The Secret Room

I get the bus and end up late for work as the A52 is down to one lane due to a breakdown.

I wish L Happy Birthday, seven months early, by telling her with have tickets for Tears For Fears at the NIA and it would appear they are quite near the front as well. Naturally that’s not enough and she asks if she can upgrade to a full weekend in Birmingham. She best speak to the dog sitter. I’m guessing she’ll be trying to negotiate a parkrun onto the agenda next.

 

I visit my Mum again after work and L comes over later with the dogs. Not that they get to visit. My Dad get charged £25 parking for his overnight stay last night but apparently there is some secret room somewhere where he can claim it back.

(Thursday 2^nd November)

Given Up The Ghost

I head off to Harvey Hadden this morning despite the 50m sessions not being on their App or their website. Do I trust their App? No. Do I trust the Leisure Centre enough to just turn up? Well, I’ll have to. I need to train.

I find the pool open as normal and it wasn’t particularly quiet, so perhaps it’s a good job they don’t advertise it.

It’s L’s birthday today for which she wanted me to buy her an entry for the forthcoming Colwick Park 5k race series but she’s not running at the moment. Instead I buy her a new rucksack as her current one has given up the ghost, probably because of the huge amounts of kit she carries in it. Thing is, now that I’ve replaced it she can go back to carrying huge amounts again which probably isn’t very good for her back.

Apparently, her Google home page is wishing her "Happy Birthday", which is really creepy.

Then it’s dog training in the evening.

(Monday 8^th May)

Almost Indistinguishable

Yay it’s my birthday. Although in many ways it’s almost indistinguishable from any other day.

I have a pleasant bike in to work, which isn’t unusual, after having a very pleasant time before I even got out of bed, which isn't unusual either. Upon arrival at work, I don’t get greeted with cake, just my usual bowl of porridge. I do get a card from everyone at work which continues the theme of needing glasses and alcohol.

L says told you so, things wouldn't change once you reached 50. Nobody even mentions having a mid-life crisis and buying a Porsche and\or running off with a younger woman. Not that I can afford a Porsche even if I wanted one and they don’t make younger women like they used to.

I do get an odd gadget from one of my friends, so odd I'll need to google what it is.

L gets me a ‘marathon package’. New trainers, a promise of a Birmingham Marathon entry (should I remain uninjured) and a pre-race massage by her Pilates chap, that is if no Swedish blonde wants the job. He can always wear a wig I suppose but it wouldn’t be quite the same.

In the evening, in another non-departure from the usual, I play squash and my opponent doesn’t even let me win. Although it is satisfying that he suggests a sixth game rather than our usual five and he is practically crawling on the floor by the time the next pair knock on the door to rescue him.

Afterwards we go to the Dispensary, where we do stray from the usual script. We have a meal and Daughter joins us. 

(Thursday 27^th April)

Old Boys

More bike problems today. This time an old boy racer on an old racer. One who probably went home to his missus and whinged about the old boy who overtook him. Eventually.

I get a happy birthday email from the Trent Barton bus company, two days late. Which is priceless and so very apt. Still ahead of Son's card though. Hate to think how late the one from Yourbus will be.

Tonight at dog class, MD flies round the course although he does practice knocking the poles down. So it’s not looking too good for the weekend...

(Tuesday 29^th April)

In The Dungeon

It’s my birthday today and it turns out to be just about perfect. It helps that the Birthday Gods schedule it on a Saturday this year. It's always good when you don’t have to spend the majority of your big day behind a desk.

There’s no football match and I don’t schedule a dog show, so I get to spend it all in the company of an attractive young woman. She even skips this morning’s Park Run, although this is more due to a nagging ankle injury than out of devotion to my birthday.

The dogs still insist on doing the park, but you can’t have everything, and they do let us have a long lie-in first. Then we do a very un-celebratory gym session because I need to get one in before the end of the month if I’m going to get my cash back at year end.

I mainly do the treadmill, 5 whole k without getting injured, so that’s promising and I also do some leg weights.

Back home L makes me a cake amid cries of ‘cake, you can't not have cake, can you?’

In the evening we head into Nottingham and hang out in Brewdog for a while. The beer range is a little down on what it usually is but one of the barmaids makes up for this by, clearly catching my birthday vibes, coming to our table to refill our glasses. So we don't even have to get up to go to the bar.

Then we head to Iberico Tapas for a meal in the dungeon below the Galleries of Justice. We were going to go there for a friend’s birthday last year until he found out it was underground which didn’t go well with his aversion of anything subterranean. It sounded great to us though and we’re vowed to go there ever since.

We are sat at a pillar in the bar as the restaurant is fully booked. It’s a popular place. It’s also in the Michelin Guide and there are no prices on their website... e.g. it’s not going to be cheap. Apparently not only is it in the Michelin Guide, it’s one of only 137 restaurants nationwide with a Bib Gourmand, whatever that is, and the only one in Nottinghamshire... e.g. it’s going to be really expensive.

