Feeding Time

The weekend finishes with a leg sapping session at Derby's Velodrome followed by a reviving few pints and a takeaway curry. Which the boys enjoy too.

So it's probably no great surprise that Doggo doesn’t want his breakfast in the morning, having eaten late and having, as I recall, sausage rolls and crisps as well as his naan bread. Not healthy but we’re beyond that. There is already chicken roasting in the oven for his tea and hopefully there might even be some for the rest of us as well.

Monday evening is my post-show Committee Meeting and then Tuesday, we’re puppy hunting. Looking after Doggo has sorted of grounded our holiday plans, so we might as well be disrupted by a puppy at the same time.

It had started out as spaniel shopping but after being knocked out by the price they ask for them we’ve reverted to looking at collie puppies. Even they are getting expensive but we’re happy with cheap as chips, if we can find one. All there seems to be in the paper are Chuahapoos, whatever they are.

L heads off to Mickleover visiting, leaving Salmon cooking in the oven for Doggo.

Wednesday and Doggo is now turning down most food that isn’t salmon, chicken, best steak or today, cheese and crackers. The solution may be to order him a take away every night, as he seems to like them. Problem is we’d all be the size of a house, MD is already heading that way as he is getting all Doggo’s leftovers.

 

I’m on the bike, dodging the weather. The wind blows me to work but luckily the horrendous hailstorm happens at lunchtime, leaving relatively benign conditions for the ride home.

Thursday I’m in the car with my track bike in the back. I take it in to the bike shop to have my new super cog, a Christmas present from L, installed. I tried to do it myself but the chain was too short, so thought I best leave it to the experts.

Doggo moves on to sausages and boiled eggs, now one small step away from a Full English. That dog is better fed than me and despite his cranky eating, his dodgy legs and dodgy bladder he still seems to enjoying his morning walks with me.

Squash is on, sadly, because L had tended a better offer. So instead L and MD walk power walk there before joining us and Doggo in the pub.

On Friday I have another day in London but I'm home in time to accept the deferred better offer from L. 

(Friday 2^nd February)

The Final Cut

It’s nice having a break from running, it means we get a lie in until lunch time. Then Doggo and I fetch the Sunday paper along with the ingredients for a Full English, while MD and L are on park.

In the afternoon I check out the Yorkshire Marathon on TV, sizing it up for next year. It looks ok but I think they’re better marathon fish to fry.

Then amazingly the weather lets me give the lawn one final cut before garden waste collections are abandoned for the winter this Wednesday. They of course assume everyone stops cutting their grass when they do, which I believe is August going by the length of the grass on Wollaton Park. I’ve started to now lose MD in the long grass rather than just his ball.

A break from running also means I can make a return to the velodrome and I go this evening. If the rest of the group were pleased to see me back they didn’t show and they certainly didn’t go easy on me.

L goes in the gym, seeing as it's now free due to the little know Notts-Derby Metro Partnership. Then afterwards it’s a couple of pints in Stapleford. 

(Sunday 22^nd October)

Jump Start Required

This morning we get up early and I manage to collar some poor camper still with sleep in his eyes to jump start our car. Once up and running we head to Keswick for the Parkrun. As we pass back into mobile reception it is confirmed that Derby lost 1-0 last night.

At the Parkrun they are also running a GoTri event which is Duathlon incorporating the 5km parkrun, a 13km road cycle ride and a 1km run around nearby Fitz Park.

I did offer to pack L’s bike but she declined, so it’s just the run she’s doing. There’s one other complication, it’s tipping it down. The start is at the former railway station which is now part of a hotel but the platform works well as cover from the rain for us hardy spectators. Who aren’t quite hardy enough to brave the rain.

Afterwards we go for a Full English in Keswick and then take in the Keswick Museum where there is a display on Wainwright.

Then it’s back to the tent for a shower and some chilling in the tent in the rain.

Later, we head down to the Sticklebarn for food and drink. The place is now National Trust owned which I think is a bit like being run by the local council. Consequently it stops serving food at 8pm and closes completely at 9pm despite being over half full. Everyone decamps back to their accommodation or to the other pubs. We head into the New Dungeon Ghyll next door for a night cap.

(Saturday 7^th November)

He Really Should Have Gone For That Pint

The coffee machine has been fixed but the hot breakfast items again appear to be in short supply so we decide to go elsewhere for breakfast. We check out and when I point out my dissatisfaction with yesterday’s breakfast they take it off the bill, which was good of them. 

We eat a full English in a large city centre pub instead. It was a Wetherspoons sort of place but wasn’t actually a Wetherspoons. The breakfast was much better than the hotels and much cheaper as well.

We get the train back home but having to change at Sheffield this time. Again we struggle to find a seat that isn’t reserved. I don’t really understand the system. People are free to reserve seats even though they might only be doing a small part of the train’s total journey or even to reserve seats when they may have off-peak any train tickets like ours where they might not even get on the train they have booked a seat on. I find it all a bit bizarre.

Once home, we head off to collect the dogs from the rescue centre. They haven’t been rehomed but have been health checked and bathed... Let me get this straight... they bathed Doggo and people still have limbs attached? Blimey.

Back home I catch up on the day's cycling, that we didn’t have tickets for and also the World Squash Championship which was also in Manchester this weekend and has been televised by the BBC.

Sheffield’s Nick Matthew wins the squash title and at the cycling Laura Trott adds her second gold of the weekend with an impressive Omnium victory which for once she had pretty much in the bag before the final 500m time trial after winning the Scratch Race.

Things will be a bit tense in the Trott-Kenny household though after Kenny failed to get through the qualification round of the sprint. He really should have gone for that pint in the Sandbar.

Becky James took silver in the Keirin, yes behind a German, Kristina Vogel winning her third gold and Jon Mould took bronze in the scratch race.

(Sunday 3^rd November)

Lethargy

I take the boys on the park whilst L cuts the lawns, which is good of her and means it can be done without MD being attached to the lawnmower by his teeth. He’s not over keen on it.

However the dogs are so lethargic on the park, I wonder why I bothered. Back home, after a Full English, I trim various hedges and bushes. This causes the dogs to promptly forget their lethargy and spring to full annoying life.

(Sunday 11^th August)