At last the first morning this week when Lois and I can stay in bed till 9 am. It almost feels like we've been retired for 15 years haha!
Lois takes part in her sect's two Sunday meetings on zoom, while I go down for a walk on the local football field and to post another 15 or so Christmas cards. I don't like to let them build up on the telephone table - it's best to write a batch of 'em, and then post'em, that's my homespun philosophy: I haven't patented it yet, though, so feel free to imitate without charge haha!
the local bright red Royal Mail post-box (centre)
where I post my latest batch of Christmas cards
Lois and I can't go to bed this afternoon, though, because it's the Women's Football Association Cup Final taking place today at Wembley Stadium, London. Chelsea are playing against Arsenal, and it's a game which our daughter Alison is going to see at the stadium, together with Ed and their 3 children: Josie (15), Rosalind (13) and Isaac (11). And we can calso see it, on TV, which is nice.
So Lois and I spend the afternoon watching the game on our TV, but we text Josie from time to time to comment on the game - she sends us a photo taken from their seats, but hopefully there'll be more pictures to come later.
the photo Josie takes with her phone during the game,
the photo she sends to us - there's a 41,000-strong crowd there today
We're pleased when Chelsea win 3-0. We know that Josie and Rosalind saw another Chelsea match in January 2020, just before the pandemic hit, when they met Chelsea's star defender Millie Bright, who's also playing today in the Cup Final.
flashback to January 2020 at the Reading Stadium, to watch
Chelsea Women play Reading Women: (left to right)
our son-in-law Ed, Josie, Isaac, our daughter Alison, and Rosalind
the Chelsea women celebrate one of their goals:
rightmost is Chelsea defender Millie Bright
Millie comes over to talk to Rosalind and Josie, which is nice
We cheer as we watch Chelsea's 3 goals, including this spectacular second goal scored by Fremantle-born Aussie star Sam Kerr.
Aussie star Sam Kerr scores Chelsea's 2nd goal in the 57th minute
Lois and I think it's a great pity that the subtitles for this live commentary are so poor, as always. Wake up, BBC! The subtitles today seem to be saying that the Chelsea goalkeeper "has a touch of clap".
Luckily, however, it turns out to be just "a touch of cramp", which is a big relief all round, I should imagine!
Chelsea's goalkeeper - suffering just from cramp, after all, which is a relief!
During the half-time break today in the middle of the match, Lois and I are pleased to be treated with a nostalgic look-back at Women's Soccer throughout the ages, including the well-known clip of presenter Frank Bough on BBC Breakfast in the 1980's decrying the very idea of women playing soccer.
Once again we see the well-loved clip of the notoriously sexist Bough on the BBC Breakfast sofa, saying, "They are committed and they train hard and play exceedingly well, but I just can't live with the idea of girls playing football or taking part in any kind of physical contact sports. Am I just so out-of-date?". To which every else in the studio replied, "Yes you are, Frank!"
BBC Breakfast presenter Frank Bough (3rd from left in white cardigan)
giving fellow-presenter Selina Scott (in the purple dress)
the benefit of his views on women playing soccer
What a crazy world they lived in, in those days !!!!!!
Later, Alison texts us these pictures of Isaac and Josie that she took during the game.
Isaac and Josie at this afternoon's Women's FA Cup Final
Isaac and Josie - Rosalind was sitting with her soccer team
the marching band takes the field
20:00 We watch some TV, an interesting documentary about the life and career of comedian and musical star Michael Crawford.
Crawford has spent most of his career performing in musicals, you know, those modern musicals, that have songs with nice words but with pleasant but totally unmemorable tunes. Where are the Cole Porters of today who can write good, memorable tunes as well as good words? I think we should be told!
I have always liked Crawford best as the childlike accident-prone young husband Frank Spencer in the 1970's sitcom "Some Mothers Do 'Ave'em", in which Michelle Dotrice played his long-suffering wife Betty.
Crawford, we learn tonight, is an unusual character - incredibly nervous, but also a perfectionist who was always wanting to prove he could master something new that he had never done before. Dotrice learned never to approach him or talk to him before the show's recordings, which were in front of a live studio audience. He would be hiding himself away somewhere backstage, she says, and totally "in the zone". What a crazy guy!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz!!!!!
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