Getting Through the Summer

I’ve been inundated with requests to keep this blog up to speed. So many, indeed, that it’s distracted me from any further offerings for the last week or so.

Of course, the above isn’t true. Life is just very busy at the moment, and I’m just so dissatisfied with my second attempt to analyse “truth” that I keep changing it round.

And it’s the summer. I always say that the best day of the year is the day the clocks go forward. Give me a light evening and a dark morning any day. I have no idea why we don’t have the same time as Western Europe – makes much more sense.

Of course the day that the clocks go back in October is a bad day, but the worst day of the year was last Monday – May 14 in 2012. The Premier League season has finished – this year on an exciting note, and Everton beat the barcodes of Newcastle to maintain some sort of optimism prior to the annual announcement that there will no new signings this year, and no rich foreign backer.

There’s still the playoffs and the Champions League final, the Euros and the gossip, but for most football fans we now have three months of emptiness. I really hate it when there’s no football.

Roll on August. It’s difficult but there are a few things lined up. I won’t be around for the Olympics but they are big news here. The flame arrived here from Greece today (May 18) and on Thursday next week (May 24) it passes through my village! I’ll be there for the spectacle but it will be all over in five minutes. I’m not sure how I feel about the Olympics. The track and field is top quality but goes on too long. The cycling is awesome and probably the competition I’ll miss the most. The swimming is good as well but who could watch that? As for the rest of the sports one can’t help admire the dedication of the competitors, and I wish them all well, But I don’t think about them at all for 11½ months of the year so what difference does two weeks make? The IOC is probably slightly less corrupt than FIFA (though that’s no recommendation) but the Olympics doesn’t come close to a World Cup.

Nevertheless, the atmosphere would be something. I am sorry I won’t be around.

Speaking of London, Tesco (God’s least favourite retailer) has provided us with vouchers for a five-star hotel there for a couple of nights next month. Apparently there are some royal celebrations going on at that time, of which I was unaware when I booked the hotel, so that could be interesting too, though not as much as an abdication.

And when we get back there’s Hay – apparently the world’s biggest literary festival. Again, it’s a great atmosphere just being there. We haven’t got anything specific planned this year, although I’d like to see Marcus du Sautoy and Peter Atkins. We’ll see.

The reason that we’ll miss the Olympics, as we usually do, is because of holiday time, and it’s a good one this year. The furthest south I’ve been is Barbados, the furthest west is San Francisco – and the furthest North is Inverness! So far the furthest east is Antalya in Turkey but that’s about to change. On July 27, while the rest of the world is focused on London, we’ll be in Bangkok. Can’t wait.

And then it’s the football season. Life is good.