Stealing From Sainsburys

While in Sainsburys on Monday I was selected for a random Smartshop 'theft check' but the guy who had to rescan ten items scanned the wrong bar code on one of them which meant all my shopping was rejected. Which meant he then had to rescan the whole lot in case I was nicking that item, a pack of yoghurts worth £1.50, while I watched. His scanning came in £10 cheaper than my original scan which was great. It would have been cheaper for Sainsburys to have let me nick the yoghurts. Not that I was. Such a stupid system. 

In the evening it’s the dog club's Christmas meal at Anoki on the A38.Which goes ok but has quite a small turn out. I think most people probably prefer the Chinese we used to go for or perhaps they just don't like the evil turn off the A38..

Our neighbour comes round to wish us Merry Christmas and drops off a big tub of Celebrations. Therefore L has to join me at my Dad’s later as she can’t be left alone in the house with them.

On Wednesday we go see Sebastian Payne, a journalist I’m quite a fan of, at Quad. He is conversation with Navtej Johal talking about his book ‘The Fall of Boris Johnson’. It is this bit that pulls in the crowd including L and some friends of ours. It was a fascinating evening.

On Thursday I take my Dad to see his GP who refers him for a X-Ray. Meanwhile Santa is spotted driving L’s bus. So even he’s had to take a second job.

The music selection for our Friday night in becomes a tribute night to Terry Hall who sadly died last weekend as we work our way through his musical career.

Saturday is Christmas Eve but it’s also Parkrun day at Alvaston and, as it’s Christmas, even I run although very slowly. Then we have lunch at Seven with my Dad and L’s Mum but stay in in the evening.

Christmas Day is also Parkrun day again at Alvaston but my knees aren’t up to two days in a row so L doesn’t it solo. Then it’s a trip to Mickleover so L and her Mum can visit her Dad after which we drop her Mum at her brother’s before heading to collect my Dad.

We take him to the Horse and Jockey which is standing room only but he loves it as the crowd seems to part and direct him to a vacant chair. We then head back home where Daughter joins us mid-afternoon after she finishes her shift. We have roast lamb and they both stay over. Not a busy day at all!

We all open our presents including the dog who now has too many toys.

(Sunday 25^th December)

How The Mighty Have Fallen

We are back at work on Wednesday and one of us, the Lad, is perhaps a little bored. Perhaps he's missing his holiday. I get a call from my Dad. He's definitely missing his holiday. 

I ring his GP’s surgery for him which was farcical. You ring then have to listen to a recorded message for two minutes, then you press ‘1’ to book an appointment. You can’t press ‘1’ until the two minute message has finished. At which point a recorded voice says ‘our phone lines are very busy right now, please ring back later’ and the line goes dead.

So I repeated that process every 15 minutes from 9am to about 11am when I was finally placed 29th in the queue. Half an hour later I was up to 26th but was given the option to press ‘0’ for a call back, which I did.

About 12:30 they called me back, then they called my Dad as they’re not allowed to speak to me without his permission. Anyway he now has an appointment for next Thursday. In the meantime they have advised him to administer frozen peas to his knee.

My Strava account, that I’m still not sure how I ended up with, tells me I was ‘active for 88 days this year'. That’s not very good. In fact it’s terrible. How the mighty have fallen. Which is indicated by the fact we had to cut this morning’s walk short because my knee wasn’t good.

On Thursday we have a major incident. I opened a new bottle of milk and it’s all frozen. I’ve had to leave a bottle out to defrost. Can’t have L tea-less tonight.

On Friday I’m back on Pride Park to take the car in for a very pricey cambelt replacement. Obviously I can’t hang out at work as the office is now closed, so I have to get the bus home and then head back over later to collect it.

After I’ve done that I divert to meet L in Exeter although she is struggling to get the bus over from Mickleover, so sadly I have to kill time with a pint.

On Saturday L Parkruns at Forest Rec and I have the match in the afternoon. On Sunday she runs the Kedleston Tinsel Trail 10k. A very 'informal' event organised by Jog Derbyshire. Dogs are welcome but only sensible ones so the Lad has to watch with me. L gives him the opportunity to run the finale with him but he totally fluffs that opportunity by biting his lead. 

(Sunday 18^th December)

The Sweet

Tonight I am at the last night of the Sweet's ‘Unlock the Rock’ Tour at Rock City along with L. Support is from Stoke-on-Trent’s Kira Mac or at least two fifths of them. Vocalist Rhiannon Hill, hereafter known as Kira Mac, is very apologetic as she explains this and for the lack of their usual electric sound. Tonight, with her perched on a stool alongside Joe Worrall on guitar, it is very much an acoustic show but as she says when The Sweet ask you don’t say no. 

 

She has quite a soulful voice which sort of makes you curious as to what the full band would sound like. Very different I would imagine. She is chatty and explains what many of the songs are about. Often it appears they are about either her own terrible taste in men or that of her friends!

