Today the sun shone … intermittently but still, it shone. Which is just as well as I wanted to wash towels and didn’t really want wet towels hanging around the house. It did rain at one point, briefly, just as the window-cleaner arrived. Fairly typical, I should say.
My daughter called round for coffee in the late morning / early afternoon. She’s officially on summer holidays but in good teacherly fashion she’s been in school tidying her classroom … as you do! So we had coffee and a brisk walk around the village before she headed off to collect her offspring, one from nursery and one from school, which in her case does not finish until Wednesday.
Since then, I’ve cleaned out the fridge, deep cleaned the kitchen and plan to attack other bits of the house.
One thing I should do is go through my wardrobe for what is being described as “vintage Gap”. Apparently this is all the rage at the moment maybe I could sell some of the Gap clothes I have not worn for years. In fact I still wear a lot of my vintage Gap. But I read that although pre-loved (the latest term for second hand, I understand) Gap is selling, sales of new stuff are going down. That is one reason, it seems, why they closed all their stores in the UK. However, in my opinion it may be because when you try to purchase their clothes online the items they have enticed you with via email and social media are only available in extra small and extra large sizes. Not a good marketing ploy in my opinion.
We watched the highlights of the final day of the Tour de France yesterday evening once the family had departed after a family dinner - the first in several weeks. Despite there being no changes in the general classification or in who was winning which of the various jerseys, it was still quite an emotional time for the commentators as well as the riders. Quote exciting stuff. Next year it won’t finish with riders drinking champagne as they cycle along the Champs Élysées because Paris will be hosting the Olympic Games. The Tour will end in Nice, presumably on the Promenade des Anglais.
I was reminded that Lord Street, in Southport where I was born, is said to have been the inspiration for the Champs-Elysées. Legend has it the future French Emperor Napoleon III lived on Lord Street in 1846. And he was so impressed by the broad, treelined avenue, covered walkways and arcades he ended up demolishing and rebuilding Paris to imitate it. I doubt that he would be so impressed by the mile-long Victorian boulevard nowadays. The last time I walked there it was looking decidedly shabby and run-down. Rather a shame.
The Tour is one of the sports that has not been disrupted by climate protestors, at least as far as I know. Maybe this is because cycling is ecologically sound. (But are other sports less so?) I am concerned about the amount of stuff, such as drink bottles, cast aside by riders as they hurtle up and down the mountains of France. It is to be hoped that there is a team of sweeper-uppers to collect all the detritus.
Cricket and tennis have both had their share of protestors. Here’s a small section of an article about how the future of the world is more important than sport:
“It was “very disappointing,” announced Sally Bolton, chief executive of the All England Lawn Tennis Club in a headmistress tone, “that people came to disrupt the enjoyment of others”. And yet the majority of spectators were far less bothered by a brief, colourful interruption of play on the outer courts than the extended security searches that benighted the queue. It’s good to know that Wimbledon officials are conscientious and detail-oriented, but you do wonder whether they spent half as much time investigating their new headline sponsor’s record on fossil fuel investment as they did searching people’s bags for chalk dust.”
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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