Great night out

On Sunday night we went out for a drink. We like to go to various places that are local, and we settled on New Malden.

New Malden has a huge Korean population, and we thought that the pubs there would have some atmosphere.

what we envisaged was a few Koreans having it large, as one says.

However, as we approached The Fountain, we realised that something bigger was happening. In the (very large) beer garden were several hundred Koreans, in front of five TV screens. Loads of kids too, who entertained us all night by playing their own little football game. There was whooping and cheering not seen since a Socialist Workers' Party conference heard the news about Lady Diana nine years ago.

They were all waving flags, wearing red, and singing along to a few popular chants. There was a guy with a drum, just in case they forgot. There was a barbecue, and everybody was buying the very reasonable alcoholic beverages (£6 for a bottle of house red, and it wasn't bad).

The Koreans are very vocal, and screamed their enthusiasm when their team got the ball, never mind scored. When they did finally score, I'm sure the earth tremor could be detected several hundred miles away.

You can find out more about support for Korea here".

It was a brilliant night out, and I'd normally recommend James as an authority on New Malden, but, after featuring as a famous blog in the local newspaper a couple of weeks ago, I get back from holiday, and, after several years of faithful coverage, I find that he's gone password protected. I suppose he has his reasons, but I'd like to know whether he was the mad ginger bloke doing the podium dancing on Sunday, because he looked a bit familiar.