Administrative Marathon

This week I go to cycling for the first time in a month and for the first time in a long while without my Dad. Which means I’m also without a scotch egg and a pint of Dark Drake at the Exeter afterwards. Instead, I go round to visit him and to share a bottle of beer. 

On Tuesday I’m at the match on my own as evening games are just going to be too difficult to get my Dad to. However, as I’d already swapped seats into the wheelchair spots, and can’t swap back, I watch the match against Gary Rowett’s Oxford from there. It’s 0-0 draw. 

L does an administrative marathon in Derby on Wednesday – getting a death certificate, lunch and meeting the funeral celebrant. I do dog training via a visit to my Dad. 

Friday’s away match at QPR is on Sky so I go over and watch it with my Dad. It is the first match for John Eustace, the new manager who has only been in charge for a day, and they lose 4-0. Not a great start. 

We are on the parkrun tourist trail again on Saturday and we head to Black Rocks which is between Cromford and Wirksworth. Afterwards we get breakfast in Cromford. Then it’s the Plough in the evening, of course. 

We see a film at Broadway on Sunday after getting first in Pho. The film we see is September 5. 

This is the story of the hostages taken by the Black September group at the 1972 Munich Olympics and the subsequent massacre that happened. Yet it is shown from the viewpoint of ABC TV’s sports crew, who by chance found themselves in sole charge of broadcasting the event to the world. It is a great insight to not just what happened behind the scenes but also to the technology, or lack of it, available at the time in a film that is uninhibited by the politics of the occasion. 

 

 (Sunday 16^th February)

Finally, Bolsover

I have my car booked in to the local Middleton Garage on Monday to have some new tyres and the annoying rattle it's developed fixed. Then I skip cycling again to go see how my Dad is getting on with his carers. 

Wollaton Park is locked on Tuesday morning, we have no idea why. L is at PT then has lunch with her Mum before a meeting with Co-Op Funeral Service. I’m at dog training. 

I have lunch in the Brunswick with my ex-colleague on Wednesday. They have a new offering of Steak and Stilton pie which I wash down with Cherry Stout. Very nice. L is then at yoga with Daughter. 

L keeps up her Thursday's in Derby and has lunch with her Mum just without the trip to the care home, who seem to have misplaced her Dad’s false teeth. 

After three days of trying, I finally get through to my Dad’s GP in Alvaston who claim that he’s now no longer in their area despite being with them since they relocated there in the 1980s. They do reluctantly send a doctor out to see him while telling us we need to find a new GP. I drive over to meet the doctor. 

In the evening L and I run 6.5k with the Lad, managing to get part of the run on the park before it shuts. We are still in training for the Bolsover 10k because it hasn’t happened yet after being postponed in December. It is now this Sunday.

On Friday, Derby County sack Paul Warne after eight defeats in a row. Maybe they still have time to save themselves from relegation. 

We do a new Parkrun on Saturday at Vicar Water. It’s a ‘nice’ tough course. Then I’m over at my Dad’s as usual as Derby draw 1-1 at Norwich. 

We have a rare AF Saturday night in as Sunday is at long last the Bolsover 10k for which we leave Lad at home. It’s an ok run but it’s always been a dull course which is why we’ve only done it two or three times ever although I was 3rd Lady Vet once (long story). We celebrate finally getting it done in the Plough that evening. 

(Sunday 9^th February) 

Sad Times

We return home to our ageing and ailing families. L spends Tuesday afternoon with her Dad who isn't breathing very well and doesn't seem to know anybody is there.

She is back there on Wednesday while my brother and I are meeting a Care Coordinator to discuss my Dad's care. I take the Lad with me with his tea and his dog training gear just in case we don’t get home but it doesn’t take as long as we expect. I get time to head over to pick L up from the care home and take her home before doing the A50 again to dog training. 

L spends the rest of the week, off and on, at the care home. The prognosis for her Dad is grim. Things don't get any easier when on Friday we get my Dad back from my brother. He now has bad diarrhoea because he’s been on laxatives. That’s not pleasant to deal with. 

I do manage to get my Dad to the match in a wheelchair place as Derby lose their 7th game in a row. It is there that L calls me just before kick-off time, although I can barely hear her due to the crowd noise, to tell me that her Dad has sadly passed away. 

