Visitors from across the pond

Today was the day for my two friends David and Dave to visit from America. We are work colleagues but have become fast friends over the years; they have been colleagues and friends for much longer than I have known them.

They have a simple itinerary; fly in Saturday, visit me at home in Hatfield, evening out in London, hotel at Heathrow and then fly back stateside Sunday morning. They came to see me in case I die! I have no intention of dying, but hey, they gotta do what they gotta do, and it is wonderful and touching that they find me worth the effort.

I booked a taxi to pick them up, and made elaborate arrangements to use me as the focal point to coordinate their meeting. But I overslept, and missed all the messages and voice mails on my phone! Fortunately they found each other in the end, and duly arrived at my house around 9am. Here we are (picture taken by Rose):

 I am puffing my chest out because I look so puny next to them!

We had tea and croissants for breakfast, a great, wide ranging chat, and take-out pizzas for lunch from Dominos. They left around 2pm, and it was a tremendous pleasure to see them. They might go for the London Eye as easy entertainment; I will find out soon and let you know.

After they left, we had the rugby. First up, Italy versus Wales. One of these days the Welsh team full of its Lions stars will turn up, but yet again (just like against Scotland) they played for about 20 minutes. I swear for vast swathes of the second half they were invisible. And still they won in their sleep. Castrogiovani had a great game I thought, few others shone.

The main course (England versus France) was a tense affair. The ball was like a bar of soap, so we saw many handling errors. England deserved their win; Foden's try the standout, but Wilkinson's first kick of the ball also impressive. I think we scored at least one other try (not given), and the French had a few unlucky bounces that otherwise they may have scored from. The most disappointing performance was Ben Youngs - he lacked his usual zip; but he is young still! Tom Wood and the England back row were all impressive (except Easter's stupid penalty give-away). After the match I rang my French friend Thierry. If all goes to form we will meet again in the quarter final of the world cup in New Zealand later this year, and he thinks France will win then (despite the fact we have a history of knocking them out of the world cup!); we shall see!

A very rewarding day.