Fever Pitch

 At the beginning of this week the build up to the semi finals of the World Cup was palpable. The aqua-fit group at the swimming pool waved their arms and wiggled their legs to a medley of football songs, possibly as a practise for watching a game or two on TV. Football fever had touched the least likely demographic - older women like me. From the sound and the volume I could tell they knew all the words, "Na, na, na..." In the shops, cases of beer were discounted to encourage World Cup drinking at home - everything snack-like was labelled as a must-have for football watching. Product positioning went into overdrive this week.

I watched the Argentine versus England match without the suggested necessities  from Tesco - the match was more bar brawl than football and poorly reffed. I thought England played with guts and dignity. I certainly don't enjoy the pundits giving their six-penneth and scapegoating the manager after every match. We all make mistakes so throwing the baby out with the bath water is a poor state of affairs that happens far too often these days. All those professional windbags were wrong about the England team as we witnessed in the third-fourth place play-off. 

I was in A&E at the time and, as luck would have it, I could watch the match surrounded by the masses in the hours I had to wait to be seen. Naser was convinced that France were heading for World Cup victory so watching England play their socks off against a favourite was a joy to behold. Well done! You boys looked marvellous. (Billy Crystal misquote). So why was I in A&E when I hate hospitals?

I was bitten by some nasty little insect while playing a marathon tennis match against Buckingham last Friday that ended in a 5-3 victory. The match lasted from 6:30pm to 10:50pm. Sometimes my partner and I despaired as the oppo kept returning the ball. Every game ran to duces so getting bitten didn't register til I got home near to midnight. The next day I had another match. My right leg was itchy and a bit swollen but it only started turning really bad in the second two sets. One of the opposition was a nurse. She told me I must ring 111. 

I got home, phoned the number, had an online consultation and was told to get to the emergency department ASAP. That urgency dissipated as I sat and waited and waited and...... Meanwhile I got to hear the stories of other people who were also in my boat. We were all stuck in a filthy waiting room where the floor markers warn you to stay 2 meters apart and the chairs are positioned so your knees nearly touch your fellow zombie-like sufferer waiting for God knows what. It beggars belief that one couple went through triage and then the hospital lost their notes! There were a few people looking worse for wear after a fight and one poor young man had flown over his bicycle handlebars breaking his fingers and wrist - ouch.

As You Like It with a cast of five

I am now back home after a whole night at A&E and am feeling sorry for myself even though my week has had wonderful highlights. I picnicked with Diane and Jeremy at Stowe on Thursday. We watched As You Like It by the Illyria travelling players. There was a lot in the performance I am still chuckling about. Nevertheless,  hear I am on my sofa with swollen and itchy legs worrying that I still need to go out and find a pharmacy to get my prescription filled. All this and I have missed out on another day's tennis. Even though doing it would be quite painful at the moment.

Picnicking in style

It ain't arf hot Mum.

My neighbours taking a dip

This was the name of a BBC sitcom of the 1970s. The only things about it I really recall is the name and that it was about British troops in India. How appropriate that title is for this week. Even my near neighbours, the cows, took to cooling off in the canal. Now we have a hosepipe ban in my county as it hasn't rained for so long. My whole garden is wilting and there is nothing I can do to counter the heat. My tree is especially stressed. Branches have broken off and there is leaf fall too. However, this hosepipe ban is a good excuse for letting the car get dirtier and dirtier. If there wasn't a hosepipe ban, I would have cleaned it - honest!

My grand daughter turned two this week. Danielle filled up the lid of their sand pit with water from the water butt so the girls could play with cold water and irrigate the garden at the same time. This was Mattaya's birthday treat. Years ago, outdoor public swimming pools across the UK were closed because we, as a nation, didn't think they were worthwhile in our climate. Oh, how we could do with one in every town now!

A friend at the tennis club said she had received an offer from Warner Holidays to escape from the heat by booking a holiday in Europe. What an offer! This offer is potentially loaded with opportunities to face wildfires and even higher temperatures. There really has been no escape. Someone at Warner's hasn't kept up with the weather reports. I watched some exciting tennis from the comfort of my sofa this week - and wow, it was really exciting. 

