They say Rome’s hot. London’s hotter. Trust me, I’ve tested it. And
apparently its hotter than Rio, hotter than everywhere. We are, in the
rather silly world of ‘competitive weathering’ Heat Central. Which is
fab, of course, until you get on the tube or try to sleep. But we cope
because its so wonderful to wake up to clear blue skies and sunshine.

That is the end of the weather. Not, like, forever, just the end of
the report. You know…

Its hot in Russia too. And although I’ve kind of ‘engaged’ in the
England matches, I’m not properly ‘into’ the football as yet. How
excited can you get when Portugal play Iran? And yet it was a match of
interest. And violence. And VAR. And the worst refereeing decisions
since the last match played out there. And its always nice to see The
Great Ronaldo! taken down a peg or two as his European Champions could
only draw with the Ayatollah’s boys. In fact he should even have been
sent off, so they reckon, for an elbow into the face of some lovely
Iranian boy who’d been wrestling him to the ground just moments
before. Yet he was only booked. Takes a brave ref to send off The
Great Ronaldo!

And we beat Panama. Beat them soundly. So immediately the British
press are in 1966-mode and we’re going to ‘win the thing!!!’ We won’t
be happy with semi-finals, even losing finalists, its ours for the
taking. Even though we haven’t played a decent team yet. Which happens
on Thursday when we play Belgium to decide who wins our group. And I’d
love us to win the World Cup but really? Can it happen? Who knows.
Loving the thought. As I have done every 4 years since 1966.

Today does feature an interesting possibility rather than an
interesting match. Nigeria play Argentina and, essentially, the winner
goes on and the loser don’t. In fact if Argentina win and Croatia lose
to Iceland (anything can happen) then Messi’s boys are still out.
Which is quite unthinkable for the Argies whose team is filled with
superstars and led by the superstars’ superstar, Leo Messi. Such a
massive game that I’m going to play bridge. Its what the tough do to
survive.

And before you ask, you can’t buy Lilas at Waitrose. Because they
don’t have a barcode.

Happy Tuesday

A xxxx