A Week Of Celebrations

The week starts with a problem with our recently serviced shower. The water is not getting hot, so it’s cold showers all round. Unfortunately we but can’t get hold of the company who recently serviced it. Which doesn't bode well as I head off to get sweaty at cycling. 

Tuesday starts with a romantic morning to commemorate our 30th Anniversary followed by a cold shower. In the evening I continue the celebrations with a few drinks in Derby but without L. I am with my usual old school friend and my new old school friend, who inconveniently has the same Christian name, who we re-met just Christmas. He missed our last meet up because he’d slipped on the ice and broken his hip. He makes this one on crutches. We have drinks in Alexandra and then after both the Silk Mill and the Exeter tell us they have stopped serving food early, we eat at Wetherspoons Standing Order. Despite his broken hip, he gives me a lift home. 

Wednesday is dog training, at which the Lad actually does rather well, while L does her third gym class in three days alongside the usual gyming and swimming. Luckily David Lloyds have showers. By Thursday, we are all thoroughly sick of cold showers and we pay someone else, Homeserve, to fix the boiler. 

L goes to her physio, the occasional runner, who tells her she has an ischial tuberosity problem. That sounds really impressive. I must google it. It's no better by Friday though, so she dulls the pain with a bottle of Belgian beer, that I share with her, but it doesn’t dull the pain enough for me to talk her into further Anniversary celebrations. 

On Saturday we finally visit the new-ish parkrun at Holme Pierrepont. It’s their 6th event but I've been saving it for my 250th parkrun which is today. Yes, this really is a week of celebrations. At the start, I almost fall on the wet and muddy grass trying to overtake everyone before aquaplaning my way back onto the terra firma of the tarmac path. We aren’t allowed to complete a full lap of the lake as there are boats using the boathouse, so we run half a lap and are then are required to do u-turn before heading the same way back. So we’ll probably have to go back to have the full experience. 

Daughter runs too and we all have coffee and cheese toasties at the cafe afterwards. I am less than impressed with the £4 parking charge that goes up the longer you spend in their café. 

In the afternoon Derby are at home to already relegated Sheffield Wednesday and win 2-1 to go 7^th in the league. We stay in later because the Legion has a singer\karaoke on and we don’t fancy any of the other options or rather can’t think of any other dog friendly options that don’t include a bus. 

On Sunday, L swims at Colwick, Daughter joins us and afterwards we go to the Quayside cafe for breakfast. In the evening we end our celebratory week by trying the Sunday Roasts at Miller & Carter. Their roast is actually a two-person sharing board of chicken, lamb and beef. It’s quite expensive but also rather huge, very appropriate for a 30th Anniversary and we’re both impressed. We did expect to be taking home some leftovers for the Lad but there are none.

 (Sunday 8^th March)

Parkrun Rumours

I make two visits early in the week to see my Dad. First on Monday after cycling and then on Tuesday to watch Derby play Hull live on TV. Derby lose 4-2. 

L wakes up with a dog induced knee injury on Wednesday. The Lad was lying on her leg when she tried to roll over. She still makes it to David Lloyds for a gym session and a swim despite her ‘broken’ leg. The Lad is uninjured and still makes it to dog training. 

After her day in Derby, L walks the Lad early so that we can do a joint gym together at David Lloyds. Friday is Daughter chance to use a guest pass there. 

We know that a new parkrun is coming at Victoria Embankment but the rumours don’t tell us when. We drive over there on Saturday to see if today’s the day. It isn’t so we do Forest Rec instead. Then I have a 12:30 kick off as Derby come from behind to beat 3-1 Blackburn. In the evening we head over to the ‘heartbeat’ of Derby aka Mickleover for a curry at the Cinnamon Lounge with friends. 

On Sunday we’re at Colwick for the swim but with the queue not moving at the Quayside cafe we come home for breakfast. Having missed our night at Legion on Saturday we do Sunday night there instead. 

