First away game of the 2023/24 Championship season, and the night before I’m in Stoke enjoying a pre-match curry. My love of all food types from the Indian subcontinent is very well known within my family and friends, and certainly not something I’ve kept secret from readers of the Watford Observer since I returned to be the paper’s Watford FC correspondent in 2022. Indeed, I mention it quite a bit, and I’ve often said I could happily eat meals from that cuisine every day for a month (my doctor better not be reading this) and not get bored, given the huge variety of dishes, flavours, ingredients and cooking styles within that one dining category.
So nobody would have been surprised to find me having a curry on Friday August 18, 2023, ahead of Watford’s fixture at the Bet365 Stadium in the next day. Most of the time, my pre-match or post-match meals are taken alone. I actually enjoy eating on my own and I love my own company.
Perhaps I’m a bit of an old curmudgeon and, as I’ve written about before and talked about a lot, has also helped explain why sometimes I just want to sit on my own, eat a meal and not have to make small talk. Sitting enjoying a good plate of curry – especially trying a restaurant I’ve not been to before – is something I am more than happy to do as a table for one. And so that’s how I came to be eating alone that Friday night, and for most of my pre/post-match meals over the course of the season.
The new season was still in its infanc.
