Game, Settee and Match

It has been a very tiring Sunday.

I have been out of doors to catch a bit of early morning sunshine, spent a while vacuuming the car of debris accumulated from a couple of trips loaded up with domestic waste to the Civic Amenity Site from yesterday and have even taken a dog for a walk around the local park. The hound in question is that of a friends for whom we often dog-sit.

Add to that some 3 hours of office and general administration work from 6am this morning plus a sneaky re-acquaintance with a couple of 1930's Laurel and Hardy films, then a bit of a scoot around the house to do some chores, the successful fashioning of a hanging hook for the power washer using an old bicycle water bottle cage and, well, I feel that I deserve to occupy the couch for the remainder of the day for a visual feast of top level sport.

It has been a treat.

There was some excellent football action from the FIFA Women's World Cup with the live broadcast of Australia v Italy followed by Brazil v Jamaica but then somewhat spoiled by the tedious and somewhat meaningless Third Place match in the Men's Nations League Competition. This I caught on the radio in the blessed absence of a subscription to the Satellite Channel that was showing it. Even the commentary team were of the opinion that the game between England and Switzerland was probably right up there in the list of worst ever witnessed. At least the outcome of a penalty shoot out got the pulse rate up a little bit.

The prolonged nature of that match did however give an almost seamless stream of football with the kick off at 5pm in the Women's World Cup of England v Scotland, always an emotive and passionately played out adversarial contest whether on a football pitch, on a battlefield or in a political debate.

At 7pm there was a welcome switch in sports with an hours highlights of the opening stage of the Criterium de Dauphine cycle race and the frequent advert breaks enabled a meal to be eaten and strength regained for the late shift of occupying the couch.

Currently I am just listening to the commentary of the Nations League Final which is proving to be a very end to end game between Portugal and Holland. I grew up with the atmospherics of radio broadcasts of football and so feel very attached emotionally to the medium. Just as I write there has been the first goal about halfway through the second half but I will not spoil the moment for those who have not yet caught up with the result.

Thankfully, I am not a fan of Formula One, First Class Cricket or Grand Slam Tennis as had I also tried to soak up the action from todays coverage in these events then the day might have been a write-off altogether.

Is it bed time yet?