I did something pretty wicked while waiting for our Chinese takeaway
yesterday evening. I read the the
Daily Telegraph.
A paradoxical organ. Like many things, I want to hate it; to dismiss it
as part of the Other Side. But the older you get, the more blurred the
lines become. A permanent miasma of indignation hovers over the
barricades, and you sometimes forget which side you said you were
currently on, and which direction that gun is supposed to be pointing.
Er, anyway, I learnt from the Torygraph that 1 in 20 people go on to
marry the first person they ever kiss. I read this, and the air was
immediately filled with the sound of harp arpeggios, and I seemed to be
hurtling through a warm mist back to a day in the early 1970s.
One in 20? Phew.
I’d never previously appreciated just how close I’d come to marrying
Terry Venables.
Since the last installment I’ve managed a 7 kilometre plod that was
barely less breathy and painful than the previous 5. The run:walk ratio
is better, however. From 50:50 to about 70:30. It’s another step in the
right direction.
Soon, a 35 mile run around the hilly coastal road of the Cape under a
hot midday sun, will seem like a stroll in the park.
And just as soon as that’s out of the way, I’ll retreat into dignified
middle age, a glass of decent claret in one hand and yes, in the other,
a copy of the Telegraph.
Here’s an appetizer, from today’s editorial, in advance of tomorrow’s
World Cup Final:
For those of you who can still bear to follow football – and believe
me, there is another, happier life out there – tomorrow will present
something of a dilemma. Are we supporting France or Italy? It is, I
admit, a tricky one, like choosing between Marshal Pétain
and Mussolini, or snails soaked in garlic and gnocchi.
However, just think how good it has been for the arrogant French to
have had a bit of adversity in the past year or so. First, their
president is humiliated in the referendum on the European constitution.
Then they lose a prime minister. Then they have two lots of riots, one
about racial questions and the other about the economy. To cap it all,
they don’t get the 2012 Olympic Games. Have they suffered enough? I
don’t quite think so. Viva Italia!
