Christmas in britain

                                                Christmas in Britain

In a country that is becoming ever more secular the traditional British obsession with Christmas becomes more and more difficult to understand. Along with the commercial fest it provides more and more justification for a celebration in the midst of the dismal world that beckons outside with its wintry weather.

Christmas is signaled by a spate of office parties and most firms will often have a Christmas party for their employees. This usually brings the refrain that more is needed in January but of course by this time other forces are at work and it is forgotten. Drunken and disgraceful behavior is usually laughed off which is quite fortunate for the many who do over indulge.

At the same time commercialism is rampant with the average person not really being able to describe the reason for the celebration in an increasingly secular country. In fact it often appears more like a folk festival.

At the beginning of December Christmas lights go up in all the main centres. Most towns have them ad many individuals plan their own lights as well. Often you will see displays that are privately made on the theme of merry Christmas.

However there is a down side as well as the whole country effectively shuts down for this period and in many places you will get the refrain, ”Oh we will sort it out in the new year”  In many cases Christmas presents are being bought in August and there is little doubt that the running will be made for a Christmas season soon after the commercial fests of Halloween and Guy Fawkes night are over.

Christmas is very much a family time and often there are times when for those without close family it can be very lonely. A surge of charities try to help but their resources are limited. There was one initiative called Crisis at Christmas which tried to bring homeless people in over the Christmas period. That included mainly people who were sleeping rough. It begs the question however of what happens to these people the rest of the time.

Another concomitant is that many family fight start around this time. The family get together often turns sour and the fights continue into the new year and beyond.

In London itself the entire public transport system shuts down so all there is is some taxis charging ruinous prices for the business. The moral of the story is of course that you have to be where you aim to be the day before. After the great fest the world wakes up to the fact that new year is dawning. After the initial heady element of New Year ’s Eve the country generally settles into a mood of depression. Most people are broke financially having maxed out on the credit cards to pay for the Christmas splurge. Even the lengthening days bring little cheer and or many people January and February are the most depressing months of the ear. Spirits only seem to lift a bit in March with the arrival of the spring.

Beer and Swimming

                                                Beer and swimming

As I travel quite a lot I often encounter things to do and being passionately fond of swimming I often try swimming in pools in towns I travel to. Forget about the gym as in England particularly most gyms will charge you a large fee for an induction before they let you use their equipment.

At the moment there is a lot of focus on healthy living and I thought it interesting to try a comparison of the price ratio of having a swim to having a beer in three countries I have been to. It all started when I had a conversation with a Czech friend who bemoaned the fact that the price of a swim if you are not a member of a particular scheme was exactly the same in the Czech Republic as in The UK but people there earn less.

However I thought it instructive to compare the prices of having a swim in four countries with the price of having a beer. At the moment the government belabors us nonstop about the nation drinking too much s so this would be instructive.

Of course having taught maths before I realize tables can be difficult to take in so I have tried to keep them to a minimum. Obviously prices can vary according to the establishment and my recent experience in Poland is just based on one town Katowice. I do not make any pretense to scientific scholarship in this but it is quite interesting and bears out the contention that healthy living can be more expensive.  Figures have been rounded.

Country	Average price of a beer	Average price of a swim	Ratio of cost swim:beer
United Kingdom	£3	£5	1.7 : 1
Czech Republic	29 Kc	99 Kc	3.4 : 1
Serbia	90 din	250 din	2.8 : 1
Poland	5 zl	50 zl	10 : 1

On this basis Poland clearly comes out the worst and the UK not to badly with Serbia being slightly better than the Czech Republic.

Breastfeeding Scandal

                        Breast feeding scandal

A recent ruckus has erupted in London over quite a strange issue. One of London’s most opulent hotels Claridges apparently asked a breastfeeding mother to cover up. This has united a whole series of disparate elements into the campaign. Outraged mothers are holding demonstrations outside the hotel. To cap it all other politicians have tended so far to stay silent but the leader of the UK Independence party has appeared to back the staff.

The cries of outrage have been swirling round the internet and the hotel has been forced to say that they do in fact allow breastfeeding.

It has emerged as one of the small issues of the day and the papers are full of the legal niceties saying that a ban is apparently discriminatory.

