Los Campesinos

Tonight I am at the Foundry, otherwise known as the Students Union of Sheffield University. The support band Me Rex are very very loud unless its purely because I’m stood right next to a speaker stack. They are definitely raucous and very good with a touch of Forward Russia about them. 

Their enthusiasm is hugely infectious and they quickly won over the crowd with a performance of what I'm told was indie punk bubblegrunge (or something like that). However getting deafened by the support band probably isn’t a great tactic.

In between bands I head off to find a beer as Sheffield Uni is usually awash with Thornbridge but not tonight and I come back empty handed.

Los Campesinos take the stage and immediately up the stakes out-racousing Me Rex. Opening with 'A Psychic Wound' from the new album which slides us in gently until the popular threesome of 'I Broke Up in Amarante', 'Romance Is Boring' and 'Avocado, Baby' up the craziness as they add in first crowd surfing and then a circle pit. It's clear already that it's not just the support band who were loud and I'm now very deaf. 

Los Campesinos were formed in 2006 and looking around a lot of the audience would barely be born then. Lead singer Gareth clearly has the same thought and asks how many were here the first time they played Sheffield, in this very room, 17 years ago in 2007. Four hands go up. How many seeing them for the first time… about half the room. All barely older than the lifetime of the bad. Yet when 'Knee Deep at ATP', from the first album, comes round they all go wild. It's very interesting how people get into bands these days. 

The band had a brief moment in the sun in the late 2000s with the likes of 'You! Me! Dancing!', saved as always for the encore, but they were then largely written off but not forgotten. The seven-piece, who cram on to a stage bedecked with banners for just causes, have become cult stars who sadly come around far too infrequently. Their new album 'All Hell' is their seventh but their first for seven years and it is self-produced, self-released and self-marketed on a budget of allegedly just £190. Yet tonight and the whole tour are sold out.

Tracks from the new album slot in neatly within a career spanning set list covering their usual subjects - doomed romances, doomed football, doomed capitalism etc. On of their new tracks 'To Hell in a Handjob' is apparently about 'punching fascists with your mates'. Musically, they don’t miss a beat.

Gareth gives up the mic briefly for keyboardist Kim takes the lead on the wonderful 'kms' before taking it back and insisting that the rest of the set will all be 'bangers', if anyone has any energy left. I could have done with that beer. 

Fading Light

One of my old student hangouts in Nottingham, The Palais, re-opens this week. It has now been taken over by the DHP Family, the owners of Rock City. They say they will be bringing back student nights, alongside ex-student nights and in due course they plan to put on live music. Could be interesting.

On Saturday at Alvaston Parkrun my time of 25:57 is my fastest for two years. Derby’s start decent to the season continues with a win 1-0 over Cardiff, their third win from five games. L does a late gym and then we do a late Plough although I may have twisted her arm on both. I work my way through Supreme, Bullion and Legend with each one running out after I’d had a pint of it.

We do a joint gym on Sunday then we’re both we’re back at work on Monday and for L it’s the first time in the office for seven whole weeks but she’s back home by 11am as her boss seemingly forgets he supposed to be back in at all. I, of course, have no office to go into. I am back on the track in the evening and at the Exeter afterwards.

Tuesday sees L make another attempt to link up with her boss and isn’t happy about it as he turns up this time. Another return on Tuesday is dog training.

On Wednesday we haul ourselves out of bed early and do a 4k run with the Lad. Thursday has L in Derby and then at yoga while with the evening light now fading we bring tennis forward to 5pm to get a final game of the season in. 

(Thursday 19^th September)

Welsh Coastal Tour With A Beachaholic Dog

Our fortnight's holiday starts with rehanging my Dad’s gate that he’s being repairing and repainting. This involves me cutting my hand, which isn’t a good start to the trip.

Not long after crossing the border into Wales is our first stop at Llangollen where we check out the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct at a place simply known as Trevor. L and my Dad go on the boat across the aqueduct while I walk across with the Lad who isn’t allowed on board. 

