Holiday rep Phill Bunyan follows the Hammers – wherever he is in the world!
I HAVE been a West Ham United fan all my life.
Seven years ago I took a dream job as a holiday rep working all over the world, but it meant I would have to be away from my beloved Hammers and have to find other ways to keep up with what was happening back at the Boleyn.
There have been some highs and lows in that seven years and one of my first memories was watching us get relegated after Wigan came back from 2-0 down in 2011.
I was watching it in a Turkish restaurant and I remember everyone in there had eyes fixed on the screens showing the Turkish football, while I was almost crying into my Efes beer!
Being away from home, I am away from friends and family and it is hard to find like-minded football fans, let alone any fellow bubble blowers!
The next rep season I was based in Lanzarote and you can I imagine my delight at finding a West Ham bar called The Inn Place in Puerto Del Carmen. All the walls were decked with West Ham memorabilia and it was full of fellow Hammers.
My favourite moment was watching the West Ham versus Millwall game in there and celebrating a Winston Reid goal after Kevin Nolan had been sent-off early on, jumping around the bar. Brilliant, just brilliant! I remember it being my one and only day off and it being a lunch-time kick-off, so it set my week up very nicely!
My next destination was back to Turkey again. Watching us beating Cardiff in both semi-final legs to set up the Play-Off final with Blackpool.
I remember it well, as that day I was working from my desk in the hotel and I had to keep going up the stairs to check on how we were doing.
That week I had a family on holiday in the hotel who were all Hammers fans and it was only them watching the game in the TV room.
I was lucky that I came up to watch the last few minutes and saw that Vaz Te goal and celebrated with a family I had only met a few days before. However, I couldn’t get too excited as I needed to get back downstairs to continue with my hotel service!
Another great memory I had was last season when I was based in Rhodes. It was July and we were already playing in Europe. I read news that the home game with Lusitanos was going to be streamed.
No bar was willing to put it on so outside our apartments I set up a party for my fellow reps. With none of them being football fans, it was tough explaining how much of an occasion this was.
We got a few pizzas in and set up a beer bucket. We were lucky to have wi-fi at the apartments so I set up the laptop and it was great being able to watch the Hammers on a Greek Island!
As I am writing this I am in Fuerteventura and have had some good luck since I got here just after Christmas.
I watch the games at Paddy’s Irish Bar in Corralejo and so far I am four wins out of four – Bournemouth, Aston Villa, Liverpool and Spurs!
It's great with all the social media we now have as I follow on Twitter, Instagram and it's easier to get news too so I can stay in touch and also catch the goals.
I hope we can continue the great season we are having now and keep our good FA Cup run going.
Wherever I am next in the world I will sure to be following! COYI!