The winning pair of Andie(y)s!

Tennis themed beers from Stella!

I was a little irked that a tennis match I was due to play on Thursday was postponed due to the heat. If they can keep going at Wimbledon, we can keep going at our much slower pace. We just need to tough it out. This Sunday at the club we held our own Wimbledon "fun" tournament. Of course it was hot  - the weather affects us all - it just depends how you deal with it. I was fine - now I can't walk but that is nothing to do with the weather!

Apologies

 We Brits say sorry all the time. It rolls off the tongue even when we don't really take it to heart. At tennis we apologise for winning a point when the ball hits the net and rolls over - we win the point and we are certainly not sorry that luck was on our side. It is a clear advantage to catch the top of the net and I just wish I could do this more often. We even say sorry when someone else bumps into us when they did the bumping - ridiculous!

However, I did feel that Kier Starmer put his heart behind the apology for 185,000 forced adoptions over three decades since WWll. His words were powerful and very human. It is sad that many of those mothers have taken their guilt to the grave and will not here this. I just hope that this apology means that it will never happen again because that is what a true, "sorry" means. As a mother I can't imagine the heartache of having your very own baby ripped out of your arms and taken away forever. As for the parents who subsequently adopt, how much did they know of the circumstances that their new baby came through? Society was ultimately complicit in the way it refused to support unmarried mothers. 

I have a friend who was forced to adopt their baby. At 15 she was locked in a room when she was in labour and told only to ring the bell for help when she thought she was going to die. Punishment dished out for being unmarried at the time, but no such equivalent for the father. Our society then, as it now is still, in many ways misogynistic. My thoughts have been with her through this week.

I will never know whether my mother chose the path of adopting me or whether she was coerced into giving me away. I realise now that something inside me always knew that I was not a good fit for the family I was adopted into. This was as much about me as it was my parents. I describe my life up to the point I met my birth mother as being a square peg in a round hole. Incredibly, I now know I am part of a much larger cohort of people from that era but that doesn't lessen the experience I had growing up. I felt different - odd.

My granddaughter has had her first photo of school so I have put my first photo up. A different ere, a different style!

Our football team was close to being beaten by Ghana this week. That would have been a difficult outcome for England to come to terms with. Playing our next game against Mexico at high altitude on their home soil has many excuses already built in and if or when they lose, I believe they would have been forgiven much more readily than if the score line against Ghana had sent us home. The match was played while I was sound asleep. I  woke up to the news that we will be heading for  Florida.  Wow. What a surprise. I know we are no longer in the top league but we did invent the game that has been adopted by the whole world - even though some people pronounce football as soccer - and that is good enough for me. Come on England!

As for all the Americans who apologise for the words and actions of their glorious leader who has made the two hundred and fiftieth birthday all about him. I hear you and I sympathise. Will he be put on Mount Rushmore like all great presidents? Mmmm. There's a thought.

Nay Sayers

 

My nest maxed out

It cannot be denied that the successive record-breaking days of extreme weather in Britain and Europe over the last week is exceptional. We have been warned repeatedly that a climate catastrophe is not far down the road, yet the oil lobbyists and climate deniers still have hegemony over our economy and push the view that we should still drill baby, drill so we can continue to lead lives dependent on fossil fuels and keep the oil companies wealthy. 

Everyone I know has moaned about the weather this week but no one has joined the dots to understand the reason for the hot weather. My granddaughters school closed for part of it. She has missed important learning opportunities because of this. We moan but we still get it our cars and burn fuel which contributes to the heat. Argh. 

I too have suffered. I seem to have been moving at a much slower pace, even on my bike - probably due to my advanced age as much as the heat. I have been sweating as much as I did in Singapore and I have been drinking gallons of water too.  Moan all you like. The only thing that will sort the issues of extreme weather is us changing the way we live. You can't stop doing things just because it is hot, you just have to get on with life but adjust just a little. 

