It remains a long-standing tradition each Autumn for teachers to torture their returning students by forcing them into the sadistic ritual of mincing their favorite summer memories in the “How-I-Spent-my-Summer-Vacation” essay grinder.
Though the calendar on my wall and the temperature in my neck of the woods tells me it’s still full-on summer, most schools are back in session, so it’s time to run my best and worst summer memories through the mixer and see what splatters on the wall.
After the Six Nations ended last spring, I turned my attention toward polishing up a novel, writing a novella (a dark comedy), and obsessing over a short story started fifteen years ago which still isn’t quite right.
It wasn’t all homework and summer reading lists. Between projects, my wife and I squeezed in a trip to Africa. She built a bridge, while I researched nuances for my unpublished Great Lakes Series including the aforementioned novel.
Toward the end of our trip, we were lucky enough to have a few amazing encounters with wildlife, one of which included a passing yet solid slap to my leg from an annoyed female mountain gorilla.
It must have been something I said. Good thing the silverback didn’t hear it.
As far as my summer vacation goes, that’s about the best I’m going to do, so I turn to England’s Summer Nations Series.
Heavy sigh.
Unfortunately, it was all too easy to find tickets to both of England’s home matches this summer, and their performance throughout the series justified the lack of fan enthusiasm at Twickenham. Both the English team and fans were low energy. So much so that the upper deck of Twickenham was forced to close due to lack of ticket sales for Saturday’s match against Fiji.
The fifty-six thousand plus crowd’s rendition of Swing Low sounded more like a dirge when compared with the cheers of “Go Fiji go” and “Boom” following a big hit emanating from the Fijian fans filling Section L18.
Rather than call the doctor for a prescription of antidepressants, I turn to the keyboard to vent about the state of English Rugby and proselytize about this year’s World Cup.
I’ve already filled out my elimination brackets and picked a winner (Hint: Not looking good for England). I invite you to follow along, comment on my projections, and make your own prognostications.
This year the world is in Union in France for what I hope is rugby at its best.
Please join me.