(Sunday 1^st March) 

The Annual Pilgrimage

I have two gigs this week at Rock City. Maximo Park on Wednesday on my own and Suede on Thursday with L, who is making her annual pilgrimage to a gig. A pilgrimage that she usually regrets the moment I’ve got her the ticket but she actually seems to hugely enjoy this one. 

We have a rare pint in Rock City itself to celebrate her attendance and then one afterwards in the Good Fellow George. So, it’s a very late night for her. Meanwhile GB progress into the Men’s Curling final at the Olympics. 

The rest of the week is the usual. L with her classes and a 5k on Wednesday while I cycle and dog train. Friday night is a Friday Night. 

On Saturday we parkrun at Belvoir Parkrun and take a very muddy dog in their posh bistro afterwards for breakfast. Then it’s lunch in New Inn with my Dad as Derby are away at Watford. We spend the evening in the Legion where they have a 5% Black IPA on. 

L and Daughter swim at Colwick on Sunday while the Lad and I have our amble. Afterwards we go the Quayside Café for a late breakfast. There is no actual Quayside or view of the river as it’s actually in a Business Park called Colwick Quays Business Park.

Sadly, the GB Men don’t win the Curling Final but that does mean we get silver and Zoe Atkin gets a bronze in the Halfpipe to add to our three golds as the Winter Olympics end.

(Sunday 22^nd February)

Suede

First up tonight are Nottingham's own Bloodworm who were invited onto the whole of Suede’s massive tour by Suede’s guitarist Richard Oakes after he was so impressed when he saw them play. So, it’s a home coming for them and I can vouch for Oakes’s judgement because they are excellent. Exactly my sort of thing, very gothic, very The Cure at times and with a singer in George Curtis who maybe wants to be Andrew Eldritch. 

So where have I been for the last 37 years? That’s a good question because Suede were formed in 1989 and here I am at my first ever Suede gig. How is that forgivable? 

The thumping intro to 'Disintegrate' starts the show and is quickly followed by two others from the new album 'Antidepressants' signalling to those who didn’t already know that the Suede of 2026 are just as good, if not better, than the Suede of the 1990s. Tonight’s audience, who sings all the new songs back word for word, clearly agree. 

 

Then it’s 90s time as they mix it up with the old classics of 'Trash' and 'Animal Nitrate'. From there we get an impressive foray through nine of their ten albums and they even throw in a brand new track 'Tribe'. 

What is even more impressive is that every night on this tour has been unique. With each night throwing up at least one track that hasn't been played anywhere else on the tour as they play some of their lesser known material. Tonight that is 'He's Dead' (a b-side from 1992), 'Down' (off 1999's 'Head Music') and the exquisite 'For The Strangers' (off 2013's 'Bloodsports'). Two of which I'd never heard before and one I'd rarely played. 'For The Strangers' is such a belter that it's now permanently on my Suede playlist. 

I also wasn’t quite aware of quite just how good a frontman Brett Anderson was as he takes us deeply into his world, or ‘Suedeworld’ as he passionately calls it. I'm sure that is all old news to everyone else but please forgive the newbie here. 

He is a man seemingly with constant energy and perhaps a knee brace, which he probably needed the way he bounced around the stage relegating the rest of the band to the margins to give him room. Only bass player Mat Osman dares to occasionally come to the front of the stage. Probably knowing that Anderson will soon have vacated the stage completely and jumped into the crowd, which he duly does. Towards the end of the night, he even dispensed with his microphone and still managed to reach every corner of the venue with his voice. 

While obviously very aware of their earlier material, I only recently became a fanboy when I stumbled across their excellent 2022 album 'Autofiction' with which I because entranced before being just as thrilled with last year's 'Antidepressants'. So, the highlights for me are the likes of ‘She Still Leads Me On’ from the former and the mesmerising ‘June Rain’ from the latter. 