Later that evening the whole family toast the great man in their own homes with wine or Guinness and\or a dog if they have one. 

Daughter returns home elated from her skiing trip to be greeted by the sad news but we do finally get to meet her elusive mate. We have Chinese takeaway all round to go with the toasts. 

On Sunday I drive my Dad back home where carers will now start coming to look after him. L and I then go and get slaughtered in the Plough.

(Sunday 2^nd February) 

Bucket List Experience

Super fit L runs 5k on Friday morning, I don’t. 

Daughter departs for skiing in Bulgaria which is her first ski trip in about 15 years. Then we transfer my Dad to my brother’s house and head off to the Lakes. Originally, he was supposed to come with us but clearly that’s no longer possible. We were also supposed to be having some friends staying with us but they've been called away to see his estranged brother who has been given weeks to live. 

With all the doom and gloom of the assorted health problem of family and friends we settle in our too big for the two of us cottage and head down to the Wainwrights where the Settle Plum Porter at 5.3% isn’t too bad a way to start the weekend. 

As high winds whistle around the cottage it becomes apparent that all the local Parkruns are going to be off. In fact, the nearest one to be on is in Ulveston. I offer to drive us but instead we decide to chill in bed as it would be an hour’s drive. 

We do our own run instead, running 5.8k around Chapel Stile and Elterwater followed by lunch on the go from the Co-op as Slates café is frustratingly closed. We do a walk to Skelwith and Colwith before a beer stop in the Eltermere Inn for a Bowness Bay Swan Black at 4.6%. We eat in Lanty Slees in the evening while trying their own gin and whiskey with more Swan Black. 

We repeat the same running route on Sunday but extend it down to the Sticklebarn which has now been rebranded Lanty Slee’s Langdale for breakfast which is just a breakfast roll as sadly they don’t do a full English. It’s also a shame about the name change and I’m not sure it will stick. 

Then, as it's already lunchtime, we have a lunchtime Old Peculier in the Old Dungeon Ghyll for old time’s sake. It never changes in there and they’ve had the same chap on the bar for twenty years. Then L has a bucket list experience as we get the local bus back to the cottage as it’s now raining. We are back in the Wainwrights later. 

We would normally conclude a trip to the Lakes with a visit to the Hawkshead Brewery’s brewhall in Staveley but this has now closed and the brewery has moved to Flooksburgh in the south of Cumbria. There is good news though. Some local people are in the process of buying the Jennings Brewery back off Marston’s and are going to reopen it. 

Instead, we go for breakfast at the Force Cafe in Ambleside that we didn’t know existed, down a road we didn’t know existed. Then on the way home we drop my brother’s daughter’s passport to her at Lancaster Uni.

(Monday 27^th January) 

More Paramedics

My Dad has stayed with us all weekend as it appears he has a badly bruised hip, despite not admitting to having had any falls, and can barely walk. I cancel cycling to stay in with him and I cook my apparently legendary Lasagne much to Daughter’s delight, who clears her diary for the occasion. 

On Tuesday we call 111 who take his details and promptly call us back. They refer him for an Ambulance which was supposed to take six hours to arrive but comes in less than half an hour. The paramedics take a good look at him and conclude that his hip isn’t broken, suggesting that it’s probably just that his knee problem has got worse. He’s not taken into hospital as they it’s not worth the ten hour wait in A&E for an X-Ray that probably wouldn’t tell us anything useful anyway. 

There is an evening match which I go to on my own again. Derby play well but lose 1-0 to Sunderland. 

L is in work on Wednesday and is shocked to find that they've moved office without telling her while I've got my Dad sleeping in my office while I'm trying to work. 

Despite the upbeat report from the paramedics on Tuesday, my Dad’s walking is still getting worse or rather he seems to be unable to walk at all. We now have the wheelchair from his home, the one he's been avoiding using but now has no choice. It makes a big different. Then lots of calls are made to doctors and local councils looking for care services so that he can go back home. 

(Thursday 24^th January) 

Unexpected

L starts the week not in work but in the gym and then at Derby Book Club who are meeting at the Dubrek Studios on Bridge Street after being kicked out of Quad which no longer opens during the week. I’m also in Derby for my cycling. 