After a short break the chants of ‘We want The Sweet’ start up and then suddenly we are into ‘Action’. Which takes us back to 1975 when I was eight. So I can't claim to have seen the Sweet in their heyday, I'm far too young, but they did headline Trent Polytechnic's student Christmas Party at the Nottingham Palais in December 1985 supported by fellow 70’s icons Mud.

 

By then the band had assailed the heights of popularity before plummeting back down the other side amid acrimony and alcohol. So I am not sure if that was Brian Connelly's version of the band or Andy Scott's as two versions of The Sweet were doing the rounds at the time. I suspect it was the former. Tonight it is obviously Andy Scott's as he is sadly the last man standing of the original four members of the band.

Tonight Scott is joined by long-time musical partner Bruce Bisland on drums, the energetic Paul Manzi on vocals and Lee Small on bass plus an additional guitarist for when Scott’s ageing fingers can’t quite do everything.

 

After a detour into Russ Ballard’s ‘New York Groove’, a song largely made famous by Ace Frehley of Kiss, the nostalgia trip continued with ‘Hell Raiser’. Those two songs seemed to highlight two things. Firstly the band had quite a few huge hits back in the day but also they soon stopped having them and therefore there isn’t enough well known material to do a long set. Therefore there’s just fifteen songs tonight and a middle section of lesser known material that causes proceedings to labour a touch. Not that many of the crowd, mostly regulars one feels, seem to mind too much.

The band don’t, interestingly, go back to 1971 to play the rather twee songs ‘Funny, Funny’ and ‘Co-Co’ but we do get ‘Wig Wam Bam’ and ‘Little Willy’ towards the end of the set. 

Scott successfully fills any void with some excellent banter and also tells us that we were listening to the band’s new single ‘Don’t Bring Me Water’ over the PA before they came on. There is also an album called ‘Paradox’ to follow. That’s not bad from a man who referred to himself as the only person in the room born in the 1940s.

Of course there’s still loads of the really good stuff - ‘Teenage Rampage’, ‘Love Is Like Oxygen, ‘The Six Teens’ and ‘Fox on the Run’ with ‘Blockbuster’ and ‘The Ballroom Blitz’ held back for the encore to end an excellent night.

50 Years At Least

On Friday we head up to the Lake District and take my Dad with us. It’s somewhere he hasn’t been for a very long time and I can’t recall him ever taking me up there, so it’s 50 years at least since he’s been. 

Our first stop, on the waterfront at Bowness, is a bit of a disappointment as most of the cafés are closed for the winter. We do find one that is open but the location isn’t great and everything is in disposal cups even though we sit indoors.

From there we find our cottage in Chapel Stile. This turns out to be on the top of a hill on an icy road, so it’s not ideal for walking to the Wainwrights pub in the evening and although we manage to walk my Dad there we have to fetch the car to bring him back.  

 

On Saturday L has entered the Langdale Christmas Pudding 10k in preference to doing Parkrun. They have yet another new course but it again starts from the New Dungeon Ghyll from which my Dad gets to experience both the New Dungeon Ghyll (with mulled wine) and the Sticklebarn. 

In the evening we attempt to eat in the Old Dungeon Ghyll but it is packed, so we end up back at the Wainwrights. On Sunday evening we do manage to give my Dad the Old Dungeon Ghyll experience as by then it is the opposite, almost empty. 

We have a trip out on Sunday to Keswick for a bit of Christmas shopping and also go to the Lakes Distillery where we engage in an ad hoc whiskey tasting session.

On Monday we move out of the cottage and head over to Ullswater where unfortunately we find out that the Kirkstone Pass Inn is now closed after its owners of the last 17 years retired. Hopefully somebody will have it open again soon and it’s not going to become another holiday cottage or a Tesco Express. 

Then we head to the Watermill at Ings where we  stay for a night and can get Shih Tzu Faced on their dog themed beers of which they have a very good selection of.

 

We head back on Tuesday in time for the Lad’s training session for which, after a few hours in the car, he is the proverbial coiled spring. 

(Tuesday 13^th December) 

Festive Spirit

On Monday we go over to Leamington to meet with Son. Although my holiday doesn’t get approved in advance because unknown to me both my bosses were on holiday last week. I assume someone will approve it on Monday morning, so I take it anyway. 

L goes Christmas shopping with Son while the Lad and I hit the local park and the park café, which is awash with fellow canines who are all obviously in the festive spirit, including the Lad, because they all get on. Then we all have lunch.

In the evening we go and see ‘She Said’ at Broadway Cinema. It's our first film there since February 2020. 

‘She Said’ is about the New York Times journalists, played by Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan, who outed the predatory film producer Harvey Weinstein. It has got some rather snooty reviews but we thought it was very good and shows the immense effort they went to in their pursuit of him. Sadly there weren't enough car chases in it for some.

 

On Tuesday I take my Dad out for a pint and because the New Inn is closed for a kitchen refurbishment we go to the Crown in Shardlow. It is full of dogs who all again bizarrely get on well. This festive spirit is strong stuff.

The weather is turning colder which means we get some nice frosty morning walks this week and there is no festive spirit in the morning. Temperaments are as frosty as the weather and on Wednesday there are four dogs in one day that don’t like us.