From those albums I have started to work backwards towards their 1990's heyday, having discovered a band whose new music is, as I said earlier, probably better than the records that brought them to prominence in the first place.  

But those oldies have their place as the closing trio of ‘So Young’, ‘Metal Mickey’ and ‘Beautiful Ones’ demonstrates and threatens to take the roof off Rock City. 

They send us home with a solitary one song encore, another belter from 'Autofiction' namely ‘The Only Way I Can Love You’. Quite a night.

Maximo Park

Well, look who it is. Art Brut again. They are clearly still stalking me, not that I mind, and it has actually been five years since I last saw them here, supporting The Subways, and it was way back in 2007 when they last took the stage here with Maximo Park. We have had numerous collisions in other venues in between, some of which have even been deliberate. 

The songs, as always, remain largely the same and the stories between them largely the same with Eddie Argos still telling us all about his brother but they remain just as entertaining as they are odd. 

Something else that remains largely the same is Maximo Park’s Paul Smith, the man never ages and his enthusiasm never dims. Tonight, he and his band, bring us a huge 20th birthday party for ‘A Certain Trigger’, their debut album. 

 

They treat us to 12 of the 13 songs on the album starting with ‘Signal & Sign’ and ending of course with ‘Apply Some Pressure’ via their debut single 'The Coast Is Always Changing' and all the others with a couple held back for the encore. 

We don’t get the full album because 'Now I'm All Over the Shop' and 'Once, a Glimpse' are being rotated and tonight we get the latter. Instead, there’s the rare playing of ‘Fear of Falling’ which was the B-side to ‘Apply Some Pressure’ and which was apparently recorded at Confetti’s studio in Nottingham. Just one of the main anecdotes he gave us between songs. 

There is a disturbance four songs in during ‘My Velocity’ (yes, other albums are available) that sees two kicked out for over aggressive moshing. ‘My Velocity’ is, appropriately, a song about resistance. 

They leave us with the most exquisite of encores. It started with the magnificent ‘Acrobat’, all dramatic and spoken word, before ‘Books From Boxes’ and ‘Going Missing’ finished the night on a high. 

Only one person loved the night more than the crowd and that was Smith himself. Smith seemed genuinely surprised and touched by the reception the band got. So much so that I didn’t think he was ever going to leave the stage as he lingered long after his band mates had departed.

Gold

A normal sort of week with L running several times including a 5k with Daughter and lots of Pilates. I cycle on Monday and dog train on Wednesday whereas L has book club on Tuesday evening and she's out with her Mum on Thursday. 

The Winter Olympics are on this week in Italy. We did consider going but the fragmented nature of the events, which are scattered over a very wide area, would have made seeing the events we wanted to very difficult. So, we watch on TV as Matt Weston wins our first ever men's gold medal in the skeleton. 

On Saturday we Parkrun at Alvaston so that we can pop over to Mickleover where our mission is to return L’s mum’s Amazon purchase of a microwave. It upset her by coming in a large heavy box that she can’t pick up. It’s upset her that much that she’s refused to open the box at all. We collect it and then drop it at Asda Express on Pride Park. She has left us to it and gone into Derby as usual. 

Having dropped off the microwave, we breakfast at Starbucks on Pride Park. Then I head to the match with my Dad where Derby beat Swansea 2-0. In the evening we go on bus to The Crown in Beeston controversially with the Lad. 

On Sunday, L swims at Colwick while the Lad and I and walk in the rain. The bridge we normally cross is flooded (photo). 

For the first time ever Team GB win more than one gold medal at a Winter Games as Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale win gold in the thrilling final of the Snowboard Cross, which was our first ever gold medal on snow as opposed to on ice. 

Only a few hours later we add another one, when Matt Weston wins his second gold alongside Tabitha Stoecker in the Skeleton Team event. 

(Sunday 15^th February) 

Left Holding The Baby

L and Daughter run on Monday morning, while I cycle and visit my Dad. 

