This content is protected against AI scraping.
Today when I took the girls up to the path and along to the ski slope, I saw three people. This is not unusual. In fact, this time of the year, I generally see more. Well, actually, I saw more than three really because there was a large group at the adventure park, squealing and shrieking as they navigated the ropes high up and between the trees.
Still the three I saw stuck out to me.
The first one was a fragile man who looked a bit older than me but less agile, which says a lot. He had two walking poles which were helping to propel him across the ground at a very slow rate. He clearly had mobility issues.
Anyway, he suddenly stopped up ahead of me and slowly looked up, into the eyes of a stationary Emma. I think she was trying to work out whether she knew him or not. Clearly she didn’t as she resumed walking and went right by him. He continued walking and we exchanged cheerful ‘hejs’. Which was good because I thought he was going to tell me off for having the girls off lead.
Shortly afterwards, and from behind us, there came a guy who looked to be about 35/40. He was short – shorter than me anyway – and he was dressed in far too many clothes. Okay, the temperature has taken a bit of a dip, but it was still quite humid out. He was also wearing earbuds and was walking quite quickly with his head bent down, presumably to avoid glimpsing any nature. Of which there was plenty.
I have no idea what he was listening to but he missed a lot of birdsong. I figured he didn’t like birdsong.
Of course, I could just be maligning him. Maybe he had had some really bad news and was Misery Walking in order to try and forget it for a while.
Anyway, the third person we saw was a jogging woman who smiled as she went by and said “Hej!” like any civilised person should.
In the meanwhilst, Mirinda was walking all over Copenhagen (17,000 steps apparently) with Lisa and Jack. She managed to visit the National Museum of Denmark which I visited twice last year. So, when she called me tonight, we talked about the wonderful collection they have.
She also told me that, after she told Jack that I’d given up alcohol, he was shocked, declaring that I was the best drinker he knew. That he was amazed at how much I could drink and yet show no discernable difference in my cognitive powers. That made me feel like I’d let him down. Sorry, Jack.
Mirinda also said it rained a bit in Copenhagen which reflected the weather here. While it was dry up till lunchtime, not long afterwards, the rain started falling and didn’t stop for a while. It even got cold enough for me to lose my shorts and return to trackies.
Then, at 18:00, it was time to relax on the lounge with the girls for a bit of World Cup action.
Nicoline can stop reading now
It seemed to me that Argentina misjudged Egypt tonight. They played their usual smooth football with quick clever passes, but the Egyptians just bowled through them. By half-time they had two goals to the good and Messi messed up a penalty which was saved by the keeper.
When they scored, the crowd went totally mental.
Both times.
Actually, three times but their third goal was disallowed.
On the other hand, the Argentinian fans went madder when Messi scored their second goal to even things up 2-2. The stadium at Atlanta was booming.
(Speaking of Atlanta, which is in Georgia, every time the camera picked up the state name, I was reminded of the Georgian ladies from the Retreat, something that made me smile.)
But the biggest roar was saved for the end when Argentina finished off the Egyptians with a final, lethal blow. It was all over and Argentinians were through while Egypt was not.
All in all it was an exciting game of football. I enjoyed it very much.
Something I didn’t enjoy was the way that FIFA sucked up to Donald Trump. It seemed he didn’t like the fact that football rules state that if a player gets a red card then he (or she) misses the next game. It has been this way for a long time. Not that he’d know that.
Anyway, the thing is, American star striker Folarin Balogun, was given a red card in their last game which meant he wouldn’t be playing against Belgium in the early hours of this morning. So the president of the USA, clearly at a bit of a loose end, rang up Gianni Infantino, FIFA president, and suggested it might be nice to let him play. And, of course, the brown tongue was pretty active as the red card penalty was changed, and the missed game would be served ‘some other time in the future.’
Talk about pathetic. There were a lot of calls to dump Infantino (ironically, even from Seth Blatter) as well as other teams who had players on red cards asking to have theirs postponed as well. And so, the USA’s best player was allowed to play after all.
Not that it mattered. The USA football team was destroyed by Belgium 4-1. A delightful conclusion to a somewhat disgusting little affair.
