Relief from Stress

I needed my three productive hours in the library this morning to prepare me for many subsequent hours in front of the television, watching sport at its very finest. It was literally impossible to tear myself away. The Wimbledon quarter-final between Raphael Nadal and Taylor Fritz served as the backdrop to an afternoon which was shared with the Tour de France as it hit the cobbles. As predicted, it was carnage and phenomenally good to watch. As was the Nadal match, going all the way to five sets and the new ten point tie-break (thank goodness for that development), won by a less than fully fit Nadal.

I avoided the politics until the evening. In a very real way, that was also sporting entertainment. For Boris Johnson, politics has always been a game, a game he's played rather well, often by ignoring the rule book. He's governed as if that's a game too, only caring about preserving his job with scant regard to the country. He's rewarded people with jobs based upon loyalty rather than competence. Government has increasingly been a farce and a sham. As his lies have eventually caught up with him, as his ministers rush so as not to be the last to resign, the government is literally collapsing. Even his most loyal cronies are telling him to go. But like Nadal, he doesn't understand how to lose. Unlike Nadal, though, he has not an ounce of grace or dignity about him. It looks like he'll only go when he's the last man standing in his cabinet. And then he'll run off and earn a fortune on the after-dinner speech and lecture circuit, talking about how he got away with his con-trick for so long. 

For relief, Forrest and I returned to another quarter-final later in the evening, the Blast game between Yorkshire and Surrey from the Oval. Yorkshire were dead and buried with two overs to go and somehow managed to win and get through to finals day. I doubt whether even Johnson will be able to conjure up a way to salvage himself quite as unlikely as that one. It was more crazy cricket.

There is so much on my to-do list at the moment but I had to take a few minutes to capture a snapshot of this crazy day. The picture was taken on Albion Street, one of just a couple of very rushed photos I took on the street. Even the Jehovah's Witness, selling relief from stress, had had enough.