On Tuesday L is on the early 6:40 train to Coventry to baby sit our Grandson while his mother has a hospital appointment. Unfortunately, this turns into a bit of a saga when she is then sent for numerous extra tests, all of which means that L is literally left holding the baby. Which, of course, she is actually totally thrilled about. However, she ends up being there that late that she stays over and gets home mid-afternoon on Wednesday. 

After a run, L has her usually day in Derby on Thursday but later we’re in Birmingham to see Hamza Yassin at the Town Hall with Daughter. The show called ‘My Life Behind the Lens’ is excellent as the photographer, cameraman and presenter of various nature programmes shares with us the immense joy he gets from his work. The German Doner Kebab (I had no idea that was a thing) from GDK that we have afterwards is not so excellent. 

On Friday we have an wonderful 'Friday Night' with a bottle of Belgian beer and on Saturday we Parkrun at Forest Rec which for me is Parkrun number 246 as I close in on the 250 Milestone. L park walks as a volunteer. 

Later Derby’s dreadful home form continues as they lose 2-1 at home to Ipswich. Fortunately, their league position is being propped up successfully by the best away record in the league. 

We spend the night in the Legion where they have a beer called Dragonfly from the Pheasantry Brewery that is the first 5% beet they’ve had since we’ve been going. 

On Sunday, after the Colwick swim, I have a long afternoon at the opticians. I am not sure why it always takes forever when I go to the opticians but it does. 

(Sunday 8^th February) 

Possible UFO Sighting

I have a Committee Meeting on Monday, so I don’t go to cycling but still manage to drop in on my Dad.

We have a man in to service our boiler on Tuesday and to quote for a few other things but it’s a quote we never receive. It’s so difficult to get tradesmen these days. 

I’m out with my old school friend in the evening and we thought we’d got a new recruit to our nights out. This was in the shape of another friend from school who we re-met at the funeral before Christmas. Then he lets us know that he slipped on some ice at the start of January and dislocated his hip. The same hip he had trouble with when we were at school. So, he won’t be making it this time but vows to make our next one. We drink in the Alexandra and eat in the Silk Mill.

Wednesday is dog training and then on Thursday, while L is in Derby with her Mum, I take my dad to a spinal appointment at the Derby Royal Hospital where we park in their disabled car park that has narrow bays that are not wheelchair friendly. I already know before we go that they understandably won’t be offering him any treatment but my Dad thinks there’s some miracle cure for being 97 years old. There isn’t. 

Back home L and I continue listening to Robert Harris’s Precipice. A book about Herbert Asquith, the prime minister at the start of World War I, and Venetia Stanley, a young woman 30 years his junior with whom he was infatuated. They wrote to each other incessantly, aided by an extremely efficient postal service which provided a staggering 12 deliveries a day in London. While she carefully preserved all 500+ letters he wrote to her, he destroyed all the ones she wrote to him. In these letters he enclosed troop movements and top secret telegrams. All in blatant breach of the Official Secrets Act. It's a fascinating tale. 

 

On Friday, after an early morning run, L clears her diary for a swimming trip to Hathersage with Daughter. which then seems to completely slip Daughter’s memory. I’m at my Dad’s to watch an extraordinary game where Derby are 3-0 up at half time against Bristol City before going on to win 5-0. 

On Saturday, we Parkrun at Colwick followed by swim for L. A new cafe has opened up, called the Stig at the Lotus garage off Racecourse road. It’s ok but not as good as Daleside and also another one that's not open on Sundays. 

In the evening we go to the Lead & Dot Micro pub in Stapleford which was known as the Millipede but has now reopened with new owners. We go on the bus without the Lad. They have two nice beers on teh bar but only 4.2%. 

We are back at Colwick on Sunday evening for the Snow Moon night swim with Daughter. The Lad and I spot something glowing half way around the lake and go to investigate this possible UFO but find only a luminous abandoned Lime bike. 

