Favourite Cheesy Dogs

The week starts with a service of our one year old gas boiler which is needed for the warranty. It should just be a formality and it is, although it should be noted it has already broken down once since we’ve had it.

Dog training is off due to a lack of people. The Lad is gutted. Luckily both the boys are tired out anyway after all the football they had with the gasman.

Son and his gf are away on a camping holiday but they don’t know where. Neither of them are sure of the place name but somehow they manage to send us a link to the website of the place they are purported to be staying at. Which looks a bit lacking in facilities and efficient grass cutting e.g. it looks very close to nature. I’m not sure where he’d plug his games console in. There is also no sign of the swimming pool he mentioned. So they may be on holiday somewhere else. It’s so typical of Son to not to know where he's on holiday.

Tuesday is Daughter’s birthday and we send her a cheesy dog card starring her favourite cheesy dogs e.g. our two clowns. The first problem was of course getting them to pose together, which took an age. That, in the final photo, they end up looking like Laurel and Hardy is entirely appropriate. We manage to stop the Lad adding a further personal touch to the card by keeping him away from the post when it is delivered.

It is a good job Daughter’s birthday wasn’t a day or two later because on Wednesday somebody again forget to erect the barricade leaving the post (and a comfy bed) at the Lad's mercy but he doesn’t seem to notice and stays in his own bed all day.

There are three running races on locally this week. Two rounds of the Grand Prix and the Summer Series at Colwick Park but uncharacteristically we’re not doing any of them. L does go to running club in the rain. It always seems to rain on a Tuesday.

Wednesday, I bike in the rain. So it was miserable but very necessary. Wednesday is also dogging night.

I have the afternoon off on Thursday while we have the panels in our garden fence replaced but it was a waste to take the time off. They are so fast that they could have done it easily within my lunch hour. Later there is no tennis for me as my opponent is mysteriously unavailable but L plays.

(Thursday 27^th June)

Why Settle For Anything Less?

Squash is off again for the fifth week running, apparently he’s now hurt his elbow.

I’m on the bus today and absolutely knackered, after L wiped the floor with me last night. Perhaps it’s a good job there is no squash tonight and an extra Friday night is mooted as a replacement. Every cloud has a silver lining.

I go to the gym post-work accompanied by my current audio book, First Response by Stephen Leather, which is proving to be quite good. I’m progressing slowly through it at about an hour a week. I am not anywhere near as prolific as L who’s currently listening to something cheesy and full of ‘electric’ sex which she doesn’t seem happy about. The sex that is not the book. Can’t see why, I would hope that everyone has electric sex. Why settle for anything less?

My gym session is delayed as I have to repair the Watt Bike before I can use it, putting the correct seat on it and swapping the screen with another one because it’s locked up.  This means I miss the 6:30 bus home and then the 6.45 doesn’t turn up. Well the bus does but the driver doesn’t. Apparently even though the Red Arrow bus itself no longer goes to Chesterfield its drivers still do as they also drive the Comet service that now serves Chesterfield. So if a driver gets stuck in traffic like tonight it still impacts on the Red Arrow.

We are given a freebie trip to compensate but it’s not what you want when you’re eager to get home to find out if it’s still Friday and whether it’s going to be electric. 

(Thursday 19^th January)

A Cheesy Tour

Today we head off to Cropwell Bishop for a tour of the local cheese production area, namely the villages of Colston Bassett, Long Clawson and of course Cropwell Bishop itself. This is the Stilton Stumble in the home of Stilton Cheese and it comes in both a 10k and a 24k variety.

I would like to give the 24 a shot one day but with the Leicester Half Marathon next weekend, and the Derby Half still in my legs from last weekend, it’s just the 10 for me today. As it is for L.

It’s a somewhat soggy start at the Memorial Hall in Cropwell Bishop and nobody really wants to get stripped off too early. Perhaps the weather will improve once we get started? 

It doesn’t, it gets worse and a torrential downpour a few miles in is refreshing to say the least. The sun does finally come out, when we’ve finished.

By then I’ve been handed my block of Stilton, which is much much better than a medal, and I'm giving Doggo a leg up over a wall to get him in a good supporting position to bark L over the line.

Then it's time to dry out and to head to the Tennis Centre for a shower because obviously we don’t have one at home.

In the evening it’s the Horse and Jockey in Stapleford for dark ale number No 95 - Full Mash’s Northern Lights.

(Sunday 16^th October)