Earlier And Earlier

On Monday L leaves at 6am to get the bus over to Derby to take her Mum to hospital for some tests while on the park we have to change the route of our walk to avoid the currently very aggressive deer. 

At cycling everyone is very impressed with my tan and asks me where I’ve been on holiday. They don’t believe me when I say I’ve only been to a dog show in Bilsthorpe. 

L runs 6k on Tuesday and we dog train, trying somehow to find a way of improving on Sunday’s 4 Es. 

L is in work on Wednesday but home just after lunch saying she’s finally been given her notice and will finish in August. If she could do handstands she’d be doing them in the front room. 

Later L and Daughter go to a local owl talk. I’m tempted to join them but stay home to dog sit and do preparation for the Dog Club’s upcoming show. 

L runs early on Thursday, slipping out of my clutches at some unearthly hour before I can start anything romantic. Then she’s in Derby for the usual political debate with her mother. I have a committee meeting in the evening, which only lasts for an hour because we are so organised these days. 

The mornings seem to get earlier and earlier because on Saturday there is a Summer Solstice swim at Colwick at 3.45am. This is obviously not my idea but the idea of L and Daughter but the Lad and I tag along. The Lad is well confused going out before his breakfast and is relieved to be back home by 5:30am when he gets fed. Then it’s Clifton parkrun for L and I while the youngster in the family, Daughter, goes back to bed. 

I then visit my Dad and burn him a pizza again. I really must stop trying to do pizza. We then visit the New Inn to wash the burnt taste away. Later we are back in the Plough. 

In Sunday L swims as usual at Colwick while I am booked onto the NOC Orienteering that is also taking place there. I do Course A with the Lad which is 3k long with ten controls. Then L joins us for Course B which is also 3k but with eight controls. L has forgotten her compass, her dibber and her sports bra. I could have supplied two of those but not the third. Which is why we walk the course as the forgotten third item is in the car and we don’t have time to fetch it. We end up being only four minutes slower than when the Lad and I ran Course A as it took me a whole ten minutes to find one control. Perhaps slower and more focussed is the way to go. 

Back home I cut the hedge and the front lawn. After which we’re all creased. We get a takeaway and start to watch Outrageous, the story of the Mitford Sisters.

(Sunday 22^nd June)