A Break With Tradition

It's Christmas Even today so just a half day at work before we finish at 1pm. For the first time in my almost twenty years there work does not send us home with a bottle of spirit. The natives are not at all happy about that.

In a break with tradition, L and I opt not to fall into a pub in the afternoon and instead save ourselves for later. I even pop to the Arena gym for a Watt Bike session on the way home. they are open until an impressive 7pm.

These days town centres sadly seem to shut around 6pm on Christmas Eve but most of the pubs we usually inhabit around Caning Circus are open tonight.

We have one in the Blue Monkey but spend most of the night in the Borlase.

(Thursday 24^th December)

Into The Sauna

We have spent our first night in our new bedroom which we were reliably informed by Daughter was 'like a sauna up there'. Perhaps a slight exaggeration. We also get to test the new bed out of course.

Today is, of course, Valentine’s Day and L gets me a box of Milk Tray, which is much appreciated but is a sort of roles reversal. Isn’t the man supposed to buy the chocolates? I mean who's ever heard of the Milk Tray Girl? But then if I got her chocolates she’d only give them to me anyway. So at least this way round it cuts out the middle man.

L runs a new parkrun PB at Beeston, showing that she obviously got her preparation spot on last night at the beer festival.

Derby play Reading in the 5th Round of the FA Cup. Stephen Warnock, a defender we acquired from Leeds United, makes his debut but it's not an illustrious one as he is sent off before half time. Despite playing well with only ten men, Derby lose 2-1. This is where you're supposed to say it's time to concentrate on the league.

In the evening we are at Broadway where we have a meal, see Love Is Strange and wash it all down with a couple of Centurions.

Love Is Strange is about a couple who have lived together for four decades before suddenly deciding to get married. This is a decision that effects their life in more ways than they would have expected, mainly because they are gay. 

Ben (John Lithgow) is a retired painter living on social security and George (Alfred Molina) is a music teacher in a Catholic school or at least he was. When the school finds out that he is now a married gay man as opposed to an unmarried one and with the accompanying Facebook postings to prove it, the bishop isn’t happy and they dismiss him.

The loss of George's income forces them to sell their Manhattan apartment and to find somewhere cheaper to live. The sale generates less funds than they expected and they end up asking for assistance from friends and family.

After a ‘friends and family’ meeting, which I’m sure only happens in America, the pair accept the offer of temporary lodgings but choose to live separately. They had the option to live together with a relative outside the city but, for some reason, they put staying in the city ahead of staying together.

The pair being forced to live apart is the basis of the story and the film explores how it affects them and the people they stay with. The fact they are gay matters little, a similar scenario could have been applied to a straight couple.

 

Ben moves in with the family of his nephew Elliott (Darren Burrows) and his writer wife (Marissa Tomei) where he shares a bunk bed with their teenage son Joey (Charlie Tahan). Which goes down about as well as you’d expect. George sleeps on the couch of their neighbours, a couple of NY cops, who are also gay and who live a hard partying lifestyle. Which also goes down about as well as you’d expect.

The two find it hard to adjust and clearly miss each, so again you wonder why they didn't try harder to stay together.

There are some interesting potential side stories such as Joey and his friend Vlad (Eric Tabach) and also Joey’s parents who seem very estranged but none of these are really progressed. Is the thing with Vlad, sexual, drug related or just confined to stealing books? Is Elliott cheating on his wife or is he really just working too much?

It’s a sweet and unassuming film, well-acted but probably way too unassuming for my liking and with an odd ending.

Afterwards we head off for something dark at the unlikely real ale palace of Annies Burger Shack. From there we stick out head in the Junkyard ‘craft’ ale bar but it doesn’t look my sort of place.

Then we finish off with one in the Borlase before heading home.

(Saturday 14^th February)

No Races

L has no races this weekend. Naturally, injured old men have no races either. I offer to dash her to a parkrun but as its 8.20, we’re still in bed, and these thing start at 9am she declines. That’s a good call unless you’re her training schedule.

It also means I have to go throw something on the park.

After a rare defeat last week, Derby are back to their best demolishing Brighton with three goals inside the first 19 minutes. We like playing Brighton, last year Derby beat them four times.

We head down to Caning Circus later and divide our time between the Falcon, on the Tuck naturally and the Borlase.

(Saturday 6^th December)

The Wrong Shoes

It’s the first outdoor dog show of our season and we arrive at Catton Hall with the wrong trail shoes, I have L’s.

Doggo’s Veterans run is up first where I make my second and third mistakes of the day. I select the ‘small’ jumps for Doggo when I perhaps should have downgraded him to the even smaller ‘micro’ jumps this year now he’s nearly 13, then I rush him and he misses a jump out. Then mistake number one (lack of trail shoes) comes back to haunt me and I fall over trying to correct him.

After that I slacken the laces off on L’s trail shoes and cram them on. Then I head to the start line with MD, who quivers as he waits, just like he did at the kennels last Friday. Again whether this is in terror or excitement I’m not sure. I don’t fall over but we get two eliminations anyway. So not a terribly good start to the season. We now have about a four hour gap until our next run, such is the scheduling at dog shows.

L sleeps into midday by which time it seems a shame her getting up, as we’ll be home soon. Our afternoon goes better. First because the ground has now dried out and I can wear my own shoes again. Then I get a clear round out of the little sod. Just. We argue over the tunnel, I have to illegally nudge him round a jump with my knee and our dog walk contact is got with just one claw I think. It’s good enough for 9^th, so at least we come home with something.

Then two poles down in our last run, although it wasn’t a bad run to be fair.

L cuts the grass and says I can reward her with a glass of wine later. I was about to offer her a bottle.

