Meeting Carlo – or finding a bar with Sky.

CARLO

The day England played Slovakia (or was it Slovenia) we decided to have a football party at home. We spent a lovely morning on the beach and then  myself, Bill, Jane (Bill’s sister) and Mick (Bill’s brother-in-law) left the beach at 3.00 to get home in time for the match at 4.00. We had invited John and Pam Roscoe and their friends Stewart and Norma to watch the game. Unknown to us Rai (the national television channel) were not showing the afternoon games and so, not having Sky, we had to organise a plan B. We decided to drive to Mondavio and watch the match in a bar. We then discovered that no bars in Mondavio have Sky. They all have Mediaset Premium (owned by Mr Berlusconi) and the match was only on sky.  They suggested the main bar in Orciano. So we drove there only to be disappointed but we were told of another bar out of town that might have it. By chance we had parked the car in front of the “shop that sells Superenalotto tickets” and as we reached the car our neighbour Carlo came out telling us that England was leading 1.0. We told him we were looking for a bar with sky and he said it was available in the “back room” of this shop. It was news to me that the place is in fact a Bookies and there at the back of the shop next to the toilets was Sky tv. Not the most salubrious of places, the screen was small and high up in the corner but at least we saw the game.

The England-Germany game on Sunday was also in the afternoon and so again was not on Rai. In the morning we left Jane and Mick at the beach and returned to spend a quiet day at home and deciding not to bother looking for another bar with Sky. At 5.00 we returned to the beach to pick up Jane and Mick. Before going onto the beach we stopped at the beach bar bar for a coffee. Having just finished our coffee we saw Carlo approach but before we could offer him a coffee he turned into the bar’s office/first aid area. We started to walk towards the beach and passed Carlo just as he came out of the office. 2-1 for Germany he said. “How do you know?”, we asked. “Its here on the TV”, he replied. There in the “office” was sky TV showing the England match.

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