Forget the lions: five fun things to do or see to take your mind off the football

Prefer the Guardian on GoogleIt can be a bleak feeling when the whole nation has been gearing up to celebrate England reaching a World Cup final, only to see the dream dashed at the last minute. But there are still plenty of things to be cheerful about. Here are five suggestions of things you can do, see or enjoy to take your mind off Lautaro Martínez’s 92nd minute winner for Argentina.

Getting a ticket to see the actual Bayeux tapestry, while it is on display at the British Museum from September, has been more of an ordeal than trying to get one for the Oasis reunion last year. The smart move is instead go to Reading Museum, where a painstakingly made Victorian replica of the entire tapestry is always on display. If you are taking the children, you can probably get away with telling them it is the real thing.

Put a note in your diary for 26 July, the latest edition of the Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever in the Kent town, with the aim of gathering the most people in one place dressed up as the singer-songwriter was in her groundbreaking debut music video. Think floaty red dress and esoteric choreography. This is what it looked like last time …

If that does not float your boat, maybe Lina Lapelytė’s Serendipity Island at Tate Modern may be more your thing. It opens on 25 July and is a free maze-like installation, in which your actions and noises become part of the art itself as you move through a grid of wooden barriers.

Armchair viewers have another chance to get their patriotism on with the Commonwealth Games starting in Glasgow on 23 July. Scaled back from previous editions of the games, it nevertheless features 10 sports and six para sports, and also provides a buildup to the European Athletics Championships, which will be in Birmingham from 10 August to 16 August. Plus, for cricket and even non-cricket fans there is the Hundred starting on 21 July.

And football? Well, it is coming home(-ish) again soon. The next men’s European Championship is being held across England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland in the summer of 2028, when 23 of the best teams in Europe will compete for the right to knock England out at the semi-final stage. Is that joke too soon?