Home thoughts from abroad

I had an excellent weekend in London visiting old muckers and celebrating birthdays, but I have grown accustomed to efficient public transport and I didn’t much care for its antithesis. Within 10 minutes of setting foot in the city (the time it takes to walk from the Thameslink platform to the underground at Kings Cross) I counted no less than 7 different announcements of delays or cancellations to tubes or trains. Feelings of nostalgia were no further aroused by walking into a shop to see a new range of ‘amusing’ gift cards, one of which had the charming design 'Happy Birthday Bitch.'

George Best – legend or love cheating lush? Both, I suppose. Quite droll that amidst the hyped sentimentality his erstwhile team (whose name escapes me, but they used to be quite famous) will be the only one of the British foursome not in the final stages of the Champions' League, or indeed even in Uefa. And did anyone else notice that Benfica’s goalie is called Quim?