Oh what a week this has been. Normally I would say I’m not particularly interested in football, but like many people in this country, Football frenziness took hold and I got a teeny weeny bit excited. More excited that a rutting stag in Autumn – not in a sexual way, obviously, but you could say in some way similar (if I can remember that far back). My heart was racing before England had even kicked off, when the first goal went in I almost wet myself (just a little), but long before the game started I noticed something strange hanging in the air .

In between flower deliveries I nipped into Waitrose to get a few football watching snacks, you know olives, feta cheese cubes, hand cooked artisan potato chips, stone-baked pizza…I stepped out of the heat through the doors to be met be a cold blast of air conditioning and EMPTY SHELVES!

I had to go to Marks & Spencer instead.

When I got back to the shop, there was an eerie silence around the village. It was if there’d been a nuclear air raid warning and everyone (and I mean everyone) had holed themselves indoors, with the entire stock of Waitrose, Tesco & Sainsbury’s.

I managed to close the shop on time – surprisingly I had no late, last minute deliveries and we’d all been busy earlier in the day preparing the early morning’s flowers, assuming that IF England won, none of us would be in a fit state to create floral masterpieces to The Flower Shop standards.

The game kicked off, my brother Phil and his crazy wife came round and we cracked open the Liquorice Allsorts and Sussex Gin, with a very nice cucumber tonic (highly recommended). By half time we were all  somewhat prematurely jubilant, ecstatic, high on ‘E’ numbers from multiple bags of Allsorts (nb. there was only one jelly one in 3 bags), by the full-time whistle my head was buried in the sofa cushions and Michelle had gone for a walk in the garden and both Phil and John had a sudden call of nature. Extra time was excruciating, I couldn’t watch but I’m sure the whole village heard me scream when the coffin lid finally closed on what could have been a defining moment in history.

Thursday morning arrived and everything is now completely back to normal.