Well, Djokovic won, no surprise. But Berrettini put up a good fight; it wasn’t entirely one-sided. And he was dignified and cheerful in defeat. The Wimbledon crowd is normally on the side of the underdog, which Berrettini undoubtedly was. I wondered whether they would be put off, today of all days, by the fact that he is Italian – but no, he was cheered on with enthusiasm. Tonight’s football seems to be unbelievably important – it’s past my bedtime, so I won’t know how it comes out until later. The whole fuss increases my feeling that the nations of the United Kingdom are drifting out to sea in different directions. Boris has promised England an extra day’s holiday if England win tonight. I think it might be more tactful to extend that to everybody.

 

Sarah and Chloe (comments yesterday) – thank you for pointing me to the fact that the Adriano Panatta of today can be found thanks to Google. I agree, he doesn’t look too bad. I watched part of an interview with him. I feel, nowadays, that I I could sit for a while in the corner of the kitchen of a well-spoken Italian family, I could more or less nail the language. But I am not strong enough to get there again, even if I could find a family to take me in.

 

I made good progress with the sock, schooling myself to knit even in the moments when all I wanted to do was gawp at the television.

 

C. walked around the garden with me this morning, Only 1939 steps. Yesterday was slightly better.

 

Arnall-Culliford Knitwear has got some delicious new yarns. Not that I need any new yarn, delicious or otherwise. But I have a problem looming in the form of another cruise.

 

Last year, when the May Wilderness cruise was cancelled, C. and I put our booking forward to this year. That’s the one we’ve just done. But we also booked a “Captain’s Choice” for the end of the season – surely all this nonsense would have been over by then. We nearly got there, but then it was cancelled too, and we moved it forward, similarly,  to an “Isles of the Southern Hebrides and Sea Lochs of Argyll” leaving in August, ‘21 – which is, all of a sudden, any moment now. I have tried to give my place away, without success. If I’m going, I’ll need some knitting.