Infection

You will have to excuse me if I don't post every day for the next few days. I am staying at my lover's house. Looking forward to 4 days of joy and relaxation. Oh and football of course.

It's a weird thing you know this football. How it gets under your skin. Intrudes into your head. Grabs your attention.

I guess once you have got the bug you have got it. Infected for life.

For example, I have found myself initiating conversations about football. Several times a day. Or when I hear someone mention it I respond so that we end up talking about it.

Take today. I was on the train when an older gentleman came and sat opposite to me. He looked to be in his late 60s and walked with a stick. He saw the man next to him reading the sport section of The Mail and said "The Telegraph is the best paper to read about sport in. The tabloids don't know what they are talking about".

So I said "Do you like sport then?". That was it. Turns out he is 77. He told me all about how important sport had been in his life. A qualified coach in 6 different sports and observer of anything and everything. His favourite is football and he played as a semi-professional for Hereford in the 1950s. He has defied death 5 times - including a brain tumour when he was just 18.

And he also told me how he is now crippled with arthritis, which he puts down to all those years playing sport with passion. He said "People ask me if I regret playing so much sport now I am disabled. I tell them I don't regret any of it and would do it all again"

How amazing is that?