L’s Mum rings at midnight to say she isn't very well and has called an ambulance but it’s going to be three hours. So L drives over but when she gets there the ambulance has beat her to it. The paramedics diagnose stomach pains and L drops her at A&E where she is until lunchtime when she is given a clean bill of health. 

I’m out on Tuesday night for a few beers in the Alexandra with my old school friend, then we’re at the Viceroy for their £20 meal deal. Meanwhile I’m not showing much interest in Derby losing on penalties at Orient in their rearranged FA Cup tie meaning they miss out on a nice payday against Manchester City in Round 4. 

L is actually in work on Wednesday but then at yoga. In between she goes on a successful Markies hunt as Sainsburys’ no longer sells them. The Lad will be so pleased when he gets home from dog training.

Thursday is L’s usual unpalatable day in Derby. 

The weather has warmed up a bit from last week and the snow hasn’t stuck around but there is still one solitary Snowman / Snowblob hanging on there on the park. Just. 

On Friday L heads to Stockport on the train for some tests for Biobank, the long-term medical study we got involved in. I drive up in the car after work. We have booked in overnight at the Duke of York pub and I meet her there. It’s a nice cheap room with no breakfast or evening meal on offer but an ample supply of Robinson’s 8.5% Old Tom Barley Wine on hand pull. That’s L's night sorted. While I opt to dilute mine with a few pints of Cumbria Way, L has hers straight. We then walk the Lad to the local chippy for tea and bring it back to our room. 

Naturally we are here not just for Biobank and the unexpected Old Tom but for Parkrun which is at Woodband. It’s a nice course, if a bit hilly e.g. downhill with a dog is not the best. It also scores highly for having a nice cafe, that does breakfast, takes dogs and has real mugs. Then we drive home. 

My dad seems to have had a fall, not that he's admitting to anything, and is not very good at all. He decides to skip the match, which he never does, and I watch Derby lose 2-0 to Watford on my own. Everyone asks about him as it’s so rare for him to miss a match. I then bring him back to Nottingham where it’s warmer, e.g. although we don't describe our heating system as 'State of the Art' like he does it was at least installed after 1970, and we can give me a decent meal. He stays over. 

L goes out for another run on Sunday morning covering 7k consisting of the parkrun course plus the distance there and back. We do a joint gym later. 

(Sunday 19^th January) 

Doing My Duty

L rings her boss on Monday morning and finds out he has no plans to turn up at work so she stays at home and joins me at Sainsbury’s. Cycling is back on as the pantomime is over but the curtains are still up making visibility difficult. It also takes a while to get there as there’s been a lot of rain overnight and the road through Thulston to my Dad's is flooded. Afterwards the Exeter is quiet and has stopped doing food by the time we arrive. It shuts totally at 9pm but we are done by then. 

L is at PT on Tuesday and then in work for the first time in three weeks. It’s nice and crisp on the park but then the weather descends into some crap snow/sleet/hail/rain. The Lad has a good night out as dog training restarts. 

On Wednesday morning it’s -5 degrees outside, so I save L from herself and from breaking something by doing an early run on the ice by throwing my body on top of hers. I feel it is my duty to protect her from such harm. She supposed to be at Wollaton Book Club this morning not in A & E. 

It stays very cold and icy all week but L manages to 7k on Friday morning. That’s heroic.   

We expect all of Saturday’s Parkruns to be iced off and they are apart from Wollaton. This means there are over 500 there. I take it easy on my comeback after my latest injury, tiptoeing around the ice and finishing in a leisurely 31 minutes. After which I am in Aston to visit my Dad where we can’t watch Derby’s FA Cup game at Leyton Orient because bizarrely it’s been scheduled at 6pm for North American TV or it was because it is then postponed due to a frozen pitch. We are in the Plough later. 

Sunday is a leisurely family stroll on the park. Yes, Daughter joins us. Then we all go for breakfast cobs at the Wollaton. 

(Sunday 12^th January) 

Customer Service

On Monday we go for a walk that was featured in a recent edition of Country Walking. We cover 10k around the Shelford and Radcliffe area mainly along the River Trent. Later Son and his wife pop over for a belated Christmas present exchange. 

