Dragging It Out

Daughter heads back to Manchester today and then later L and go to visit L’s brother in hospital. Afterwards we nip in the Last Post micro pub on Derby’s Uttoxeter Old Road.

Then it’s another late night with the Olympics as Andy Murray really drags out the tennis final, in the way that Andy Murray always does, but he wins in the end and brings home another gold medal. 

(Sunday 14^th August)

Tough But Necessary

The weather sounds a bit lively outside the bedroom window and L proposes we hide away under the duvet from it. From the rain, the wind, the Test Match, her boss’s Apple laptop and Andy Murray. I can’t help feeling that a lot of those have got to do with the various distractions at work that her boss is being side-tracked by.

With the commuter bike in the hospital, number one bike gets another trip out. I think I must have officially started my Vitruvian training now because I went the hilly route over Ilkeston way. It was tough but necessary. It could possibly have been tougher as it seemed to think about raining on me but didn’t. The trip home could be another story.

Dog training tonight.

(Wednesday 8^th July)

A Girl With Passion

So Andy Murray's defeat of Tomas Berdych in the Aussie Open Semis grabs the headlines in the lip reading press less for his performance and more for his girl Kim Sears' performance on the side lines. From where she was apparently urging him to give to the ‘F***ing Czech f***er’ or words to that effect. We all like a girl with passion.

It was a bit icy this morning, so I’m in the car and late afternoon we get some of the white stuff. I go out for a quick wheel spin in it at lunchtime. It's pretty much all gone an hour later. It was good whilst it lasted though.

Both opponent and I make it through the snow to squash, as well as L who runs there. I don’t manage to get a game off him though.

(Thursday 29^th January)

Seamless Changeover

Not the best of pub lunches today. My colleague insists on the Waterfall which will at least have the cricket on, which turns out to be not much of a bonus considering Australia’s last wicket stand. The Abbot is off (again) and the Doom Bar is off as well, but they didn’t tell you that by turning round the pump clip, you had to taste it to find that out yourself. We send it back and end up on dreaded creamflow. So bad, I consider asking for the gone off Doom Bar back. The food isn’t great either.

After work, L gets home from the gym and we do a seamless changeover with the boys as I head for the tennis court for the first time this year. 

It’s been a battle to get a court and it looks like we’ll only get an hour. We won't be able to overrun because all the courts are showing up as booked for the rest of the evening, at least according to the online booking. I blame that Murray chap. Although this proves not to be the case and there are plenty of free courts, so we do manage to complete my 2-6 3-6 defeat. Clearly it’s just another council ploy to lose money. 

Afterwards my opponent suggests the Victoria at Beeston for a drink, which I’m more than up for. His partner’s lad and his friend are there, drinking beer. Blimey, how did they do that? 

Back home, L has prepared salmon curry but then keeps pinging me suggestive texts that are distracting me from my Lincoln Green Porter. I finish my pint and make my excuses. That curry might have to wait.

 (Thursday 11^th July)

Perhaps That's Just Her Hay Fever

A very sporting day today. I get up early (11am) and watch yesterday’s coverage of the Tour de France as live, enjoying a dominate performance from Chris Froome as he took the lead in the race. Then when that’s over I decide it’s too hot and hay fevery to cut the lawn and instead setting down to watch ‘our’ Andy win Wimbledon. Cracking stuff.

Personally I think this has been one of the best Wimbledons ever, even before his win. A lot of this is down to the BBC’s website which enables you to watch whatever match you like, even if that is four Japanese woman playing doubles out on Court 14. Their website coverage gets better every year and is much needed because BBC 1, BBC 2 and Radio 5 yet again featured the tennis equivalent of Manchester United v Wigan throughout the first week. E.g. one of the main seeds thrashing the pants off some sacrificial lower ranked player. Boring. Ok, they got lucky twice, with unexpected defeats for Rog and Rafa but other than that I can understand why people resent the rescheduling of the One Show.

What I want to see is all the Brits getting thrashed on days one and two by, well, anybody and some of the closer mid-ranking games. I'm also rather partial to doubles and now I can indulge myself thoroughly.

After Andy's win we returned to the scene of yesterday’s ‘excitement’, the National Water Sports Centre, to catch some of the Outlaw Triathlon. Which we’ve actually been following online all day. Despite starting at 6am, it’s only now that people are starting to finish.

On the way we check out the runners heading (slowly) through the Embankment before carrying onto the finish. I’m full of admiration for all of them and would love a go at experiencing the same levels of pain at some point in the future. Even L appears to be going a bit glassy eyed at the thought or perhaps that's just her hay fever.

After a few hours we head back home, although still we keep an eye on the online updates. Everybody needs to be home by 11pm in order to call themselves an ‘Outlaw’. Now I can sit down and watch today’s Tour de France coverage.

(Sunday 7^th July)