It Must Be Christmas

On Friday, I meet my brother for lunch. So it must be Christmas. We go to the Five Lamps where we struggle to get served and are told there’s a ninety minute wait for food. Yep, it must be Christmas.

I go to the gym after work. I’m tempted to say... so it must be Christmas... but do go at least three times a year.

It must be Christmas because L arrives home bearing a very large book token from her boss. It's about the only time of the year that she says she’s pleased to see him.

We parkrun at Alvaston on Saturday and I power round in 8^th place and a time of 21:06, which is a new parkrun PB shaving 5 seconds off my time at Aviemore. It’s all the lad’s fault.

In the evening we go out in Derby for a drink, so that we can pass judgement on their much maligned Christmas lights. We think they’re actually really nice. 

(Saturday 21^st December)

Milking The Moose

I’m back in London today and L is worried I’m going to stay over to do a London Parkrun without her and MD. As if. It’s just a day trip and anyway, MD and I have a dog show tomorrow. L would desperately like to tour London in Parkruns.

We head off down at 6am again but manage to leave around 3pm, so we don’t get back mega late. The trip goes well, mostly. Some more issues have arisen but these are things our customer needs to sort out. 

It’s a bit of a stormy trip down, thanks to sweet Storm Caroline. Together we can rock ‘n’ roll.

L gets a bottle of Moose Milk from her boss. The recipe we’ve seen mentions six parts Jack Daniels to two parts Bacardi plus milk, eggs and seasoning then it's fermented for four weeks but I think he’s souped it up a bit. It's deadly.

My contribution is a bag of Twix cookies on expenses from London.

(Friday 8^th December)

Doing Nothing For Seven And A Half Hours

Today I’m back in London for a meeting and I meet my boss at 7am at Junction 25 of the M1. After slipping out of the house so early and leaving L asleep in bed, I later get reprimanded for neglecting my duties as an alarm clock.

Travelling to and from London is the usual traffic hell. In fact it’s probably worse. It takes us three and half hours to get down there and four hours to get back.

Then there’s the fact that no one from the actual company we’re visiting turns up for their own meeting, preferring to leave their three contractors to it, makes it all a very bizarre day.

When I finally get back home, L is out running around Forest Rec with Daughter doing a parkrun training run. Sounds like there's some serious training going on there.

I decide to skip a third night in a row dog training and go to pick L up instead. I’m actually feeling a bit shattered after all this travel (a.k.a. sitting around doing nothing for seven and a half hours), so I could have done with some sleep tonight but Doggo has other ideas with one of his choking fits.

(Wednesday 12^th July)

The Light Of Day

I am down in London for work today and we are going on the train. Which is a real novelty for my company. First I have to drive to work where I park before being picked up by my boss who drives the 400 metres or so to the station and then pays to park in their car park. I find that odd but I realise most people wouldn’t.

We are visiting two waste processing plants in London. Oh the high life I lead but I suppose I should be grateful as it’s very rare they let me see the light of day outside the office at all. I am handed a hard hat and a yellow jacket to go with the boots I’ve been told to wear. Health and Safety you know.

The first visit goes well and then we get a lift to the second one where we are served a decent lunch before the second visit which also goes well. So well in fact that we don’t have to wait for the 5pm train and get an earlier one back as my boss had booked an open ticket without realising. Consequently I am actually back in Derby before 5pm.

Whilst I am in London I find out that both L and I have got Great North Run places in the Times ballot. ‘Oh bloody hell’ says L. This wasn’t the plan you see. The plan was that if both of us entered the ballot we’d have double the chance of getting a place. Then if L had got one and I hadn’t she’d have gifted it to me.

She says she might have to go for a run tonight. Yes, lots of races to train for now.

(Tuesday 10^th January)

Ladies Of Leisure

Somehow, after getting out of bed very late and getting out of the house even later, I still make it to work on time. For reasons known only unto itself the bus turned up on time and even the traffic wasn’t too bad.

I’m not sure whether L is actually going into work today. Well she does, because she pops into the office to email me to tell me about her good long swim, good long book chat with her author friend and the fact she’s now off to a Pilates session during her 11am lunch break. A really lady of leisure while her boss is away.

Squash is a closer game tonight but the score is still the same e.g. I don’t win any games. L meets us in the pub having walked MD there again while I chauffeured Doggo and his injured pride in the car. Injured pride or not, he seems to love it.

(Thursday 17^th September)

Breaking All Previous Records

I arrive at work a bit on the damp side; it rained on me on the bike again.

L reckons she can't imagine completing the Ramathon, well not upright anyway. ‘Not upright’ is actually how I finish most races. I’m sure she'll be raving about it afterwards as she sits with her feet in an extra large glass of wine.

One of my colleagues is leaving today and my boss is leaving tomorrow. Consequently we all go down the pub for lunch where the food is slower than ever, breaking all previous records and we have to stay for a second pint. Consequently I might wobble a bit on the way home.

Perhaps luckily squash is cancelled as my opponent is having back problems again.

(Thursday 27^th March)