The One

We have always supported our local milkman so we decide to get our additional Christmas supplies from him but when I look at their website, all the cream is out of stock. That’s not very organised of them and not very good for his Christmas tip either.

I have lunch with my brother at Peacock which is quite good despite us having to drive there.

While L’s having yet another Christmas lunch although this appears to be ‘the one’ and not just another fuddle. L is impressed although her boss apparently isn’t. From her description it sounds a lot better than my meal on Friday.

Daughter is on her way over for a week or so. So she’ll be able to join us at a few parkruns.

After work I head off to the gym for a quick 15k wattbike then it’s home to kick off one of the festive traditions and make some Stilton pate.

(Thursday 22^nd December)

Always Doing It

Today is the ‘traditional’ Darley Park 5k run from The Furnace Inn. L always does it. I always do it when I’m not injured enough to do so. Doggo has done it many times and been top dog almost every year. Now he’s perhaps not young enough to do the full 5k and MD has taken on the mantle. Somewhat reluctantly perhaps. This year, not only do I give it a go with MD but Daughter runs it too. Her début!

MD does indeed prove to be somewhat reluctant and tells me so repeatedly by biting his lead for the first hundred metres or so. Once we finally get focussed and having started in dead last, we ‘storm’ through the field. Well, it’s more of a light breeze than a storm.

All of us then, having survived, go with my Dad (our evergreen supporter) to the Peacock for a drink. The Furnace itself being far too packed with the race proving more popular every year.

Then as we get home it snows, heavily and due to the wind sideways. It's so Christmassy. 

(Friday 26^th December)

You Don’t Win Anything With Kids

My optician has been taken over by one of those national brands and I’ve been putting off going as I know it’ll be a long long job. 

It is a very long long job. They took ninety minutes to tell me everything is exactly the same as last time and I’ve still got to go back because they’ve given me some trial contact lenses. Different ones in each eye which is very weird. I can’t help but think this is cost cutting. I mean if you like the left shoe in a shoe shop, you wouldn’t buy the pair without trying the right one on as well would you.

Derby’s ‘indifferent’ start to the season actually saw them win two games, draw one and lose none of their first three games without conceding a goal but they did lose their fourth game 3-2 at Charlton. They bounce back into form today with an impressive 5-1 win against a seemingly relegation bound (already) Fulham side. Their side is almost all young lads and you don’t win anything with kids, so they say.

Afterwards I meet L in Nottingham. We try the food at Peacock, which is fine but the Old Peculiar tastes off. So we head to the Nedd Ludd, which is a ‘craft’ ale bar. E.g. overpriced keg beers that are generally served too cold, too gassy and make you wonder how good it would have been had it been served on a hand pump.

However, it’s a decent pub that does have a few hand pumps and we get a nice IPA as part of the minimum strength 5.5% IPA trail. A commendable idea this from Nottingham Camra but I’m not sure how they got it past the alcohol police.

Then we head to the Falcon which for the first time ever has no Tuck and no IPA for the trail either. We end up at Borlase which has a well decent Porter from Raw. So good we stay for another one, which isn’t going to do me any good tomorrow. Good job it's not me jumping the hurdles.

(Saturday 23^rd August)

The Football Season Is Up On Us Again

The football season is up on us again and starts today. The dogs and I warm up for it on the park.

Derby open their campaign for promotion against newly promoted Rotherham at Pride Park. It’s a 30,000 plus crowd and a near full house. It’s a close game but Derby are not yet into their stride but still win 1-0.

In the evening L and I head into town, eat at Broadway and then have a few Old Peculiars in the Peacock.

(Saturday 9^th August)

Sorrows To Be Drowned

We head down to Broadway tonight to find more adjustments have been made to the meals, downgrades if you like. We might have to start eating elsewhere. Once upon the time the beer used to be good as well but that's not been the case for ages. Tonight we see 'Inside Llewyn Davis' although L probably wished we hadn't.

Set in 1960s Manhattan, Inside Llewyn Davis is a week in the life of a struggling folk musician. It's Reality TV done Coen Brothers' style, only the Coens aren't going to get the character to play up for the cameras now are they? This is warts and all, well just warts actually.

We meet Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) singing on onstage at the Gaslight, then we see him get beaten up in the alley behind it. At the end of the film we find out why and in between we find out about the man himself.

There’s a lot to find out but not a lot to like. He’s penniless, homeless and largely clueless, singing his heart out about ‘life’ whilst drifting through his own. He lives from day to day, gig to gig, couch to couch unable to take care of himself, his friends, his family, his lovers, ex-lovers or for that matter even a neighbour’s cat.

 

We don’t particularly like him, he doesn’t particularly like himself and his ‘friends’ such as fellow singers Jim (Justin Timberlake) and Jean (Carey Mulligan) view him mainly with disgust and loathing.

He is a man capable of performing passionately behind a microphone but not in real life. Perhaps at one point Jean thought he could, as she's possibly carrying his child, but she was wrong and now she wishes to dispose of it.

When Jean and Jim attempt to take their music mainstream and have a stab at stardom, Llewyn wants no part of it feeling his music should be good enough as it is. It is an attitude the viewer should applaud but you don’t because you really don’t like the man. Even when we find out about the unexpected loss of his former singing partner, who killed himself, we don't feel any sympathy for him.

 

Normally in films like this the lead character would have got a lucky break or suddenly got over himself, found a nice girl and discovered a personality but this is the Coens... So that isn’t going to happen. He is what he is. A man stuck in his own insular world where his own actions continually cause him to go nowhere.

In the end you want him to get punched in the face again because you have had more than enough of Llewyn Davis. If that is the case then you’ll like the ending.

Clearly we’re not supposed to like Llewyn Davis the man but as for the film... well it’s an interesting idea to make a film about an unlikeable character going nowhere but possibly not a great one. Still, I quite liked it. 

Afterwards we drown our sorrows in the Peacock with the Old Peculiar.


(Saturday 25^th January)