Our first stay is at the Hand Hotel. After checking in, L and I go exploring and find the Corn Mill pub which has five beers but all pale ones. The pick of the bunch has to be Old Prickly because L says it must be named after her. Back at the hotel the only beer is Clogwin Gold from Conwy at only 3.6% but they do provide us with a Sunday Roast. It quickly transpires that my Dad has forgotten his bank card, so it seems that all the bills will be on me. 

The next day we visit the two bookshops in Llangollen before pushing on with our tour which briefly takes us to Rhyl which is not particularly pleasant. Neither is the coastal road spoilt as it is by the awful A55. The beach and coffee that we find at Colwyn Bay is the best of a bad bunch. We arrive at our next total in Llandudno at 3pm and send my father to bed. L and I then walk the pier and go on the Ferris Wheel with the not terribly impressed Lad before ending up at Tapps micro pub. The Titanic Atlantic Red at 5.4% is very nice but not at all Welsh. The Tenby made Mor Du 5% stout certainly is. The hotel meanwhile has bottles from the Conwy Brewery, one of which Rampart at 4.8% quickly becomes a favourite of mine. We also sample the local Penderyn whiskey, which has one of its three distilleries in Llandudno. 

On Tuesday we take a bus tour to Conwy where we walk down the Quayside and have a pint in the Bank of Conwy which is no longer a bank. In the evening we do a 5k run back in Llandudno where I move on to bottles of Celtic Pride as I’ve drunk all the Rampart. 

Our third day in Llandudno sees my Dad and I take the tram up the Great Orme while L walks up and down it with the Lad.

Then my Dad gets to do a spin on the Ferris wheel. We spend another night in the hotel bar with their limited food range but at least they have restocked the Rampart.

We’re back on the road on Thursday and we take a trip to Beaumaris on Angeley but don’t stop as there’s little to see and no easy parking for my Dad while dogs are seemingly not welcome near the castle. Instead we take a boat trip on the Menai Strait from Caernarfon before getting back in the car and completing the journey to our next stopover at the Sandbanks Hotel in Barmouth. We have an excellent room with a sea view although this isn’t ideal with a beachaholic dog.

After checking in we walk up to Myrddins Tap and some nice Black Rock Porter 5.6% from the Tudor Brewery. We eat back at the hotel where they have Purple Moose in bottles and on keg. It’s very raucous in their bar and may be even more so the next day when they have Elvis performing. So we may go elsewhere.

Friday is hot and we have a beach day much to the Lad’s delight. That is until he vomits up seawater and his breakfast. L swims in the sea and my Dad has a paddle. We have coffee on the sea front and then an afternoon beer back in Myrddins Tap. Later we are at the Bank Restaurant to avoid Elvis where I have the rack of lamb, L has a cauliflower masaman and my Dad has unbattered cod without chips and eats the lot.

Saturday is of course Parkrun in Barmouth or Y Promenâd Parkrun yn Abermaw as they say around here. I run with the Lad while my Dad can literally watch from the hotel where we join him afterwards for a late breakfast. Post-Parkrun L swims in sea again then we take a ferry boat from Barmouth Harbour across the bay to Fairbourne where we catch a steam train and then a mainline train to bring us back to Barmouth. Quite an exciting trip especially if you’re the Lad or a 95 year old like my Dad. L and I have to sneak off to the Tap again to recover.

Two pints and three shots of local gin later we eat at the hotel where they have another singer on but this time not Elvis.

L runs on Sunday but I don’t. It’s a wet day as we drive south over a toll bridge before eventually ending up back at Fairbourne where we were the other day, looking back across the bay to Barmouth.

Our journey then takes us to Tywyn where we seek out the train from Race The Train which L did in the late 90s and have a coffee on the seafront. By the time we arrive at our next stop, the Pier Hotel in Aberystwyth, the weather has got very windy. Time to batten down the hatches and hide under the duvet for a while before checking out the Bank Vaults for a couple of beers/blackcurrant gins. We eat in the dog friendly Antalya Turkish restaurant right next door to the hotel.

The next day we’re on our second tram of the holiday, or rather the Aberystwyth Cliff Railway, where we have breakfast cobs and coffee at top before driving to the next cove but there isn’t a lot there. 

