Yesterday, I believe that I successfully navigated the extreme heat that we are experiencing but I made sure that I did not go out when the temperatures were at their highest in the mid-afternoon. I did go to church starting at 6.00pm which is one of my weekly routines by now and, after the magnificent funeral that Meg experienced if I can put it that way, I feel as though I need to continue my weekly visits to the church. Our priest gave us further details of his impending departure and it now appears that he will be leaving us to return to India in the middle of August but will be taking on a tour of a couple of European pilgrimage destinations before he leaves us. At the end of the service when traditionally the priest greets each one of his parishioners, I joked with him that he was only returning to Kerala in India (from whence he hails) to escape the heat of an English summer. When I returned home, there were going to be two televised sporting events to which I was looking forward. The first of these was the résumé of the today’s cricket in ‘Today at the Test’ in which, as a measure of how equally matched the two sides are, the two sides actually scored the same number of runs as each other at the end of their first innings or in other words the scores were tied. Now this is a very rare event at the end of a match and has actually happened on only two occasions in the two thousand odd Tests matches that have been played worldwide. So the rest of the match becomes essentially a one-innings Test match. The next treat along was the Germany versus Sweden in the womens’ football in the Euro competition and Germany got off to a flying start, After about five minutes, I went upstairs to change the trousers in which I had been to church for some cooler shorts (of which I only possess one pair) When I came downstairs, not only had Germany scored but the Swedes had equalised. After that, the Swedes comprehensively beat the German side, eventually winning with a scoreline of 4:1. In this they were assisted by a German fullback who, desperate to avoid a certain goal, pushed the ball away from the goal as though she were a goalkeeper. This unequivocally results in a red card and an immediate sending off followed by a penalty with which the Swedes scored. So, the Germans played most of the match with only ten players and were beaten by Sweden who had never beaten them before. It could be that the Swedes topping their group will now go onto play the loser of the England versus Wales match which is to be played on Sunday evening. So again, in the evening, there will be two sporting events to which to look forward. To avoid the heat of the bedroom, I actually started off my night’s sleep the evening before by going to sleep on the couch in the downstairs living room before crawling in to my ‘proper’ bed at about 3.00am in the morning.
After I had done my customary 15 minutes or so of Pilates exercises and then breakfasted this morning and watched the Lorna Kuenssberg politics programme, I received the customary and very welcome phone call from my University of Birmingham friend, with whom I often team up on a Sunday morning. As we did last Sunday we decoded to make a beeline for our favourite little spot on a Sunday morning in the local water facilities area where we can drink coffee in relative peace whilst also viewing the variety of water sports (canoeing, sailing, kayaking, paddle boarding, swimming) and whilst neither of us has to the slightest desire to engage in such activities ourselves, it is quite fun observing other people struggling manfully on their little one man skiffs and dinghies. My good friend and I talked over a range of domestic, family and health issues as close friends do and the morning seemed to go by in a flash. Wen I was dropped back at home, I was disinclined to eat but treated myself to some ice-cream to cool down before eventually making myself a tuna salad lunch. In the afternoon, rather than watching the Wimbledon’s mens’ final, there were two classic films which I half watched/dozed through. The first was the Ealing comedy ‘Passport to Pimlico’ which is perhaps more interesting as a snapshot of life in late 1940’s/early 1950’s London rather than its humour content. The other film was the classic Robert Redford/Paul Newman classic ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid’ which is best appreciated for its many laconic one—liners. The film ends in a shootout when, injured and faced with a whole contingent of the Bolivian army, the two outlaws decide to make a run for it with all guns blazing and the famous line ‘For a moment, I thought we were in trouble!’ As in the night before, there will be a double helping of sport for me this evening with ‘Today at the Test’ followed by the England vs Wales in the Women’s Euro competition. Here the result seems not to be in doubt as England are ex European champions and Wales are one of the weakest sides but strange things can happen in sport as we noticed in the Germany vs. Sweden match last night.
I have taken the opportunity to look ahead to see if there are any TV treats for me in store this week and have noticed three items. On Monday night there is the start of a series on the origins of humankind which I always find a fascinating subject. On Wednesday, a series of Andre Rieu concerts will start on Sky Arts which I can always either take or leave and then there is the start of the Proms on Friday night which I generally follow each year, although some of the modern innovations designed to attract a younger audience such as film music often leaves me cold. I must say I will be glad to see the back of Wimbledon which has completely filled out the transmission times on both BBC1 and BBC2 and which I feel has an element of overkill.