18-1 is not good enough.

Last week I went to Milton Keynes at Phil's place to meet up with my university mates. We have always had a boys only gathering for the Superbowl weekend for the past seven years or so.

One bonus for the weekend for me was that the American football team that I have supported for the past 22 years, the New England Patriots were in the Superbowl. Even better was that they had so far been unbeaten all season long. They could make history and be the only team to go 19-0 and cement their place in American football history.

From left to right, Greg, Dave, Alan and Jason all quite drunk on Friday night after getting back from the pub.

On the Friday night we all met up and after a quick pizza, went out for a few drinks at the pub. After the pub the drinking continued into the early hours.

Dave and Jason had much too much to drink that night and would really regret it later on. Jason didn't really surface till Saturday afternoon and even then he was quite useless and went to bed quite early. Dave managed a little better and was almost normal by the evening, he even managed one Guinness.

I went out for a bike ride around Milton Keynes on Saturday morning to get some sort of exercise for the weekend. I really couldn't go for four days without using some energy. Unfortunately about half way into my ride and at the furthest point from Phil's place I got a front puncture. I had a spare inner tube in my backpack but when trying to remove the front tyre I snapped both my plastic lightweight tyre levers! Needless to say I was cursing my luck. I had to call Phil and Greg to come out to find me and give me a lift back home.

The main event was on Sunday evening and we prepared for it with plenty of ribs, chicken wings and curry chicken. Oh and some carrot sticks and celery for a balanced meal. :-)

Here you can see me looking like a dork in my full Patriots supporter outfit. Team shirt, beanie, mini football, ribs on my lap and also a carrot stick in my hand. I'm looking quite unstressed now as the game hasn't started yet.

Once the game started I was in full shouting mode. I should tell you that when the Patriots are playing I always shout very loudly at the telly. I'm convinced that the louder I shout the better my team will do, more so when the game is live. :-)

By the second half of the game the scores were still very close and I really started to worry as we weren't playing very well. In the end we lost the game, it was a very big upset for me and I words can't really describe how disappointed I was at the loss.

The following day I read a great quote from another Patriots fan which summed up how I felt too, "No matter that you've won every other game in the season, losing in the Superbowl still sucks!" A disappointing end to an otherwise fun weekend.