 

We return to Aberystwyth where my Dad and I frequent Sophie’s cafe while L does the book shops. Then with my Dad back at the hotel having a nap, we check out the Bottle & Barrel which is the big sister pub of the Vaults we were in the previous night. Later we walk my Dad to the Baravin restaurant which was a bit too far for him really but actually only 300 metres. Perhaps he’ll let us bring the wheelchair next time.

On Tuesday morning we run along the prom covering 4k in what are still very windy conditions. We are then back on the road, grabbing breakfast on route at the Corris Craft Centre before driving up through Dolgellau to Beddgelert and our next stopover at the Royal Goat Hotel. We go for a walk and have a look at our old campsite, which is now very posh, and find a van completely wedged in the narrow lane behind it. We then have a drink at the Llewellyn where we used to take the kids for turkey twizzlers. We eat at our hotel where they have Purple Moose in bottles.

On Wednesday L runs but again I don’t. Then we walk my Dad down into the centre of the village looking for the hotel he once stayed in. This was probably the Saracens Head. We then take him on the Aberglaslyn Express train to Porthmadog. We did the same trip when we were last in Wales only in reverse. He finds the walk up to the station and at the other end hard work. Yes, I think the wheelchair might have helped. When we get back we sample the beer in the Saracens which would probably be a good place to stay as it’s also very dog friendly. Only the Tanronen is not dog friendly and doesn’t look that human friendly either. We eat at the hotel again and have a bottle of wine between us.

The next day L and I run along the footpath to Rhyd Du which is a very nice route. Then we start the drive back towards home via the Glaslyn Osprey centre and then Betws-y-Coed for coffee. We’re not heading all the way home just yet though as we have one more stop planned in Mold. Although we are actually staying in New Brighton which is about 1.5 miles outside of Mold. L and I walk in, to find the bookshop and the Micropub. We are still back at the hotel in time for the Lad’s teatime. We eat at the hotel where they have two real ales on, the best of any of the hotels we’re stayed in. Both from Facers Ales from Flint or Fflint as they call it in Wales. 

On our final day we visit the Mold Museum, the home of the famous Mincemeat soldier before heading back home via coffee and cake in Whitchurch. Once back home we’re both straight in the gym to work off that cake... and everything else.

 (Friday 13^th September)

Family Politics

Monday is a Bank Holiday, so that’s two lie-ins in two days. Nice. After still doing the normal Monday shop at Sainsbury’s, I cut the lawns at Aston followed by a pint with my Dad in the Harrington at Thulston. 

After PT on Tuesday L heads off to Mickleover because her brother is sending someone to collect the rest of his stuff to be sent to his new home in Columbia. In the evening Derby go out of the League Cup to Barrow on penalties continuing our proud tradition of losing to lower league sides in the cups. It’s slightly embarrassing but that’s what you get when you don’t take these competitions seriously.

On Wednesday Dog training is back from it’s summer break but just for one week for the Lad and I as we’re then off on holiday for a fortnight. It’s a calm reintroduction just doing the basics meaning the Lad doesn’t get to do any of the five tunnels on offer.

There’s no tennis on Thursday so we do a joint but not joint gym session. Then, as we’ve been doing for several evenings, we listen to Family Politics by John O’Farrell which is a lot duller than he made out at his talk and frankly quite annoying. It drives us to drink, a rather nice Mount Ventoux red with a picture of cyclist Tom Simpson on the front of it. Which is perfect for watching the Vuelta which is on at the moment.

We aren’t seeing much of Daughter at the moment but she does pop home occasionally from a secret location somewhere for a shower and a change of clothes.

L has extra PT on Friday as she will miss some sessions while we’re away. On Saturday we run Poolsbrook parkrun with L’s sister followed by bacon sandwiches at the park café. It’s also the Lad’s fourth parkrun in a row as I get used to new hand held lead rules. Meanwhile the 1,000th event at Bushy Park pulls 6,000 runners. Then Derby put in their best performance so far this season to beat Bristol City 3-0. We stay in as we’re off away on Sunday. 

(Saturday 31^st August)

A Normal Sort Of Week

A normal sort of week - Cycling, PT, yoga (although without the Peroni) and tennis, which looks a bit weather dependant but goes ahead. I lose the first set but I’m leading the second 5-4 e.g. one game away from winning it when my opponent declares he’s too knackered to continue due to his no food diet. 

