So on July 4th, ‘Independence Day’ for America Washington DC awoke to a racist group, the Patriotic Front, marching through the capital city waving confederate flags, celebrating their ‘whiteness’ and spreading a message of hate. Evidently, this march had not been banned by the Trump regime, but it was an ugly reminder of the depth of the polarisation of the American political system. The marchers all had their faces hidden behind a white cotton mask to avoid identification. The group appeared to be led by Thomas Rousseau, founder of the neo-fascist, white supremacist organisation Patriot Front. Members of the group wore white masks and gathered in front of DC’s Union Station. They later marched towards Capitol Hill as members chanted ‘Life, liberty, victory!’ and ‘Reclaim America!’ during the Saturday demonstration. Masked members were filmed riding the Metro as other riders looked on warily. The day before yesterday was a type of ‘Rugby fest’ and I saw the best part of three matches. In one of them, Wales got the better of Fiji which is now mean feat these days whilst Scotland overhauled Argentina. But the England team were very clearly outplayed by the South Africans in a game played in Johannesburg. The evening before last also showed the France vs. Paraguay match. The first half of tis turned out to be predictable with a very stout and well organised defence by Paraguay resisting all of the French attacks. The second half turned a little ugly though as the Paraguay team turned to some quite cynical fouls none of which were picked up by the referee in one of the least competent episodes of refereeing ever seen in the World Cup. France were awarded a penalty after a review (although the referee, predictably, failed to spot it at first) and so France went on to a well deserved 1:0 victory and will then meet Morocco who had knocked out on of the co-hosts, Canada, earlier in the day. Meanwhile, the England match against Mexico remains scheduled at 1.00am in the morning but I do not intend to watch it and I cannot even watch the full reply being transmitted early the next morning as I have to take the car in for a service and the car has been promised to the garage by about 8.15 early in the morning. We have the Brazil vs. Norway match to which to look forward tonight with some pundits even believing that Norway might eventually prevail if the game runs to penalties after extra time. Meanwhile, later in the day I will be preparing a simple ‘meat and two veg’ for my American friend and I and we may well round this off with a post-prandial walk in the park. Although we normally enjoy a bottle of wine at the weekend, we might give this a miss as we both wish to keep our blood sugar levels in the normal range – sweet wines, beer, cider, and sugary mixers are high in carbs and sugars, which cause an immediate spike in blood glucose. There is a band scheduled to play at 2.0pm in the afternoon but we will still be lunching at that time. The week ahead is not a particularly busy one but I will be relieved to get the car serviced and MOT tested at the start of the week and this will occupy me for most of the morning.
After I had attended my normal church service and availed myself of the obligatory coffee and biscuits I went off to my local BP service station when picked up my copy of the Sunday newspapers and also gave the car its weekly car wash. I am quite impressed by the system that allows a pre-rinse, a hot foaming washing cycle and then a final high pressure cold water rinse to get rid of all the foam. When I got home, I made myself a tomato omelette and then set abut making preparations for lunch which involved parboiling some parsnips before they received a final roasting in the oven and then complemented with some broccoli, sprouts and an onion gravy. After we had lunched and then had a little doze, my American friend and I entertained ourselves by asking our Smart speaker system (‘Alexa’) to play a selection of songs from our youth, mainly it must be said from the early 1960’s. Then we had a late ‘sweet’ and set off for a walk in the park when the weather had cooled down and there were some lovely cool breezes in play. When we got home, we treated ourselves to some blueberries and ice-cream before my friend left the house so that we could get established in front of our respective TVs in order to watch the Brazil vs. Norway match. I know that I need a fairly early night as I have to be up early in the morning to get my car into the dealership by about 8.15am for a service. T do this, I have to go to the nearby town of Redditch and spend some time entertaining myself in a local supermarket until the car service has been completed. Apart from the car service this week, the weather promises to be quite hot and threatening but perhaps not with the extreme heat of a week or so ago. So again, this will have to be carefully managed but my American friend and I have established a pattern where we meet in our local park and do one or two circuits of the man-made lake punctuated with a sit down on a bench and lots of conversation. Later this week, I have another ‘Curry Club’ meal in the early evening and this will be an Indian restaurant in the nearby town of Droitwich. Next weekend, my friend and have made tentative plans to go to John Lewis in Solihull where we may purchase a new TV my friend feels that she now needs, her other one being about 17 years old and the technology has moved on so much in recent years.