The game

Filled in the backblips for the last few days starting here.

The day began as an utter disaster. Despair spread out across the fair land and fans hung their heads in disbelief.

The reason I adore the sport at an international level, much like the Olympics which I attended in '02 or the World Cup in '98, is because I love the multiculturalism of it, the fact that 100s of millions, possibly billions are engrossed in the sport, whether at the early stages of the qualifiers or now during the real thing. It's a long road which sucks up supporters along the way and carries them through with a warm feeling in their hearts. For that reason, that connectivity of things, I find it hard, no impossible, to imagine not loving it, not wanting to be part of that collective spirit that is being shared by the World. It brings the World closer. It is the World Cup. It's hard living in a country where the sports are alien to me: they're not what I grew up with and they could never be in my heart, peppered with commercial breaks I'm not accustomed to. Perhaps now I can relax a little, enjoy it more without that tremendous tension and having to curse at the TV for a disallowed goal. My thoughts there are that if it's televised, then that media becomes part of the game and for a ref to be involved in a different game solely dependent on four eyes is atrocious. I shall root now, instead, for a home-continent nation. I must note here that I have absolutely no talent or physical ability in sports and was always the last to be picked at school.

This afternoon the boys tackled the shape sorters in the playroom, Callum with a bottle of milk hanging from one hand and his eyes firmly on the task which he conquered beautifully. "More" they signed and said when the puzzle was complete. And more and more and more of the same they got til they were masters of the game.

And so the day ended much like any other. The boys splashing in the bath and then welcoming cats and birds in the back garden from my bedroom doors.

It's an image I'll be glad to remember through this, those fleeting moments of toddlerdom racing away in the blink of an eye.