There is also no football on Wednesday as we await the Quarter Finals, I think the Lad is a bit lost without it but he does have his tunnel evening aka dog training to look forward to.

On Thursday I go in to the work for the very last time with the office closing for good on Friday. When I get there it is to find that everyone else has already cleared their desks and that someone has cleared my desk, of computer kit, for me. So I just pick up my last few possessions, wave goodbye to the old place and head back home to the Lad. Who is delighted to see me and then he helps me put the Christmas tree up.

Then, to be even more festive, we all go for walk around the Wollaton Park Christmas lights.

(Thursday 8^th December)

Last Bike Last Lunch

I go into work on Monday as the car is due its MOT. This won’t be so easy to do when the office closes for good. I’m on my own in the office so when my MOT is done by lunchtime I decide to head home and do my 1:30pm meeting from home. Then the Lad can video-bomb and join me or perhaps I’ll just put South Korea v Ghana on TV for him. 

I’m back at work again on Tuesday, this time by bike. Which will be for the very last time. I’m meeting my retired ex-colleague for lunch also possibly for the last time unless we can come to some other arrangement.

It’s positively packed in the office. Four other members of staff and a load of people looking round the building with a view to moving in.

Back home we have some miserable looking birds in our garden as the bird feeder is empty again and I've had to delay the weekly shop until Wednesday. At which point we put some more balls out for them. They don't seem to notice but they have been upgraded to RSPB recommended ones. Although it doesn't say on the pack why they were recommended and they were more expensive, so hopefully the RSPB get a decent cut of that.

On Wednesday evening I take my Dad to a book talk by Ryan Hills who has written a book called Groundwork about Jim Smith’s time at Derby County. It is part of Derby Book Festival and it the only event that L hasn’t got tickets to. I have no idea why.

This is his second book, the first was called Pride and was about the post-Jim Smith era. It was excellent but I’ve read several books on Jim Smith so I wasn’t planning to get this one but he convinces us it's worth buying and my Dad buys it on the spot. Which is one Christmas present I now can’t get him.

Sadly for Ryan Hills the event is high jacked, in a nice way, by fellow guests Graham Richards and Colin Gibson who have acquired somewhat God like status. Hills isn’t much of a talker so he was probably happy to defer to these deities. Afterwards we have a pint in the Exeter where my Dad raves about the microwave breakfasts L’s Mum has converted him to.

On Saturday L parkruns at Wollaton while Sam Harrison is setting an impressive new female parkrun world record just down the road at Long Eaton. Then there’s an early match at 12:30 which is a goalless draw with Sheffield Wednesday.

Sunday is the dog club’s AGM in Etwall. I am not up for election as Club Secretary is a two year post, so they will have to put up with me for another year regardless.

(Sunday 4^th December)

For The Birds

Nottingham Castle goes bust after its rather expensive refit doesn’t pull in the extra visitors they thought it would. Perhaps they should have stuck to hosting the beer festival. 

The World Cup is underway and there are four games a day at different times. This may have kicked off a new wave of working from home. England play Iran first on Monday, are 3-0 up at half time and end up winning 6-2. Nobody saw that coming. They then struggle to a 0-0 draw with the USA on Friday. Everyone saw that coming.

We now have bird feeders in the garden and have quickly been struggling to keep up with demand. L started by putting up some ‘fat’ balls up the garden, which are actually suet balls, but we now also have a bird seed dispenser as well. The problem is both seem to empty in record time and now have a garden full of birds that are too full of fat ball to take off.

The Lad seems to be enjoying the World Cup more than me. I leave him curled up on the settee watching Denmark v Tunisia while I work in my office.

L re-joins her old gym, now run by JD Gyms, on a Black Friday offer. She copes ably with being the new girl and says it's good to be back. Now starts the long process of persuading me to join. It is true I will need a new gym once my office closes next month preventing me going (infrequently) to the one on Pride Park.

Talking of the old office closing, my old MD advises he is leaving the new company on the 19^th December, now that he’s sold everything off. The really sad thing was the small number of people on the distribution list indicating how few of the old company are still here.

I go into the office on Thursday and he gives me, there’s only us and one other person there, that there’s a leaving do on the 9^th. Although I’m not sure getting everyone one drunk would work out well for him. I can’t go because we’re in the Lakes and I’m not rescheduling that.

By lunchtime I’m the only one left in the office so I have a late lunch, spend 15 mins in the gym and then head home. I only use three pieces of equipment at the gym but typically one of them, the leg press, was out of order and there’s no version of that in the free weights. I’m back home for 3pm.

On Friday it’s Iran v Wales and it still doesn’t go well for Wales, who lose 2-0. They were terrible. Naturally L's boss, a Wales man, hasn't been in the office and now he’ll be in hiding.

L says she needs chocolate, cake and wine. I can only assume she's watching Qatar v Senegal.

On Saturday L parkruns at Alvaston, number 251, her 250th t-shirt is now on order. 

