A Friday The 13th To Top All Friday The 13ths

I bike again on Friday as a final leg loosener before Sunday with the organisers, Ivanhoe Runners, confirming just before 11am that the Ashby 20 is definitely on.

Three hours later it’s definitely off. It appears that one of their medical team is ill which has probably kiboshed the whole thing. They are not alone as the London Marathon is postponed until October.

The Premier League and the Football League announce that all football matches are suspended until 4th April. Things must be serious if Sky have allowed that. I receive an email from the Women’s Tour Of Britain saying that is off and it isn’t until 8th June. This is already a Friday the 13th to top all Friday the 13ths.

The loss of the football changes my week next week as I was supposed to be dog training on Tuesday but I had moved it to Wednesday because of the match. Now I can move it back or do both days, assuming dog training doesn’t get cancelled as well.

I’m also due to see Frank Turner at Rock City next Saturday but I seriously doubt that will be on although he has just confirmed that tonight’s show in Bath is going ahead.

Something is still going ahead because there’s a large group of runners emerging from the offices opposite mine. Ah yes, it’s Sport Relief. I wonder if they’re doing it to Beethoven. The challenge is to run 5K quicker than the duration of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony which lasts around 30-35 minutes. Apparently, the duration varies just like my 5k time.

L goes dress shopping tonight as planned and gets a dress for Son’s wedding, which sadly must also be in doubt. They were already faced with going ahead without his fiancée’s brother who lives in Tokyo. Even if they let him come over here, he’d have to go into isolation on his return to Japan.

(Friday 13^th March)

Young Enough To Stare

Back on the second-best bike today which is perhaps a bit of a risk as it's Friday the 13th but there are no punctures today. I do tussle with a lass on an electric bike, who assures me her 'other bike' is a proper one as we chat going up Risley Hill, me out of breath, her being chauffeur driven.

Meanwhile my first-best girl is unashamedly eyeing up some 'sexy' Spaniard at the pool. He was apparently doing stretches on the side of the pool but L had to swim very slowly past doing breaststroke to notice that. She says she’s old enough to be his mother but young enough to stare, which is the sort of thing I’d come out with. Wait until I get her home.

Lunch comes courtesy of a very small, very expensive sandwich from Starbucks as my usual venue of choice (through lack of choice)  for crap sandwiches, Greggs, is shut for a refit. Quite what they can do differently there I don’t really know.

I attempt to do a few beat boxes on my way home from work but I’m not confident it won't end in disaster. I don’t puncture this time and I cycle an extra 10km, visiting 12 beat boxes of which 8 acknowledge my presence. The rest are all flat. I meet a fellow cyclist who is doing what I had hoped to do by visiting every one but he’s now resorted to marking them off with pen and paper such is the number of ones that no longer work.

When I get home I find that just 2 of the 12 have registered on the website scoring me a massive ten points rather than the expected 110. L has had a similarly frustrating quest. We both Facebook the box people to complain, well not really complain, just to let them know about the problems there are. It’s a great idea and hopefully if it comes back next year they’ll have ironed all these problems out.

L has her ball. The Poundshop had a choice of either Superman or Pink Princess. Naturally she went pink, not that that will make much difference to its chances of ending up in the garden.

(Friday 13^th May)

Wobble Boarders

It’s Friday the 13^th for the second month in a row. Perhaps not a good omen to bike but it’s a lot warmer than on Tuesday and Wednesday. It didn’t rain on me either.

I suppose a Friday 13^th style disaster could have occurred with one of the Wobble Boarders that are about advertising pizza but they have now been removed.

They've been all over the place this week and one of the ones at Priory Island nearly did have me off my bike earlier this week as he jiggled up and down at the pedestrian crossing. I’m not sure the advertising works. It certainly puts me off going to Dominos.

I arrive home unscathed and a wild night in with the boys awaits. L has gone up to Manchester for an overnighter with Daughter. So we are left to console ourselves over a few tinnies and a take away curry. I mean a green salad.

In the end we live it up in style and watch Crufts. Well I do, the dogs don’t seem that interested. As well as Utopia, which they also don’t take much interest in.

 

She can take Doggo with her next time. He couldn’t sleep and wouldn’t stay upstairs. He wanted to wait by the front door. I had to block the doorway to our chic new open plan room with a couple of chairs. Perhaps, with hindsight, taking the door off was a mistake.

(Friday 13^th March)