Happy St George's Day

I was just reading through the build up to the big Champions League semi final this afternoon between Man U and Barcelona on the BBC website when I discovered it was St George's Day today. As this is officially England's 'national day' you may be surprised that I had forgotten all about this until I just read about it but that sums up what a small event this day plays in a typical Englishman's calendar and I think that is sad. Americans have July 4th, we have April 23rd. Imagine only remembering it was July 4th through reading about it on a website and you'll see what I mean!

This all reminded me of an incident I forgot to mention that happened during my workout last night. As I was warming down, the high school next door were just about to kick off a football (soccer!) game and the national anthem was piped out over the tannoy. Not only this, but 4 people who were at the track actually stopped and stood, hand on heart, while the anthem was played. Awesome stuff. The only time you get to hear the national anthem in England is at Medal ceremonies (ie. rarely!) and before most International fixtures and I think that is a crying shame! I actually felt quite awkward carrying on my warm down but others at the track were carrying on so I didn't feel so bad!

Anyway, Happy St George's Day to any of my English readers out there!!

For the record I am celebrating our national day by not running at all and tracking Manchester United's game against the Spanish invaders from Barcelona (despite the fact that there are only 6 English players in our squad of 18 tonight)