Of course this is a minefield as some people claim to be offended by the sight. Personally I find it a beautiful sight and cannot imagine anybody really objecting. It symbolizes to me a mother’s love and I am not offended by the sight myself. However it has certainly started a small storm and the hotel is really being forced to clarify its position under the weight of protests and publicity

Third party Issues

                                    Third party issues

Now with a second by election victory for UKIP the inquest continues and all the papers and media are looking at and studying the results as well as the political class. In many ways the appeal of UKIP is due to several factors, Immigration being one of the most commonly cited ones. This tends to ignore the question of what is the real issue.

Many politicians of the mainstream parties are now trying to emulate UKIP in their foreign policy including the Prime Minister. This of course ensures that the issue of immigration remains in the news benefitting UKIP all the more.

In the case of UKIP its rise cannot simply be explained by the number of immigrants but something broader which is a mounting anger at the political class. This is a current which runs deep in our society. The mainstream parties namely the Conservatives and Labour both have the disadvantages of power, the Conservatives being in power now and Labour having fairly recently been in power. The traditional third party, the Liberal Democrats is tainted by association with   being in government now and can no longer act as a lightning rod for dissent.

In this way UKIP is taking votes from major parties with a steady stream of cynicism about their behaviour in office. One of the first key setters of disillusionment with the current political class was the expenses scandal in which MPs were found to have stolen from the system in quite large ways. The result was a few MPs from both major parties have been sent to prison. However all of them were at it from all major parties! The minor parties of course remain untainted by this scandal. UKIP however as far as expenses claims are concerned have not shown themselves to be behind on this as far as the European parliament is concerned where they have representation with one of their members also being convicted of abusing the system.

The general feeling at this time of recession has been a lot of anger at the ruling parties. They are seen to be under the control of a metropolitan elite that is far removed from the people they represent. The idea of MPs telling people to tighten their belts while voting themselves above inflation pay rises has not been lost on the British Voter. In general cynicism about the major parties rules! Add to this the fact that the major parties are seen as not being every different from each other there is even more cynicism about them.

On both counts the major parties are seen ever more as two sides of the same coin and there is a drift of voters to UKIP and now on the other side to the Green Party which is also enjoying a surge in the polls. The result of this of course will be at the next general election probably be an increase in the vote of these two parties at the expense of the mainstream parties

Rats in London

                                                Rats in London          

The topic of rats in London is one that yields many myths. At one time there was a common myth that nobody was ever more than six foot away from a rat. This has now come under some scrutiny and seems to be a bit hard to justify. However the fact remains that London still has a sizeable rat population and their presence is evident in quite a few places.

All over the city it is quite  common sight to see rat tarps and in many parks they are increasingly bold and can be seen scuttling about the undergrowth in broad daylight..

One of the features of London life is the amount of takeaway food places that now sit on London streets. There are the traditional fish and chip shops  and also chicken and chips shops as well as doer kebab places along with some of the American chains such as MacDonalds, Subway and Burger King. Most of these places boast a lot of discarded food as it is very common for people just to throw it on the pavements without regard to the wider implications. While this supports a larger population of scavenging animals with the foxes, crows and starlings particularly benefitting from this it is also clear that this habit is providing a food source for rats

Another problem is that there are large populations of rats in the sewers. In times of austerity when cuts are made often rat control programmes bear the brunt as they cannot be seen. Local politicians would rather make cuts there rather than places such as old age homes and schools which would obviously court some unpopularity. As a result rat populations often become very large with some overspill on to London streets.

The tabloid press is also full of lurid stories of giant rats that are invading our towns. Most of these stories should however be taken with more than a pinch of salt

One fact is undeniable. The population of London’s rats is very large and is expanding. Rats are animals that are adept at exploiting the opportunities provided by human activity and a city like London provides plenty of opportunities. The recession has helped as well as vacant buildings provide plenty of opportunities for them to roost. Rat control is probably the best than can be achieved as eradication would be unlikely. The rat is here to stay.

           

Repairs and livelihoods

                        Repairs and livelihoods

A good example of the way repairs and livelihoods work is what happens at Archway station on the London underground. Apparently the block above needs substantial renovations and the scaffolding is going up everywhere. However this time I was witness to an argument that ensued as scaffolding was put up and the entrance to a shop was closed up.

The owner was remonstrating with the contractors. He had a business to run and that was his livelihood. All the workers were waiting round like vultures on the every word spoken

“Look if you put scaffolding up here I will take it down myself”

“Yes sir I understand but you have to observe the safety of your customers"

At that stage I took my camera out.

