Herd Mentality

On our way back home from the Lakes we drop in on the parents. First L’s Mum who has been ill since Thursday and hasn’t been in to Derby for five days, which is unprecedented. Then we move on to visit my Dad. Both seem well. 

On Tuesday I start an entire week of Training on AI which is far more interesting than I expected. L is back in Derby for lunch with a friend while the Lad and I do a double dog training session. L’s Mum is well enough to restart their Thursday meet ups. 

On Friday, while I am completing my AI Training, Daughter steals ‘my’ guest pass at David Lloyds and uses it to do a gym, swim and sauna with L. I suppose she’s getting better value from it than I do. 

I’m at the match later without my Dad, as Derby nearly beat West Brom but they get a last-minute equaliser. 

On Saturday we Parkrun at Alvaston. After which I visit my dad and take him to New Inn for lunch. 

In the evening we are at the latest house warming of some friends of ours who we only see when they move house and therefore have a house warming. Although they have had an extraordinary amount of house moves, this is their first for a few years. They have become quite local and are now in Burton Joyce which means we can go on the bus although it’s the very slow Number 26 to Southwell. 

Oddly we are required to play party games. First something called Herd Mentality which is the opposite of our favourite TV quiz Pointless in that you need to choose the most common answer. Then we play an even more bizarre game called Pass the Pigs which involved not passing but chucking the pigs. No one quite understood why. 

L runs on Sunday morning and then we walk on Wollaton Park. We’re not at Colwick today because L has chosen instead to swim in the afternoon at Hoveringham Lake which is a new venue for us. First though she has to do an online cold water swimming course, that is despite her being a winter veteran at Colwick. The process of taking the course takes an hour. 

Eventually we make it there, which is just beyond where we were the previous night in Burton Joyce, in a car park that is muddier and more potholed than the one at Colwick. Which is saying something but I think the swim goes well. 

Later we go to the Cornerhouse cinema to see The Housemaid which is a semi-erotic-psychological-thriller come film-noir staring Sydney Sweeney as the live in housemaid for the odd couple that is Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar. It’s sort of Saw with domestic duties. It’s strangely entertaining despite being badly acted and pretty much telegraphing that the husband is the psycho from the start. 

We go in Boo Burger before the film, which isn’t great with awful service, and in a busy Langtrys afterwards.

 (Sunday 25^th January)

Parkrun Tourism - Maryport

My track cycling session on Monday is totally mad; I think they are trying to kill us all. 

L has a bonus trip to Derby on Tuesday for a friend’s 60th birthday and they go for afternoon tea. She brings me home a spare scone. This fortifies me for our drive over to Coventry to visit our grandson. 

L again runs with Daughter on Wednesday followed by the little matter of the gym, swim and a Pilates class. The Lad and I have dog training. 

L’s bonus trip to Derby turns out to be her only trip to Derby as her Mum cancels their regular Thursday meet up. She's now the one who's unwell, with a cold and opts to stay at home. This is very unlike her.

On Friday we head up to the Lakes for a weekend away. Of course, the M6 closed around J23-26 and we divert via Manchester using the M62-M60-M61 route but it is very slow. Naturally I hand over the driving to L at this precise moment. 

We arrive at our destination, in Cockermouth, late at 6pm but not too late to head to the newly reopened Jennings Brewery for multiple Snecklifters.

 

Afterwards we dine out on takeaway chicken kebabs and chips. Which is a bit of a downer to finish on but you can’t always have everything e.g. excellent beer and excellent food. 

Naturally a tourist Parkrun is on the cards and we head to the coast, the Solway Firth to accurate, for the one on Maryport promenade. Our smugness at breaking yet further new ground as regards Parkrun is diluted a little by the fact that 1200+ runners turn up for the inaugural Holme Pierrepont Parkrun which we had no idea was starting up and it’s just down the road from us in Nottingham. I’d so love to do an inaugural but, still, Maryport was awesome. We stay for a Full English followed by a walk around the town and harbour. 

In the evening, back in Cockermouth, we visit the Bitter End pub for Jubilee Stout 5.5% from Kirkby Lonsdale and then the Castle pub for Loch Lomond Silkie Stout. We eat in Blocks Steakhouse which is attached to the hotel. The food is good but they have no draft beer despite having two hand pumps which are unused. So it was good I got a few in earlier.

