Fat necks and fat heads

Saturday was a gorgeous day. Emma and young Alex came over to Barton, and following some tadpole-spotting, and lunch in the garden, we headed off to a park here in town that I’d not previously visited. And wow! It was gorgeous. And not just in a green green grass and leafy trees kind of a way. The people – en masse - seemed to have a thoroughly decent air to them – even the steroid-pumped tattooed teenagers who were out parading their ManDogs – ‘This dog - with its fat neck, heavy testicles and square jaw is indeed my idea of beauty. This version of beauty answers to the name of ‘Mike’’. Perhaps the sweetest moment of our visit had been when one of said teenagers excitedly trotted over to young Alex and self as we muddied ourselves in the river. I hauled the boy up such that we could both benefit from an impromptu lesson in the local hand-caught fish stocks - as delivered by our new friend, TattooNeckTeenager. We thanked TNT, and bade him farewell as he returned to his dawgs, and their dogs.

*****
As were so many others, I was appalled by this incident in the weekend’s football match between Newcastle United and Aston Villa. In front of a crowd of 50,000 people, plus a tv audience of millions, a couple of team-mates (each with weekly wages of £40-50,000!) fighting one another as the game continued. I wonder how those kids who’d been present felt when they got home that evening to bedrooms bedecked with posters of their ‘heroes’. ‘Shameful’ does not go far enough. A different BBC article mentions that ‘Northumbria Police are also set to investigate the incident’. If this had been a couple of lager louts scrapping on the Quayside at midnight Saturday, they’d be up in front of magistrates this week. As it’s a couple of the region’s sporting elite, I’m predicting a cop-out, no pun intended.

*****
I love the sound of the sea.