Friday 9 July 2021

Hoping in Hopwas

 Coming home?

At the risk of sounding like a retail featherweight, we have decided to take a very half hearted approach to trading this weekend. The last month has been frantic in terms of preserve sales, and we are now so far ahead of our planned sales plan it seems likely that our stock will run out long before the end of summer!


But thats not the reason for taking our foot off the proverbial gas. For the last few weeks we have been following the fortunes of the England football team in the much delayed 2020 European Cup and for once it has been a positive and uplifting experience. This weekend is the European cup final at Wembley with England taking on Italy and maybe, just maybe, the possibility of a major international title - the first since 1966.

In spite of my youthful countenance I was alive (aged five) when England won the World Cup but I have absolutely no recollection of the event. That said, I have clear memories of our subsequent exit from Mexico and that very much set the tone for the subsequent 50 years. Disappointment, frustration and heartbreak.
So we find ourselves hoping in Hopwas - hoping for a win, hoping for that elusive international title. 
Thats a very long way of saying we are taking Sunday off, a day to spend with family in preparation for what will inevitably be a nail biting couple of hours in front of the telly.
In the meantime its time for those football ear-worms - Three Lions interspersed with Sweet Caroline jostling for space in the penalty box of my brain.

3 comments:

Michael said...

Hi Andy
Just watched your Bentley Canal photostream. It's so alive now with colorizing (americanism...phh). Excellent, I left a comment.
Never mentioned it before but before the trees/shrubs grew up over the last 20 years & you can't really see it from the motorway.....you know that bit of the W&E that runs alongside the M6 going north just past Bentley Junction? The canal, from the motorway, going north, went uphill......or appeared to. If you are familiar with the optical illusion theories surrounding the Electric Brae in Ayreshire it's all about contours in visual relation to the levels of the surrounding landscape. That's why there are no locks on the Curly Wyrley it has virtual elevation.
The remains of the Anson Branch was visible from the M6 near Bentley until maybe 25 years ago, we ventured up it by boat in the late '70's after a rally at Ocker Hill when the cooling towers were still there.

Andy Tidy said...

Did you hear about the Irish man who was given some water skis for Christmas - he then spent all summer looking for some water with a bit of a slope to it...... Maybe he should have had a look at the W&E! Optical illusions are weird. I find it amazing that the surrounds for Ocker Hill, and the rest of the Walsall Canal for that matter are so altered as to be unrecognisable. Can you tell me exactly where the tip at Moxley was located?

Michael said...

Hi Andy
Just watched your Crosby beach episode. Very impressive drone stuff. I've not seen those in the "flesh" yet.
But did the Falkirk Wheel & the Kelpies (awesome)a couple of weeks back plus passing Gormley's Angel on the way back
Michael