At 8.45 am the old beatnik walks round the corner to the shops.
It’s a warm summer morning that reminds him of summer mornings in the Algarve, Barbados and St Lucia.
He’s wearing very old clothes.
Faded petrol-blue shorts that he bought for $25 in Stone Harbour NJ. in 1998. He’s allergic to having logos or writing on his clothes, fanatical about that, but these shorts have a very small embroidered crocodile just above the hip pocket. That’s the logo of the Great White Shark. These are his Greg Norman shorts.
He’s also wearing a blue Eddie Bauer shirt that he got in the King of Prussia shopping mall, Philadelphia, in 1997. His blue and brown deck shoes, which he calls moccasins, were bought in Lisbon, made in Braga, several years ago.
The old beatnik walks towards the newspaper shop, past a shop owned by his mate, who is setting out big bunches of black grapes.
“Myles, come here and I’ll educate you, again.”
He buys The Guardian and then talks to his gambling greengrocer about their mutual friend.
“Tony’s told me to back over 2.5 goals in the Germany game. So I’ve done that last night. He thinks Spain will win the World Cup.”
“Tonight, Holland to win, Holland leading 1-0 at half-time and win the game, Kuyt first scorer, Robben man of the match. D’you want to write this down?”
“No, I can remember.”
I’m going to have a cup of tea now. On the patio. Read the paper, think about tonight’s game. Then write a preview.