Locked Out

We are having a bit of a problem getting in our front door. The keys and probably the lock itself are worn out. I gave L my key because it seemed to work better than hers and then I couldn’t get back in the house with hers after taking the dogs for a walk. I have to intercept her on the way to the pool to get my key back.

Anything I can do Mark Cavendish can do better. This includes falling off in a velodrome. The difference here is that it clearly wasn’t his fault. Somebody else hit him... don’t you hate it when that happens...

On Wednesday I cycle, which went well until I got a puncture coming on to Pride Park. It’s a long time since I’ve had one of those. I walked the last bit, which isn’t easy in my new bike shoes. So now I’ve got a sore knee again. I replace the inner tube over lunch.

L bravely takes MD to the vets for his annual booster. He is a bit of wimp when it comes to the vets.

Thursday is L’s parents’ Diamond Wedding Anniversary which isn’t quite as wild a celebration as it might have been with her Dad now in the care home. It’s still moderately wild though with a meal followed by cake, sherry and wine.

Also on Thursday, at the dog club we have our first in person committee meeting since January 2020.

Then there's the news of the new Covid variant. Hot on the heels of Delta comes Omicron which is currently lurking somewhere in a departure lounge in South Africa waiting to get the next flight over.

Then again, perhaps its not so ‘hot on the heels’ as clearly Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, Nu and Xi must have turned out to be insignificant.

After her morning swim L has a mince pie muffin which clearly tells you that Christmas must be limbering up somewhere. Although, to be pedantic, surely it’s a pie or a muffin? It can’t be both.

The weather isn’t great. It clearly wasn’t cycling weather on Friday and doesn’t appear to be Parkrun weather either on Saturday. Many are cancelled due to wind and snow as we hide under the duvet.

We emerge eventually to head to the care home. L and her Mum visit while I indulge in coffee and a bacon roll at a local café.

The weather is still cold but at least fine for the Derby Half Marathon on Sunday. While I do the half L, Daughter and Daughter’s +1 do the 5 miler. We take advantage of a non-existent £2 parking offer that Chapel Street car park won’t accept and therefore ending up paying a further £3.90. Bargain. Daughter is still awaiting her race number so she has to go to the desk to get that sorted.

The run itself goes surprisingly well as my knee holds out until the nine mile point meaning I only have to hobble less than a third of the distance. My time of 1:57 is my best for a while. Progress at last.

The biggest challenge of the day is reserved for after the race. They have stored everyone’s bags in a tiny baggage tent that is about the size of that used by a family of four to go camping. It takes 25 minutes queuing to get my bag back and therefore to put some warm clothes on, by which time I’m turning a nice shade of blue.

In the evening we head to Stapleford on bus for a few pints in the Horse & Jockey. Despite the Government announcing that compulsory mask wearing on buses is coming back in from Tuesday but there is no sign of many on the bus wanting to be proactive in starting right now.

(Sunday 28^th November)