in boxing. It was the greatest fight I've ever seen. To bad Americans were too stupid to see the value of the $129 service. Simulcast went broke and the Olympics cannot be watched in this country.
Thanks, Beaver, for your friendship in the blog world. I am not able to do much anymore on the net. I hope this will change later, and I miss blogging terribly, but I thought I should let you know I have not lost interest in you great adventures. I simply do not have access to my computer often enough. Thanks for all your help. I wish you and Dave all the best and will check in when I can. Thanks, your friend, Saltwater Jim.
" But don't worry, Spain has also produced some very fine elements in this field!"
Could you please give me an example? We always do the same: talk about how brave and corageous our players are and then it's always a shame :(
However we do great in other sports: tennis, Formule 1, motorcycles...
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