“So you are going to take pictures of us” one of the workers called to me

“I will take picture wherever I like” I replied. No reply was forthcoming and I continued to my engagement

The next day I spoke to the owner. There was scaffolding above but his place was secure. In this there was the conflict. I spoke to him about it and he just told me that the scaffolding was not for the station but for a block of flats nearby.

This encapsulates one of the problems for small business in this country. Decisions are taken for big projects without any regard who is affected by this. The people who enforce these are faceless bureaucrats. And people are affected by their decisions. In the end justice prevailed and the small café owner was able to keep his places but at no time was he offered any compensation for the effect it would have on his business

           

Cycling in London

Cycling in London

The third user of the streets apart from the pedestrians and cars are the cyclists. This is one of the most problematic groups as they are blamed for accidents on the roads and for not observing the highway code yet London is a death trap for cyclists. Many people are put off cycling in the city because in many ways it is a death trap,

It is a common sight to see bundles of flowers marking the spot where a cyclist was killed usually at a busy road junction. Lorry drivers claim not to see them and the death toll on the roads is very high.

At the moment the talk is of ensuring lorries are fitted with special safety equipment as well as a new network of cycle lanes in order to segregate cyclists and pedestrians.

It has been reported that cyclist themselves are becoming more worried about the roads. The number of accidents is fairly staggering. What should be an easy way to keep fit is increasingly being seen as a death trap.

London does not for instance have the history of a bicycle friendly culture that you have in many Dutch and Belgian cities and an unfortunate consequence of the way cyclists are treated on the roads is that they spill out onto paths in parks and on to pavements where they come into conflict with pedestrians.

One thing is certain. Changing the culture of the roads in London will be a lot more complicated that appears and any change will  necessitate a lot of foresight in order to bring motorists, cyclists and pedestrians into relative harmony

London Property Prices

London Property prices

One of the problems of London is its appearance as a world city

For so many years it has appeared as a safe haven against any crises in the word which has led to the phenomenon now occurring of the indigenous population moving out.

Cranes stand in many places with new housing developments holding sway. In fact there seems to be a rather frenetic pace of building. However this is not likely to benefit any ordinary people as the world comes to London’s doorsteps. Houses are seen as investments. Stories abound in the press of streets in parts of London where here are no light at night as the houses lie unoccupied.

Meanwhile the crisis for ordinary Londoners is fairly acute. The sight of people sleeping in doorways in this town is not unusual. The price of private housing is now so high that it is beyond the reach of most working people. Initially there has been a flow of people towards the so called commuter belt villages as they can no longer afford London prices.

The pressure on rented housing has also been substantial and for many people who have lived here all their lives the word is “how long can we stay?”Many people consider relocating to other parts of the country as they can no longer see themselves affording the prices that flats and houses in London command or raiding deposits of about £30 000 which is more than the average annual wage. In many ways the recession as exaggerated this tendency as banks play safe and demand higher deposits before they giver mortgages

Many of the regeneration policies followed by local authorities have tended to exacerbate this problem as flats are snapped up be rich overseas buyers leaving substantial housing shortage. The only local buyers able to afford the prices are those who already have properties or young people able to borrow from the bank of Mum and Dad. This is leading to big changes in the demographic of Central London. With the average price of a one bedroom flat in London approaching £400 000 owning  one’s own home in London is a pipe dream for most people.

Other ramifications exist! The poor seem to be in the process of being exiled to the outer suburbs as in many other European cities but increasingly what are known as key workers are as well. Key workers include such people as teachers, police, emergency services, cleaners. This of course leads to the spectre of Central London existing without key workers to service the place

One thing is certain. The crisis of housing in London is going to take more of a centre stage in local politics sooner rather than later

Clacton and UKIP

Clacton and UKIP

Now that the by-election has occurred the papers are full of analysis of what the result will mean. Will it be a new political force establishing itself or will it be a flash in the pan? Many columnists predicted UKIP was finished after the last European elections arguably their high water mark. However the fact that they have won a safe Tory seat and managed to push Labour to within 700 votes of losing in the other by-election speaks of a lot more than just that.