 (Sunday 1^st February)

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) 

Derby To Stevenage To Ashbourne

Sainsbury’s is really busy on Monday with people overbuying for Christmas. We have no Christmas meal to prepare so we’re underbuying. Later we visit Son in Coventry to exchange presents where L and I fight over our new grandson but unfortunately, he’s all smiles in L’s arms but then vomits when she passes him over to me. I tell him we need to work on our relationship. We again stop at Leicester Forest East on the way back but this time for a Burger King. L says she’s impressed. 

L frogmarches us around the morning walk on Tuesday as she has an early class and then afterwards heads to Derby to see her Mum. This is instead of Thursday as her Mum is about to head down to L’s sisters for four days over Christmas. I drop in to see my Dad. 

Wednesday is Christmas Eve and L has The Dash and Dip with Daughter at Colwick Lake. Sadly, I’m at work so I miss the seasonal frivolities but I finish at 12:30, in time to chip the ice off L when she gets home. 

We spend the night in the Legion where they have Black Sheep Blitzen, which is sort of a festive brew but only 4.5%. Then we grab a curry from Park Tandoori. L advises me that I should have a mild one in view of it being Christmas Day Parkrun, so I do. 

Which we do at Bestwood. It's never one of my favourites, so this is a rare Christmas treat. It is very busy, congested, as hilly as expected and my time is 33 something. Shoot me now. It's also L's 400th.

For lunch we’re at the Dog & Duck in Shardlow, with my Dad and Daughter, for our first ever Christmas Lunch in pub. The Lad stays in the car to await delivery of the scraps. It goes well, and my Dad loves it, but the service is as slow as it ever is at the Dog & Duck. On that score they do not disappoint. 

Back home we watch a double edition of Bullseye from 1984 in which almost every guest is now no longer with us and then also the new 2025 version hosted by Andrew Flintoff. 

Boxing Day, of course, brings the Furnace run with for the second year in a row a new course. The bridge across the Derwent is closed so we don’t cross the river at all this year. Then we drive down to Stevenage and to the same Holiday Inn Express as last year from where we visit the same pub, the Chequers Alehouse. The only difference from last year is my Dad is unable to join us. The Alehouse has Colly’s Dog from Tring Brewery at 5.2% for me and Leffe for L. Back at the hotel we again feast on pizza, toasties and chips. We are so healthy.

After a quick coffee in the morning from the breakfast bar, we head to Fairlands Valley Park for Parkrun where we team up with L’s sister and her family. After the run we have breakfast in the park cafe with L’s Mum who is also there. Then it’s back to L’s sister’s place for Christmas cake before we drive back home in the usual bad traffic. 

We drop L’s Mum back home in Mickleover but then we keep driving for another thirty minutes or so onwards into Ashbourne. We are staying at the George and Dragon but first we detour to the House of Beer for a few drinks before returning to the George and Dragon for a hugely challenging meal (size wise). Exhausted, we are in bed for 9pm 

On Sunday, after a breakfast cob in Beaumonts Café, we walk along the Tissington Trail to Thorpe. You know, all this time, I didn’t know the Tissington Trail started in Ashbourne. In Thorpe, we pause for a pint of Burton Gatekeeper in the Old Dog before doing a circuit of Thorpe via Thorpe Cloud before returning back to Ashbourne. 

After a pint of Vocation Chocolate Orange Stout in The Horns pub we slam the Lad in the car and go for a curry at the Red Chilli. 

In the morning we visit another different café, the Little Amalfi, for breakfast before driving home.

(Sunday 28^th December) 

De-stressing

I kick off the second week in a row with a gig and no cycling. I’m seeing Black Rebel at Rock City. Tuesday is on dog training this week and we drop in to see my Dad on the way because I didn’t get to go on Monday. 