Friday sees the car in for a service which requires me nipping over to Derby to drop it off before work. L has a gym and swim day, then we get a Friday night in with Leffe and Thai curry.

Saturday sees us switch our planned Parkrun to Wollaton from Clifton due to the rain which also scuppers my planned lawn mowing at my Dad’s. Instead we listen to Derby lose 2-1 at Watford. In the evening we’re out with friends for a curry at a new place for us, Kottaram. It’s not terribly Indian but it’s decent enough. We have drinks in the Crafty Crow before and afterwards as we are in and out of the restaurant in 90 minutes.

I run with L and the Lad on Sunday. We do 7.5k. Then I cut the hedges at home. L does the gym but I don’t, although I should have done really. Then we walk down to Canning Circus and have a few drinks in the Organ Grinder. On the bar there they have the relaunched Hofmeister Lager which is now under new ownership with no more comedy bear and a 5.0% strength. L gives it a try.

(Sunday 25^th August)

The Great Escape

Cycling is very quiet on Monday, only 8 of us. Perhaps everyone’s still in Paris. Afterwards my Dad and I give the refurbished Royal Standard a go but it’s nothing very exciting. We do end up in the Exeter on Tuesday after Derby's League Cup match with Chesterfield which they win 2-1. 

L has an exciting yoga night on Wednesday as they get locked in the park cutting across to get to the Rodney for their post-yoga Pironis. They have to climb the gate to get out, showing that all that yoga and gym work has paid off.

While they're playing at the Great Escape, I'm in Beeston with my old school friend cashing in a free night out after I paid for everything last time we went out. I meet his train and he’s on time for once, as is the train. We visit the Star, the White Lion and then the Victoria for food.

Thursday’s tennis is a lively game as it’s a touch windy but at least my opponent doesn’t overheat this time. It even starts raining just before we play but the new rubber courts at Clifton seem to have excellent drainage and once it stops we have no issues.

I lose a close match 6-3 6-4 which is as good as a win in my book. My opponent sees it as a crushing defeat for him. L runs there which is about 7k and joins us afterwards in the Ruddington Arms.

On Friday I do a joint gym with L who’s only doing fun things. This confuses me. Are we not doing the gym then? and going to the pub instead? Apparently not.

On Saturday we do our first parkrun in three weeks. We run at Clifton and I run it with the Lad which is becoming a habit again. Perhaps a bad habit. I’m slowing getting the hang of running with his on a handheld lead as is now required.

Derby then have a 12:30 kick off and grind out a 1-0 win over Middlesbrough for their first win back in the Championship. Then we’re in the Plough for another pale ale frenzy but I can’t be bothered to walk anyway more exciting.

Sunday starts with a full English at the Wollaton which is very good. Then we walk it off on the park. In the evening we’re at the gym again. It’s not clear whether this is supposed to be fun as well. 

(Sunday 18^th August)

Olympics

Monday’s cycling is extra exciting as they put up a big screen so that we can watch the GB Women win the Team Sprint. 

Wednesday is by now almost my usual night with my Dad in the New Inn before heading back home to watch the Team Pursuit Finals where we get a silver and a bronze.

On Thursday, after walking the Lad, we dump him with Daughter and get the train down to London and then onto Paris. Yes, we’re at the Olympics. After a minor hitch when we check into the wrong Ibis we get settled in before heading off on the Metro to find a Frog pub. Sadly FrogXVI is closed for volunteer party. We have a double Leffe at another bar instead. Then we go to our first event which is a late night Beach Volleyball match underneath a lit up Eiffel Tower. 

 

It’s very impressive. As is the Grimbergen Ambree back at hotel. 

The next day, naturally, involves a trip to a bookshop, the Shakespeare bookshop by Notre Dame. Then we get the RER train out to Le Golf. Sadly all the beer at the venues is 1664 0% lager, so we’ll be well ready for those Grimbergen Ambrees later. 

Then we move from the golf to the track cycling where Elinor Barker and Neah Evans win silver in Women’s Madison while Jack Carlin takes bronze in the Men’s sprint. Our front rows seats are very good apart from being sandwiched between two Dutch supporters. Their man Harrie Lavreysen takes the Sprint gold obviously. 

