All on the line

I’m kind of an intermittent football fan – and by football I mean soccer. I absolutely love the international tournaments – the World Cup and the European tournament and I support England all the way. But I have to admit, I don’t usually watch the qualifying matches and friendlies.

I’ll be watching tonight, though. Tonight it’s all on the line. If England don’t at least tie with Croatia, they won’t be going to Euro 2008. And this is a serious second chance. If Israel hadn’t beaten Russia recently, this game would be a mere formality.

Tonight they play at home in Wembley Stadium – the sight of great England football victories of the past. But tonight it could be a den of shame, particularly for Steve McClaren the England football manager. He took over from Sven-Goran Eriksson after the last World Cup. Folks criticised Eriksson because they saw him as conservative and lacking flair and because England never went all the way. Others thought he was too in train to personalities (e.g. Beckham, particularly during his lackluster days during Euro 2004) and too obsessed with celebrity life .

But if the Football Association wanted a different style and a different approach why go with McClaren? He was Sven’s assistant and a bit of Sven-lite.

I hope England pull it out tonight. I’ll be watching. But win or lose, I think McClaren’s days are numbered. That it should even be a strong possibility that England fails to qualify for an international tournament should be putting him on seriously shaky ground.

the lights are going out all over Europe

When I quit smoking last autumn, I promised myself a last smoke in June. See at the end of this month, it’s the end of indoor smoking in England. I thought I’d have about a six week old baby and that I would be pretty much fighting fit again after my lovely tranquil home birth. Not so much. I thought I could sneak off to the pub – swish down a cheeky half and smoke one lovely, last Marlboro Red in salute to the end of public smoking, as we knew it, in England.

I want that last smoke.

But I’m still feeling under the weather. I’m nearly as bad as I was in the days after my release from the hospital. Though better than I was at the weekend. I managed to walk to the drugstore today – accompanied by the Vol-in-Law. And you know, the drugstore is just about the same distance as to my local pub.

Fun, fun, fun

Anglofille highlights a new theme park on her blog – Dickens World. I couldn’t be bothered to follow the link. In fact, I said so on her site:

OK, I’m not even going to follow that link, but just imagine – imagine what Dickens World would be like. Oh, the street urchins, the squalor, the bleakness, the pick pockets, the long hours, cold rooms and utter desperation…

Paah, why leave London?

I mean what’s next? Flannery O’Connor Land, the Faulkner Fun Fayre*, Dorothy Parker’s kiddie adventure playground?

Although at least at Dickens World, you’ll have a bit of fun at the end of the day.

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*turn left upon entering Yawknapatopha County, from any direction