In the evening we’re out at Nicco’s in Derby with some friends. While on Sunday it’s the FA Cup 2^nd Round with Derby away at Newport County. It’s live on ITV so the Lad swaps our settee for my Dad’s settee as we both go over to watch the match. As I've said, he does seem to like his football. Derby come from behind to win 2-1, then we head off for our post-match pint. He likes that bit too.

(Sunday 27^th November)

250th Parkrun

The Lad spends most of Monday in his bed resting his eyes, comatose, catching up on his heavy day yesterday.

He does summon the strength to leap the gate, right in front of me, to get at the postman. He seems to be getting rather good at this. Although quite why the postman has come this morning, who knows. What’s wrong with 4pm as usual? I consider leaving the Lad there but in the end let him back in but only really so that I can get the post off him.

On Tuesday evening my Dad and I go to the FA Cup replay against Torquay United and Derby cruise through 5-0. The smallish crowd of just over 7,000 means only half the ground is open, so we have to move seats to the other side of the ground as we have done for all the Cup matches so far. Derby’s bar is also closed so we have to head to the Exeter afterwards.

On Wednesday I head over to Derby post-work to meet my friend for a few drinks. He has started drinking halves but two at a time, of different beers. L’s always said I should have a half to try a new beer. He’s doubling down on this. We drink in the Alexandra and then go to the Exeter for food.

On Thursday I have a Committee Meeting in the evening while L is out for a walk and lunch with her friends in Derby.

On Friday we try a new Indian restaurant called Tarka on Midland Road in Derby with friends. The food is ok but they don’t sell alcohol which means it’s a real dilemma what to drink. Although to be fair it’s always a dilemma what to drink in an Indian restaurant even when they do sell alcohol as none of it is much good.

Saturday is L’s 250^th Parkrun which she does a Clifton. Afterwards the Lad and I present her a 250^th parkrun buff that we purchased in preparation for this great day.

Then on Sunday she runs the Heanor Pudding Run 10k at Shipley Park. The Lad, my Dad and I go along to support but spend most of the time queuing at the park café which rather annoying the run no longer goes past. So then we have to quickly hot foot it to the finish line.

(Sunday 20^th November)

Other Stockists Are Available

L continues to do the occasional class at David Lloyds even though she’s now quit and her membership ends at the end of the year. She says they all seem very quiet, so perhaps everyone else is leaving as well. 

Meanwhile L’s boss is going round the various Aldi's in the area, buying up their 'cheap posh' wine ready for a drinks party he's having. We never thought he’d been seen dead in Aldi so he may be doing it in disguise.

Sainsbury’s seem to have decided to have stop stocking Markies, as in dog treats, which has caused a bit of a trauma in our household. Other stockists are, thankfully, available.

I bike into work on Thursday to find I’m the only one there until our former MD turns up. L works from home alongside my usual co-worker.

I go out with my Dad later and take him for a pint. I come home first to collect the Lad and also because I can’t really take my Dad to the pub on my bike. Although he would probably be game for a backie.

L sets herself a small eco mission to stop using disposable coffee cups. Unfortunately she will get little help from the coffee shops or the Government. It’s immensely frustrating that so many places are going backwards on this. The likes of Wollaton Park used to use proper mugs in their cafes but now it’s all takeaway cups which means we rarely go there but it doesn’t seem to put most people off.

Derby go to Anfield in the League Cup and take Liverpool all the way to penalties where they then lose.

L parkruns at Wollaton on Saturday in what is her 249^th parkrun. Next week will be her 250^th.

Sunday is the dog club's Members Day where everyone from our club who wants to can complete in up to three runs. 45 dogs turn up. If only we could get just a fraction of that turnout for our AGM. The Lad doesn’t disgrace himself or embarrass me for a change. At least not at first. His first run is excellent. Just one pole down and a wide turn while recording the third fast time. Which would have been the fastest without those things. His second run was ok but, yes, his third one was embarrassing. 

I make my judging début for all of one run, while someone else was on a loo break. My Dad comes to watch and has a great time. He then goes home with my brother while we go straight to pick L up from one of her rearranged book talks.

(Sunday 13^th November)

Another Unexplained Freebie

On Monday we again do the local primary school’s Halloween Trail only this year we do it in heavy rain. Daughter joins but we don’t stick it out for long given the state of the weather. 

At least there’s plenty of fresh rainwater to swim in when L gets to the outdoor pool the next morning.

I go into work on Wednesday on the bus. Which turns up on time but the Mango app is playing up so several people got a free ride. It's very windy as well as wet which is why I didn’t cycle.

I look on the camera and see that the Lad is helping himself to the bird balls that were in a bag in the kitchen. At least giving them a good licking if nothing else. L nips home and saves him from himself.

I meet my ex-colleague for lunch and get updated on life in retirement. He’s just got his bus pass and wasn’t surprised to hear about the impending closure of our old office.

Then there is another unexplained freebie on the Red Arrow on the way home.

Having failed to get into the London Marathon, the next thing on the schedule to fail to get into is Glastonbury. Tickets go on sale on Thursday and Sunday. Of course both attempts end in utter un-heroic failure. Not a sniff.

