Present And Correct

We arrive at the dog show at Southwell, go more or less straight into the ring and go clear first run. Perhaps MD was just so relieved he wasn’t at another parkrun that he actually concentrated.

It was in Agility as well, all contacts and weaves present and correct. So, not a bad start and we actually finish in second place. It had looked for a long time like we might actually win an elusive agility class but then some professional turned up, won by three seconds and put us all in our places.

L says it's still silver medal position and as good as Froome will get in the Vuelta. Well, yes and he’ll be as p***** off as us when they interview him this evening. He has my sympathy.

L does a 50 minute run herself, says she's feeling really smug with herself and is ready to crawl back into bed. Well, I guess I might as well head home and join her as it can’t get any better here. How are we going to top that first run?

We don’t.

We do three more runs before 11am, it's not often that happens but he forgets both his contacts and his weaves in two of them. He even has a few poles down for good measure. He goes clear in the Helter Skelter but that's doesn’t count, it's a 'fun' class whatever that means.

We have one more run to do and we might even get that in before lunch. L suggests I whisper ‘parkrun’ in his ear and he’ll be off like a rocket. It doesn't work, he just looks terrified.

We head home to a girl bearing ice cream. Later L and I spend the evening in the Horse & Jockey at Stapleford.

(Sunday 11^th September)

Cobbles

The CityLink bus service is being scrapped at the end of July. I can’t say I’m surprised but it is all down to their own incompetence. The rival Red Arrow will be able to put away their comfy cushions and free snacks now that they’ve seen off the competition.

Not that I need either bus today, as I’m on the bike again.

Cav is already out of the Tour de France of course but now Chris Froome has joined him. Today’s day on the cobbles did for him, although actually it was today’s rain that did for him before he even reached the cobbles.

Dogging again tonight.

(Wednesday 9^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)

There Is No Justice

On the bike again and I seem to have a soft rear tyre. I knew I shouldn’t have mentioned punctures on Monday.

At the same time I discover the downside of the A52 dual carriage route to work. This is not the place to be if you feel you’re about to have a major tyre failure.

As Chris Froome wins the prologue at the Tour De Romandie, I survive the A52 but he gets a better post race welcome. There is no justice.

 

This morning, L arrives late at the pool and only manages 20 lengths. Naturally she now hates herself for her tardy efforts.

Tonight I arrive at the pool on time and only manage 20 lengths, deliberately. It may perhaps have been more but I’m hopeless at counting. Naturally though, I’m ecstatic. Despite someone forgetting to put all the lanes in for tonight’s laned session.

Another discrepancy with our swims is that L gets in to work after hers each morning and regales me of tales of fellow swimmers slipping out of their bikinis and into strapless sundresses or nurses uniforms.  I can’t imagine the 18 stone man swimming rather slowly up and down my lane cares much for a sundresses.

(Wednesday 24^th April)

Olympic Time Trial

It’s been a steady start from Team GB in the Olympics but the natives are restless because we haven’t landed a gold yet. So L and I go down to London to sort things out. Where we find London well decked out for the games.

Almost as soon as I arrive in the capital the first gold arrives courtesy of Helen Glover and Heather Stanning in the rowing. We’re off and running.

That’s sort of taken the pressure off Wiggo I suppose. I navigate my way across London to Kingston where I get in position to watch the Individual Time Trial. L has preferred something less cultural and has headed off to the Imperial War Museum.

I’m in position, about 3k from the finish of the women’s and around 10k for the men’s. It’s busy but I have the front row and the biggest flag. All set.

Now it’s raining... but it doesn’t last long. First up the women.

Both Emma Pooley and Lizzie Armitstead put in good rides for 6th and 10th but no medals there. Too flat for Pooley, too individual for Armitstead, in fact she probably has no idea why they entered her in this. Not her discipline at all.

Now it’s the men and it’s rocking here in Kingston. Go Wiggo go.

Then deflation as he’s only '2nd' at the first check. Get a grip man. Seems he’s pacing himself and by half way he’s in front and thereafter in a different race to everyone else. Chris Froome is up to third.

Then they blaze past us. First Froome and then Wiggins, a wall of noise for both of them but not just them. The crowd dish out only slightly lower decibels for everyone else.

Then it’s time to be glued to the radios for coverage of the finish. Not that it was ever in doubt.

A mere ten days after winning the biggest race on the planet, Bradley Wiggins is an Olympic champion and with Chris Froome third, it’s job done. Gold and Bronze.

