More catching up on previous weekends’ events. A few weeks back it was the last game of the football season in Europe, culminating in what used to be called the European Cup final. These days it goes by the name of the Champions League final. I know. It gets more boring each year as Europe’s top clubs – that is to say richest clubs – chase this ‘holy grail’. This year however it was a little different as the final was held in the Metropolitano stadium, the (relatively new) home of Atletico Madrid football club. To make it more interesting the final was contested by two English teams, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur (aka Spurs).
Flights and Hotels Rocket…
With so many English football fans coming to Madrid the price of flights and hotel accommodation sky-rocketed. Luckily I had bought my weekend flights to and from Madrid in advance of the semi final games. Of course I did not have to pay for a place to sleep. In hindsight I could have probably sold my seats for a tidy sum and used that money to fly to New York to watch what turned out to be an exciting world heavyweight boxing contest. Ah…real sport. Well at least those guys earn their money which is more than can be said for many ‘footballers’.
Madrid was once again host to tens of thousands of visiting football fans. Thankfully they behaved themselves.
Winners and Losers
Liverpool won the cup after a fairly boring game. We watched it in local bar. Dani takes a keen interest in such things. He knows who the big teams are and some of the top players. His favourite has just been sold by Atletico Madrid. One Antoine Griezmann. A big loss for the Madrid club. He has been bought by Barcelona and so Dani is now considering following him… by supporting Barcelona. Not the most obvious thing to do in Madrid eh? He is still learning…
World Cup Football Again? So Soon?
While on the subject of football…. The women’s world cup is now in full swing (so to speak). I’m sorry but it just does nothing for me. And female commentators even less. And that’s not just me. Every man I speak to says female football commentators annoy them. I make no excuses. You either like something or you don’t. And I do not like women’s football and never will.
I will not go into the detail but I will refer you to an old blog post on the subject…Click here for that one. And rest my case. But of course, it is never going to be that easy…
So, for the record I think that if you really believe that women’s football is good – and you are a woman – then play it by all means. There is nothing wrong with that. A bit of sport never did anyone any harm. But don’t watch it! And please don’t try to put it on an equal footing with real (men’s) football. Partaking in sport and pretending to make it into something that it is not are two different things.
What’s in a Name?
Before Dani was born we pondered over a name. When we looked at the most popular names for boys over recent year Daniel was consistently in the top 10. (Although that was not the reason we named him Daniel.) Yet amazingly he is the only Daniel in four classes of his age at his school. A little odd I thought. So I decided to look up my own name. Christopher.
Everywhere I have worked – and there have been quite a few places – there is always a ‘Chris’. Usually more than one. I knew it was popular around my age group as I knew many from my schooldays. In the year I was born (1964) I found that it was the 11th most popular boy’s name. On further investigation I found that it was even higher up the rankings a decade later. Then in 1984 it topped the list. No wonder there is always a Chris around. I am sure Dani will experience the same thing when he is older. That said my name has fallen out of popularity in more recent times. By the early 2000s it had fallen out of the top 50 and almost instantly afterwards fell out of the top 100. A clear case of over exposure perhaps. Maybe when Dani has a child it may make a return. Fashion? Probably. It’s funny how these things come around years later. Just check the latest lists of popular names and you will see many that would have been thought old fashioned not too many years ago.