What does Eyal Berkovitch look like? Answering this question is my best hope of working out which team is Israel and which is Slovenia. And what was that announcement about “Anglia” and “Dav-eed Beck-ham”? He’s either just scored against Macedonia or been caught stealing an old car.
Earlier, I toyed with the idea of popping up the road to Molly Bloom’s (yes, even Tel Aviv has an Irish bar), but a rare burst of common sense has kept me in my hotel room this evening. I’m working, but keeping one eye on the Slovenia – Israel game on TV. The Hebrew commentary doesn’t mean a great deal to me, but it provides a bit of atmosphere. Just like the Russian commentary earlier, as I watched Ireland draw with Russia; and the French commentary in the France – England rugby, and this morning, the Spanish commentary of an Argentine league game.
The Argie game is the only one I’ve actually watched properly. Racing Club versus some unidentified team. They were 3-0 up at half time, but an injury time equaliser made it 3-3. I took an interest in this game as I actually know someone who supports Racing. Sebastian H Garcia, the sole member of the Buenos Aires QPR Supporters Club. He has often emailed me to describe the agonies of following Racing Club. At least now I’ll have something to discuss with him, though I suspect he’ll be as sick as an Amazonian parrot about the result.
In between this glut of work and televised sport, I wandered the streets looking for some petroleum jelly to salve my raw thighs. But the sabbath has shut almost everything down, and I come back empty-handed. While I was out I called in at an internet cafe to see if I could upload yesterday’s entry, but they wouldn’t let me.
No run today. I thought about it. Then thought about it some more at around 5pm. I succumbed to hunger instead, and ordered a tuna melt from room service. Curiously, they explained that they couldn’t melt the cheese as it’s the sabbath. So I had a tuna melt without the melt, and abandoned the idea of running. I’m not sure my thighs would have consented in any case. It means that I’ve still not done the 10 miler that I keep saying is essential before I do the GNR.
Today was my last chance of a long run for 6 days. Tomorrow (Sunday) is the start of this course, and I’ve been promised 12 hour days until Thursday. I intend to carry on with my early morning runs but I’m not likely to squeeze much more than three or four miles out of the time available. I’ll see. If I wake up at 5am, who knows?
And I now know which team is Israel. They’re losing 3-1.
English, Hebrew, Russian, French, Spanish. Only the words are different. Everything else is the same.
