You’ve got a hubcap diamond star halo
I realised, when I was halfway up Mont Caly in a sweaty mess this morning, that this time next week I will be back at my desk in Cardiff. This will inevitably be accompanied by much pissing and moaning as I come to terms with the biannual re-entry woes which, astoundingly, take me by surprise every time.
Which brings me seamlessly onto privilege. It’s a word that can, occasionally, set my teeth on edge as it’s seemingly moved into common parlance not only in the manner for which it was intended, but also as one of a growing list of snidey put downs, reserved for when somebody says something you don’t agree with but you can’t be bothered to formulate any kind of adult response. I’m looking at you, Twitter.
Nonetheless, privilege in its purest form is where we’re sitting, here. For three months of the year, I can wake up in a beautiful place, run/ski in the mountains, enjoy, for the most part, amazing weather, food and scenery, whilst still running my company and looking after my clients with minimal disruption. Sure, there are a lot of things we don’t do in order to be able to do this. We’ve made lifestyle choices about where we live and how much we spend in the UK – but you’d expect that, right? It’s all about priorities and this one is ours.
You’ll note that I have stepped right over the subject of rugby. The last day of the Six Nations is, traditionally, a highlight for me – and an excuse to sit on my arse on the sofa all day. This one, however, was painful – starting with Italy delivering a comprehensive spanking to Wales. Anybody thinking that a game against Italy is a gimme, which I suspect we did, needs to have a stern word with themselves going forward – but it was a joy to watch a team who just don’t give up finally get what they deserve. And it was certainly what we deserved.
Resilience is me, so I hitched my wagon to the star of my second team, Scotland. That went well, too. By which point, the only answer was gin. As lifestyle choices go, it seems to hold a lot more weight than being a Wales supporter.
