Swedish Hearts

I'm not amazing with dates, or in fact writing things down as they happen. I've kept two diaries in my time. The first was on blue and green paper in a spiral bound notepad and I kept it between January 1st 2000 and sometime in mid-September 2000 when I went back to college to start the second year of sixth form. The second one I kept was between September 2002 and June 2003, which was a lot more interesting, as it wasn't entirely preoccupied with ridiculous non-happenings between myself and my angst-ridden gawkings towards members of the opposite sex. There's a few occasions on the 2002/2003 one which I don't even understand myself, because of it's abstract nature: I used to carry it around with me at all times, and even if I was in a pub drinking and my friend or girlfriend went to the toilet, I'd jot something down. Sometimes you could tell where I was or what I was doing because the writing looked like I was trying to write upside down or with my left hand, or was so drunk that even holding a pen was a bad idea. A good example from memory was New Years Eve 2002 where I ended up sleeping in Adam Bamburys car listening to my walkmen, and my closing comments on 2002 were "drunk! adam bambury car the nightingales coming through mexxx" although imagine that written in what looks like Arabic, and in letters fifteen times the magnitude of my usual scribble.I think I was listening to DJ Shadow and Julee Cruise at the time.
My point is that without keeping a diary, I'm really not great at remember when and where exactly anything happened, and so memories become even more abstract than my 02/03 diary. For example, right now is June 10th, which is my mum and dead cat's birthday. I'm trying to remember where I was or what I was doing this time last year. I can't even remember what I bought my mum for her birthday last year, like, if I posted it or took it home. I also went to Gothenburg at the start of June last year and it was absolutely brilliant, but in the here and now, I can't remember if I was there on June 10th or home again listening to The Sundays on the bus home from work. I was thinking this today when I watched the opening 5 minutes of the Sweden vs Greece game at Euro 2008. Football tournaments are fantastic time indicators for people who don't keep diaries. If there was one every year, then I'd almost certainly be able to recall the events of last year better. I can remember the World Cup of 2006 quite vividly, or rather I can remember June 2006 vividly because I was working 13 hours a day and missed almost the entire thing, bar the final, and the hilarious Portugal vs Holland game where everyone got sent off and nobody knew why. Likewise, Euro 2004 I remember really well because I was in Winchester and had just been tipped off that Soulseek was the best filesharer ever and I'd finally managed to get a copy of Dave Pajo's cover of Last Caress, and I remember the game when England lost to Portugal really well because I was making a a CD cover for a CDR of Castaways and Cutouts by the Decemberists, because I thought they were the best band ever. World Cup 2002, I was in Winchester again, and I remember getting up early to watch matches at stupid o' clock and I was obsessed with these Chinese chicken noodle soups that you can't buy anymore. It goes on. But the in between years: 01, 03, 05, 07, I can't for the life of me think what I was doing for the entire month of June. I hope I wasn't in Sweden on June 10th last year, because the comparative day this year was a massive waste of getting out of bed, since all I did was count down the hours until the Russia vs Spain game, read half a chapter of a book, and bought more cartons of orange juice from Lidl that I could feasibly carry and regretted leaving the house the second I did because huge wafts of cut grass and summertime evils took residence in my nose and the entire lengths of Coburn Street and the Woodville Road junction got to see me wipe my nose on my sleeve because my hands were full.
I didn't watch the Sweden game but I understand they gave Greece a 2-0 pasting, much like every other game in the tournament so far, being hideously one-sided with no potential for upset or excitement for a neutral. The only exception being the France vs Romania game, which was hideously no-sided, and therefore awful.
But, where the football is lacking, there has been some minor highlights.
Gordan Strachan as a pundit is always brilliant. As a Southampton fan, I used to make sure I tuned into post-match interviews with Strachan as he's pretty much a rent-a-quote for going against the usual cliches and nonsense. Once he said he'd rather have been watching Die Hard than the Southampton players, because the film and the match were roughly the same length.
The ball: I like the use of the retro black hexagons, and when the camera pans out to the helicopter shots, it looks just like Sensible Soccer
I've noticed a couple of the managers look ridiculous, Like Donadoni for Italy who looks a bit like Dustin Hoffman, a bit like Bruce Springsteen, and really doesn't look like he's enjoying his job. The Croatian manager looks like he could moonlight as a member of The Stranglers.
The fact that although Austria and Switzerland nationals are clearly loving the event and want their teams to win, they all know 100% that neither team are any good whatsoever, and really don't care one bit. The Austrian press are urging damage limitation, rather than causing an upset. Brilliant.
Having the subtitles on during the live commentary and noticing the spelling mistakes or accidental homonyms. They said 'Geese' instead of 'Greece' earlier, which was a treat.
I'm hoping things get more interesting though. The above list is usually ten times as long after the first set of games in a tournament like this. My current score for the Metro Fantasy Football is 14. I'm placed 74,324th.