Swimming has been a refreshing escape from the heat for me. I have been very thankful for that. However my plants have shrivelled and withered. There is no escape for them and that is where I feel most concerned about the state of our climate. It is a real joy to cycle along paths shaded by leafy trees. In the shade it is a good 5c cooler. These trees are suffering as much as we are and we need them more than ever. They feel the stress of the unusual weather as do we. 

I cycled off to a neighbouring village on Saturday afternoon to a Pride fete. Lots of people were there and so many of them had bare flesh that resembled lobsters. There were no complaints about the weather at the fete. It felt truly continental and everyone looked as if they we having fun. I have to say how much I enjoyed supping a cold beer in the shade at the fete. I felt a real pleasure on Sunday morning when a few drops of rain fell while I was playing tennis. Sadly it did not last long enough for me to get excited. 

This coming week promises to be so much cooler. I'll be surprised if no one finds something to moan about now the weather promises to be more normal. I remember the summer of 76 - having just finished my A levels. I had a summer of fun and sun. Older people might remember the hosepipe bans and the worst effects of the record-breaking heat back then. I wonder how we'll look back on these times in 50 years?

International Affairs

 

Not far from my home... trees have been cleared so I took the picture on my epic bike ride on Saturday and not a flag anywhere to be seen.

Obviously this week has been all about The World Cup. One cannot help but get emotional about how one's national team are fairing. This is only natural. England didn't disappointment with the rollercoaster ride of emotion they created in their game against Croatia. Meanwhile, Scotland drank Boston dry - that is an achievement in itself. A musician from Boston, who was interviewed on Radio 4, seemed surprised that all Scots shout out, "I would walk 500 miles..." and jump around while doing so. They certainly don't need to sing it! I think his reaction shows a very limited cultural understanding. What planet has that Bostonian been living on? 

I am not sure about how the next round will play out but Iran looks set to go through. Wouldn't it be funny if they met USA in a future round? We could solve the Middle East crisis with a football match and then no one would get killed. Trumps headache solved! What an idea!

On the home front, Newport Pagnell has been hosting a Football Jamboree this weekend. Parking is at a premium in the entire surrounding area to the sports ground. Often, while we were playing tennis, there were announcements about cars being badly parked. People were shamed for their stupidity and laziness over a powerful tannoy, Yay! There were hundreds of kids playing matches and with the glorious sunshine, it looked like an amazing event. The edges of the pitches were lined with gazebos to keep the spectators cool - they provided a team HQ. There did seem to be an inordinate number of "pink" teams playing and according to an article I read earlier in the week, hot pink is THE colour for a World Cup so the children's team were on trend. Apparently it is only in recent history that pink was for girls. Apparently blue was thought to be a girls colour because of its association with the Virgin Mary. Wow! We live and learn.

As for my brush with international affairs... I had a potentially awkward incident in a carpark in Stony. I wanted to reverse out of a space but a car drew up just past my rear onside bumper and stopped in the middle of the carpark. The memory of the previous bump in a carpark shot into my mind. I jumped out of the car and told the man in the waiting car that I was going to reverse and he must not move backwards while I leave my spot. Then I said I had had an accident in another car park. I jumped back in my car and prepared to reverse. The man came to my passenger window and said he did not hit me. I realised he did not understand anything - he was foreign. He seemed quite upset... Whoops. 

I also had a nice conversation with a Bangladeshi man who owned the garage where I had my front tyres replaced. He asked me what I thought about my Toyota CHR. I told him I had chosen it for its reliability. He told me that cars were more reliable men these days... interesting thought, I'll keep that in mind. 

So, as for Father's Day, Richard made a roast to die for - or to kill me off - it was wonderful. Mattaya and Ezra-Mae sat and ate in a most stately manner! Lovely meal - but something I really should go carefully with as I now have the date for my op. It will be on 16th September. from now on it is "get fit" time.

Happy Birthday, Mr President

Old Stratford Fete-glorious day

 This week on June 14th, Donald Trump turned eighty. The most powerful octogenarian in the world still packs a mighty punch despite his declining popularity both at home and abroad. I assure you his shenanigans will one day be proven to have enhanced his wealth exponentially through playing the stock markets with his "truth social" announcements of peace deals and ballistics threats. At least his old buddy Elon now has enough money in the coffers since launching SpaceX to buy him a sizable gift. Let's hope Trump's day has been a distraction from wanting to invade another unsuspecting country. 

