Yesterday was, of course, the finals of the Women’s European Cup in which England were playing Spain. Spain scored the first goal mid-way through the first half and England equalised in the second half. Then, even after extra time, the scores remained 1:1 and so we came to penalties. England missed their first but the Spanish sent one wide and two were brilliantly saved by Hannah Hampton who is almost a local girl as she was brought up in Studley, neat Redditch. Studley is best known for a local stately home. Coughton Court around whose grounds Meg and I could stroll even in the times of the pandemic and we passed through it on the way to Alcester which we visit for its charity shops and general ‘villagey’ feel. So returning to the football, England won the match and the Cup on penalties but in truth, the Spanish were the better team and the most dominant throughout the match. It was one of those occasions when the best team actually lost but not many UK commentators would dare to say that. As the Spanish team members came up to receive their losers’ medals, not even one of them could manage a half smile and they had their (quite natural) disappointment etched on their faces. So at least, life returns to normal now the football competition is over. As opposed to last week, this week seems pretty empty on the planning calendar although I am looking forward to the end of the month and the new month when financial things ought to happen. If the weather is fine, there will be no excuse for not mowing the grass and doing some other gardening jobs that are crying out to be done.
On the diplomatic front, it is said that Keir Starmer is to try to persuade Trump when he is over here for a golfing trip that something dramatic needs to be done over the dire starvation situation in Gaza (which the Israelis either deny or claim is the fault of Hamas, unlikely though that is) The clue to unravelling some of the conflict may be related to the time that the Israeli parliament goes into excess. If Netanyahu were to concede an inch at the moment, then the extreme nationalists in his coalition government would withdraw their support and bring down the government and Netanyahu with it. But once the Israeli parliament is in recess for the summer, then the Israeli premier has somewhat more room for manoeuvre so the next few days may prove to be critical. Some of the same considerations might apply to the UK parliament as well because the long holidays are starting and the government is left in the hands of fairly junior ministers whilst their senior bosses go off to enjoy several weeks of vacation. August is sometimes known as the ‘silly season’ because fairly trivial events can dominate the headlines whilst other events (protests outside the hotels that accommodate illegal immigrants) could come to the fore again as they did last summer.
The day today seems to have flown by. I walked slowly down into town but stopped to have a lengthy chat with my Irish friend who, very virtuously, was tending his front garden. I had a fairly lengthy chat if only because I had just received the very unwelcome news that one of the sons of our domestic help had experienced a bad industrial accident wand was recovering in hospital. I texted her to the effect that she take as much off from her duties towards us as was needed so that she could concentrate upon her son. But I am anxiously awaiting more up-to-date news as you might imagine. I had a coffee in Waitrose but they had no copies of ‘The Times’ left in store so I ventured out onto the High Street to get a newspaper, get some money out of an ATM and make a flying visit around the local Salvation Army charity shop. On my way home, my Irish friend was still tending his garden so we had another chat on the way home. Whilst I was with my friend, I received a telephone call from a Physician Associate because when she heard of my fairly mild but grumbling symptoms she thought I needed a physical examination. To this I agreed but I undertook the journey by car and I think I may have a blocked eustachian tube complaint which is probably treated with some Olbas oil which is basically eucalyptus oil with a few additives and, I was told, readily available. When I get down into town tomorrow, I will purchase some and there is Amazon as a fall back but I am sure it will be cheaper on the High Street. Then I made myself a light lunch which was basically some lentil rice cakes which I am now purchasing as they are so low in carbohydrate and, in particular salt. I followed this up with a quickly improvised fruit salad and ice-cream and then tidied up some photos. I have an ‘old’ Pilates friend who used to share the mat adjacent to mine but she has moved her class to a different day so I do not see her as much as I used to do. But we have arranged a meeting over coffee for next Wednesday. She lost her husband in the last year so we not only have a lot in common but there are all kinds of practical information that we might share with each other (and there are some questions I want to ask her as well) We need to have our coffee date quickly because she is off to a folk-singing singing festival where she performs regularly each year as part of a ukulele band.
There is a quite a rich programme of TV watching on this evening starting at about 6.30 and carrying on until 10.00 so I need to ensure that various domestic jobs are fitted in beforehand. Monday night is often quite a good night on the TV and I suspect that the TV schedulers realise that the watching audience are not going out on a Monday evening and therefore give us somewhat better offerings than is available on other nights. I also have a theory that the 8.00-9.00 slot is not filled generally with quality offerings (because middle class BBC and ITV executives realise that many parents of a similar ilk are busy putting their children at this time?)