One of the problems for a third force in a country which historically has been the preserve of two main parties who alternate in government is that it is very hard for a third party to make an impression and to break the mould. Historically the British are divided into two major tribes Labour and Conservative and usually people will sport the trappings of which particular tribe they belong to. Of course politics is not a subject necessarily discussed.. These allegiances are however becoming more fluid

Normally the floating voters tend to determine which major arty winds power and the constituency first past the post does not tend to favour challengers. They usually have to concentrate their votes enough in a constituency to win a majority or plurality of the vote enabling their candidate to get elected. The systems in use for European elections, Scottish ad Welsh parliament elections and the London assembly elections are much kinder to smaller parties.

Several factors point however to a change in this view. One is percentage of the vote. If you look back at previous elections a different pattern emerges. In 1950 the two major parties gained 86 % of the vote between them. In 2010 they only managed 65%. This points to an increasing share of the vote being taken by third parties. In addition four way marginals are becoming increasingly common. A case in point is that in 1992 ,the constituency of Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber elected its Liberal Democrat winner with only 26% of the vote over his SNP,  Labour and Conservative challengers.. A third party can be successful in winning a constituency with 25% of the vote!

Another fact is that or the first time since the second world war the country has a coalition government as none of the major parties got enough to govern outright. The trend would seem to show that this is becoming the norm. Probably at the next election if the polls are anything to go by the major parties will struggle to win enough seats to govern on their own

What form the new challengers will take is difficult to assess. Historically the third party was the Liberal democrats who were mostly disaffected Tories who couldn’t bring themselves to vote labor and Disaffected Labour who couldn’t bring themselves to vote Tory. A lot of their supporters have left in disgust after their coalition with the Tories and their vote now struggles to reach double figures

Against ths can be se the rise of UKIP a party which capitalizes on fear of immigration, always a problem when people struggle to find jobs in a recession and also on the overbearing European Bureaucracy. However it also capitalizes on one thing which is the general disenchantment with the political class which runs very deep at this time. The Coalition government is very unpopular and Labour was in government recently.

this can be set the fact that another minority party the Green is rising in the polls and outpolling the Liberal Democrats’ in many constituencies which means the rise of another party. How this will translate into a general election is anybody’s guess. However the normal scare tactic used by the Prime minister of Vote UKIP and get Labour” does not seem to be working. Most UKIP voters are determined to have their say come what may and are no longer vulnerable to fears of getting the other.

One thing is certain : Four of five party politics is here to stay!

Railway travelling

                                                            Railway travelling

One of the most incomprehensible aspects of living in Britain is the price of rail travel. As more and more people are forced out of London by exorbitant property prices the demand for commuter trains increases. More and more people forced to travel on these overpriced amenities means that fares rose even further. At the moment an inflation busting 5.6% increase in fares is being forecast for next year. The inflation rate at the adjusted total is currently 1.9%.

All of this spells more misery for commuters and the other question is why is rail travel generally so expensive in the UK. Conventional wisdom is that it is the way the tendering system is set up and the rail companies will argue that tickets booked in advance are cheaper.

However the fact remains that it is cheaper to buy an air ticket to Greece than to travel to the North of England by train!

Faith in a workaday world

                                    Faith in a workaday world

One of the questions to be asked in a big city like this one is how easy it is to continue with a religious belief among the tumult of modern life.

In a country where most people profess a secular orientation and churches tend to empty more and more the issue of people of faith living as a minority comes to the fore more and more. In most churches the picture is the same. Declining attendances tell the story with empty pews in most churches. Differences can be seen in areas and in churches.

The Church of England has been the victim of a very steep decline in membership over the years with the Methodist church taking an even bigger hit.

It is as if Religion has been expunged from the national consciousness with even the Prime Minister speaking about having issues with faith. In terms of most moral issues that are affected in any cases there is a strong puritanical streak in secular Britain which damns all who do not see eye to eye on the issues of the day. Recent issues affecting Christians are usually spoken about as if the Christian position is wrong. On abortion the consensus is that it is a good thing and that only Catholics are against it. To be against abortion is to be against the rights of women over their bodies. It is a decidedly non party political issue but most politicians who raise their heads above the parapets endure strong derision from their party colleagues

A few years ago at the time of the Olympics, a faith outreach was set up linking all the main Christian churches. People were invited in for tea and coffee and a chat about faith. Various volunteers many from the US provided outreach services. I could only imagine the response that they got most of the time as people do not even want to talk about faith and in this case I ended up talking to a southern Baptist Lady from the US who almost fell off her chair with shock when I was able to produce a Bible from my rucksack. In England this would be a very unusual response.