L is at Derby Book Festival for three days from Friday having bought a season ticket to cover all the sessions. The four talks per day have rather large gaps between them and two of them are postponed to a different week which makes it quite a marathon for her.

She finds out on day one that the one about Henry Chips Channon was about a Tory politician from early last century and not a child’s book. Though it’s probably very similar really. We collect her at 8:30.

On Saturday L parkruns before returning to the Book Festival where it’s her turn for a freebie on the Red Arrow. I’m not sure many people pay. We meet her afterwards in the Exeter.

On Sunday I go to my Dad’s the watch Derby in the FA Cup First Round away at Torquay United which has been chosen for showing on ITV. Derby are 2-0 up and cruising until they gave away a penalty which resulted in a sending off, then they conceded a late equaliser. They’ll be a replay.

L skips the last of her book talks which means my Dad and I head off early to meet her in the Exeter for a roast beef cob. That they run out of. Nick Wallis, famous of the Post Office scandal, whom L has just watched obviously has the same idea and is there in the pub.

(Sunday 6^th November)

The Mythical Rear Porch

I go into work on Friday by bike which was a bit damp but it was good to get the exercise. The Lad seems to disagree, looking as he does very bored and lonely hanging out of his bed on our CCTV but he does like to ham it up. 

Yet again when I go into work they choose that moment to deliver my monthly beer box to home. As I’m not in they say they’ve left it on the rear porch. The problem is we don’t have a rear porch and they’ve not included a photo. I’m hoping they mean they’ve just put it by the side gate.

On Saturday L parkruns at Wollaton Hall and I got to the match. Derby beat Bristol Rovers 4-2.

(Sunday 30^th October)

Pete Wylie

 Tonight I'm in the back room of the Leadmill, the Steel Stage as it's known and barely big enough for the four person band, to see Pete Wylie celebrate 40 years of Wahness. From the opening ‘There is no intro music’, and there really isn’t, tonight's affair is a laugh a minute. 

I say 'affair' because it's more of chat show than a gig. In just under two hours on stage Wylie manages to deliver just eleven songs and there's not even that much Wah! about a lot of them.

Of course the crowd tell him to get on with but as he points out people have been telling him to get on with it for 40 years and he's not about to start now. What we get is tales about his shirt, about pears and about all sorts of other things including his ADHD. There's also more celebrity name dropping of stars from his era than most of the crowd have had hot dinners. Sadly far too many of those stars are no longer with us.

He dedicates 'Fourelevenfortyfour' to his long time collaborator Josie Jones who we lost in 2015 and 'Heart as Big as Liverpool' to Janice Long, whom he spoke to the day before she died last year.

The banter is all very entertaining when it's not sad while the music, when it comes, is very good despite the fact a lot of the backing comes from a laptop. Laptops are of course cheaper than hiring a bigger band and teaching them what to play. 

The Wah! classics are there 'Come Back' and 'The Story of the Blues' along with 'Better Scream' and my favourite of the night, because I wasn't sure he'd play it, a terrific 'Remember'. 

There's also the highlight of his solo career 'Sinful' with its David Bowie 'Heroes' tribute as well as new material from his recent 'Pete Sounds' album.

He quips that he was going to update 'The Day That Margaret Thatcher Dies' for Liz Truss but then ran out of time when she was forced to quit. Tonight he runs out of time again with the Leadmill's student night fast approaching and requiring a 10:30 finish. He rushes back to encore with 'Seven Minutes to Midnight' but you feel he had planned to play more. 

Best get on with it next time Pete and a bit more Wah! please.

Annual Rejection

For a brief moment it looked as if the Conservative party was going to bring back Boris Johnson to succeed Liz Truss, as hilarious and as tragic as that would have been, but in the end we get Rishi. I wonder if he can last until Christmas. 

I receive my annual London Marathon rejection which for once is a relief as it’s highly unlikely I’d be able to upgrade my hobbling from five miles for twenty six miles by April.  

However, after telling us all that the 10 miles of the Great South would be the last time she ever ran further than10k L’s sister gets a place. Cue a massive dilemma and a major rethink as it’s not the sort of thing you can turn down.

Derby draw 0-0 with Exeter as they struggle to come to terms with the different rules in League One, basically that there are no rules and they seem to keep getting caught out by this.

We come home to find a dog on the wrong side of the gate again. He just can’t stop himself jumping the gate to confront the postman but then can’t get back.

(Wednesday 27^th October)

British Sea Power

Support tonight is from Manchester’s rather wonderful and rather wild Loose Articles who may, or may not, have expected to be playing to a room full of Dads awaiting a band who sing about ice shelves amongst a stage strewn with plant life. Although by some sheer coincidence one of the four girls does go by the name of Tree.

They have fortunately brought a few fans with them to lower the average age for a set that actually enchants everyone. Their punky sound sort of blends (if I may show my age) Sleeper with an Eddie Argos\Art Brut delivery (I’m sure they will hate that description) on the day Eddie really didn’t like buses (one of their songs).

Aside from a great sound, they have a great slogan too 'feminine and threatening, working and class' while among several songs with a football angle they have one that is apparently about Gary Lineker shagging a packet of crisps. For a finale their lead singer Natalie (or was it Tree) spends the last track dancing amongst the audience. Beat that Sea Power.

