So Euro 2004 is well underway, necessitating an early dash home from work in order to catch the 1st game each evening. With every team having played one game, the tournament now starts to get interesting, many teams England amongst them, know that they can’t afford any more slip-up’s if they wish to stay in the competition.

The two games a night schedule for the 1st week does not leave much time for anything, but we did manage to nip over to Bath on Saturday evening to see the really rather wonderful Divine Comedy in action. This time they played as a 3 piece – Guitar, Piano and Cello and it all worked very well indeed.

Interesting comment from my blog friend Kelpie from Washington USA for the entry below, regarding Mrs Thatcher. To my mind she was one of the most damaging and divisive political figures this country has seen. Leading us into an unnecessary war with Argentina, setting the British people against themselves twice (The miners strike and the poll tax riots), starting the crazy inflation of house prices by insisting the council housing be sold off, without letting the money be used to build more homes for poorer families, the whole “No such thing as society” attitude which she fostered and just her complete disregard for the fact that sometimes people and communities need help and support, rather than being left to “market forces”. Still it is easy to look at political figures from afar and think that they are wonderful, I well remember going to Russia when Mikael Gorbachev was the leader. At the time everyone in the west thought that he was fantastic (indeed I still that hold that opinion), so it was a real shock to discover that he was loathed by millions of his own people. So I don’t criticize Kelpie when I disagree with her, I just think that it’s an interesting observation. Interesting to wonder what the world perception of Tony Blair is at the moment, when his popularity levels in England has fallen through the floor.