Bayeux Tapestry

 Battle Abbey has put in a bid to host the Bayeux Tapestry when it comes to Britain in four years time. I don't suppose it'll win out against the British Museum- because London has the big guns- but I'd love it if it did. There could be no more appropriate venue than the site of the battle. Besides, it's just down the road from here.

I almost saw the tapestry when I was a kid. We were driving through Normandy and I spotted the turn-off for Bayeux and began bouncing up and down on the back seat going "Can we? Oh, can we, pleeeease." And my father said, "We'll find a hotel first, then come back." And then he went on driving and went on driving- and of course we never did.

Parents and their promises, eh? They think children have short memories. Wrong. It's old people who can't hold onto a thought. Children remember forever and ever....

Meanwhile, On The Other Side Of The Planet...

All that wonderful Antipodean sunshine and they stage the Australian Open indoors. It seems wilful. Sulky even. I hear voices from my childhood saying things like, "It's a lovely afternoon; why don't you go out and play."

The other thing that always shocks me a little is the blue floor. I mean, they don't even go through the motions of pretending it's grass.

I haven't really been watching. I turned the TV on for my mother this afternoon and happened on a recording of the Kerber-Sharapova match. Sharapova got swept aside. She was never my favourite and the noise she makes is hideous- like the whooping bit in whooping cough. I always thought she got more attention than her talent deserved because of her long legs and yellow hair.