Tuesday 29th June 2021

In the Pacific North West, temperature records are being broken, while here in east Kent we have had fog, a cool breeze and much rain. Not very June-like at all.

At least on Tuesday the fog had mostly gone, and sometimes the clouds parted and so a shot or ten could be rattled off.

Which made up for the torture that work is, nothing works once again, and I sit looking at the fact Outlook had not updated for over 24 hours. Again.

My colleague, Henrik, told me he had the same problem, and he had the instructions on how to fix it. Apparently, as the two companies IT systems merge, the fact we have two profiles, certificates and so on on one laptop causes just too much confusion. The simple answer was to delete the MVOW Outlook account, then instal the new one.

This did mean having to restart Outlook over and over again until I was able to complete each step of the process, until I had Outlook that wasn't linked to any accounts at all. I had no mails, no calendar and no contacts. Then came the linking the new account, and wait while 11 and a half years mails downloaded.

I made breakfast, another coffee. Read a magazine.

Two hours passed, and the initial actions had taken another hour. Half the day was gone already.

I have lunch and hope I would get my enthusiasm back.

I didn't, but I did attend meetings, took notes and sounded like I knew what I was talking about. Maybe I really do. In which case not sure who it surprises more; my boss or me. In fact my boss seems to rate my experience and the stuff that tumbles out of my mouth must make some kind of sense.

Jools had been up early that morning, and by two I could feel a migraine coming on, so with me all caught up, I log off and sit on the sofa with Le Tour playing quietly on the TV with Scully beside me. She is very happy indeed, and rolls over to show me her belly and shere she would like it rubbed.

The cycling is astonishing, with Mark Cavendish winning a mad spint to win yet another stage, two years after he had been written off.

I'm not crying.

And so, to the main event: England v Germany.

A match with more baggage that an Airbus A380. The jingoism that goes with it, especially from the papers is sickening, and Brexit has ramped that up further. Don't bring politics into football, but I'll sing "No Surrender" or "2 world wars and one world cup" because it bantz.

Urgh.

I don't watch the preamble, but settle down to watch the game as the players line up, take a knee and kick off. Germany make the early running, England get into it, nearly scoring just before half time. But the half ends 0-0.

Neither team are playing that well, so it is an even-matched game, but after 7o minutes, Grealish is brought on as the Germans tire, and Sterling scores one from a cross by Shaw. And just before full time Shaw sets up Kane to head in a second and that's it. No drama at the end.

England won as they had prepared slightly better, took their chances and had depth in the squad. Not one bit of individual briliance settled it, just the slightly better team.

Sure it was a big game, but England have a bigger on on Saturday now in Rome. Germany are going home.

Wow.