On Tuesday morning we do a family gym session as Daughter joins L and I. Daughter has now joined our gym as it's closer to her new job that she starts next week. I have ordered a rollator for my Dad who is struggling with his walking and that arrives in time to present it to him on New Year’s Eve. He is over again because we are all at Mr Man’s Restaurant for a meal. He pays for us all and stays over. Daughter heads off post meal to spend New Year with her ‘mate’. 

We see in the New Year with the fireworks on the BBC News rather than with Jools, who seems to have pretty much the same line up yet again. My keg of Buttermuch is a good accompaniment to the celebrations. 

L starts 2025 with the traditional whinge about being grossly unfit despite a few weeks ago being elated with her fitness at the Sherwood Pines 10k. New Year’s Day Parkrun to the rescue. 

Initially we intend to head to Wollaton Park until we realise that they aren’t doing one. We quickly divert to Forest Rec. The Lad and I don’t run as I’m still injured from Saturday’s run. After Parkrun we take my Dad back home and visit L’s Mum. Derby lose 4-2 at Sheffield Wednesday. Then we do another family gym session with the Lad pissed off because he’s left sitting in the boot of the car in the car park. 

Everything is back to normal on Thursday. In that I’m back at work and L’s back in the Derbion in Derby. 

On Friday the allegedly ‘unfit’ L does PT, a walk with a friend, a swim, a gym session with Daughter and then another walk with me and the Lad. So not too unfit then. As for me… not only have I finished the keg of Buttermuch, I’ve also finished one of Cocoa Noel. 

Saturday is yet another Parkrun and this time we are at Wollaton, which goes ahead despite the paths being quite icy. The Lad and I spectate again as my glute is still not 100%. When we walk over, we are surprised to see a marshal stood by the Harrow Road gate. Apparently, they have yet another different winter route after the Golf Club complained that the Lime Tree Avenue route prevented them crossing on to the other side of the course. I’m not sure that’s really a valid complaint. It's not even their land. 

Derby lose 1-0 at Bristol City and then in the evening we walk to the Johnson’s Arms because the Plough’s beer range looks naff. This is our first visit to the Johnson’s in ages and they have Krubera on which is excellent but then the barmaid tells us they are closing in half an hour at 8pm. WTF. It’s a Saturday night and there’s about a dozen people in the pub, which the Plough would regard as packed. In fact more people keep arriving but this only slightly delays her plans. Clearly, she has a hot date or a hot party to go to. 

We manage to get a second drink out of her which she gives us only ten minutes to drink or she says we can have a plastic glass to drink it on our way home. This is not quite the customer service that would make us come back. 

We decamp to the nearby Boat, the larger person’s pub of choice. It’s busy but not the best for beer. We have one drink and head home for L’s pre-cooked chilli. 

Sunday is a lazy day, just a walk on the park and not much else. It’s also Daughter’s last day on Response then she starts her new job.

(Sunday 5^th January) 

Festivities

Tuesday is Christmas Eve. L has her PT as normal and then we have lunch at the Clock Warehouse in Shardlow with the parents. We all have Turkey, even me, which was nothing special. In the evening it’s just L, the Lad and me in the Plough for Chocolate Porter and Christmas Carols. Though we don’t join in. 

We do Christmas Day Parkrun at Alvaston and then head to the Care Home with L’s Mum to see her Dad. We drop in at the Peacock on Old Nottingham Road for a pint on our way home. Poor old Daughter is at work from 3pm, so it’s just the three of us for a romantic Christmas evening with Wallace & Gromit and some roast lamb. 

Boxing Day is the Furnace 5k-ish run which has a new organiser and a new course. My Brother and his family meet us in the pub afterwards as we hand over my Dad who has spent Christmas Day with them. He comes back with us before he and I take in the Boxing Day match at home to West Brom which kicks off at 5:30pm. Derby win 2-1. 

My Dad stays over and then on Friday we all head to the Aston Walk. The Lad and I do the 3.1-mile medium walk while L and my Dad have coffee. My Dad is delighted when someone he knows, the dad of one of my school friends shows up. We also meet a neighbour that I don’t know and another one that I do know but barely recognise. 