On Saturday sadly we’re not at Parkrun as all French parkruns remain suspended. Instead we head down to the Champs Elysee which has been pedestrianised for the Olympics. Then we’re at the Weightlifting which is far more tactical that you could possibly have imagined. 

Afterwards we go t-shirt and dog toy shopping. 

On the Metro, on our way back to Trocadero for more Leffe, we notice people on the way to the Marathon Pour Vous which is a public marathon starting at 9pm, there’s a 10k as well. We have a takeaway on the way back to the hotel.

That’s our last day and on Sunday we’re on the Eurostar back home which we share with both hockey teams and numerous other Team GB members. 

(Sunday 11^th August)

Australia Visits

I am not at cycling on Monday as we head off to see Clive Myrie in conversation with James Rodgers at Derby Theatre. Myrie is interesting to listen to but for me Rodgers is even more fascinating. Rodgers was the BBC’s Foreign Correspondent in Moscow until he was chucked out along with most western journalists and his tales of Russia and Ukraine are fascinating. He reminisces on how cheap it was to get out there around 2019/2020 which is very true because we ourselves were planning a trip to Chernobyl via Kyiv before Covid intervened and then of course Putin’s invasion. 

After a day in work on Monday, L now has no boss for the next five weeks so will be WFH for sometime. The Olympics are now on and our first golds arrive from Tom Pidcock in the Cross-Country cycling and from the Equestrian Eventing Team.

On Tuesday my Dad manages to take himself to a special Pre-Season Golden Rams Coffee Morning by taxi and apparently has a great time as they unveil a new 50th Anniversary shirt. It being the anniversary of the 1974/75 league title. I’m in the New Inn with him and the Lad the next evening and I thought L was at yoga until I get a photo of her and her friend in the Wollaton pub on the Peroni. After yoga apparently.  

On Thursday morning I run 5k run with L and the Lad but there’s no tennis in the evening.

I have the day off on Friday as we pick up L’s Australian penpal and her hubby from the train station. We take them for lunch on Wollaton Park and then to Miller & Carter for a meal in the evening. We give up our bedroom for them and camp out in the office. L glares at me when I suggest we pretend we’re teenagers in a single bed.

On Saturday I inflict my Dad on our visitors and take them all to Nottingham Castle. Then afterwards we take them to Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem, England’s oldest inn but not oldest pub... In Nottingham the Salutation and the Bell claim to be older... All three pubs will fight to the death over this.

They also have the long defunct Hardys and Hansons Olde Trip on the bar. Presumably it’s just one of their owner Greene King’s other beers rebadged. They also have another of the old Hardys and Hansons’ beers Cursed Galleon now brewed by Milestone and down at 4.3% rather than 5% but still very nice.

We then drop our Australian guests back at the train station as they head back to London and then on to Zagred where his family are from. We drop my Dad back at his home and then spend the evening in the Plough where they have three different version of a new ale called Summer Pale at 3.9% that they want you to vote for the best one of. Sadly they are all pale and 3.9%. Then thankfully we’re back in own bed.

On Sunday we run 6.5k with L and do the gym in the evening. 

(Sunday 4^th August)

Glorious Telford

Tuesday sees L sent home with PT homework. She has to practice press-ups. Ouch. I can’t see that happening but if it does I’m sure the Lad will help her with it.

We have booked a ‘dodgy’ electrician to sort out our smoke alarms. ‘Dodgy’ because he’s quoting less than what the alarms he’s fitting sell for online and he wants paying in cash. What could possibly go wrong?

‘Dodgy’ or not, he appears to do a good job. Now we just need Daughter to test them. She has been warned what will happen if she leaves something sizzling under the grill for too long. The two alarms are linked, so if one goes off they both go off. It’ll sound like Armageddon and the batteries are built in, so there’s no quick way of disabling them if they go off.

As it turns out the first thing to set the alarm is not Daughter’s sausages but our shower. Perhaps that’s why the alarms were cheap... Meanwhile one of our old alarms, that hasn’t gone off in years, issues a parting salvo from its new home in the wheelie bin.

