Why are they so short? I resent using the weekend to do chores, yet I usually feel far too tired to chore away on week nights?
I didn't watch the England match on Saturday. I don't have Sky at home: I watch so little TV that I don't see point of forking out forty pounds a month to see the odd footy game and a load of rubbish, when I rarely watch everything I could get for £2 a week. I didn't really fancy going to a local pub to watch it. What would I drink? Too late in the day for soft drinks, too early for hard spirits, and why drink pub gin at 37% when I have bottles of 47% indoors? The pubs that show football have a choice of chemical beer, a token cask ale that doesn't get the throughput to make it drinkable, and wine that isn't drinkable even when drowned with soda water. Besides, I don't get into England until the tournament proper.
I did, however, watch the England rugby match. It's been a while since I watched rugby on the telly, and I have to confess that I have never been to a live rugby match, but I've been interested, although never obsessed, since childhood. My father was much more of a rugby fan than a football fan (being taken by his uncles to see Arsenal in the Thirties rather put him off for life).
I thoroughly enjoyed the game. Although there was never go to be any doubt about the score, I think that the Georgians played impressively. And weren't they big buggers? Didn't they make most of our lads look puny in comparison?
I have said it before and I have said it again - I so hate it when England matches are preceded by a rendition of God Save the Queen. I hate it for so many reasons. the least is, that I am a republican. I think the tune is ghastly - how embarrassing will it be next Sunday against South Africa. God Save the Queen is not a national anthem. Compare with the USA, which has the Star Spangled Banner as its National Anthem and Hail to the Chief to respect the Head of State. However, *we* are stuck with it as a National Anthem. But for whom? I always thought that it was the National Anthem of the United Kingdom. In a tournament where two other constituents of the United Kingdom are, presumably, starting their games with Land of My Fathers and Flower of Scotland, and the fourth is playing in a team with a different nation altogether, and, presumably starting with the Soldiers Song, it is entirely inappropriate for England to be parading to the UK anthem.
Update This site claims to have most of the National Anthems of the World. You can only download three MP3s in a day, but they're also available in Real Player and Windows Media.
