I will never forget the boyhood excitement of coming out of a newsagent with an unopened packet of Panini football stickers that I had just purchased tightly gripped in my hand, or indeed the absolute elation of actually completing the sticker album, normally after months of pocket money spent, weeks of tense negotiations swapping doubles in the school playground, and frantic minutes of risking permanent injury amidst the chaotic stampede of a sticker scramble, when someone else that had recently completed their album threw all their stickers in the air in the school playground for everyone else to fight over.
Imagine my disappointment therefore, to today discover that here in Guatemala City, it is possible to buy the 2010 South Africa World Cup Panini sticker album with all the stickers already in it, or, for those that enjoy peeling the backs off stickers, an empty album plus a box of stickers that the woman guaranteed would give me all the stickers to complete the album for Q 412, approximately GBP 30.
I wouldn´t be over-exaggerating if I say I felt bitterly cheated to find out that it is possible to complete the sticker album in such an underhand manner in Guatemala this afternoon, and indeed that the whole episode has left me with a sour taste in my mouth that might only be removed by several bottles of Gallo beer with a girl called Anajose this evening.