Then we drive down the M1 to Stevenage to meet up with L’s sister. The traffic is horrible and we don’t make it to her sister’s but then they are also stuck in same traffic on their own way home from Derby. Instead, we head straight to our hotel. We are glad we didn’t bring L’s Mum with us, as was planned at one stage. 

Having sent my Dad to his room for a nap, L and I find an excellent pub called the Chequers. Even though it was a Greene King pub it had three stouts and porters on. After a few, we head back to the hotel for pizza with my Dad because pizza was all they had. 

It’s probably stating the obvious to say that we are down here for Parkrun, L’s sister’s local Parkrun on Fairlands Valley Park. L’s sister and her son run it while the rest of the family watch. 

It’s two laps and I hobble round the second lap after pulling a muscle, my gluteal muscle I think. We have egg and bacon cobs at the park cafe and then head back to their house for Christmas cake. Thankfully the traffic is much quieter for our drive home. 

In the evening, we go see The Substance at Broadway. Demi Moore plays a celebrity fitness instructor who is unceremoniously fired due to her age. To get her job back she decides to take a chance on a mysterious medical procedure called The Substance which promises ‘a better version of yourself’. She injects herself with The Substance and her better version ‘Sue’ slithers forth from a large incision in her back. From there it goes about as well as you’d expect in what becomes an increasingly gory and absurd but strangely enjoyable tale. 

We eat at Broadway and later have a 6.8% Rocky Road at Brewdog. 

On Sunday we have breakfast at the Wollaton after our morning stroll on the park. Then there’s another late match (at 5:45pm) where Derby lose to late goal 1-0 to Leeds. Son was supposed to be there but had flat tyre and doesn’t make it. So, we can’t blame his curse on this occasion. 

(Sunday 29^th December) 

In It To Win It

The week starts for L at the hygienist with curry breath from our celebratory curry last night but otherwise she’ll still floating from our 10k exploits. Somehow, I find the energy to go to cycling where I’m trying out a new birthday cake flavoured energy bar. It’s ok but the hundreds and thousands were a bit unnecessary and very messy. 

L is at PT on Tuesday and then in town shopping with Daughter when her boss doesn’t turn up at work again. I have dog training. 

Wednesday is very windy and they shut Wollaton Park, so we have to walk the streets. I’m in the New Inn later with my Dad while L’s at yoga. 

Wednesday is L’s last working day before Christmas and Thursday is mine. We celebrate with a joint gym session and then a Belgian beer or two. 

On Friday we drive down to Portsmouth for what may be becoming a traditional pre-Christmas break. It’s wet when we get down there and we slosh through puddles to the Still & West. It’s busy but they find us a table and we eat there. Obviously, the Fuller’s Winter Ale is off so I’m on the HSB, which is a fair substitute. 

Saturday is of course Parkrun which we do at Great Salterns which is a very muddy three lapper. I’m an impressive 20^th, while L comes in 30th. How good are we? Well, ok, there were only 35 in it but you’ve got to be in it to win it. 

We are back at the hotel, our usual Holiday Inn, in time for breakfast then after a shower we walk into Southsea via the Pigeon Bookshop. The weather is again very windy and eventually very wet. We take shelter in the Beach Cafe with hot toddies and then warm up further under the duvet back at the hotel. L though still has the energy to hit the hotel gym. 

We had planned to eat in the hotel before heading to our usual pub, the Barley Mow in Southsea, but our plans are derailed by a Christmas Party taking over the hotel. Instead, we eat at the nearby Brewhouse & Kitchen before moving on to the Barley Mow where they have the most amazing raffle we’ve ever seen with big cash prizes, bottles of whiskey, a microwave and an air fryer among the prizes. We were not in it so couldn’t win it. 

Sunday is the Portsmouth Costal Marathon and again we’re not in it to win but we do go to watch it. First on Hayling Island and then back to see the finish at Southsea Castle. In the evening, we manage to eat in the hotel and then head off in search of the elusive Winter Ale. Normally in Portsmouth I’m chasing ESB, this year it’s the Winter Ale. They don’t have it at the Bridge Inn, only HSB and they shut on us at 8pm. We end up back at the Still and West which still has no Winter Ale but then they also run out of HSB. So, onto the London Pride...  

On Monday we head home and straight back into the gym together. 

(Monday 23^rd December)