The Strangest of Times

Finding a heron in a tree adjacent to my home on the edge of the moor is typical of the strange things that have been happening to me lately. There is no water anywhere nearby. Perhaps it had simply come up to enjoy the view. 

I've found it hard to post blips lately when it's been difficult to describe how I've been feeling. Days have tended to be memorable for the wrong reasons. Today was memorable for the sport, and how I've been loving the sport this last week or so. It's proving to be the most wonderful distraction.

This day will surely go down in history. England win a World Cup football game 6-1 and also completed a 5-0 whitewash of Australia in the cricket, snatching a remarkable victory from the jaws of defeat. I think Jos Buttler's century was the best I've ever seen. This match illustrated perfectly how the best entertainment emerges when the pitch offers a fair contest between bat and ball. Not that I didn't enjoy our 481 the other day. That was a different kind of entertainment.

Roam was texting me throughout the football expressing his frustration at the number of goals we were scoring. He thinks this is the best chance he will ever have of seeing England win the World Cup in his lifetime, but is convinced that we have to finish second in the group to progress through what looks like being the easier half of the draw. In the second half, it looked like the management had clocked the same logic, taking Harry Kane off before he was able to score any more random accidental goals. If the Belgians have analysed things the same way the last match could see both teams intent on not winning and sending their fringe squad players on with the sole intention of getting themselves booked. Strange times indeed ... but also rather exciting.