22 November 2022

Both my daughters, Hilary and Alexandra were born in Tacubaya in Mexico City. The latter feels very Mexican and the former associates with Argentina.

She was the first to convey to me this morning that Argentina had lost to Saudi Arabia.

I immediately connected with memory of my mother who liked to watch futból in Mexico City. She believed as I did that if we watched the Argentines playing they would lose. It was a superstition that is shared by many in Argentina.

There was a Mexican TV futból announcer called Fernando Marcos who my mother hated. When our team was losing to a Mexican team he would say, “Anything can happen as a minute has 60 seconds.” My mother called him a buitre (a buzzard ready for the kill ).

For this World Cup the Argies have invented the term anulo mufa which means that it is best not to predict or spend too much time thinking about the chances of the team in the World Cup.

I could not resist taking this selfie wrapped in my father’s 1940 Argentine flag and wearing my fave T-shirt with Hilary crying on it.