L, of course, piles on the Pilates, gym sessions and a stretch class as well as running in the rain on Thursday after her usual visit to Derby. That’s probably a good way to de-stress after a trip to Derby. I de-stress my way by cooking a steaming hot keema and opening a keg of Sergeant Porter from Lenton Lane Brewery.  

Our evening walks are enhanced by the Christmas lights on Wollaton Park. 

 

On Saturday we Parkrun at Forest Rec which is L’s 399th Parkrun. Meaning Christmas Day will be number 400. Then I’m at the match with my Dad as Derby draw 1-1 with Portsmouth and the club bar, The Yard, is open for once which is a rare ‘treat’. 

We spend another night in the Legion and our first one as actual members. 

On Sunday we’re at Colwick for the swim and then afterwards we’re at the Quayside Café, which is very busy and we struggle to get a table. I’m assured that the lake was very cold and L still can’t feel her hands even after nursing a hot coffee. I help her warm up back at home so then at least she has a bit more feeling in her hands to hold the weights as she takes me to David Lloyds for a gym session.  

 (Sunday 21^st December)

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Tonight Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are back in Nottingham to mark the 20th anniversary of their third studio album ‘Howl’ but first, from Texas, we have Night Beats who sadly do little for me. 

I find them quite repetitive and tedious playing some form of Country and Western garage music. The crowd reaction isn’t helped by them not being very talkative. In fact, no one speak to us at all until half an hour in when the lead singer announces a song he wrote with BRMC’s Robert Been. 

Been comes on stage to play piano on it, at first standing up and then occasionally kneeling. After that he picks up the bass guitar and stays until the end of their set as they play another three songs. He even contributes on vocals and suddenly their set gets a lot better. 

So, to BRMC who tonight become the latest one of my favourite bands to play one of my least favourite albums in full and in this case not in order but I clearly shouldn’t be selfish. Everyone else, including the band, clearly rate the record as one of their best. 

We kick off with ‘Devil’s Waitin’ played in the dark by someone dressed as a monk, with the hood over their head. It’s all very atmospheric. This is Peter Hayes while presumably Robert Been is still getting his breath back from his sojourn with Night Beats. 

Then they’re both on stage for ‘Shuffle Your Feet’ with Leah Shapiro joining them on drums before Been takes the lead on ‘Howl’. As usual, from there onwards, they share the spotlight on guitars and vocals. 

The show features, as you would expect, almost every track from ‘Howl’ along with many other non-Howl crowd favourites such as the likes of ‘Red Eyes and Tears’, ‘Beat the Devil's Tattoo’, 'Spread Your Love', 'Whatever Happened to My Rock 'n' Roll' and 'Berlin'. All more my sort of thing.

They also slot in an impromptu performance of ‘Windows’ from the ‘Baby 81’ album which they admit they haven’t played in a long while but then run out of time and have to truncate the rest of the Howl section. 

 They finish with ‘Shadow’s Keeper’ and head back into the shadows. 

Sadly Another Funeral

L starts the week not feeling very well, with a stomach ache, but still runs on Monday morning with Daughter. We don’t make it to Sainsbury’s as work is mad and I have to defer that until Tuesday. There’s no cycling later as I have a gig at Rock City. 

On Tuesday it’s the Lad’s birthday but L and Daughter run without him. However the birthday boy and I do get a night out at dog training although it is L who has the really wild night with the boozy old ladies of the Wollaton book club. 

There’s a night match on Wednesday as Derby draw 1-1 with Millwall. My Dad watches it from home with my brother. 

Thursday is the funeral of the mother of my best friend from way back. I've known him since nursery and primary school. Sadly, she had been suffering from Parkinsons for some time. The funeral is at Aston church with the wake at the Dog & Duck in Shardlow. 

L borrows Daughter’s clothes so that she can dress up as a girl and even digs a pair of Wolfords out of the bottom drawer. She looks very stylish, if you can say that about someone going to a funeral. My Dad comes for the wake but not the service. 