We’re out tonight celebrating my birthday over a week early... and why not. After a few pints in the refurbished (again) Sir John Borlase Warren, we head to Iberico Tapas where we have a really excellent meal, that bottle (of red) with sherry/beer to wash it down and a wobble home.

(Friday 18^th April)

Eighth Straight Win

The first thing to note is that the new settee turns up and so does the floor man, at the third attempt. Naturally they both turn up at the same time.

Still it’s early enough to get the boys on the park afterwards and then get to the match for the 1pm kick off where Derby record an eighth straight win against Leeds. Ta da. Very satisfying.

In the evening we head down to the Navigation on Meadow Lane for food, which is normally our post squash bolt hole. We would have stayed longer were it not for the bands they had on, which repelled our custom rather than attracted it.

Instead we embark on a not terribly exciting pub crawl. There’s still not any Midnight Owl on at the Vat & Fiddle, so we head across town to where the Ropewalk are running out of beer and the Borlase is totally out. The Hand & Heart may have had beer but lacked space, it didn’t even have standing room. So we wind up at the Blue Monkey pub, which I think is ok but L isn’t a fan of their beer.

(Saturday 8th December)

Crossing The Humber

Today we head up to the Hull area for an intriguing half marathon, well at least I thought so, but not one for the bridge-phobics because the Humber Bridge Half Marathon crosses the bridge twice.

L is not usually one for bridges, so she might have to shut her eyes, but then that could have nasty side effects. Although I think they have barriers... I hope they have barriers and hopefully no crosswinds.

Last year they had a few problems with the weather, it was extremely hot and a poor chap died as a result. This has meant an earlier 9am start this year to avoid the heat of the day but heat shouldn’t be a problem this time, as we have rain on tap.

Car parking is good, if a little muddy and right across from the start. Although toilet facilities seem limited, there are plenty of bushes.

The start is rather dramatic. First we have a period of silence for the unfortunate chap from last year, this quickly turns into applause and then while this is going on the gun and klaxon signal the race start.

First a two mile loop around the local area of Hessle, which strings the field out a little before the first crossing of the bridge, for which they have closed a lane to traffic. Although it’s still a bit narrow and it’s a choice between tripping over feet or the cones at the edge of the course.

It’s a long bridge, almost 1.4 miles in length, so you get plenty of time to ‘enjoy’ the experience. Waiting at the other end is an inordinately long slip road, about a mile long, that seems to edge uphill forever. Once that is out of the way the course takes a largely flat route around the area of Barton Upon Humber.

The early rain had eased to drizzle by start time and then soon after stopped completely, creating near perfect race conditions. I was having a good run and by nine miles I was two minutes up on my Benbecula time meaning going under 1:40 was a real possibility.

That was when they threw a nasty little hill at us and then when that was out of the way we ran into a headwind on the return bridge crossing, using the footpath rather than the main carriageway this time. All of which mean I came in at just over 1:41.

Water was mostly in cups, which meant I ended up wearing more than I drank, although there was one bottle stop and they had a sponge stop too. I love a good sponge. I carried it all the way to the finish and then brought is home as a souvenir.

In the evening it’s the England v Italy match, which we watch on the big screen in the Ropewalk. Even L, although admittedly I didn’t give her much choice. She probably wished she’d brought her knitting.

This was after we'd had a Sunday Roast in the Borlase, which empties soon afterwards and is closed by 10pm, as everyone else finds somewhere showing the match.

Well I was impressed. Finally we have a manager who can see we’re not as good as these foreigners at this tippy-tappy stuff, otherwise known as passing to players in the same colour shirt, and we never will be. What we can do well though is bloody minded defending and you won’t see a better example of it all tournament. Oddly the TV only concerns itself with stats such as possession and shots on target, totally ignoring the art of defending.

Now if only we’d have had a goal poacher in the mould of a Shearer or a Lineker, we’d have nicked that game.

(Sunday 24th June)

Test Drive

Time to test drive some new trainers today. Same brand, different model. The bad news is they don’t seem very comfortable walking into work. This does not bode well.

I run to the bus stop in Chaddesden with the shoes still not feeling at all comfortable. Then I get the bus to Stapleford, getting off opposite the new Wetherspoons pub which is rather confusingly called the ‘Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren’, which is within an Admiral of being the same name as the well established (since about 1814) ‘Sir John Borlase Warren’ at Canning Circus.

Yet I’m sure they were going to call this new pub the ‘Staff and Serpent’ after the medical centre they demolished to make way for it but obviously they’ve changed their minds.

The man himself was born in Stapleford in 1753, became a Member of Parliament (although not in Nottingham), an able seaman and then obviously later an Admiral. So I suppose we have to say well done Wetherspoons.

We have, until recently, the ‘Warren Arms’ in Stapleford, almost opposite the new Wetherspoons, but I never made the connection with old Sir John. That pub was demolished last year to make way for some new shops shortly before the medical centre was demolished... to make way for the new Wetherspoons. Where's the sense in this? Couldn’t Wetherspoons have just renovated the pub? I’m being too logical aren’t I?

I also didn’t realise that the good Admiral was also commemorated by and appeared on the pub sign for the ‘Happy Man’ in nearby Hickings Lane, which is also no more. He was a ‘Happy Man’ because some lass called Caroline gave him the eye once and he said that if she married him she would make him the happiest man. So presumably she did.

Anyhow, I digress, from here it’s around five miles home, in my uncomfortable shoes which do eventually seem to bed in, either that or my feet have simply gone numb.

Once home, a night in with episode 3 of the Millennium Trilogy or if you prefer part one of film two e.g. ‘The Girl Who Played With Fire’ which has loads of extra scenes, actually makes sense, unlike the film and is really excellent.

(Friday 27th January)