May Involve Cake

I do the dogs this morning which means they get a walk rather than a ball session. So Doggo certainly enjoyed it but I’m not so sure about MD. What’s life without balls, poor lamb.

L has an 8.30am physio appointment in Hyson Green on the NHS because the private stuff is bankrupting us. Sadly this turns out to be a disappointment as it ends up being just an assessment to see if she needs physio which obviously she does! Hopes were not high anyway as the last NHS physio she had was ‘hands free’, so a bit crap, but to get crap pre-physio assessment is beyond crap. She now has an appointment for 5^th May, so another three week delay.

No squash tonight, instead we are meeting some friends for coffee at Quad in Derby. I make sure I’m there early this time as last time they ran off before I got there. I do try to not take these things personally. I have been warned that it may involve cake.

It’s only a brief social occasion and I could have played squash later but sadly anything after 8pm is too late for my opponent. This is probably why he always wins, its at that sort of time I start to come alive. 

(Thursday 13^th April)

Up The Rams

Another lie-in, this time to midday. L wanted to give her ankle a break (of the unbroken kind) and this is clearly the best way of giving it a rest, doing something not load bearing.

I tentatively suggest that this is perhaps also a good chance to stretch the wheels of her bike (puts on tin hat). So later L cycles to Harvey Hadden, does the bike track there and then the gym.

I walk the boys on the park, again and again without balls. They are seriously starting to wonder if something is up.

In the evening we head to Broadway for our second film in two days.

Now here's a quirky one. Rams is a snapshot of life in a remote Icelandic valley, an environment so harsh that seemingly only sheep and stubborn bearded old men can survive there.

The stubborn bearded old men are two brothers, Gummi (Sigurður Sigurjónsson) and Kiddi (Theodór Júlíusson). They live in neighbouring farmhouses but have not talked for forty years. Their only form of communication is the occasional written note which is delivered by border collie.

The film starts with them going head to head in the competition for the most highly-prized ram.

Kiddi wins with Gummi coming second. Kiddi’s celebrations are brief though when it turns out that the winning ram has scrapie. The outcome being that all the sheep in the valley will have to be slaughtered.

Kiddi refuses to comply with the slaughter. So he is arrested, his flock is forcibly destroyed and he goes on multiple drunken benders. Twice we see Gummi reluctantly forced to save his brother when he finds him lying motionless in the snow, drunk and about to freeze to death. On one occasion he scoops him up in his tractor's front loader and deposits him in front of the nearest hospital.

Gummi meanwhile kills his sheep himself against regulations, so that he can secrete a few ewes and his prize ram in his basement. At first he gets away with this but eventually they are discovered by the authorities.

When Kiddi learns what his brother has done, they start to become reconciled. Kiddi helps Gummi re-hide them and then when that doesn’t work, the two of them combine to drive them off into the mountains during a blizzard. A plan which doesn’t go too well due to the inclement weather, this time leaving Kiddi trying to return the lifesaving favour and attempt to save Gummi.

Quirky but excellent. Well worth seeing.


Afterwards we go for a few pints (rather appropriately maintaining the sheep theme) in the Golden Fleece on Mansfield Road, which has recently become Flipside’s second pub. Then it’s the traditional Sunday Indian.

(Sunday 28^th February)

Coffee, Toast And Balls

Parkrun this morning. The boys and I tag along for coffee, toast and balls. We are deeply honoured that L can fit us into her busy schedule.

Coffee and toast goes well, balls less so. The boys lose theirs in the car park, in the deeply sloping busy car park. They have to be despatched back into the car whilst I go scrabbling on my knees trying to find out under which cars they have wedged themselves.

We’re all so exhausted after that, we have to go back to bed in the afternoon.

In the evening, not fancying anything that’s on at the cinema we head to the Falcon for drinks. The Tuck isn’t on but instead they have Black Beauty Milk Stout as part of Nottingham’s Stout and Porter trail. The Stout and Porter trail is a very good idea but now that most pubs as stocking one such beer all year round it would be good to see places like the Falcon stocking an additional whilst the trail is on.

We move on eventually for the sake of variety but the Borlase next door fails miserably to have a decent trail offering so we finish up in Hand & Heart. Then we pick up curry from Park Tandoori on the way home. One of those perfect beer, sex and curry days.

(Saturday 21^st March)