Euro 08 is a landmark tournament

Pundits hail it as such because of the quality of the football that has been shown throughout. This is a good thing for me, as it is the first major footie competition that I've re-arranged my life around and sacrificed sleep to follow closely, and watching a good competition makes it feel really worthwhile. 12 out of 24 matches from the group stages (16, if you count the simultaneous ones) is a brag-worthy feat, or so I've been told by sore males who are unable to keep up. (Hello, Tim!)

Of course, the boyfriend has a part to play in all the crazy, broken sleep patterns. The match time slots are terribly disruptive - waking up at 2 plus and then going back to sleep at 5 for a few hours is disorientating. On my own, I wouldn't have had enough of a reason to get up, but that's why it's great to have a motivation like Fergs around. He never expected me to follow almost all the matches he has (, but I maintain that I've always had a latent interest in football every since the '02 World Cup held in South Korea and Japan. Watching matches then was very easy as the time difference wasn't that great. Shrewd move by the Sepp Blatter administration in providing the vast Asian markets with the impetus to become followers eh.

So. Four more matches to go. It's been an exhilarating, draining experience so far. I'm glad to have a footie fan alongside to drive out together to a mamak, debate each teams' merits, discuss predictions and crack the usual nonsensical jokes.

And who do I support? Well, I've been a fan of Germany in the past two World Cups, but while I would still like to see them do well, I'm happy with just watching any team that plays well and puts up an interesting show. Unless it's that bunch of cheating, ugly brutes known as the Azzuri. I don't understand why Fergus supports them so much. I hate them with a passion. Yuck.