Locked Out

On Tuesday I unexpectedly end up spending the day working from home after the living room door handle comes off in my hand, rendering the entire room inaccessible.

I rung a local locksmith and who sent someone over straight over. The chap, who had a special gadget for opening it, was only here about twenty minutes. That’s two minutes fixing the door and the rest playing ball with the dogs.

The Lad is thrilled to have me at home again and wants to sit on my knee all day long or perhaps he’s just can’t wait to go to dog training.

I cycle on Wednesday and L, who when heading to the gym usually looks like one of those army types doing the London Marathon with a full backpack on, finally rents a locker at the gym.

England beat Denmark 2-1 after extra time to reach the final of the Euros, their first major final since 1966, amid scenes of not very socially distanced celebrations both inside the stadium and out. It’s a redemption of sorts for Gareth Southgate who’s missed the penalty a quarter of a century ago that sent them out at the same stage in Euro 96. Which was also the first tournament I subjected L to as we’d only just met at that point.

On Friday we have our usual morning 5k and later, bizarrely, I have a committee meeting which delays the Friday revelries a touch.

On Saturday I head up to Bilsthorpe for a dog show. This is where I took the Lad for his first debut two years ago. Now it’s time to relaunch his career. Unfortunately he is so excited he launches himself more than his career which isn’t terribly helpful.

Mark Cavendish wins the 13^th stage of the Tour de France, his fourth victory in this year's race and equals Eddy Merckx's all-time record of 34 Tour stage wins. Some of the media notice but not many of them.

On Sunday we run 18k before England lose the Euros final on, yes, penalties. Did you really expect anything else? But it is the country’s best performance at a major tournament since 1966 and, outside of the usual racists and Twitter, everyone is united around all the players who gave their all during the momentous run to the final. There’s also not long to wait until the one that really matters, the World Cup is only a year and a bit away.

(Sunday 11^th July)