Not a remarkable photo today, not indeed a remarkable pub! Well, what do you expect on a day where the temperature didn't go above 7 degrees and it hasn't stopped raining heavily for thirty six hours?

This is The Bell and Hare, (nearly) next door to my beloved White Hart Lane, home of my team, Tottenham Hotspur. I didn't realise until this week when I was looking something up in the dictionary that hotspur is actually a word, meaning an impetuous or fiery person - just like me then!

The Bell and Hare is our new watering hole, since the Railway Tavern, my 'home in Tottenham' since I was sixteen and first a Spurs fan, shut its doors to the public about a year ago. Sarah and I go there before games and sometimes, if we're being really badly behaved, after games too. Today was a 'before only' day but even so, we managed three drinks in a hot steamy back room, more noted for its lovely barstaff than for its finery! I have never seen more amazing fingernails on anyone than our favourite bar person! We sat and shared each others hopes and dreams, touched a 'lucky penny' that we'd found in the street outside the ground and giggled like a pair of teenagers. She can be seen in this photo, putting her purse in her handbag, behind the guy in blue towards the left of this shot!

We did our usual wait till ten minutes before kick off time, run round the corner, dash to the loo (to get rid of some of the beer) and then place our huge £1 bets on a scorecast. It's such easy money for Ladbrokes - we've never won a penny! Today we both got the score wrong and both got the first scorer wrong but we did at least get the first Spurs scorer - Rohan Rickets! Our routine on these occasions never changes, in fact if truth be told we often miss the kick off because we leave it so late.

Rohan is our new wonderboy, bought from the ARSEnal in the summer and he's a proper little cracker! Robbie Keane popped in a second and we won 2-1.......and boy, did we need that win. It wasn't pretty and it had almost no finesse but at least we won.

We walked out onto the terraces and the rain was coming down and it was cold and it rained more heavily and more heavily, our seats were covered in rain water (because we've got the cheapest season tickets in the house we get rained on when it's wet!) and so we got wet bums too! We could have stayed at home and watched the game on the TV but we didn't. It took me six hours travelling for about ten minutes of pleasure but that's what being a fan is all about.