So that was Cornwall, Devon and the entire south west of England. Stunning, sunny (in the most part) and fab.

Today I’m in Norfolk. As East as you can go without falling off the edge into the North Sea. In fact I’m writing this on the 10.15 from Kings Cross to Kings Lynn (I only travel with, to and from Kings).

Norfolk, legendary place of English rural inbrediness. And yet again, a demonstration of the power of the internet.

Rachie wanted a car. Needed a car. So instead of going out to buy Exchange & Mart, several local papers and looking at postcards in newsagents windows, hoping to find maybe one car; instead with 3 clicks you can find every single car of that type in the entire fucking WORLD that is for sale.

The downside being that there’s no more walking round the corner with a pocketful of cash to pick up your 1972 Ford Escort 1300 E in ‘reasonable condition’, Ferrari Red, except for one of the doors, slight knocking in first gear… and second third and forth, needs a tarpaulin underneath to catch the 3 pints of oil lost each night. Instead, all that you have to do is go to Kings Lynn. Which is 100 miles away. Could have been worse. The car of choice could have been located in Grimsby. Canterbury. Glasgow.

Thus are younger daughter and I on a pilgrimage to the Wild East. A comedian on stage once asked of the audience, as they do: “anyone here from Norfolk?” and a few hands went up and the comic yelled “Hey! High Six”. Which remains to this day one of the finest examples of fabulous stereotyping and cruel judgmentalism ever. The people from East Anglia are NOT inbred, they just appear to be, both physically and biologically.

Last night’s football match between Costa Rica and those smug cheating, diving Dutchmen was indeed a classic. The value of the Holland team, at current market value, give or take, is probably about £350million. The value of the Costa Rica team is approximately $22.50. And yet it came down to the randomness of a penalty shoot-out to produce (what some consider) an unfair winner.

So here’s an idea. Every time a player takes a ‘dive’ during the game, that should reduce the number of penalites to be taken, should the game go that far. In which case, at the end of extra time, Arjen Robben alone would have been on minus 4 and Costa Rica would have rightfully won. Never mind, as we say at Spurs, there’s always four years’ time.

Happy Sunday,

A xxxx