Now it all depends on whether you’re American, English, Irish or Australian who all embrace their football game.
It’s in the human DNA you see since the day Cain decided to kick Abel’s skull into a ditch.
So here are some thoughts on some of the teams I’ve adopted from my travels.
Touchdown
Off Pat
New England Patriots: I don’t know if you’re allowed it but I adopt all the American sports teams wherever I go.
It does make it easier to pick a winner if you’ve got the New York Jets (my Long Island cousins’-team), the Washington Redskins who are now looking for a new team, and the Denver Broncos.
It’s just that you go with the team where you spend the most time… and that was my summer after university in Boston.
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, India, Israel, Mexico, Morocco, South Africa and the US.
With the last two turning my clown into a frown.
Having set in train all my trips this year around these countries I’m having to make do with North Berwick beach these past couple of months.
Barbados hotpots
You see I don’t fancy much being one of half a million on Bournemouth beach.
Give me one of Barbados’s beaches, and I’m reminded now of a tub of chicken stew and bottles of Banks beers in Bathsheba, St Joseph East… Let’s rumba in Barbados and My kiss with Rihanna.
Of course the beach is a Bajan’s dining room where the locals put up bars like we do brollies.
And where the flying fish jump out of the sea and onto your plate.
Fish of the day
There are many different varieties of cutters including liver, cheese, ham, egg and more.
Clubbing together: Club Barbados on the Platinum Coast
Or even easier are their fish cakes… do like a local and order a ‘bread and two’. On a bun.
The Bajans will be only too happy to show you how to cook up a treat…
But I’m not here to talk about airline uniforms, though there would be no harm in it, and I will get back to you on that.
More importantly these behemoths of the skies are only getting us flying again.
Emirates will begin flying to and from Dublin from June 15.
In the frame
Among 16 other cities to Dubai, the others being Bahrain, Manchester, Zurich, Vienna, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, New York JFK, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Jakarta, Taipei, Hong Kong, Perth and Brisbane.
Check Emirates’ website for conditions and prices and keep updated on Ireland’s travel rules.
All’s well that ends well
Welcome on board
There are worse ways to spend an afternoon than aboard an Etihad airplane in Dublin Airport.
Getting the full VIP treatment and winning air miles. Only I haven’t cashed them in yet.
But I will when the Scary One lets me get travelling again… and, no it’s nothing to do with COVID.
I’m eating alone
There’s always a big welcome from our friends at Etihad and they have introduced Wellness Ambassadors to deal with your every flying need.
They showcased their own livery rebrand and new uniforms in the last couple of years.
And they continue to keep us occupied and enamoured with foreign destinations.
Virtually for now such as through Seattle and the Olympic National Park.
Green for go
And the brilliant blue water blue water at Lake Crescent and hiking routes through Hoh Rain Forest only make us more impatient to get on that flight out to Seattle.
They make easy targets for class warriors but on days of military commemoration, like today VE Day, the British Royal Family are entitled to raise their heads high.
Prince Philip was first lieutenant (second-in-command) on board the HMS Wallace during the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1942.
When the Luftwafffe began their bombardment of the waters.
Another war… but the same sacrifice
Yeoman Harry Hargreaves revealed back in 2003 how Philip duped the enemy and saved the ship and all on it.
By persuading his captain to drop a raft overboard, set it alight, and deceive them into bombing that instead.
And so as Prince Charles, whose own military career is distinguished, laid a wreath today at Balmoral to the Fallen, and the Queen spoke to the Nation…
It is well to remember that we wer all in the same fight in World War II. And now.
My Great-Uncle Willie
What we all do after we get out of this we’ll have to wait and see, and there will be a clamour for sun and sand.
My friends in the Caribbean take note.
While some will seek remote holidays, others adventure, while still others walking holidays.
And all are on my list.
But I will, as I’ve always done, continue to visit the places and commemorate those who fell in war around the world.
