A Pleasant Morning For A Puncture

This week sees the return of Monday night dog training which the Lad thoroughly enjoys and he also does rather well. The quiet open field on a Monday suits him better than the busy indoor arena we usually train in where it’s far too easy to get overexcited. Which is something he specialises in.

I cycle on Tuesday and get a puncture but it was actually quite nice... I can’t remember the last time I’ve repaired a puncture when it hasn’t been either dark, raining, cold or a combination of all three. It was a very pleasant morning to have a puncture and I even had it close to a layby, on Coventry Lane, with a bin to dispose of my old tube. Perfect really.

L says that only I could put a positive spin on a puncture.

 

I go to a presentation in Derby about renovating the Assembly Rooms because finally, after it being closed for five years, they are going to reopen. While I was there I got interviewed by the Derby Telegraph and got my photo in the local paper along with a quote of what I said which was basically ‘stop ****ing around and get it open’.

Wednesday is the second leg of the Play Off Semi Final with Leeds. I’m not too bothered about winning, all I ask is that I get my money’s worth if I’m paying Sky to watch it. That I certainly get.

Derby win 4-2 on the night, 4-3 on aggregate, becoming the first side ever to overturn a first-leg home defeat to make it to the Play-Off Final. While Leeds became the first side in a decade to lead the league at Christmas without going up. As I said, got my money’s worth.

After the game Frank Lampard’s bar bill goes viral after he ‘got a round in’ after the game. With 65 Grey Goose on the bill, among other things, they weren’t buying any old rubbish.

I have a Derby County themed night the following evening too as I take my Dad to an event called ‘90 Minutes With The Champions’ at Quad. The Champions here are the team that won the Division 2 title in 1969 and they manage to round up five of the team from that era, some of whom have better memories than others. Well it was 50 years ago.

Daughter comes over to dog sit. She runs to our house and then goes out on a dog job with the Lad. As L left for her tennis, MD was waiting, quivering in anticipation (or trepidation) because it was his turn next.

Daughter then stays over as the girls are doing the Sunrise City 5k in morning. These runs are now at 5:25am, five minutes earlier than before which is something to do with the tram timetable I believe.

I meet up with L after work, she has been visiting her Dad, and she suggests a post-work pint in the Exeter. It’s very shallow of me to be swayed by such an offer but there you go.  

(Friday 17^th May)

The God of Tarmac

Monday brings Derby’s Championship Play Off Semi Final 2nd Leg with Fulham and I pay for a Sky TV game for first time ever. Which I do through Now TV. I say ‘first time ever’ but I did buy a game through them once before for the Hull Play Off game two years ago but I was so disgusted after the first leg defeat that I never used it. I though perhaps I’d still have the unused credit on my account but no, it had expired.

After their negative performance in the 1^st leg, Derby are far too positive in the 2^nd Leg and lose 2-0. A fair result though, Fulham are a much better side than Derby. It would have been a travesty if we’d gone up, our team should have finished mid-table at best.

On Tuesday I’m on the bike and in the evening at dog training while L and Daughter go to the ballet, to which I was invited. It’s a Matthew Bourne ballet of Cinderella who did the Edward Scissorhands thing I saw years ago but this is a screening at the Savoy Cinema. Which is all a bit middle class for Lenton.

On Wednesday night I am out with my friend from school and surprisingly one of the other chaps, who used to join us, turns up unexpectedly. The first time for a year or more. We have a couple in the Alexandra before going to the Brunswick for food.

There is no tennis on Thursday as my opponent has no transport. I cycle though as I also do on Friday.

As I hit Coventry Lane in Bramcote on Friday, I realise that it has been resurfaced and not with stone chippings. It is as smooth as a smooth thing. All hail the God of Tarmac and the thing is they’ve done all this since yesterday. Wow.

On the way home the road through Stapleford is closed and cordoned off because of an accident but they let me through and don’t make me cycle the long way round.

The boys seem to be coping with begin left loose together or rather MD is surviving the experience. We hade been worried about ruining MD’s days by leaving the Lad loose but he doesn’t look too beaten up when we get home. All four ears remain present and correct. Whenever we walk them and MD barks at something the Lad gives him a nip. Things are improving though because I think MD is learning not to cross the Puppy. 

The Lad is probably also too busy during the day to attack MD. He seems to be a hoarder and his pastime when we’re out seems to be collecting a pile of things in the hall from dog toys to tea towels, dish cloths etc but I have no idea where he got L’s strappy top from.

(Friday 18^th May)

Another Mention Of Christmas And It's Still Only Mid November.

My training regime hasn’t been good recently. No training at all from Friday to Monday and only a swim on Tuesday. So it’s a relief to be on the bike today. Particularly as an unannounced closure to Coventry Lane causes chaos. Glad I’m not sat in that in the car.

Its perfect conditions for cycling. Slightly cold but dry and sunny.

It’s around this time of year that L starts requesting venison for Christmas lunch on the basis that one less of the brutes on Wollaton Park has got to be a good thing and one less for MD to bark at.

Although there is an alternative offer on the table from L’s boss in the shape of a couple of freshly shot pheasants. Apparently he's even offered to have his stable girl pluck them for us. 

I’m impressed. More so by the fact that he has a stable girl than by the pheasant offer. How cool. Maybe we should get one?

Although perhaps to have a stable girl one needs a stable. We do have a shed, although that's not quite got the same ring to it.

(Wednesday 13^th November)