We need the rain. We need water. The reservoirs are depleted, the rivers running dry, the crops desiccating and my lawn looks like shit. But why does it have to fall on Thursday? Or Lila-day as its known round here? Though I must add that Lila really doesn’t mind the rain. Is barely aware that its raining. As you wouldn’t when sitting inside a (child-friendly and Brussels-approved, health & safety version) plastic bag. Being pushed by a less waterproofed adult (that’d be me then). Lila would only notice if her share of the croissant got soggy. So… were we to be so indulgent and stereotypically grandparentish as to buy such ‘bad food’ for a baby; we’d just have it inside instead of outside which is our normal practice. Yet Thursday seems to be the official ‘day of rain’ in this parched, arid and searingly hot summer. The fish are dying but I’ve got a super tan.

And as regards the new, multi-almost-billion pound stadium for my beloved Tottenham Hotspurs, I’d just like to say, to all the smug and sneering Arsenal, West Ham and Chelsea fans who seem to have inevitable opinions on this matter, on the record and with my lawyers present and the cameras rolling: it ain’t my fault. I’m not building the fucking thing, nor (thank God) financing it. I don’t control the workforce nor the upholsterers. Not the plumbers nor the hod-carriers’ mates. I’m just a football fan. Eager for ‘my’ new stadium to be finished. So it can better than all theirs. As befits Champions League football. And building a stadium where the old one stood is always more difficult than the alternatives. Like Arsenal who moved to a new council dump and never fulfilled their promise to create a new one. Or West Ham who stole their stadium from the tax-payers, and continue to do so. Or Chelsea who don’t actually have a new stadium and if too many more punitive measures are taken by our government on overseas billionaires or on Russians in general, the building of a new stadium will be the least of their worries. White Hart Lane Nouveau will be so splendid and so big that surely it is better to get it perfect than to rush it.

Happy Friday

A xxxx