Cavernous destruction… in Flanders
Like I did when I was invited to lay the wreath at the daily Last Post commemoration at the Menin Gate in Ieper (Ypres).
Where my Great Uncle Willie lies in a graveyard of identically-sized crosses (no hierarchy in death).
And where I was the first of his relatives to see him, plant a wooden cross and say The Lord’s Prayer.
His brother Patrick has his name inscribed among the tens of thousands of missing on the arch at Thiepval.
Everyone a hero: Great-Uncle Pat and the Missing at Thiepval
I have been fortunate enough to trot the globe but I have never felt as moved.
Or deeply grateful than when I knelt before Great Uncle Willie’s grave.
And though I never knew him, or those he fought with or against, I commend them and those who care for their last resting places.
Continental Europe is the great treasure on our doorstep but it is caught in something of a musical time warp.
Walking the Camino I stopped off at a wayside inn where they were tapping their feet to the Falco (who?) song Rock Me Amadeus.
Which is my circuitous way of flagging up the building of river cruise ship Amadeus Cara for next year.
Blue for you: The Danube
The new cruise ship boasts 73 spacious luxury cabins (17.5m²) and 12 AMADEUS suites (26.4m²).
Yes, you’ll be rolling down the river but you’ll also have plenty to do including:
– Modern fitness area – Hair and massage salon – Panorama Restaurant – The Panorama Bar which offers space for events and talks and where the AMADEUS musicians perform every evening – Lift between decks
The maiden voyage of AMADEUS Cara will be the 8-day Danube Rhapsody cruise from/to Passau at the end of April 2021.
For the remaining season, the cruise ship will be travelling on the Danube to the Black Sea, as well as between Amsterdam and Basel on the Rhine.
Prices start from £499.00 per person, cruise-only on a three-night ‘Interlude on the Danube’ itinerary, based on 16 August 2021 sailing.
This round-trip from Passau is the perfect taster for anyone new to river cruising.
Prices start from £1,699.00 per person on a Three Rivers Cruise, based on 2 September 2021 sailing.
Rhine for any season
Travel along the Rhine, Main and Danube on a sailing that includes a transit of the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal and the chance to visit the fairytale streets of Rothenburg ob der Tauber.
Princess Cruises is increasing by six months the Australia and New Zealand season of the 2,670-guest Sapphire Princess.
The ship will now arrive in Australiaon May 1 and sail Down Under for 12 months.
This adds a total of 47 new cruises from five major Australian cities to the season.
The ship was previously scheduled to sail in Asia from May-October.
Sapphire Princess will arrive into Perth (Fremantle) following a multi-million dollar refurbishment. The full season comprises 171 port calls including:
Night at the opera: Sydney
· A10-nightCoral Coast voyage sailing from Perth (Fremantle), visiting West Australia’s coastal destinations such as Broome, Geraldton and Exmouth. DepartingMay 4, 2020.
· A17-nightNorthern Explorer between Sydney and Perth (Fremantle) visiting destinations such as Geraldton and Cairns. Departing Perth (Fremantle)on June 8, 2020
· Roundtrip voyages to Fiji from Brisbane and Sydney including a12-nightFiji cruise sailing from Sydney visiting Dravuni Island and Lautoka. DepartingJune 25, 2020
· Australia Circumnavigation voyages from Sydney, Adelaide and Perth (Fremantle) including an inaugural 28-night Round Australia cruise out of Adelaide.
Beach life: In Fiji
Visiting Port Lincoln, Kangaroo Island, Port Arthur, Hobart, Sydney, Brisbane, Yorkeys Knob, Alotau, Darwin, Kimberley Coast (Scenic Cruising), Broome, Geraldton, Perth (Fremantle), Margaret River (Busselton) and Adelaide.
Departing from Perth (Fremantle)10 August, 2020
The new cruises are on salefrom Thursday, February 27.
Sapphire Princess will receive MedallionNet WiFifrom June 4, offering guests the fastest Wi-Fi at sea.