As with most funerals you get to see people you haven’t seen in ages such as my friend’s brother who now lives in New Zealand and another old friend I haven’t seen since sixth form. 

L is in Derby on Friday and then goes over to Coventry with Daughter, who is helping out with babysitting duties for the next four days. L gets the train back and I pick her up from Derby. 

Saturday’s parkrun is at Colwick and is followed by a post-parkrun dip in the lake for those who wish to do such things. Which is not me or the Lad. Then we head to Daleside cafe for the first time in ages for egg & bacon rolls and rapidly served instant coffee. We’d still be queueing now if we’d gone to Wired on Wheels on Colwick Park. 

In the afternoon I visit my Dad, cook him fish and chips, buy him a frying pan so they can cook him a Full English and then take him for a pint in the New Inn. We did have a look at the Harrington but it was inaccessible by wheelchair. 

On Sunday we are at Sherwood Pines for their Christmas 10k Trail run but unfortunately, they start without us. They had brought forward the start times but we hadn’t got the email. Possibly this was because we had transferred to this event from the Thoresby Leaf Kick which was cancelled and it looks like they hadn’t added us to the email list. 

We run the route anyway and get mixed up with the Duathlon runners. The Lad is disappointed he doesn’t get to race the other dogs but at least we get a run in. Later the three of us get the bus to Beeston for a few beers in the Crown.

(Sunday 14^th December) 

Babyshambles

Utter chaos is how we used to describe any Peter Doherty gig and to a point that’s how I would describe tonight but its all to do with trying to cram as many bands onto the roster as possible. 

 On the bill tonight we have Another Day who are preceded by a guy reading a rather long poem which I’m not sure was an effective use of their stage time. He then gets to play tambourine and maracas while the rest of the band get lively. Notably they don’t let him near the microphone again. The actual lead singer finishes the set with a back flip, which is impressive and a much better exit than their entrance. 

There's also Sweet Return who are pretty decent and do a song with the Babyshambles Drew McConnell on vocals. They leave a very good impression on the crowd. 

There was also Max Bianco, who apparently was on earlier but no one was here then. So, they invite him back for one more song before the Shambles come on. 

So, chaos so far but the chaos that once accompanied Doherty’s bands is now long gone. Tonight Peter Doherty describes his own band as dependable and he’d be right. We are thoroughly entertained by the grown-up version of the Babyshambles we last saw over ten years ago. They even look, whisper it, rehearsed. 

They kick things off in an energetic manner with ‘Killamangiro’ and ‘Delivery’ for what is the liveliest crowd I’ve seen at Rock City for a long, long time. It’s totally brutal down the front. 

Doherty himself is in fine form and, much as he was with the Libertines here last year, having the time of his life. Looking better and slimmer than for a long time. He’s even drinking orange juice. Between songs he keeps referring to the massive folder of Rock City gigs that he’s pinched from the dressing room where they have it on display. He shows it the crowd as he namechecks many of the great artists to have played here. 

The set includes everything you’d expect from the band, working through the albums 'Down in Albion' and 'Shotter's Nation' alongside 'The Blinding' EP but totally forgets the totally forgettable 'Sequel to the Prequel', their third ‘might have been more of a solo’ album from 2013. 

They close the main set with the new single ‘Dandy Hooligan’ with his wife Katia on a blow keyboard thingy (is that called a melodica?) and the whole thing with a raucous ‘Fuck Forever’, which Doherty dedicates to someone who should have been here tonight, founding member Patrick Walden who tragically died earlier this year. 

An Impressive Light Show And Lots Of Swearing

There’s no cycling on Monday due pantomime rehearsals at the Velodrome. It’s mad that there’s now a new venue in Derby but we’re still having to share the place with events like the pantomime. I visit my Dad anyway and put up the new Christmas tree I’ve bought him. I’ve also got him an advent calendar. His outside lights are already up, my brother must have done them. 