Wednesday night is spent with my Dad and the lad in the New Inn. While on Thursday I run with L and the Lad during which he snaps his bungee lead. L makes it to 5k but the leadless Lad and I only make it to 4.5k.

Tennis goes ahead at Cliton again and afterwards we try the Ruddington Arms which is much nicer than the Framebreakers.

On Friday after work, or in L’s case after gym and swim, we head for a weekend away in glorious Telford. It doesn’t start too well when we find that the only evening options near our Holiday Inn are the main shopping centre or an estate pub called the Randlay Farmhouse that has no real ale and no food. So after a few bottled beers it’s back to the hotel for a meal.

One thing that Telford does have is a decent park. It’s called the Town Park and it’s where they have Parkrun which obviously we run, me with the Lad.

We then head back to the hotel, which now has a Jehovahs Witness conference going on next door, for coffee and to discuss the strategy for the rest of the weekend. Telford it appears is just one big retail complex that is not designed to be avoided and we can’t find anywhere for breakfast. We attempt to walk around the outside of it and are constantly boxed in by dual carriageways.

Eventually we find a footpath called the Silkin Way and walk to somewhere called Oakengates, allegedly the Heart of Telford but even that has an industrial estate in the middle of it. Telford is doing its best to make Derby look glamorous. I do however have two excellent pints at the Crown pub but where we also have to make do with pasties for lunch/breakfast while the Lad gets a new halti having snapped his second lead of the week. We’re back at the hotel for 6pm and spend the evening in the sanctuary of the hotel bar.

Sunday is better. L goes in the hotel gym while I walk the Lad and then we get breakfast in the hotel’s dog friendly area. After that we drive out to Ironbridge, the nice bit of ‘Telford’ five miles outside of it. We have a pleasant walk around the area, go for a coffee, to a bookshop and then end up in the All Nations pub which we last visited as part of Camra’s 25th Anniversary Beer trail back in 1997. That was all the pubs nationwide that had been in their guidebook for the whole 25 years that I dragged L to. Not sure how many pubs it was now. Might have been 25, might have been less than that. 

(Sunday 28^th July)

Ideas Above Their Station

Cycling is lively on Monday probably because both the Men’s and Women’s GB Olympic Pursuit teams are up on track before us. Practising before heading off to Paris and showing us how it is done. This gives some people in our group ideas above their station. They think they can do as well. They can’t. 

L has her PT on Tuesday where she is impressively deadlifting 50kg. In the evening I’m out with my old school pal in the Alexandra and the Silk Mill. He turns up with no money having left it as the prison he delivers to as part of his job. Apparently you always have to hand over the contents of your pockets to prison security before you go in and he forgot to collect it all back afterwards. So I have to pay for everything and then just to top his day off he gets a parking ticket as he hadn’t got the means to pay for his parking.

On Wednesday, for the second time this week, L is in work without a boss because, for the second time this week, he has a puncture and is waiting for the AA.

Daughter tests positive for Covid after feeling slightly unwell and losing her sense of smell. L lost her sense of smell 20 years ago but doesn’t have Covid.

On Thursday I do a 7am run with L and the Lad and all the chaos that involves.

Tennis does start this week but as there are no courts available at the Tennis Centre I suggest Clifton where they have built five brand new courts. They have actually been there forever but were pretty much derelict until recently. We play at 6pm as that is the last booking slot and we have the courts to ourselves.

It’s a warm night and my very unfit opponent aborts, complaining of heat exhaustion, half-way through the second set. We go for a drink afterwards at the Framebreakers in Ruddington who have turned their car park into a beer garden which means there is nowhere to park nearby. They also don’t seem to have many staff and we wait ages to be served. Not sure we’ll go back.

On Friday Microsoft messes us the whole world as a software outage leaves lots of business and all the airports in chaos. Luckily the Brunswick is fine where I have lunch with my ex-colleague.

Saturday’s Parkrun is at Wollaton, then I head over to my Dad’s and later we’re in the Plough.

On Sunday we visit, for the first time, Wollaton Park’s secret garden which is amazing. It’s a shame it’s not open more often. Later I do a rare gym trip with L. 

(Sunday 21^st July)