Today has gone from cloudy to sunny to cloudy but no rain. However, the puddles which took what seemed like weeks to dry up have reestablished themselves in the rain that we had during the last few nights. There’s no rain forecast for today but thundery showers for tomorrow. They keep promising me thunderstorms but so far we’ve not really had any. On the positive side, the next door neighbour has mown the grass in our shared garden. Hurrah!
People have been dying of the heat - in France anyway. “The number of deaths recorded in France surged by nearly 30% during the hottest week of the record-breaking heatwave that scorched much of Europe last month, the public health authority has said, adding that it expects the toll to rise further.
Public Health France said on Friday there had been “an increase of 29.1%, corresponding to 2,025 additional deaths compared with the previous week”. It said the figure was probably an underestimate and “mortality will rise further”.”
Meanwhile the football madness continues. On Monday England plays Mexico, kicking off at 1.00am UK time. Pubs will be allowed to stay open until 5.00am. That should be fun; football fans will start drinking at some point on Sunday afternoon / evening and continue doing so into the wee small hours, either celebrating or drowning their sorrows. The police have apparently criticised this decision.
And head coach, Thomas Thuchel, has said parents should let their children bunk off school so they can stay up to watch the match against Mexico. Play could last until at least 3am.
Speaking after England’s win against DR Congo, Tuchel said: “Write an excuse for school and let them watch football. They have so much school to go to, but the World Cup is every four years. Let them watch, there will be a big, big match in four days and we need the support of everyone and especially of the children.”
Does the team really need the support of the children? Who knew?
Twenty-odd years ago World Cup fever coincided with the spoken exam period for AS and A Level modern foreign languages. We had to chase up two students at my college because they were late to arrive for their German spoken exam. When we located them we rather wished we hadn’t. Both were clearly rather the worse for drink. They had been watching England play and, so they assured us, you cannot watch football without lots of cans of ale! (It’s the same law that says you can’t watch a movie, even at home, without copious amounts of popcorn.) I can’t actually remember what we did with those students. I know the college principal was involved.. i hope we managed to rearrange the exam time for the students but it would have served them right if we had simply excluded them.
As well as football, there is tennis. It would seem that fashion has invaded Wimbledon. Naomi Osaka walked on to court wearing frills, a bustle, outsized bows and extended sleeves. Based on Japan’s ceremonial dress, as well as Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, the pieces designed by Hana Yagi conformed to the all-white Wimbledon dress code. Presumably she had to take layers off to reveal more conventional tennis gear.
It’s not just the girls who make sartorial statements. Frances Tiafoe did a surprise reveal – dramatically ripping off his trousers to show the shorts underneath.
Goodness me! What are things coming to?
And tomorrow the Tour de France starts. I need to find out which channel does a daily summary so that I can watch it.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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