On Sunday we have breakfast a café called Fika. Then we find the not terribly exciting local Parkrun course on the Greenway which we avoided yesterday because it didn’t look not terribly exciting and we were right. From there we then walk a bit along the Derwent and have lunch time refreshments in the Cock & Bull before heading back to the hotel for a bit. We spend another evening in the Jennings Brewery bar which closes at 8pm as it’s a Sunday. So we go for a curry at the Spice Club. 

In the morning we walk the Lad at Dodds Wood near Keswick and have a coffee at Café Java where we’ve been before then we drive home without any hold ups.

(Sunday 18^th January) 

Storm Goretti

There is a little extra snow overnight, Sunday in to Monday, and L and Daughter run in it despite L having quite a bad cough. 

 

I cycle in the evening the first time in six weeks and it’s a painful experience. Afterwards I visit my Dad and take down his Christmas tree. I’ve already taken down ours. These fibre optic things are very easy to deal with. 

On Tuesday L heads off in the morning rain, still coughing and spluttering, to Pilates. The rain turns all the remaining snow to slush which then freezes overnight. So it's like an ice rink everywhere on Wednesday yet L still, very bravely, splutters through a morning run. 

At dog training later the lane we have to drive down to get there is closed and the diversion, which takes us down a very minor road, is underwater where the snow has all thawed. I manage to wade the car through but take a longer and easier route home. 

Storm Goretti hits on Friday which brings the snow back. L and Daughter are up at 5:30am, fitting it in before Daughter's work shift, to run in it. Later we attempt one of those elusive Friday nights but L is still coughing too much to get involved in anything too amorous like kissing. 

On Saturday all of Nottingham’s Parkruns are iced off bar Forest Rec but we play safe and again head to Sherwood Pines. We are again assuming that flat and no tarmac will make it a safe bet. Safe, as it turns out, was the wrong word. Many runners slip over on the ice including me, causing me to gash the back of my head. The Lad is far from happy that I slowed him down and we are (understandably) three minutes slower than last time. We have a recovery coffee, a bacon sandwich and examine my bruises at Limes cafe. We spend the evening in the Legion. 

On Sunday, Derby play Leeds in the FA Cup 3rd Round. Derby take the lead but lose 3-1. 

Meanwhile L and Daughter are at Colwick lake where the water temperature is 2.1 degrees with chunks of ice floating on top. They are allowed three minutes in water before being strongly 'advised' to get out.

(Sunday 11^th January) 

It’s Nothing Personal

Derby County have been dealt an awful Christmas schedule (again) with no home games until New Year’s Day and a Monday night game away at Leicester. I take my Dad to the New Inn for a pint before we watch that on TV. Derby lose.

On Tuesday, L acquiesces to a request for a 6am run by Daughter but she does at least return to bed afterwards. She has Pilates later but I’m not back at work until Wednesday where I am covering the Support Desk and also doing a course in AI in expectation that there will be no support to cover. 

For New Year’s Eve we have booked a table at Iberico Tapas. We go in the Kean’s Head first who are shutting at 8pm as they always seem to do when we go in there. I’m sure it’s nothing personal. Brew Dog is open though and we go there for one after the meal. 

We get the i4 home as Trent Barton are still running most buses but Nctx seem to have stopped completely. Back home we have an I’ll advised night cap while watching Hootenanny and doing Auld Lang Syne with the Lad. L even stays up with us this year and catches us on film. 

Our New Year’s Day Parkrun of choice is at Forest Rec after which L and Daughter do the New Year swim at Colwick which is a barmy 4.9 degrees. Then my Dad and I finally have that festive home match as Derby fluke a 1-0 win against Middlesbrough, totally against the run of play. 

We get a sprinkling of snow overnight but it’s not enough to prevent L getting over to Derby to meet her Mum. In the evening, I open my Christmas Present from Daughter which is a keg of Old Peculiar. 

On Saturday we Parkrun at Sherwood Pines with Daughter who is now in training for her Bleep Test at the end of March. There is still snow on the ground but we reckon Sherwood Pines will be on as it’s a flat course and not on tarmac. As it turns out, very few places seem to have as much snow and ice as Wollaton does and there is none at Sherwood Pines. So, Parkrun is very much on. 

We stop for bacon cobs at Limes cafe on the way back. In the evening we are in the Legion where they are selling the Hula Hoops off cheap but sadly only the ready salted ones. They still have the Blitzen on from Christmas Eve and it is still in good shape. 

There is no swimming at Colwick on Sunday as they are taking a week off after all their festive events but there is a match as Derby lose 2-1 at home to Wrexham. My brother and his family go to the dame and meet us afterwards in The Yard.

(Sunday 4^th January)