A Supporting Job Done Good

Hay fever seems to be rampant this year. I’m struggling but L is worse. She never used to suffer but seems to have caught it from me! I’m not too sure about her strategy for sore eyes, lying down with cucumber on them, and neither are the dogs.

Another trip to work on the bike and then off to the finale, round four, of the Nottingham Grand Prix at Colwick Park. I’ve not been jealous of L doing these races at all. Nothing in this series has tempted me back, least of all a rather convoluted new route for tonight’s 5 miler.

Afterwards we pick up L’s series t-shirt from the racecourse and then head to the Stratford Haven pub for a few celebratory beers of a supporting job done good. The boys have pork scratchings. Of course L has done good with her running as well.

(Thursday 4^th July)

Crime Scene

Today I enter L and myself into the Nottingham Big Swim. This arrived in my inbox a few days ago from L with ‘please do me’ tattooed across its forehead. It’s at Holme Pierrepont which will be the scene of the crime for next year’s Half Ironman. So why put off floundering in their rowing strip for ten months when I can do it next weekend. Sorted. Entered.

Talking of crime scenes. Daughter heads off to prison today to be fingerprinted. How exciting. That’s assuming red lights don’t start flashing on police computer when they scan them in to CRB check her. She's going to be doing volunteer work there from September.

The Brunswick are on a final warning as regards our pub lunches. Far too many times they have taken the full lunch hour to deliver our food. Not today though, it comes in ten minutes and earns them a reprieve. Although this does remove our excuse for having a second drink, so we’ll just have to think of another one.

I cycle home, where I have one of L’s ‘burnt’ buns as a pick me up before we head out again. That’s her description, not mine. They are wonderful, she burns them so nicely. Then it’s off to Rushcliffe Country Park for the second round of the Grand Prix series which is held, as is tradition, in the rain.

L records a cracking time and pronounces the 5k course as ‘short’. You’d never hear me saying something like that.

(Thursday 27^th June)

Homeless From Saturday

Today's bike to work was very good but very unfamiliar without the rain.

L has tasked herself with fixing the guttering at home, supposedly man’s work I guess but she’s a game lass. Now there’s a gap in the deluge she has chance but first she has to clean out the three inches of mud in there. How can mud climb up on to the roof and into the guttering... one of life’s mysteries.

Then it starts raining.

L has entered the Holme Pierrepont 10k tonight, which is the first part of the Grand Prix series that we usually do but we’re away for the other three races.

Now she no longer sounds as keen as when she entered. Just a training run, I tell her, as I watch from the sidelines having wimped out myself.

Then, in what is an exceptionally busy week, we hotfoot it over to Leamington to collects Son’s stuff. He’s homeless from Saturday. At least we’ll have a dog sitter for the Olympics.

(Tuesday 26th June)

The Grand Finale

Apparently the latest Batman film is to be part filmed in Wollaton Park. This I assume is why next month’s grand prix race has been moved to Rushcliffe. Although I think the organisers have been messed around by the film makers as the park will actually be open on the day of the race - July 5th but will be closed totally for nine whole days between June 25th and July 2nd. Surely they don’t need the whole park? I don’t think the council drove a very hard bargain here, particularly as the golf club appears to be unaffected and the dogs are going to livid.

I’m on the bike again which goes well until somebody bombs past me on the way home. Smart a***.

Then it’s time for the grand finale at Clifton. The final squash match before the council takes away our Thursday night game. L makes me promise not to throttle anyone at the leisure centre and to let her know if I want my tea taxied over because I’ve chained myself to something.

It turns out that there’s not much point staging a sit in because the building work has already been delayed. The closure of the courts has been deferred until Wednesday, at the earliest. We are told that we can book for next Thursday if we want, on the off chance that the courts will still be there when we turn up. We decline.

It’s a good final match, a close one and although I don’t win the match I can at least lay claim to winning the final game at Clifton.

Afterwards I have a chat with the centre manager who says they did have a display about the changes in the cafe area for a while, but we never go down that end. Although apparently retention of the squash courts was not an item that was up for discussion. It seems the argument is – if a gym isn’t used enough, we’ll expand it and modernise it to persuade people to use it, but, if squash courts aren’t used enough we’ll demolish them.

We decide we can’t be bothered with jumping through the hoops required to get into Portland next week for game, so we’re playing tennis next week. So that’s two less squash customers for the council to worry about.

L is also unhappy with the council, she swam 98 of her planned 100 lengths before she got chucked out of the pool and then found out the mocha’s gone up by 10p. That’s to pay for the new squash courts. Ha ha.

My shoulder is oddly ok after the squash game but not so ok after a training session and a lot of tugging in the garden with MD. I need a glass of wine to dull the pain.

(Thursday 9th June)