Sorting Their Lives Out

Monday is dog training which is followed by a detour to Derby to pick L up, who has been visiting her folks. She says her legs ache, so she must have put some work in on the track last night.

On Tuesday I am in London for a meeting with our ‘difficult’ customer. We have network specialists in, trying to sort their lives out for them.

L and Daughter spend the evening at the theatre, or rather the theatre being shown at the cinema. They go to see the Importance of Being Earnest at Broadway.

I cycle on Wednesday and then in the evening it’s dog training where the Lad gets to join the big boys’ class for the first time. He loves it. Meanwhile L and Daughter go running, sporting more lights than I have on my bike. I hope they don’t blind anyone.

L officially take a hiatus from taking the boys out in mornings and on Thursday I take over. They can be a bit of a handful. In the evening, there’s still no squash but L does have her tennis and gets to try out her new racquet. She is the only one in her class who can serve properly.

Friday is very windy and there are trees down everywhere. I consider weighing the Lad down when I take him on the park but I’m sure he’ll just bounce back if a gust does take him.

(Friday 12^th October)

Emotional Shopping

The Monday shop has got a bit emotional of late. I'm finding it difficult passing the reduced pasties and the Fray Bentos pies. These were the type of things we resorted to giving Doggo in his last few weeks to make him eat. The Fray Bentos pies particularly bring a tear to the eye.

Tuesday I’m on the bike and thankfully so given the state of the traffic this week. Even on the bike, I’m constantly weaving in and out of cars. Tuesday is also dog training night.

Wednesday I’m in London for work and the traffic isn’t any better down there. In fact they close the M1 on us, due to an accident, forcing a long detour across country to reach the A1. We arrive at 11.30am having left at 6am.

On Thursday I take a vital delivery at work, hoover bags. I rush them home to L, not wanting to be the one that comes between a girl and her hoovering. That's the puppy's job.

Talking of the Lad, the new toys are stacking up. He now has a cow to go with the sheep he already has, both from L’s Mum. He again joins us in the pub after squash.

(Friday 23^rd March)

A Tall Order

While we were away Doggo seemed to eat every meal for Daughter, although every meal probably did involve chicken. Now that we’re back, he’s being selective again. This morning his breakfast is served ‘avec croûtons’ e.g. with chunks of leftover bread on top. Which he eats without picking up a single morsel of dog food. Awkward old git.

Allegedly squash is back on from next week, although this still means he has a whole week to try not to get injured again, which could be a tall order. This week, I’m in the gym.

After which, L wants to power walk to the Dispensary. So the plan is to meet me off the bus and then she can continue on with MD as we have done before. This plan is hatched before L spots the Red Arrow on Ilkeston Road, never a good sign. I sure know how to pick my bus days.

It turns out that the road closed outside Wollaton Park on Derby Road and all the buses are having to divert. At Derby Bus Station, the electronic signs shows that the nearest bus is thirty minutes away... e.g. still in Nottingham. The tracking thing on their website is slightly more helpful but contradictory saying that their nearest bus is in Bramcote, a mere twenty minutes away. Then seconds later one turns up... Good technology this tracking business.

The upshot of all this is, we are late after a bit of a detour but not disastrously so. We still get there before last orders and as Daughter is home by then, so she joins us too. 

(Thursday 30^th March)

Imagine The Outcry

I was seriously mislead by the weather report this morning and I should really have cycled to work. In the end there is no wind, no rain, it is relatively warm and there isn't the fog that there was yesterday. L says they could even see the ball on the park.

What makes the decision worse is that the A52 was shut and the bus had to detour, so I end up thirty minutes late for work.

After the pre-Christmas break, the Christmas break and the post-Christmas break I was hoping to return to squash tonight but no, it's off again. My opponent says he has only managed 2k of his New Year running programme, so he doesn’t deem himself fit enough to play again yet. Of course playing would get him fit but he also might lose which is more important obviously.

So I head off to the gym for a rather predictable (but enjoyable) pedalling session. I suppose I could have instead gone for a ground breaking session on the elliptical trainer where apparently you can watch a film of where you are virtually ellipticalling (or whatever the phrase is) but I wouldn’t know how to work it.

The gym is still chock full of the sort of people you don’t normally see in there and I would say its standing room only in the changing rooms as well but there isn’t even room for that. Although it would help if they removed the cleaner. Quite why they need to clean at 6pm when it’s at its busiest I have no idea.

It was a female cleaner as well, despite the fact there were about twenty blokes in there in various stages of undress heading in and out of the showers. Can you imagine the outcry, the newspaper inches and the TV news coverage if there was a male cleaner in the female changing rooms?

The woman gets a few disparaging looks but nobody really gives a damn and just carries on as normal, naked or not, while she just carries on cleaning, showing no signs of being in any sort of hurry.

(Thursday 12^th January)

The Smell Of Burning

Another wet and cold morning, so another day on the bus. Warmed by lunch in the Brunswick.

Back home L is in celebratory mood. Her 50th parkrun t-shirt has arrived. 

I have dogging this evening but with no pub detour to meet L this week. Instead she says she’ll be snoring away somewhere at home. Possibly in front of the oven as she’s baking tonight.

There is no smell of burning as I arrive home, so she seems to have managed to stay conscious.

(Wednesday 3^rd February)