by I ended yesterday’s post saying I hoped England’s first major final in 55 years wouldn’t go to penalties. It damn well did. The game started with a hiss and a roar. We had the rousing Italian national anthem (the less said the better about England’s dirge) and then within two minutes of kick-off, Luke Shaw (or as the Romanian commentator said, Luke Show) had scored. England didn’t really ever look like adding to their lead, and Italy dominated the second half. England looked buggered in extra time. Thirty minutes of that, then here we go again. As soon as I saw six-foot-five Donnarumma (awesome name) square up against Pickford, I thought, this looks ominous. I had no idea how massive the Italian keeper was, and what’s more, he’s only 22. The fall-out from the match has already been nasty and insular, as it would have been had England won. Race-based idiocy and irrelevant bollocks about Brexit. Mum will be happy – her mate Novak won Wimbledon to make the grand slam tally between the Big Three 20-20-20, and England didn’t win. So that’s my fleeting interest in Big Sport over with for a while.
I’ve been reading back over the early days of this blog. I was buzzing, wasn’t I? These days I’m on a pretty even keel, and that’s way better than where I’ve been in the past, but I wouldn’t mind getting late 2015 back, or even late 2016 when I washed up in Romania. So how can I do that? First, I’ve gotta gotta gotta move away from this flat, as fantastic as the location is. I need a place of my own, with an office just for teaching. Some comfortable furniture. A record player. A car, so I can push off from time to time and see more of this beautiful country. It’s time I established something. Made something happen. I’ve also got to get back to this damn dictionary. More about that next time.
Getting away will help me plan at least some of this. I’ve booked my train journey from Timișoara to Iași (15 hours – travelling by train makes Romania seem massive) and four nights in the city that almost borders the Republic of Moldova. I leave early next Tuesday morning. Then I’ll explore the surrounding villages, though I haven’t booked that part of the trip yet. We’ve got more scorching weather this week: 38 tomorrow and a ridiculous 40 on Wednesday.