Many churches have progressively ageing congregations with the membership dwindling. The Methodist Church was predicted to go extinct a little while ago. As far as other churches are concerned immigration has been a boom. It has halted the trend of declining catholic congregations and the catholic church seems to be holding its own in the battle of numbers. The same effect works for the orthodox churches which show a modest increase in membership. Apart from that the Pentecostal churches show some sort of increase in membership being increasing linked to arioso initiatives from the US.

Aside from this the picture is a bleak one. Increasingly the church has been all but expunged from national life. The new place of worship is the shopping mall driven by an increasingly money orientated consumer society.

The picture is similar for most of the British Isles with the exception of the Republic of Ireland ,though there the church has taken a knock due to child abuse allegations. However it remains fundamentally strong as still plays a part in national life unlike the other countries of these islands

Underemployment

                                                Underemployment

During the recent downturn a lot has been made of the fact that people are unemployed. Little has been made of the fact that many of the newly created jobs are part time. This has resulted in a phenomenon known as underemployment.

Of course this is great for the politicians as they can say that employment is on the rise. It does not however disguise the fact that there is a human tragedy behind all these things and that underemployment is actually quite a curse. Many people gain part time hours that still however ensure that they are not counted as unemployed yet they fail to make enough money to live a decent life and struggle to pay their bills.

Large numbers of people are reduced to working at a part time job when they would prefer to work more hours. This is very much a hidden statistic and its toll on the people involved cannot be underestimated. Not only do they have little money but they have the whole day to think about their problem!

Of course another aspect of this is the zero hour’s contract which is becoming increasingly common. Many forms are doing this and it becomes quite difficult as the person is only hired as and when required! This can also play havoc if a person is getting their income topped up by benefits as the hours can be variable and the bureaucracy of the benefit offices in this regard is something else!

However the politicians find this a very handy in painting their picture of an economy that is recovering!

Commuting to work

                                                Commuting to work

One of the great bugbears of London is the time it takes to get to work. Most Londoners are accustomed to spending long periods of the day just getting to their workplaces

As more and more people are forced into outlying suburbs and commuter towns so the daily commute grows. Trains coming from towns in the Home Counties are usually packed at weekdays with many of them providing standing room only. One of the annual miseries is the rise in rail travel tickets with all the fallout that it entails.

Even for those who live in London there is the misery of the commute. Many times I have had to spend about two hours actually getting to my place of work and that in London is not uncommon. Once I had an evening class to deliver in one location and I recall getting home at midnight which was in general quite a tiring commute.

Often it is said that everybody in London has two jobs, their own job and the other is getting to and from their workplace. In many ways it is fairly much of a truism that the daily commute can play a big role in your life and you can actually spend quite a few hours of the day getting to and from your workplace.

In the mornings the metro or tube system is packed. Most of the carriages are standing room only

And it is quite common to see tempers flaring as people all over themselves to get on trains and stay on the trains through all the stops. Busses can usually be packed as well and many buses will speed by as these are already so full of passengers that not is not safe or them to take any more.

Even private modes of transport are hardly an option as using a car in central London is a fruitless exercise. Not only do you have to pay to drive in this zone which is indicated by road signs bur you also have to find parking which is not easy and the few parking garages are quite expensive. Some people take to the roads and cycle but this also has its problems as London has an appalling record on road safety for cyclists. Many cyclists are killed every year by cars and lorries. The sight of bundles of flowers marking the death of a cyclist at a particular road junction is commonplace.

Every method of commuting has its problems. For most Londoners the idea is trying to find something to do in the long hours we spend commuting                               

           

Heat wave

                                                Heat wave

At the moment London is suffering a heat wave. It seems as if people are never satisfied. Now all the complaints are

“It is too hot!”

However those who work outdoors are enjoying the heat. Since air conditioning is nor so common here most people are sweltering in the heat. On the metro you constantly hear advice about taking a bottle of water with you. And it will probably come to a point soon when trains will slow down as usually happens. The transport system never seems to be adapted to cope with extremes of weather.

For the moment a lot of people are enjoying it. The parks come alive with people sitting in groups taking in the sun.

In a country where this does not happen so often many people are grateful for the short interlude because next week we could have rain. That is the ever present threat!

The recovery

                                                The recovery

In a time when the last recession has been decimating the high streets of the UK and led to a massive drop in the living standards of most people in the UK talk of a recovery seems a bit rich. For the past five years at least people in work that is have seen bills rose exponentially while wage rises have been small or nonexistent.

