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

From cheetah cubs to uplifting sport to come, put England’s World Cup exit behind you with these suggestions

It 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.

There are cheetah cubs at Whipsnade zoo

Seven cheetah cubs have been born at the zoo in two litters. Four cubs, now eight weeks old, were born to first-time mother Amira on 18 May, while three cubs were born to her sibling Zara five days later. The magnificent seven have been spotted out and about exploring their habitat at the attraction in Bedfordshire.

You can also see some rare young animals in St James’s Park in London, where pelicans have bred for the first time in 360 years. There is a cute new arrival at West Midlands Safari Park, where Mei Lin, an endangered red panda, has given birth to a cub.

You can beat the queues to see the Bayeux tapestry

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.

Go dressed up as Kate Bush in Folkestone

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.

Binge watch something wholesome

Let your television be your comfort blanket. There are hours and hours of wholesome streaming options that will cheer you up. What could be more English than the original Wallace and Gromit features on iPlayer, including Feathers McGraw in perhaps cinema’s greatest ever chase sequence? Until September you could also double up by visiting Cracking Exhibition, Gromit! – 50 Years of Aardman in Bristol at M Shed.

There is still plenty of uplifting sport to come this summer

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?