Day 700 – Double Overshadow

It’s Day 700 of South Africa’s “lockdown” (we’re not locked down at all), but upon waking this morning, that landmark (such as it is) was obviously overshadowed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine overnight. It’s an odd thing for them to have done, because they repeatedly assured us that they weren’t going to invade Ukraine, but actually, all along, it seems that they were.
Almost like it wasn’t the full truth that we were getting from Vlad and his team.

Like I say… weird. I mean, who knew?

Some scary scenes this morning in Ukraine, and it’s only going to get uglier once the initial aerial onslaught has been completed and the ground-based operation begins.

Thankfully, this is a case of double overshadow though, as I also woke to the memory of Ben Davies scoring a 92nd minute winner in the crunch game against Blackburn Rovers at Beautiful Downtown Bramall Lane last night. After suffering the slings and arrows of a red card and then a penalty against us soon after, it was an unlikely victory, but one that I’m more than happy to take. So some small mercies (well, one) as the sun rises over Cape Town this morning. Although while this one is probably less likely to influence global foreign policy and the potential imminent outbreak of World War 3, it was a pretty amazing evening.

And so the march continues onto Millwall (and Kiev) this weekend.

Day 686 – Hamilton

Last night, deep down in the Scottish Championship, Arbroath played Hamilton Academical. Not a fixture I would normally follow, and indeed I only even learnt of it this morning.
And that only because this was the Arbroath line-up:

…which beagle-eyed readers will note contains three players called Hamilton. Hamilton also had a Hamilton in their starting XI.

Anyway, long story short, Hamilton got an assist, Hamilton was booked, Hamilton was subbed off in the 72nd minute and while Hamilton, Hamilton, Hamilton and Hamilton all failed to score, Hamilton did get a couple.

Match report

Day 685 – Cat away

No, not booted by Kurt Zouma

too soon?*

…but rather getting on a plane for the first time in over 2 years and going and doing a work thing Oop North. More Ooper North even than Pretoria. I know. I was also amazed.

And while the cat is away, I will hold the fort, because the mice will invariably try to play, and that does nothing for their academic progress. Also, we will get takeaway burgers this evening.

Today, a fussy day full of frustrating tasks and appointments; tonight, United on the TV.
And our centre back is clearly much better behaved than West Ham’s.

* as received from le rugbyman corpulent – merci!

Day 681 – The sporting weekend

Not for me. I’m giving it another 24 hours before I go plunging headlong back into 5kms (or ultra marathons, as I like to call them). But that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been supporting other sporting endeavours. Last night, for example:

And then my favourite of all the Olympics: the Winter ones. I have watched some cross country skiing, some ski jumping, some freestyle skiing and some curling. I can’t wait for the ice hockey and speed skating.
So much better than the running and jumping stuff.

Tonight: a braai and FA Cup.