Simple

This is being posted in March 2018. The first comment that was made refers to something missing in the photograph. A Scot but he wasn't thinking of his team being knocked out in the first round and though he is a fan of Africa, he wasn't referring to the Cameroons amazing first appearance at a World Cup. In the Extra photos a hint as to what we used back then for communication or at least to pay for it. A mix of German and British versions. On the left the front side, the reverse on the right. The British BT cards were simply black on the back.
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When I first started travelling regularly to Munich, I always stayed at the Munich Hilton in a wonderful setting on the edge of the English Garden which is one of the largest city parks In the world. Created in 1789 by the pre War of Independence American born Englishman Sir Benjamin Thompson who spent a great deal of time in Munich and was even their chief of police and an advocate to better the lives of the poor. The garden was part of this plan to give the cities poor, space to relax on their free Sunday.
 
Although at the time it was probably Munich’s second best hotel (#1 Bayerische Hof which I had stayed n on my first visit), the Hilton was horribly impersonal. I picked up my keycard on Monday evening when I checked in and the next contact with anyone was on Friday morning to pay the bill. Self-service breakfast, the swimming pool & sauna area was in the cellar and somehow depressing. The drive to the office on the inner ring road was a pain in rush hour and the hotel was some way from the underground station that was vital every evening when getting to bed after eating and drinking in Munich.

Even though I spent 99% of my time in Munich, I still had a UK employment contract and thus part of the “benefits” were these trips were officially business trips and thus on full expenses including all meals and an appropriate amount of alcohol. We were “encouraged” to use the companies own restaurants but there was a limit as to how much roast chicken one could manage in a week – perhaps once and anyway we usually had to suffer a lunchtime in one of these establishments. The negative side of this was having to use public transport at night to get home safely!

At some point, I had a problem getting a room at the hotel due to another of the frequent international conferences being held in the city (old conference centre in the middle of the city). The Hilton automatically doubled the room rate during these weeks even for regulars and often especially during the fashion weeks, all the rooms were booked by companies who also used them as display rooms.
 
So I ended up at the very new 4* Arabella Hotel at Westpark, also on the inner ring road but just five minutes from the office and maximum 10 minutes on foot. Also directly on the underground. Nowadays (2018) named The Sheraton Westpark.

The hotel was staffed by lots of young friendly staff and one had an old-fashioned key and thus visited the reception several times a day. And the restaurant was within the sensible price bracket that allowed one to get the company to foot the bill.
 
Over the months, there were certain occasions when the staff asked me to join them for a night out, especially at weekends if I was staying over. However on this day 4th July, there was another reason. I was invited to one of the staff's private flat not far from the hotel to watch the semifinal match of the 1990 World Cup held in Turin, Italy between England and West Germany.

You can probably imagine how much stick I got. 1:1 was the final score, Gary Lineker having managed an equalizer in the 80th minute. No change after extra time and the game went to penalties where both Pearce and Waddle missed. West Germany won 4:3. In the photo, one of the receptionists who had won the betting pot showing off her winnings.
 
West Germany went on to win the cup in the final against Argentina and England lost against Italy to finish 4th. The last time of course that West Germany played. From there on just Germany.

England’s goalscorer Lineker, who in 16 years and 567 competitive games never received a yellow or red card, made the famous quote:

"Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans win."

Next day, I returned back to the UK a day earlier as it was my daughter Kate's tenth birthday and I wanted at least to give her a good night kiss. I took the next day Friday off so as to have a little longer weekend with the children. These were difficult days for the two children and for me, even if it didn't look like it.