It was also my son's birthday on June 13th. He is much younger than Trump - obviously! I tried to wish him a happy birthday but he was AWOL. Not too sure where he disappeared to but he was uncontactable. At the time of writing he still hasn't responded to my many attempts at calling him. In the old days you could put a plea out to missing persons on the radio. Perhaps I should print out some "missing" posters. Wherever you are, son, I hope you are safe!

I got the results of the MRI on my left foot this Saturday. The MRI told me exactly why my foot hurts. Now my op is imminent. Oddly I am looking forward to this as I know that each  day after the op I will be getting better and until that time, my foot just hurts more every day. Having had the right foot done, I know what to expect. I remember my biggest joy was being able to transport a cup of coffee from the kitchen to the sofa last time. It seemed like such a big milestone. It is little joys such as drinking coffee on my sofa that made my realise I was on the mend. 

And, having come out of a recent spell of very nasty weather for June, it is summer once more. Even on one leg, tennis is fun when the sun shines.

Brighton

Birthday drinks

 As it is both my son, Sammi, and my birthday around this time we got together and celebrated together. In anticipation of the weather turning warm again, I wore light summer clothes and took a gilet as my only over-garment to Brighton. Ever since my return to the UK, I have made bad choices of what to wear and this week proved to be no exception. I got to Brighton and found it to be rather breezy. Winds of 40mph swept eastward along the prom and fighting them to walk back to Sam's new flat in Hove was a challenge. In addition to the strong winds, Wednesday was a day of particularly heavy rain too. 

A raging sea

The red flags have been out along the seafront to warn people not to swim. The waves must have been 3 meters high. Since my last visit in January, Sam and his friend Andy have moved up in the world. They are now living at the top of an old regency terraced house overlooking the sea. They are ninety-five steps up in the world! The flat is quite lovely and very airy - much nicer than the one they had in the centre of town. 

On my way back to the flat I saw a sign on a neighbouring house that said that Prince Klemens von Metternich had stayed there in 1840. Haha, I recalled, This is he of the France sneezing quote. Sam's neck of the woods must be a salubrious part of town if such dignitaries once stayed there. Then later on, in another part of town - Old Steine - I saw a blue plaque to say that Tallyrand had stayed in that house in 1830. Being an adversary of Metternich it is fortunate that they were not in Brighton at the same time. Wandering the streets of Brighton became quite a trip down my A level history memory lane. 

I also got to see Anne too. We day-trip to Stanmer Park to the Butterfly House. It was steamy hot inside and a welcome change from the torrential downpour outside. I noticed that lots of the butterflies had damaged wings. I thought that probably life inside an air-conditioned building was a bit tough for them. Apparently not. The butterflies with damaged wings are usually much older than they would have been had they lived in their natural habitat. So, just like us, butterflies have bits that drop off them as they grow old! Oh how our beauty fades with age.

I set off on Thursday morning for a swim in the Sea Lanes. I got there and saw about three people in the pool ploughing up and down. The wind created a spray from their arms as they swung them out of the water it made swimming look too difficult. I wimped out and went for a sauna on the beach instead. The shower on the beach was a challenge. When I pressed the start button the water got blown from the shower head at right angles so I had to step a meter down the beach to get any benefit from the water. 

This weekend I set off again. This time to visit Ann in Stevenage. Another Ann and another great meet-up. Ann had just returned from what was supposed to be an amazing Mediterranean cruise that turned into a nightmare as her luggage did not arrive until near the end of the cruise. @ROL booked the cruise but refused to take responsibility for this booking, @BA were all but uncontactable and when they did answer a call in person, they lied about where the luggage was. This ended up as an article in the Mail on Sunday. Infuriating - we book holidays to relax and enjoy. Ann spent most of her time making expensive phone calls trying to locate her luggage. This was not a relaxing holiday. Errrr.