Rugby World Cup

[Icimoi]

... and the enthusiasm for doing up our roadworks and pavements is astonishing. No doubt they will be quietly ignored for decades afterwards, or at least until the next one.

Is anyone else mystified by the enthusiasm for wide pavements? It's not as if Twickenham is exactly a seething metropolis, nor are we likely to be suddenly converted to the culture of having all our meals outdoors; and we seem to have managed till now without all those pointless benches.

Loving the benches - there always seems to be someone sitting on them, but rather bewildered by the half day off school! I mean, I do get that the traffic, and general people numbers will be crazy, but still...

What's this about a half day off school??

Is the half day on the day of the opening ceremony as that's a Friday? I see that they're closing roads at 4 p.m. that day but presumably the traffic before then will be fairly hellish. Is it all schools doing half day closing that day, or only the ones near to the rugby ground?

Yes, we've since had a letter from school (St Mary's Twick so in the thick of it) saying school will close at lunchtime on day of opening ceremony. Going to try and escape for a fun weekend away from all the excitement!

Brace yourselves, folks, trial run on 15th August.