Everybody is disappearing inside the local pubs to catch the end of the TV coverage, I join them.

Then I head back to central London to find a girl to wine and dine. L is actually waiting in Waterstones. Where else, even though she’s barred. She’s actually in the bar there, who’s ever heard of Waterstones with a bar.

From there we find we find the Euston Tap, a craft beer house. Good beer but no food. Oh dear, a case of gritting ones teeth and having a sandwich on the train.

(Wednesday 1st August)

Magpie Tendencies

Daughter moves house today, moving a couple of miles down the road in Sheffield. We moved Son the other week and got all his stuff on one half of the back seat, managing to transport both him, his girlfriend and the two dogs all at the same time. We’re not expecting this to be as easy but one car load should be enough I assume? Wrong.

We seem to be taking all the fixtures and fittings from the old house with us, as advised by the new owners of that property. Which would actually be in direct contravention of the tenancy agreement and so allowing them to keep the deposit... I’m sure they’re not that sneaky and are just using the students as a means to gut the house.

Daughter and I have a lively discussion on the merits of this strategy before we leave some of it behind. The less clutter the better, we are still administering therapy to her bedroom at home, which has suffered from many years of her magpie tendencies.

Her new area of Sheffield, Hunters Bar, is really rather nice, too nice for students. We find a really nice pub, The Lescar, after only a bit of walking around in random directions.

The papers were full of it today. The Sunday Times had him on the front page and then had three full broadsheet pages of coverage inside. What’s going on? Bandwagon jumping of the highest order but not before time. It took a while for the press to wake up to what was happening over in France but they got there in the end.

So today, Bradley Wiggins rolls in to Paris in yellow having become the first Briton to win the Tour de France, in oddly one of the dullest races for some time... no complaints though. Wiggins was the favourite from the off and never looked like not winning. It’s a massive achievement for him, for Team Sky and for Great Britain with Chris Froome second overall and British riders accounting for seven stage wins out of twenty-one.

Mark Cavendish won on the Champs Élysées for the fourth year in a row, with Wiggins leading him out, and won two other stages even without the lead out train that he’s accustomed to having.

The highlight for me though, apart from Wiggins winning and then getting up on the podium to announce he’s ‘going to start drawing the raffle numbers’, had nothing to do with Team Sky. David Millar’s win on stage nine was just superb and I was so pleased for him. Eight years, a drug ban and a reinvention (as a spokesperson for drug free cycling) on from his last Tour victory he tasted victory again and I bet it tasted real good.

(Sunday 22nd July)

A Bit Of Variation

More rain over night. Apparently they considered cancelling Sunday’s events at the dog show and again consider cancelling today’s programme. Which would have made the weekend quite literally a total washout for us.

Quite a few people have quit of their own accord and gone home, their caravans towed off site by the local farmer’s tractor. Most of the stalls seem to have gone too. Lightweights. Yes it’s wet but this is Lancashire, it’s almost Cumbria and they’re well used to rain up there.

The decreasing number of competitors means an increasing opportunity to win something with MD. If only he can keep the poles up. If only. Five runs; one pole down in four of them. In the fifth, for a bit of variation, we come out the weaves instead. Although that may well have been my fault but he’s taking the blame for everything else. It’s a shame because, mostly, we’re blindingly quick as is shown by the fact MD still gets rosettes for 13th and 14th despite having faults.

It’s left to Doggo to save the day. Two runs, two 8th places. One was so good I was tempted to retire him at the end of it. It would have been such a good run to go out on. I was surprised it only got us 8th but sadly we’re not as quick as we once were. In fact we were 0.427 of a second outside the course time of 34 seconds. But I ask you, who sets a course time of 34 seconds! 35 yes, 30 maybe but 34! I think they saw us coming.

After which we head home, via Stoke to collect Son, to a home with no gas boiler. So no hot bath on our return. Instead I catch up with La Vuelta a España, the cycling Tour Of Spain, that a terrestrial TV station has decided to cover for the first time.


Well done ITV4. The coverage is a bit cobbled together and not as slick as their Tour De France coverage but they seem to be learning on their feet and it improves every day. Today was the time trial, where after riding consistently for the first nine days Bradley Wiggins was lurking in 13th with a real chance of taking the race lead today.

He rides well and sets the third fastest time, which isn’t quite enough to take the race lead but places him handily in third. The new race leader is, amazingly, Wiggins’ Sky teammate, fellow Brit, Chris Froome. Who has a superb ride. So Brits in first and third. It’s going to be cracking last ten days or so.

(Monday 29th August)