A Torturous Journey

Dogging tonight may take place amidst thunder and lightning according to the forecast, interspersed with sunny spells. Sounds entertaining. I will pack a sun hat and some rubber soled wellies along with my new Sochi 2014 t-shirt which has finally arrived.

It was a torturous journey. It’s taken months. Then last week the shirts got seized at customs as they arrived from Moscow. Seized that is by people intent on making even more money out of us. The delivery cost from Russia had doubled the price of the shirts as it was. Now they were asking for £42 to release them from customs. This apparently is made up of search fees, admin charges and forward postage. I refused to pay and the company ‘contracted’ by customs instead said they’d email the Sochi Shop to see if they’d pay. Good luck with that I thought, response time there is about a month per email.

However the next day the package was mysteriously paid for and released to us, so I can ‘dog’ tonight in my new shirt.

(Monday 9^th June)

St. Dwynwen's Day

L goes into work early, so I walk the boys. It’s always a pleasure and they seemed to enjoy their walk, particularly Doggo. He does love his off lead down the grass verges. The snow is still quite nice along there. We even saw a couple of dogs for MD to bark at.

The forecast says we’re going to get quite a bit of snow this evening. How this will affect the dog show or the match tomorrow I don’t know.

Today is St. Dwynwen's Day, the Welsh Valentine’s Day. So Happy St. Dwynwen's. We really ought to do something Welsh tonight. 

Dwynwen was a 5th century princess who was forbidden to marry her true love. So she begged God to cool her love for the unobtainable one and God did but as a nasty side effect her true love was so cooled that he turned into a block of ice. It's usually the other way around isn't it.

The picture isn't the usual one you see of Dwynwen but I sort of liked it.

Rather confusingly it’s also Burns Night. So perhaps a Welsh meal washed down with whisky is in order. In the end our Friday night in is accompanied by a rather inappropriate Chinese Take Away. So much for tradition.

(Friday 25^th January)

Djanogly Untamed

It's almost like skiing weather today, nice crispy snow and bright sunshine, except this is Nottingham not the Alps. The forecast is a bit disappointing as well; don’t think we’ll get much more.

As I walk to the bus I’m passed by a lad doing his paper round on our estate by chauffeur driven car. His mother I assume. Pampered child or what.

Despite already have done my regulation two gym sessions this month, I might to do a third due to all this ice and snow. L proposes yet another different leisure centre, this time Djanogly.

Djanogly? Hmmm, radical. She’s trying to unsettle my delicate equilibrium and Doggo’s. At least it’ll give him some different people to boot stare at. I also can’t recall if the equipment faces to or from the walls there? These things matter but I’ll give it a go.

In the end doing Djanogly isn’t as easy to do as you would think. The entry gate is locked and only the exit gate, clearly labelled with a big red ‘no entry’ sign, is open. So we go in that way, as must have everyone else because despite being so unwelcoming, it's packed.

I do 10k on the bike, which seems harder than at the other places, either their settings are different or my legs are. Then I do a 2k row, followed by a 2k run. Where again I think their settings are different, as 14kph feels nothing like 14kph. It must be my legs again.

At least no one takes issue with my Four Villages Half Marathon t-shirt, accusing me of not running it, as it was snowed off. The girl in the Rushcliffe 10k t-shirt better not say anything. At least I didn't run further than she did run.

(Tuesday 22^nd January)

A Disappointing Effort

It’s a disappointing effort by the weather and the forecasted heavy snow doesn't arrive. Even to call it a dusting would be a disservice to dustings. It all makes last night's meeting cancellation look as daft as calling off a local derby football match.

Apparently all last night’s predicted snow landed in Lincolnshire. Which means that the coldest place on earth, Sleaford, has it all and we’re there next weekend.

I run from work. I’m not planning on running all the way home, what with the Liversedge half marathon on Sunday, but that doesn't mean anything. So I get the bus to Stapleford to save me from myself and run home from there. Once home, I push L out of the door to do hers.

Of course with all this ice around, Sunday’s race may not be on. The race website is sounding a bit more positive about the race’s prospects, than they have been all week, but not much. Though they are from Yorkshire, where they don’t do positive so I expect it’ll probably be on.

On to episode five of the Millennium Trilogy, e.g. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest.

(Friday 10th February)

Scottish Proportions

It’s a bit windy on the bike today but nothing of Scottish proportions. Although at lunch time the weather does seem to have a go at doing its worst. Thankfully things seem to have calmed down again by the time I cycle home.

Hopefully we won’t be getting those Scottish storms down here and the forecast is for low winds all weekend. Which is good news for those camping this weekend...

It’s certainly not too bad on the amble to the Victoria, where we dine in their tent, quite a chilly tent as it turns out. The dogs aren’t allowed in the food room and food isn’t allowed in the dog room, hence we're in the tent, in the garden.

We’re not the only ones under the gas heaters and it does have a certain charm, unless your girl has a faulty thermostat but then they probably all do. So after the food we head indoors.

(Friday 9th December)