Nothing But The Best

Doggo continues to insist on nothing but the best for breakfast, as a dog of his senior years would probably expect. Not everyone gets gravy for breakfast but he does.

I cycle to work while L hits the gym. Then she bombards me with an endless steam of emails. Busy are we?

It’s still the Easter holidays and her boss is away, so there’s not much going on at her work. She says she’ll take Friday off if things don’t pick up. The dogs will certainly make sure she’s not bored if she spends the day at home.

In the evening, she takes the car over to Mickleover to visit her parents which means I have to break the news to her that the car is currently refusing to turn right or rather it’s refusing to indicate that’s what you wish it to do.

(Wednesday 19^th April)

Rough Out There

As is now becoming the norm Doggo hoovers up all the deer poo on the park and then declines his breakfast.

It's really rough out this morning, very windy and foggy, so I’m more or less glad that I didn't cycle and got the bus instead.

Dogging tonight and then afterwards a pint in the Masons with L. Wainwrights is back, rather appropriately as we’re off to the Lakes this weekend where I’ll be hoping to avoid it of course.

(Wednesday 11^th January)

Fits Like A Glove

It’s Saturday, so it must be parkrun. You see, even I’m getting into the routine of things now.

Today MD and I do our first run at Beeston. This is one I’ve avoided so far due to the narrowness of the course and we start on the main field adjacent to everyone else. This means we are disadvantaged straight away because we have an uphill start simply to get onto the same level as everyone else. Which we do manage without wiping anyone else out.

Thereafter the run is complete mudfest, so neither of us will be allowed on the bed later. Our time is good though and we are only 17 seconds outside our PB. I've no idea how that happened.

Then it’s to The Last Post aka Wetherspoon’s for breakfast where we meet L’s parents and Daughter. They only seem to be serving half breakfasts today as they miss things off several of our meals but do bring out assorted extras when I complain.

Then it’s back home to see if our goose will fit in the roasting tin and/or the oven. The answer, after one big shove, is yes. Fits like a glove.

In the evening we walk into Nottingham to see if anything is open. It is Christmas Eve after all, formerly known as the best night in town of the year.

The Scribblers is open although they say they are closing at 8pm but as people keep flooding in perhaps they’ll reconsider. We consider stopping for a second drink but we are summoned to meet Daughter and her two friends. This we do in the Blue Monkey where we participate in a highly competitive game of Jenga. Not done that for a while. It's an excellent evening.

At the end of the evening we all walk home, due to the lack of buses, and then do the traditional midnight present opening.

(Saturday 24^th December)

Crumbs

I walk the boys this morning so that L can get a good long swim. The boys and I have quite a long walk, over half an hour anyway, and they both ate a hearty breakfast afterwards. Even Doggo who we suspect may be finding his munchies a bit too hard on his old worn down teeth, so we’ve started softening them with water.

In the afternoon I receive an email from Seetickets offering me a ticket for Frank Turner’s 2000th show at Rock City next Thursday and I have two hours to claim it. So I claim it!

I was in the original ballot for tickets and if you didn’t get one you went on the waiting list in case there were any returns or extra ones made available. So my name must have come up. That never usually happens. They were about 10 times oversubscribed.

With the pantomime now in full swing and us track cyclists generally ousted for the duration we have to grab what crumbs of track time we can. Oddly one of those crumbs is tonight from 5pm to 7pm as there is no pantomime performance tonight. As it’s a Friday night this seems rather odd but then the fact they’re holding a pantomime in a velodrome is pretty odd in the first place.

I leave work a little early for what is supposed to be a gentler session than the Sunday one. Not so, particularly when the same coach as the other Sunday turns up and starts doing his six day sixes again (or whatever it is). The overall standard tonight is lower but the pace isn’t which just means there are more bodies to be resuscitated afterwards.

(Friday 9^th December)

Nobody Has Ever Been Voted Off

Having skipped the family duties last night we instead meet L’s sister and co for breakfast in the Beeston Weatherspoon’s at the almost humane hour of 10am. L walks MD there while the two old men follow in the car.

It’s only then that I realise that I have absolutely no idea how to drive there now the tram tracks have closed off half the streets. Doggo and I get there eventually and by total accident as the street I go down to turn around in turns out to be the right one.

Breakfast is good, as Weatherspoon’s go, then afterwards L is at gym while I head off to the Dog Club’s AGM. The meeting goes well and we end up with a very reformed committee as after telling everybody that nobody has ever been voted off... someone gets voted off.

On the way home there is yet another accident on Derby Road, so I have to detour again.

In the evening we engage in a rather fruitless night out. Having known for some time that a former favourite, the New Zealand Arms in Derby, is now in the hands of Dancing Duck and sells more of their ales than their other pub, the Exeter Arms, we drive over to check it out.

However not only does it not sell anything different, it also has the biggest loudest TV broadcasting to the entire pub and ensuring it remains largely customer-free. Like everyone else we leave after one drink.

Instead we go to the Last Post micro pub to give it another go after not finding it terribly welcoming last time. It’s even less welcoming this time. The pub is like sitting in someone’s front room which should be nice but not if you haven’t been invited and the residents are picking fights with each other. At least I added a dark beer to my trail.

(Sunday 4^th December)

Pull The Plug

We go to Forest Rec parkrun. L to run, me for the breakfast. Then she goes to Pilates at John Carroll. Then she goes to Aqua Aerobics at Djanogly. Busy girl.

I go home to try and give the lawn one final cut before the council pull the plug on the garden waste collections. It rains naturally, so chance missed. I can rearrange the lawn cut but they won't rearrange the collection.

And so to bed.

Then I have to raid the local Co-Op for something to make a decent pasta meal with as the builder has prevented me getting to the shops this week. We stay in as it’s the Leicester Half tomorrow.

(Saturday 22^nd October)