Soccer can kick our troubles into touch
Posted on June 14th 2010
At last the World Cup has started and we can look forward to forgetting about the woes of the mortgage market for a few weeks.
Anyone who knows me will tell you I don’t understand the first thing about football but I will throw myself into the numerous parties, sweepstakes and general banter that will no doubt engulf the nation.
I will be watching the first game in Newcastle during my brother-in-law’s stag weekend so no doubt while you are reading this I’ll be nursing a Geordie hangover.
For the second game I’m attending an event being hosted by a publishing group but the third game will undoubtedly be the most surreal for me -I’m hosting a table at the Waldorf Hotel which is providing a sit-down meal and showing the match on big screens.
Definitely no football shirts or expletives allowed when describing the performance of the referee at that one, I’m guessing.
And so to the quarter-finals we hope, although by then I might be wondering whether my liver can take any more abuse. Still, after we thrash Germany 4-0 we sail into the semis and beat Argentina 6-0.
In the final we beat Holland by a comfortable margin and 2010 becomes the new 1966 while Wayne Rooney becomes the new Geoff Hurst.
In all the excitement the emergency Budget, tax hikes and the lack of liquidity are forgotten and the sun shines for the rest of the summer. Well, one can but live in hope.