Of course back in the day the eccentrics that are now called Sea Power would have done exactly that but now I think the guys have middle-aged knees and Noble rarely seems to swing from the light fittings these days. Yet musically they are still majestic as illustrated by their outstanding latest album 'Everything Was Ever' which understandably dominates proceedings tonight.

The new songs which are great on record sound even better in the live arena with the likes of 'Folly' and 'Two Fingers' standouts again. It’s also great to have a track where you can validly flick a V sign to everyone in attendance and call it a dance.

The new songs nestle nicely with the oldies which of course the band rotate as always and after seven albums they have a lot to rotate now. As ever something excellent is pulled from that back catalogue such as the opening 'Who's in Control', the wonderful 'A Trip Out', 'The Lonely' and to a lesser extent the expansive 'Cleaning Out The Rooms'.

There’s always something you are thrilled to hear again along with disappointment at what they’ve left out but then there’s always next time. Which just means you can never skip a tour.

However the finale of the sets does now seem to have become a bit of a religion with ‘Lights Out’, ‘Remember Me’ and ‘Carrion’ closing the set before an encore of the anthem ‘Waving Flags’ and their sublime instrumental ‘The Great Skua’.

It’s another amazing night but maybe shake that ending up if you can’t swing from the rafters any more?

Read The Memo

It was very foggy and dark on Wollaton Park on Tuesday morning which probably made the strange old man limping across the field with his dog look even stranger but then I had just done the Great South Run (well half of it). 

In the evening my 94 year old father helps me up the steps as we attend Derby County against Manchester City Under 21s in the totally pointless Papa John’s Trophy.

Derby’s two games in the trophy so far against Grimsby and Mansfield have been played out in the style of a pre-season friendly between largely reserve sides. Manchester City then turn up, not having read the memo, and take it seriously. It is only an under 21 side but several of their players are worth many times what our entire team is worth let alone what Grimsby’s and Mansfield’s sides are worth. Me thinks this tournament is mainly for the benefit of the Premiership teams. Yes we lose but I’m not bitter.

On Thursday Liz Truss finally concedes defeat, congratulates the lettuce and resigns.

While I receive an email at work to say that they are closing the Derby office permanently on 9th December. I’m obviously not surprised but that’s sooner than I expected. It’s all very sad and the end of an era.

I actually go into the office on Friday. I go in on the bus but then get a lift back from Daughter who picks me up in her car having been out with L.

Derby’s match at Ipswich in the evening is on Sky which I watch but my Dad has issues with his remote control and misses it. Perhaps I should have gone round.

L Parkruns on Saturday at Wollaton while I nurse my sore knees.

After his weekend away the Baton spends most of the week upside down in his bed. He has no stamina but then L did have the rake out a few times collecting up leaves. On Sunday he has to supervise the cutting of two lawns in one day. We probably won’t see him until Wednesday.

(Saturday 22^nd October)

Baton

So for the first time we drive down to Portsmouth for the Great South Run rather than taking the train as we have a stowaway onboard. The Lad is with us, forsaking his kennel for a weekend in the Holiday Inn. As they say it’s a dog’s life. Once we arrive we check our phones to see if we still have a Prime Minister. Yes we have and its still Liz Truss. 

It’s a good job that we have the Lad with us as our first evening is spent eating in the Brewhouse and Kitchen where the ham they serve me is basically a whole leg of pig. The Lad offers to help me. Then we have a few drinks in our favourite pub, the Barley Mow, although they have no Fullers ESB.

Saturday is, of course, Parkrun. L does an analysis of which Parkruns are in reach of our hotel. There is plenty of choice - Lee-on-Solent, Fareham, Portsmouth Lakeside or Great Salterns but the one across the road at Southsea is off because of the Great South Run. This will mean taking the car to one of the others and vacating our parking space that we may not get back. Hopefully we’ll be ok if we are back in the gap between check-out time and check-in time.

We decide on Lee-on-Solent which is a rather ‘nice’ jog along the promenade. We meet L’s sister there and have a coffee with them after checking our phones to check who the Prime Minister is. It’s still Liz Truss but all the talk is of the Daily Star’s livestream of an iceberg lettuce next to a photograph of Truss. The debate is who will last longer as the shelf life of a lettuce is about ten days and no one expects Truss to last that long.

During a post-run coffee two dogs start scrapping at the table opposite us. Some owners just can't keep control of their dogs. Then we realise that one of them is the Lad who last time I looked was tied to my chair. Now just half a lead is tied to my chair. It looks like someone may have bitten through it.

Having reclaimed our dog and then our parking space we go for an afternoon walk followed by a drink in the Still & West, a Fullers pub near Spice Island who also have no ESB, before meeting L's sister and her husband for a meal, as usual, in the Customs House where there is also no ESB. It must be a conspiracy.

On Sunday it’s the actual Great South Run. We ‘illegally’ attach both our timing chips to my number and then I start the race on behalf of both of us. I run the first five miles before removing my number and handing it with the chips to L who has her own now ‘unchipped’ number on. In return she hands me The Lad, hereafter known as the Baton.

