Wednesday 7th July 2021

I was just over 11 months old the last time England made the finals of an international football tournament. I don't remember anything of it, needless to say. But winning that July afternoon has cast a long shadow over teams that ran out in the nation's colours ever since, the damd to repeat that victory.

Since then, England reached the semi-final in 1990 and in 2018, and the semi of the Euros in 1996.

In 1990 and 96, England played Germany and lost on penalties, both times. Last time out, Croatia won being better organised and generally "better". They also had Luca Modric.

So, I am used to a lot of disappointment over the years. 96 I watched the semi final in a remote cbin on the far side of RAF Lyneham as I and a female SAC, "Big Bird" (she has big hair), andway, Lyneham was a trasport base, so didn't have a permanent exposives storage area, any stores to be flown out was stored in a temporary area, and when in use there was a rota and you would be selected about once day a year to be on guard.

We were on a 12 hour duty, the guard commander brought us lunch and dinner over, and as it was quiet, we had a TV to "entertain" us. Well, at 19:00 after our 12 hour shift, we were forgotten, but we thought nothing of it and watched the game on the portable TV in the hut. We were collected smetime during extra time and I got back to my room to see the end of the game and the current manager missing the decisive penalty.

So it goes. So it goes.

And so this year, England have ade it to the semis, and are to meet my adopted country, Denmark, to see sho would meet Italy in the final on Sunday.

So there was the whole day to get through before the thrill of the evening's entertainment.

I had stayed up to 11 the nigt before, so slept through the alarm, Jools getting up, making tea and feeding the cats. Then getting dressed, only waking up when she started the car to drive to work.

At least it wasn't windy or raining, but was overcast and cool. I close all the windows but draw a line at putting the heating on. I put on a jumper and some thick socks.

I make a coffee. A second coffee. Check the interwebs and am ready for work.

Work is still soul drestroying, there's no other word for it. But I press on making slow but forward progress. I go to pick some fruit for breakfast, make a third coffee and that seems to do the trick.

All through the day, I'm not nervous about the game. I mean, I want England to win, but its not going to ruin my life if we don't, same for the final. If we get there. We do. But, I refuse to let a game or a sport ruin my life when things go wrong, but happy that it spices life up when it goes well. Hope that makes sense.

The sun did come out for a while, so I went to snap the lilies growing beside the drive. Lily Beetles have stripped their leaves, no matter how many we see and dispose of, they are just stems and buds, well stems and flowers now they begin to open.

I have a new task, to be a audit trainer, which is something other than audits, which is fine as they require no follow up. Which is nicer.

So there are meetings, meetings about meetings. And we have a new head of quality. We have a meeting to meet him.

I had arranged a guy come to fix the TV aerial, so I could watch the game. He arrived in the afternoon, and its a simple job, just up on the roof. We use a ladder to climb onto next door's porch, then pull the ladder up and he climbed up to the roof to change the spiky bit, while I stood on the lower rung of the ladder. I am not happy: gravity and I have an arrangement, I respect it by staying on the round whenever possible, having to step off the ladder onto the roof was bad enough, stepping off the roof onto the ladder was worse. But I did it, and we had a working telly once again.

Yay.

I would have gone out for a walk, but the light wasn't good, so I thought I would be better occupied watering the pot plants and tomato plants around the shelter at the bottom of the garden. So I do.

I am shadowed by both Mulder and Scully as they are keen to remind me its only two hours to dinner time, I may as well feed them now. I don't.

Then it is into the kitchen to prepare fritters, and at half five start frying spoonfulls of the batter.

Once she is home, we eat. Work is mad for her, and I try to make it as good as possible once she is home. Make dinner, coffee, and she says she had better watch the game once it begins at eight.

She lasts until half time, then goes to bed, leaving me with a remainder of a bottle of tripel (my first beer in 25 days) and I hope for no reaction. There isn't, maybe it was the peanuts I munched through the game?

England play well, Denmark play well too, especially in the latter part of the first half. But injuries and a thin bench mean they were stretched as full time neared. By then it was 1-1, and tense as heck.

Into injury time and England win a penalty. One of those too close to call, there wasn't enough evidence to overturn the decision. If the penalty hadn't have been given, there wasn't enough evidence to change that either.

But England's luck holds, Kane scores the winner on the rebound after his initial kick is saved. In the last 15 minutes, Denmark were down to ten men due to inury, and England keep the ball until the final whistle went. The crowd and played went mad.

I watched the scenes for ten minutes, then go to bed myself.