The truth is that now the government and press is trumpeting recovery. However people are still losing their jobs and for the average Briton life does not seem to have improved much

“The new conditions are rubbish” My one friend told me after going for a teaching job.

“What they expect from you is impossible!”

This sentiment would actually be mirrored in the exchanges various people have ad generally new jobs created seem to have worse conditions than the last.

In general people are accepting lower wages and worse conditions of employment just to get jobs which seem to still be very hard to come by.

One f the problems is that in education the paperwork that needs to be done is about ten times what is was When Labour left office so the government is increasing the load of paperwork all the time.

And the recovery seems ever so distant for most people as there seems to be very little work out there. In addition costs are rising all the time. Housing costs and fuel costs particularly. For the average person very little seems to be working at the moment.

Wirth the relentless increases in costs with wages staying stagnant there is likely to be large political fallout. 

Cheap shops

                        Cheap Shops

A good indicator of the health of the economy for most people is what is going on in the high streets of towns. This tends to reflect what is happening in the world at large and at the moment many high streets in the UK look pretty grim despite all this talk of recovery. The sight of  boarded up shop is still common. It is as if the enterprise has gone out of the economy. One aspect of the recession has been an explosion of cheap shops and for most people still in work this is one thing that has reduced the cost of living. We have the pound shop, the 99p store and poundland along with many other independent 99p or one pound chains. A huge range of goods are displayed there and of course nobody now asks their provenance. In fact few care about why the goods are so cheap but only the price. One of the signs of this recession is that even the Middle classes now go to poundland. Before the crisis that would have been unthinkable.

However these sops offer a range of goods from kitchen utensils to toys and garden accessories. All are offered at the standard rates of one pound. People are going there to stock up on all the essentials. Now the range even included such staples as cooked food ad it is possible to buy pizza salads and cooked chicken wings in some of these outlets. In fact there is a never ending streams of traffic in these places and this industry is one that has certainly not been suffering from the recession. So difficult has it become that even the major British supermarkets such as Tescos, Sainsburys and Morrisons have started price wars among themselves.

Certainly one effect of the recession has been an explosion of these shops and despite the so called recovery which for most people does not feel like a recovery with jobs still being very insecure, it looks as if for the moment these shops are here to stay.

World cup blues

                                                World cup blues

Now England is full of world cup fever. The papers are full of it with timetables daily. All the doings of the England team are scrutinized in finest detail. One of the main points of conversation is the hatches and matches and dispatches of the world cup.

Yesterday I passed by one estate full of bunting everywhere. From every wall and balcony flags were hanging. The cross of Saint George was everywhere.

Its inhabitants in fact consider themselves one of the most patriotic estates in the country and it shows in their flags. The country is football mad!

How does one cope if like me football leaves you comatose? It is not as if I did not have the experience of playing it as a child but I cannot see the point of watching any sport. I would rather play it. To watch and get excited seems to me to be the ultimate in wasting time. I always sit and wonder if these people don’t have anything better to do with their time. Why not actually go to the gym or play a game of football instead?

Paradoxically it is one of the few circumstances in these days of glass ceilings when it is better to be a woman. As a woman you are less expected to get excited over football. You can get away from it easily probably not before having to provide a shoulder to cry on for some “world cup widow” whose partner is permanently glued to the television screen. You at least have a choice! And if you find world cup fever a bit too much you will always find solidarity with somebody of your gender.

If you are a man however the expectation is that you are going to be obsessed with football. Most of your friends are taking time out of their social lives to watch the games and Ooh and ah over every goal missed by the England side.  Certainly you can hear the shouts across the neighborhood with the televisions blaring results at every turn.

Of course if you are not obsessed with football you must be somewhat abnormal in fact a one man freak show. Your friends start to get worried about you and try to concoct schemes to get you interested in the game. You must be abnormal if you don’t like football. How can you not love the “beautiful game”?

One the other hand you do start to meet other men who will confess their guilty secret. They don’t like the beautiful game either. It all starts conspiratorially discussing how to survive the world cup and takes on a new dimension. You realize you have something in common. Besides, many women are usually not interested in football either. You begin to develop an alternative social life.

How long this will last I don’t know. At least you find the “abnormal” minority and the companionship of other “freaks”. At least this allows you to batten down the hatches and watch and wait till the world cup is over and better times return.