Friday 21 February 2020

Celts versus Celts


Four middle-aged Frenchmen in the pub tonight, planning on going to Bristol tomorrow to watch the rugby. France versus Wales.

They all play for the veteran team of a town in Brittany, and one of them proudly takes his jacket off and lifts his top to expose his local team's T-Shirt, for which he is the Captain. Turns out he changed his shirt in the hostel, and the one he is now wearing is something to do with a sci-fi film. We all laugh.

"I love England", he says. " I love the brown beer. I married a girl from Exeter. She still lives in France. I don't like Europe. I hate Europe, but what have you done with this Brexit ? You are now all economically fucked!"

I tell him that half of this country are fucking idiots. He reluctantly agrees. "You are now going to be fucked by Trump!" he reminds me.

I said "Don't blame me, and don't blame anyone in this pub. This is the pub famous for refusing to serve Nigel Farage".

"Tomorrow we will beat Wales!" He is nothing if not confident.

I remind him that Brittany, Cornwall and Wales are all linked by the Celtic connection, and he tells me that his daughter teaches Bretagne as a language in France. "It is like Gallic".

May the best Celts win.

27 comments:

  1. I hope someone on staff affixed a plaque to the pub wall proclaiming their proud achievement. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall as Nigel was shown the door!

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    1. A video exists, starring my friend Garry and Nigel. Google: 'Farage Wave'.

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    2. According to one short piece I read about the incident, your pal, Gary, has had £250 worth of pints bought for him by fans via PayPal!

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    3. Yes. It was a nation wide expression of gratitude. It was my idea too.

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  2. A great pun, I think. Or oblique, left handed reference.

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  3. When will the optimum point be reached on the calling of half the population idiots as I am growing tired of this piece of information seemingly needing to be reinforced by you so many times for your readers?

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  4. Why were they going to Bristol to watch the match? Having travelled this far, they could easily have crossed into Wales. If they were going to watch it on a screen, they could have stayed at home.

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    1. I think I must have misunderstood the venue. They are probably on their way to Wales right now. I do not follow rugby.

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    2. For anyone reading this - they are playing in CARDIFF, at the now-named Principality Stadium, still known to most Welsh as the Arms Park.

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    3. I sort of guessed it would be Cardiff.

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    4. The Arms Park is next door to where they play..which is the Millennium Stadium

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    5. Splitting hairs, but it has been the Principality Stadium since 2016 for sponsorship reasons, however, the name Cardiff Arms Park is still used widely here, and everyone knows where the match will be.

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  5. I remain firmly in your half Tom, that is until the other half prove that they were right and we were wrong - something that I can't envisage happening during my lifetime.

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    1. The other half who don't fall into the idiot category are now trying desperately to justify their impulse vote. Amongst them are a good percentage of people who voted for a Britain which never existed and will not exist any time soon. The real idiots were the ones who gave Boris Johnson the overwhelming mandate to destroy the country in as quick a time as possible. At least it was a slowish decline before the election.

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    2. And do you go about addressing your friends as idiots if they didn't vote your way? I guess not, it wouldn't apply to you would it? Well you're welcome to him, your beautiful blog friend.

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    3. I only have one friend who voted leave, and I regularly call him an idiot, because he is. Nothing to do with Brexit.

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    4. I have friends who are definitely not idiots who voted for Brexit. Mostly they did it because of one or two things about the EU that niggled them, not considering the bigger picture.
      We have to avoid the subject as it's too painful for both sides.

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    5. I know they are not all idiots, but I get waves of anger when a staunch leaver pretends that they knew what they were voting for, when everyone else didn't.

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  6. What a brilliant game ... shame for Wales who battled hard. XXXX

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