60-years ago my mother was heavily pregnant...and just 16-days away from the birth of her second child. It turned out to be a boy which was the first time...though not the last...that I disappointed her. It was a double disappointment too because the betting was that I would pop out on her 31st birthday on the 15th...but I was a couple of days late, though once I had decided to venture forth I did so at quite a rate so my mother only just made it to the War Memorial Hospital on Shooter's Hill on time. T’was the name wot done it…shooters indeed!

Anyway it is midday here in the Departure Lounge at Stanstead Airport. I am required to proceed through Gate 45 to board Ryanair Flight FR 054 to Stockholm Skavsta Airport in an hour's time. This should deliver me into the centre of Stockholm…after a 90-minute bus journey...at 1900 Swedish time.

From there it is the Hjulsta Blue Line to Sundbybergscentrum T-bana followed by a half a mile to my destination on Trädgårdsgatan opposite Albyskola on Hamngatan…not much you cannot find out on the Internet if you know where to look.

It is costing me £60 to get to Stockholm. But I did some arithmetic on the way here and was pleasantly surprised to find that I have £500 in my pocket, £650 of receivables due in this month and only £150 of essential payables...I am netting out the Cultura situation. So this means a thousand pounds…13 500 kronor available to spend in Sweden.

Today went according to plan…for me…but not for Sven-Göran Eriksson’s England team. It is eight o’clock here at Nicholas John’s computer in Stockholm. England’s quarter-final match started at four and I have been picking up progress reports along the way. I just picked up the final one from BBC’s Sports Online.

There will be much weeping and gnashing of teeth in the Scott-Cracknell household in Rye and Belfast (above) and the Melo-Dale household in Mexico City and Bogotá (below) because England are out of the World Cup…victims of their failure to win a penalty shoot-out…which is rapidly becoming a European and World Cup tradition. There was no score after extra time and then 3-1 to Portugal on penalties. Germany, Italy, Portugal and France will battle it out in the semi-finals.

I set the alarm for 0600 this morning intending to take the 0650 train but woke up with the light at 0445 and took the first train out of Rye at 0550 instead. This was better as it stopped at London Bridge. I prefer walking or taking the 48 bus across the bridge up to Liverpool Street to taking the Circle line from Embankment which is what you do if you take the train through to Charing Cross.

It was another warm sunny day for my first trip on a London bendy bus…introduced into Stockholm ten years ago but unfamiliar to the English. From Liverpool Street it is a 45-minute run on the Stanstead Express to the airport the other side of Bishop Stortford on the Essex-Hertfordshire border. We will proclaim a Good’s Day’s Work.