Dry as a bone

Pillow

I slept better last night, despite the noisy children staying up late and playing ball games. After fully inflating my sleeping pad, I let it out a little to soften it so that it was more comfortable. I should’ve done the same with my pillow.

Hexagon

I woke in the night to rain pattering onto the tent, but none of it came through.

In the morning, the rain had stopped and everything covered by the tent was bone dry. When we packed up the tent, a crisp almost-hexagon of dry grass showed where it had been.

(I read recently that watering brown lawns is pointless because as soon as there’s enough rain, grass springs back to lush green life.)

Clots

The overnight rain wasn’t anywhere near enough for what’s needed: everywhere you turn, huge cracks divide trails in two, and crevices lie in wait of the clumsy clots.

Mopping-up

The second of our tent-admirers was passing by as I set off to the wash-block. Unfortunately for them, their tent had not been as successful as our tent at keeping the rain out. Mopping-up was needed.

Home

I’d previously wanted another day of walking practice today, but the only place that wasn’t sore was my abs; a nice bath at home beckoned instead.

When we got home, after I hadn’t fallen over, we pottered about unpacking and making a nice cup of tea, while Mr Perkins followed his daddy about in desperate need of sitting on his knee. Eventually, his wish was granted, and we settled in for a lazy day in front of the telly: the Commonwealth Games until shortly before the Euro 2022 kickoff at 5 pm.

Euro 2022

The final of the Euro 2022 competition was a tense game between England and Germany at Wembley.

England took the lead in the second half with a fantastic goal. Dare we dream? No: Germany made scoring look easy when they equalised with about ten minutes to go, and the game went to extra time. If nobody managed to pull ahead by the end, it would go to a penalty shootout – something the England men’s team are renowned for cocking up.

Towards the end of extra time, one team did score: England, when Kelly kept her eye on a loose ball to tap it in. After what seemed like a week, the final whistle blew – no penalty shootout required – and England had won something in football!

Germany put up a good fight, and it could’ve gone either way.

I was surprised by how emotional I felt once the disbelief moved aside enough to let it register.

The Lionesses had triumphed – where the Lions had failed – in front of a crowd of 87,192 – more than for any other men’s or women’s international game in Europe.* Let that be a lesson to the FA officials in 1921, who banned women from playing football in Associated grounds!


* The capacity of Wembley Stadium is 90,000.