I’m out with the Lad at dog training on Tuesday and with my old school pal on Wednesday. We meet in the Alexandra as usual then, after being turned away from the Exeter who have stopped serving food, we eat in the Silk Mill. 

On Thursday we are at the Full Moon Swim at Colwick lake except there is no moon as it’s raining and cloudy. At least the marina gate is open and we can park nearby. Daughter swims too and contributes an impressive light show and lots of swearing. The water is, I think, a bit cold.

On Saturday we Parkrun at Forest Rec before I rush off to take my Dad to that match which is a 12:30 kick off and Derby lose 3-1 to Leicester. We spend the night with our fellow oldies in the Legion. 

On Sunday we do a family run. L and I do 6k with the Lad but Daughter stops early with shin splints. Then we go to visit the newborn in Coventry, taking L’s Mum across with us but the Lad stays home.

 (Sunday 7^th December)

Officially Old

Monday’s cycling has a full complement of riders and is viciously mad. L runs an impressive 8k after our walk on Tuesday before jogging off smugly to Pilates. Even more impressively, later in the week she’ll be running intervals on the park before our dog walk. 

Daughter reluctantly heads off to a bottomless works party, thankfully I’ve never been invited to one of those. Instead, I head off to watch the match with my Dad as Derby beat Swansea 2-1. The Lad and I have another double dog training session on Wednesday. 

L returns from her usual Thursday with her Mum to tell me that her Mum has been told by her bank that’s she got too much money. So, she opens an ISA in an attempt to solve that problem. She’s also announced that she will be going to L’s sister for Christmas but she won’t be going down until Christmas Day and she’ll be getting the coach. I’m not sure she’s checked out the timings for that. L and I discuss all this over a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau. 

Saturday brings a very wet, muddy and slow parkrun at Wollaton, which Daughter joins us for. In the evening we officially arrive as oldies when we become members of the Wollaton British Legion. 

On Sunday, the girls run together and then go to Colwick for the swim where the temperature has dipped further to 7.1 degrees. In the afternoon it’s the dog club’s AGM for which there is a good turnout. After which I make my monthly session at David Lloyd on the very last day of the month.

(Sunday 30^th November) 

Grandson

I start the week with a committee meeting, which is kept nice and short, instead of cycling but I still visit my Dad afterwards. 

On Tuesday, L not only does the morning walk but follows it up with a 6k run. In the evening, the Lad and I have a double dog training session to make up for missing one last week. 

On Wednesday L stays in all day waiting for news of the expected birth of our Grandson. She skips the gym and an exercise class, for which so she’ll no doubt beat herself up but it’s worth it when he finally arrives. Many photos are sent across of him with his proud Dad and proud but knackered Mum. We open a bottle of ‘pink’ champagne to celebrate. I’ve no idea how we ended up with pink champagne in the house and it isn’t the best but then I’m no connoisseur. 

L crams some fitness in on Thursday before we head over to visit the newborn in the evening. We have a celebratory meal at Leicester Forest East Services on the way back before L finishes the toxic champagne back at home while I opt for the safer option of a beer. 

On Friday we are out with friends in Nottingham at the Crafty Crow and then at the Calcutta Club for what L describes as another bloody curry. 

We Parkrun at Forest Rec on Saturday. Then I go to the match with my Dad in our new front row seats as they have now given him a permanent spot in the disabled area in his wheelchair. It’s raining for our first match there and we thought we might get wet but it seems the roof is plenty big enough to keep us dry. Derby blow a 2-0 lead and lose 3-2. 

In the evening, we are at the Wollaton British Legion Beer Festival which is actually a dog friendly night out as the Lad is welcome too. 

On Sunday, we’re at Colwick for the swim where the water has dipped to 7.8 degrees which sounds a bit cold to me. 

(Sunday 23^rd November)