8207/21126
FA Cup and Eurovision on the same day?! Back in the 70s that would have been cause to sit in front of the TV from 9am to 10pm with endless bowls of sweets and crisps before going to bed feeling sick and all confused and shaken up by the blonde one from Abba.
Sexy old Bjorn.
But today I barely watched any of the match and we watched Pokerface instead of Eurovision and the kids didn't even know either event was on. Was I denying them a rite of passage? Or do things just move in. To be fair Eurovision did at least use to be a manageable still-much-too-long-length and the UK had a chance of being in the top three.
I think I didn't tell my kids that Eurovision was on, just on the off-chance that they'd want to watch it. I was saving myself many hours of wasted time and also ensuring they wouldn't endure a lifetime of sexual confusion prompted by seeing a sexy European in brightly coloured clothes.
The ping pong table is still going down a treat. After a defeat had left Phoebe close to tears I let her beat me 21-4, which she was delighted about. I hadn't actually intended to lose by that margin, so I think she can take it as a genuine victory.
Ernie had a playdate with some friends who were brought round by their mum. Towards the end of the afternoon the dad came round to pick them up, saw the ping pong table and his eyes went wide. He pushed his kids away so he could have a go and ended up playing Phoebe (who acquitted herself well, but he was pulling no punches). At 18-11 down she asked me to take over to save the game and so I went toe to toe with an adult opponent for the first time. It was fun to bring out my killer serve and spin and I quickly pulled back 5 points, but a couple of unforced errors meant I didn't quite pull off the comeback of the century.
The dad was very keen to get his own table (the mum emailed later to say they'd ordered one) and I wondered if I should set up a table tennis league for Hitchin dads. I think it might turn into a bloodbath, but glad to know that I am not the only invigorated by nostalgic competition. Turns out we all just wanted to own table tennis tables and now, decades on, we realise we can do so if we want.
