Football fever
The drive back from Borth to my in-laws in Kent (and on to London in time for the BootsNall party) took us through some beautiful countryside. It has been a long time since I have last seen an English summer – it seems much greener here, all lush broadleaf trees and hedges.
It has been even longer since I have driven through the Cotswolds: cobbled streets, sandstone villages, cottage gardens and drystone walls – England as I have always imagined it. It would be a truly beautiful place to live in, if it wasn’t full of merchant bankers…
Everywhere we turn there are patriotic displays of the St. George’s Cross. I no longer perceive it as threatening, having seen it fluttering from car windows all over Wales. It seems strange that just last week I could tell when France scored by listening to the cheers echoing from the pubs down the hill in my study up in Stirling!
While it no longer intimidates me, the display of the English flag along with the “Say No to Europe” notes that litter the English countyside since the recent election and the Wimbledon craze just about to start make me want to escape back to the relative sanity of Scotland, nonwithstanding the Hoops (Celtic supporters).
Getting into London today was a relief. The St. Georges Cross is less evident here, and on our way we passed a red-and-white checkered flag that I found out is Croatian (Football teaches me a thing or two…). Here in civilised Islington the people flying it from their flat are not likely to get a stone hauled through the window by some hooligan BNP supporters. Still, while I was quietly supporting England up North I now wish it was all over.
Tags: Travels on my Doorstep, Tag Index
Denni