There’s only one place to start this week. England beating Germany for the first time in the knockout stages of any football tournament in 55 years. Yes forget your 30 years of hurt, it’s 55 years to be exact. It’s also the first time England haven’t conceded a goal in their opening 4 matches since 1966. So is it coming home?
On June the 19th after the Scotland game I wrote this. “More negativity about England. Tournament football is firstly getting out of the group., the competition starts in the knockout stages. We’re second with 4 points & not lost. Everyone said our attacking options are second to none but we’ve only scored 1. Also we can’t defend, we’ve conceded 0. We’ve played 2 teams who have played not to lose & let’s face it that was a Cup Final for the Jocks last night. Let them bang on about, should have, could have but you didn’t. The fact is you’ve played 2 games & scored 0 & if you don’t beat Croatia it’s Cheerio! The Czechs won’t be easy but barring a disaster we’re through. Then we’ll have teams who will want to play football and that will help us. Those forwards will click & when they do we’re a match for anyone. Keep the faith!”
I don’t like to say I told you so, but I did! Ukraine will be a different proposition on Saturday evening and it will be a tough game. Play like we can and we have every chance of getting through.
It’s good to see the island re-opening properly. With the arrival of the Brits this week we should see a big change in the resorts. Terminal A opened yesterday which will handle the majority of the UK flights. I do hope they get it right as it won’t be a good reflection on the island if there are queues of people waiting to get through passport control. The cases are unsurprisingly rising here with the arrival of more people, so we need to be careful. In the UK they are too, however the hospitalisations and death rates seem to be low both there and here. It seems the vaccination programmes and how it is now treated is helping with this. The UK Government also looks like it’s changing its view and is starting to favour the fact we need to now try and live with the virus. Something I’ve banged on about for months and hopefully that is the way forward. What we can’t have is the constant changes in policy and in particular in travel, which has happened in other destinations. The traffic light system has been flawed, for me it should be Red or Green and nothing else. Our Government here a few weeks ago relaxed it’s rules on letting Brits arrive without quarantining. Then the UK put us onto the new green watch list(another change). So no longer amber and not fully green. It gives them the opportunity to change travel advice pretty much overnight like they did with Portugal. As soon as the green watch list happened, Brits were then told they had to arrive here either double jabbed, with a negative PCR or antigen test. This week it changed again and an antigen test is now not sufficient to enter. There seems to be too much chopping and changing from both Governments, which doesn’t breathe confidence into the travel market.
Without doubt the UK are desperate for some summer sun. We are without doubt one of the best European destinations for holidays for UK travellers, so let’s look forward to a busy couple of months. But we must not forget all the sacrifices it took to get here and provide a safe destination for all that are travelling.
I am also really pleased to announce that after 618 days since we last opened the doors, Pirates is re-opening next week. Our last show was Halloween on October 31st 2019 and like most businesses here we haven’t had the opportunity to open since. Having worked for the company since 1994 it has been without doubt the most difficult time I can remember. The islands most popular shows are returning bigger and better than before. Between Pirates Adventure, Reloaded and Gringos there’s something for everyone and we look forward to you all coming back to see us. I’ll give you a further update next week.
Take care everyone and enjoy your Weekend!
Richie presents the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday 07.30-11.00am on 93.8fm in Mallorca and 102fm in Calvià, online at www.radioonemallorca.com on mobile through their free App for IPhone & Android, The Tunein Radio App, iTunes, the Spanish TDT TV service and all smart speakers. If you can’t hear him on the radio then you’ll find him working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again he may make an understudy appearance!
Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com
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