Solitaire

Solution

Treat

I couldn't resist, and decided that the new Hobbit and LOTR edition was too good to miss out on, especially when Amazon had it for more that one third off list price, and so I treated myself. We'll gloss over just how many copies I now own, but I thought this one was rather special.

 

Pins

Jake has been having a bit of a sort out of his collection, and a mighty fine one it is too. To support the sort, I've taken some pictures of the pages from his albums, and created a virtual album on Flickr in the hope of minimising duplication risk on future holidays. They really do make rather splendid memory makers, for all sorts of reasons. Collected over many holidays, and with many different themes (resorts, parks, favourite characters ...) I'm sure it will continue to be added to in future years.

30

Thirty years ago today, on 4 July 1990, England played West Germany in the semi final of the Italia '90 World Cup in Turin. Waiting in the final were Argentina, who had beaten the hosts on penalties the previous day.

The match finished 1-1 after 90 minutes, and there were no goals in extra time, and so it went to a penalty shoot out, with England shooting first. Both teams scored their first three penalties (with Lineker, Beardsley and Platt finding the net for England). Then, horror of horrors, Psycho Pearce's penalty was saved and Germany scored their 4th, meaning England had to score their final penalty. Up stepped Chris Waddle and blazed it over the bar, and they were out.

Tragedy. Devastation. To have come so close, a generation after the '66 heroes.

And over the years, the story was added to the many, and became part of England football folklore, even immortalised in song:

And I still see that tackle by Moore

And when Lineker scored

The second of those lines refers to Lineker's equalizer in that match.

However, that's not what I remember the match for now, not what breaks my heart. It's the rash challenge by Gazza in the first period of extra time. The immediate realisation that the referee was going to book him, and what it meant. Having a picked up a booking in the second round match against Belgium, this would be his second, and hence he would miss the next game. The eyes started to fill with tears. Lineker tried to console him, and turned to the bench saying, "have a word". Maybe this was the turning point. Who knows.

I remember spending my 1990 summer holiday (and a pretty special one that was too) proudly wearing a T-shirt with a picture of Gazza in tears and the caption 'There'll always be an England'.

And here we are, thirty years of hurt later, but still dreaming.

Bad

The next book from the '100 book bucket list' poster selected for reading was 'Bad Science' by Ben Goldacre. Feeling a little bit dated now, as first published in 2008. At the time it may well have been necessary and urgent to point out some of Gillian McKeith's many failings, but in a way this seems a little redundant now as she's made a pretty good job of it herself since then. However, the principles still apply, and certainly if ever there was a time when we needed the media to step up be responsible for reporting science stories carefully and with balance, it is now.

Fail

A cunning plan this evening, involving tagging along with a trip to the supermarket, as said supermarket had very recently opened a new 'home' annex which was believed to include a book section. So, off we went, arriving at about 8.15. Sure enough the supermarket was quiet and easy to get the few things we needed. However the shutters were down on the home annex, having closed at 8:00. I miss browsing in bookshops.

Half

Well what a first half that was. 

I look back at the blog and see that I managed to post for January this year (typical New Year resolution stuff no doubt, but faded away pretty quickly in Feb! Shame really because it would have been good to have some holiday blogging from Miami and Key West, but I suppose we were just too chilled!), and it's interesting to see how delightfully normal life was with work, trips out for meals and to the cinema, travel for work, and so on. I guess in some ways that's the benefit of this blogging malarkey - you get to record the everyday stuff, and it is only in the looking back that it becomes special or important. Perhaps in a few years I might look back at entries from around now and it will bring back memories of the rather bizarre time we are all living through just now.