Apparently the bib denotes ‘good cuisine at a reasonable price’ but yes, it's still pretty expensive.

Although that may be because we pigged out a touch. After a starter, we had five tapas dishes to share between the two of us. Then three more for dessert because we didn’t fancy anything sweet. Then there was the rather nice 6.4% Alhambra 1925 Reserva beer, basically San Miguel with balls and the fact L was hitting the Spanish Sherry.

All rather nice though. We’ll be back.

(Saturday 27^th April)

Competition For The Kenyans

Happy Birthday to L today and as a special birthday treat, she gets to do the Leeds Half Marathon. This is her first race in a year of running up her 50th birthday. 500 miles in 50 plus races in her 50th year and hopefully 50 t-shirts as well. Hmmm, we’ll need to get a bigger bedroom or get Daughter to move out. Oh yes, forgot, that’s already the plan.

The last time L ran in Leeds they made her go around twice, that was in the full marathon in 2001. It’s ten years on but L doesn’t appear to be feeling nostalgic enough to repeat that feat today.

That race no longer exists, it was axed after the 2003 event due to dwindling numbers. Not many people seemed to fancy the two lap format. The half marathon too was also almost lost despite regularly pulling over 4,000 runners, in 2008 the council tried to drop it to focus on running a 10k instead but people power saw to it that that didn’t happen.

I'm in 10k training for Manchester next weekend; well I’m supposed to be, hence the Trailblazer yesterday, so I’m not running and looking forward to spectating instead.

It’s a good one to spectate at. A marching band leads the runners down to the start; you don’t see a lot of that when you’re running. MD isn't impressed by the band though and tells them so. Doggo isn't impressed that he isn't running but just stands there looking agitated.



Everybody claps the giant Clanger, who is running for Cancer Research and obviously going for a good time, as he takes his place on the front row next to the Kenyans and the other psychos.



They don’t look particularly worried.



The race starts and L is in there somewhere amongst the 4000 runners but we can't see where. Which is lucky in a way, because I feel Doggo would have joined her.

One person we don’t miss is the chap in the Mankini, not really missable (unfortunately) but unlike the chap who passed me at Reading, he’s combined it with a pair of Y-Fronts, so it’s a bit less obscene.

With the main race gone we await the start of the fun run but it starts in a different place and emerges at the other side of the square. A bit crap. The only downside in an otherwise well organised race.

L does well, a good time but not so good so that she can’t chip chunks off it throughout the season. At least that’s what I keep telling her.

She had suggested ‘Facebooking’ all the races on her challenge. So rather than give her chance to change her mind, I upload the first set of photos for her. I’m kind like that.

Later we escape down the local for some food and a few birthday beers.

(Sunday 8th May)

We Are Ready

I embark on a final training run with MD. It goes well. We are ready. L then takes out Doggo which makes MD distraught. He doesn’t seem to realise that he now needs to taper before Saturday. Oh by the way, happy birthday MD, three years old today. We’re off out tonight to celebrate without you.

I sit at my desk feeling knackered and a bit nauseous. The nausea is due to starting my latest Stuart McBride this morning. Book 4 - Blind Eye. Someone is gouging out the eyes of Polish immigrants. Nice. McBride is reading this one himself. Which is a bit weird, having got used to John Sessions. It is probably more appropriate having a Scotsman read a book about people from Aberdeen. McBride though, appears to be reading this one in a hurry but I’m sure I’ll get used to him.



I get the bus straight into Nottingham from work. Tonight is a delayed birthday celebration for me. I meet up with L for an aperitif or two before we go for a meal. She says she's always wanted to do drinks from work... and she’s waited 15 years to tell me this... I’m sure we’ve done drinks from work on more than one occasion. We end up in Langtry's where they have kindly laid on Snecklifter as a birthday treat. I’m touched.

After which we head off to the restaurant for a romantic meal for three, Daughter is meeting us there. The restaurant is called Kayal and describes itself as South Indian. Kayal means backwaters in Kerala, I’m not sure if that’s promising or not. It’s a chain of course, aren’t they all these days, but it only has three branches - Leicester, Leamington Spa and Nottingham. Well so far.



They claim that Kerala has a distinctive cuisine, very unusual and different from the rest of India but a lot of Asian restaurants say that and they still have Chicken Tikka Masala on the menu for the masses. Not here. In fact no Madras, Bhuna, Jalfrazi etc either. There was not one recognisable dish on the menu. They didn’t even do naan bread, although there was some well weird rice bread, very strange but oddly nice. It was all very refreshingly different, very tasty and not badly priced either. Recommended.

(Thursday 28th April)