While my Strava only shows half of the Great South route with me disappearing into a puff of smoke at 5 miles their tracker does have me finishing the course this year, arm in arm with L as we cross the line together.

While checking my phone I get the latest update on the PM. It’s still Liz Truss although it appears that Jeremy Hunt, the new chancellor, is now running the country or maybe the lettuce is.

In the evening we grab a drink in the Dolphin, a Grade II listed pub that claims to be the oldest in Portsmouth. Meanwhile news filters through that ESB is allegedly on at Customs House. It is a conspiracy. However we head off to the ESB-less Barley Mow again and then Spice Merchants as usual for a curry for which we have to leave the Baton in the car.

On Monday morning we head off to West Wittering to give the Baton a bit of beach before heading home. 

(Monday 17^th October)

The World Economic Forum

Despite yesterday’s 10k the morning walk on Monday goes well, in that I made it back home again. That's sort of positive, I think. 

L goes for a swim and a sauna but accidentally gatecrashes a debate about Klaus Schwab, the World Economic Forum and net zero. None of which was conducive to a relaxing sauna but sounds absolutely fascinating and isn’t the sort of thing she’ll get at the Lenton Community Centre once she quits David Lloyd.

L didn’t quite share my fascination and was relieved to revert to her comfort zone and a discussion on autobiographies with her friend which does divert into the complexities of the subject of Andrew Ridgeley.

Wednesday is dog training and then on Thursday I cycle into work. For which I suspect I was only pedalling on my best leg most of the time. I used the term ‘best leg’ as a relative term as neither of them are particularly good. At least, for once, it didn’t rain on me and there are two of us in work which is double what I was expecting.

I meet my retired ex-colleague for lunch in the Brunswick which was of course the main reason for going into the office.  

(Thursday 13^th October)

Pointless Journeys

The gasman is back this morning to fix a leaking pipe on the boiler. Unfortunately he is here and drilling holes at the same time as I have a meeting. Which wasn’t terribly helpful.

Now that the weather is no longer hot I was started taking the Lad to Sainsbury’s with me. I’ve not trained him to push the trolley yet so he stays in the car and watches the car park. I’m not sure if he prefers that to staying at home.

I’ve still not got my parcel off the Post Office. They are not on strike today but I didn’t realise they close at noon on Mondays. So on Tuesday the Lad (and me) get a third trip to the Post Office depot and we finally get my parcel. Although they very nearly didn’t give it me as it was addressed to the Dog Club and not me. Can I prove I’m a dog club? Not really.

When we got back home the Lad gave me such a look as if to say ‘that’s yet another trip where I haven’t got out of the car’.

Our Great South Run numbers arrive and, having failed to get the Lad in any of the local kennels, the Holiday Inn have confirmed they’re happy to accommodate him.

On Wednesday I head over to Derby for a night out. I get the last seat on the third scheduled Red Arrow after the first two don’t turn up. I felt a bit bad about the old lady I elbowed aside to get it but I doubt she’d got a pint waiting for her somewhere like I had. My old school pal and I drink in the Alexandra before eating in Peppitos. We did try to get in the cheap Indian on London Road (the only cheap Indian on London Road) but it wasn’t open.

On Thursday L and Daughter frequent the Goose Fair. I hadn’t expected L to throw herself into the festivities quite as much as she did as she is caught on camera at the top of the Big Wheel. Not only has she got her eyes open but she’s taken the photo as well which must have meant letting go of something. Extraordinary. She did say she needed a G&T after her day at work perhaps she’d already had it.

On Friday we go out with some friends to Vi-Va Indian Street Food on Goosegate. It’s small odd place and while the food was decent enough I felt it was all very ‘child portion’. So I was still starving afterwards and nobody else left anything that I could assist them with. The restaurant also didn’t seem to have any desserts, at least they didn’t offer us any. Nor did they offer us more drinks after our first one. So it’s quite a brief night out but one that L and I continue in the Borlase having previous started it before Vi-Va in Brewdog.

On Saturday L and I both Parkrun at Wollaton. Then Derby lose at home to Port Vale after conceding two penalties and having a man sent off.

On Sunday it’s our warm-up race for next weekend’s Great South Run. We run the Brewers 10K in Burton which is a new closed roads race starting and finishing at the Pirelli stadium, the home of Burton Albion Football Club. The route took us through Stretton and Rolleston before returning to the Pirelli Stadium.

I take it easy, because I don’t have any choice these days, and finish in 56 minutes. Then I head off to get the Lad out of the car so that we can cheer L in. Unfortunately the days of having a nice buffer of time between the two of us finishing are long gone and we have to yell our support from a distance across the car park as we can’t get back to the course in time.

We get a t-shirt and a medal that they described as being made of eco-friendly wood but surely it's a beer mat. It looks like a beer mat to me and that's surely what you should get from something called the Brewers 10k in what used to be the brewing capital of the UK e.g. before they closed nearly all the breweries and soon the National Brewery Centre as well.

