The World's Smallest Pie

Monday is New Year’s Day and L does Parkrun at Forest Rec. I skip it due to my tight calf that I picked up at Lincoln last week. My Dad, who has stayed over, skips it too but he stays in bed. We have a match later and Derby celebrate actually getting a game on a bank holiday and at a sensible time by losing 3-2 to Peterborough after leading twice. L helps me down my sorrows in a bottle of red later.

It's back to work on Tuesday although L gets up really early for a 7am yoga session that again doesn’t exist. At least she gets plenty of time to warm up in the gym for her PT at 8am.

It is, of course, still raining as it seems to have done all Christmas and New Year. L’s boss doesn’t turn up (he rarely seems to on the first day back after a holiday) and sends her home. Only it’s raining so hard she opts to stay at work.

Dog training restarts with some people wondering if they’ll get through through the floods. This is apparently Storm Henk. We are literally wading around the park at the moment on our morning walks.

On Wednesday, I make to the gym at lunchtime which was thankfully fairly quiet and for once there wasn’t equipment scattered everywhere. You can tell when most of the students are away. In the evening I watch the World Darts Final between the young upstart Luke Littler and the top seed Luke Humphreys. I’m about the only person rooting for Humphreys, who wins.

On Thursday L swims at Lenton pool while the Lad and I swim our way around the park. In the evening I go over to see my Dad and take him to the New Inn.

On Friday, after L has done her usual trip to Derby, we head off to Blackpool. We are visiting a friend of ours which is also a useful ruse by L to get another Parkrun in. There is, disappointingly, no Holiday Inn in Blackpool so we stay at a ‘boutique’ hotel called Bradburys.

We have a few beers in the Number 13 Bonny Street pub where they are mourning the loss of their landlady who died on New Years Day. She was only 49. The dog friendly Number 13 doesn’t do food so we end up in the local chippy where they serve me the world's smallest pie.

Blackpool Parkrun is at Stanley Park where we have a chap doing some chalkings.

I have serious doubts that my dodgy calf will make it round the course and nearly don’t run at all. In the end I tough it out and hobble round in 31 minutes. L’s watch has a ‘moment’ and says she has actually run 18k with 94k of ascent somewhere in Yorkshire. That’s pretty impressive in 35 minutes and because we’re in Lancashire.

We make it back to the hotel for breakfast which is decent after which we check out and go to visit our friend who is now living in Thornton Cleveleys, a few miles out of Blackpool. It is apparently famous for being used for filming one of the newer Star Wars movies. As it happens Derby County are also in town (almost) playing nearby Fleetwood Town but I don’t have a ticket.

On the way back home we pop in at L’s Mum’s to measure up for her new TV then in the evening we’re back in the Plough.

On Sunday we do things backwards. We go to the Wollaton pub first for breakfast roll and coffee then we go for a walk on the park. In the afternoon I play Daughter at Squash. L runs there but gets diverted by the floods and misses our game.

(Sunday 7th January)