Back at home we get chance for a rare post-race warm-down, which is rare because we hardly do any races these days. Then we stay in with a curry.

(Sunday 9^th October)

To A Safe Place

While L is becoming a film star in a new promotional video at work, I am hooking up online with Romania. I have a first meeting with the boss of project team who I could be working with. L immediately enquires whether there’s any chance of a visit to Romania. Unlikely I’m afraid, everything is done remotely these days. 

Late afternoon I head over to my Dad’s to check on what’s happening with his hedge because two guys are cutting it today. When I get there they’ve already finished, packed up and gone home. It took them four hours to do all the hedges. The guy who did it last year took four days.

I bike into work on Thursday and typically it rains on me. This seems to happen every time I cycle at the moment. At least I’m not alone in the office this time. It is packed today. There’s three of us.

After he jumped the gate last time we both abandoned him, L leaves the gate open for the Lad but, probably because she’s closed the curtain across the front door to try to stop him sitting on the stairs all day looking for us, he seems to stay in his own bed most of the time. He's such a grown up boy now that he doesn’t seem to be terribly interested in being upstairs. 

I go to the gym just to try to make L jealous. This doesn’t work the other way round.

Naturally on the one day I’m not at home someone tries to deliver something. Today it’s my monthly beer box which they say they have ‘delivered to a safe place: NEAR CAR.’ Thankfully no one has stolen it by the time I get home.

I also have a card telling me I missed a second delivery but when I go to pick it up from the sorting office on Friday naturally I find they’re on strike.

On Saturday we both Parkrun at Clifton.

(Sunday 2^nd October)

Frank Turner

Unsurprisingly Frank Turner again delivers two strong support acts tonight in Truckstop Honeymoon and Pet Needs. First up are husband and wife team Mike and Katie West aka Truckstop Honeymoon. They have been together a long long time and have a well-honed act, part comedy banter part bluegrass country music right down to the banjo and the double bass. Anyone who has song titles such as ‘Louisiana Tug Boat Captain’ and ‘Your Mother Is a Sociopath’ are fine by me. They are immensely entertaining and a great way to kick off the evening.

There is then a complete change of gear when Colchester’s unashamedly punk Pet Needs take to the stage and they take to the stage serenaded by Art Brut’s ‘Formed A Band’. Has anyone anywhere ever come on to an Art Brut song before? Other than Art Brut themselves? Eddie Argos would be so proud.

They may now be from Colchester but singer Johnny Marriott grew up in Nottingham and tells us that he saw his first punk gig at Rock City when he saw Rancid. 13 years later he’s on the same stage. It’s also a great story that their first album got picked up during lockdown. They are clearly a band on the up and they’ve brought a huge crowd with them including Johnny’s Mum and Dad. Like Truckstop Honeymoon they don’t lack for confidence although we won’t mention Johnny’s dancing but you can’t knock his and the band’s enthusiasm which is truly infectious.

They’re playing at the Bodega in December but given tonight’s reception I’m not sure that’s going to be big enough for them.

It’s been a while in the making but Frank Turner is back at his spiritual home and what he calls the ‘best gig venue in the world’. I have almost forgiven him for the two cancellations in March 2020 and February 2022. That is cancelled rather than rescheduled meaning loss of booking fees and having to fight the pre-sales all over again as getting Frank Turner tickets is no picnic. Meanwhile he plays four acoustic shows locally that, of course, you couldn’t get tickets for… but anyway. Ancient history now.

The ‘never-ending tour of everywhere’ show 2689 is now here and surprisingly Frank opens with a track that usually comes at the end in ‘Four Simple Words’ before move into ‘The Gathering’ the first of many tonight from his new record ‘FTHC’.

A couple of these new songs tell the story of his relationship with his father. First up ‘Fatherless’ telling of their estrangement and then three songs later comes the second part of the story with ‘Miranda’. His father's called Miranda these days, a proud transgender woman and, he says, they’re ok.

It’s a night of emotional songs as he also pays tribute to his late friend Scott Hutchison, Frightened Rabbit’s lead singer who sadly took his own life in 2018, with the excellent ‘A Wave Across A Bay’.

His now customary solo section is ‘There She is’, ‘The Ballad of Me and My Friends’ and ‘Be More Kind’ but he is sort of heckled, as usual, for other tracks including most prominently 'Thatcher Fucked The Kids'.

Once the solo section is over the Sleeping Souls return for the finale including the monstrous newbie, that harks back to his hardcore roots, ‘Non Serviam’.

When he returns for the encore he whinges a bit about the earlier 'heckling' and then adds 'Thatcher Fucked The Kids' to the set, which I think is the first time he’s ever played it at Rock City before launching into the always excellent ‘Prufrock’. 

 

His shows are always good but some of the ones I’ve seen in the last few years have got a bit samey but tonight he seemed to go up another gear, perhaps the enforced pandemic break did him good, as this was the best I’ve seen Frank Turner in quite some time. Although... I still think he has way too many tracks on his ‘must play’ list but I best not ‘whinge’ too much about that.  

(Tuesday 27^th September)