Black Friday

Tonight is Black Friday and after the near hysteria last year nobody seems to give a fig this year. I’ve been studying Macbook prices for the last fortnight and if anything they are slightly higher on Black Friday than they were last week which is a cunning marketing ploy. I think I’ll hang on for the post-Black Friday sales.

Of course the real reason today is known as Black Friday is because it’s a Thai-Free Friday as I’m attending my company’s Autumn Do tonight. It was supposed to be our Christmas Do but because it’s only November we have renamed it.

It’s also ‘Wear Your Old Band T-Shirt To Work Day’ which I’ve missed again. If they could please advertise this better ahead of the day next year. Please. I look jealously at all the photos sent into the website while I sit here with a Notts 5 Miler t-shirt under my civvies. Not really the same thing.

When a group of us leave work looking for a pre-Autumn Do tipple an immediate downpour forces us into the Beefeater rather than a real ale pub. Not a good start to the evening. We are marooned there (and soaked) but at least not far from the Roundhouse where the ‘party’ is. The meal is ok, at least it's hot this year, but it is outclassed by the pre-meal munchies of mini-beef burgers etc which are really quite good. The event itself is not all Christmassy, thankfully. In fact the only nod to Christmas seems to be the crackers on the table. Not even Slade gets an airing, at least not while I’m there.

L turns down a work’s sponsored night at the Casino to pick me up. I offer to get the bus home so that she can spin the wheel of chance but she opts to collect me instead.

I get a text with the rendezvous point, go to the pull in by the back of the station. It’s all so very cold war. I look forward to the honey trap. She did mention turning up in a raincoat, boots and nothing else but she doesn't have a raincoat...

(Friday 27^th November)

Swim For All

The story of a dog called Arthur who tacked on to the Swedish team in the 430-mile Adventure Racing World Championship in Ecuador hits the press. It’s refreshing to see that it’s not just Doggo who tries to join in such events. Amazingly the team still finished 12th out of 50 but of course the article doesn’t mention important stuff like that.

Tonight’s dog training was called off yesterday such is the quantity of rain we’ve had, so I head off for a swim instead.

Tonight’s ‘Swim for All’ session is a more inclusive than Wednesdays. I share one of the two lanes with a young lady who is most certainly a Russian honey trap agent, either that or I have read one too many spy novels. I concede that she might not even be Russian, as I’m not great with foreign languages. She could be Croatian or Polish or something. She might not even be a spy I suppose.

She powers me on to 38 rapid lengths until a chap gets in our lane and starts floating on his back in the centre of it. This is where you expect the pool attendants to spring to life and fish him out with a big net but they don’t. I’m surprised because he is endangering not on his own Health & Safety but that of my Russian friend and I as well.

Dominika aborts and moves into the other lane. I swim around him to hurriedly complete my 50.

The coffee machine still isn’t working.

(Monday 24^th November)

Spoil Sport

I was running a bit late this morning, so had to really power it after somebody honey trapped me earlier.

L meanwhile is racing Russian dissidents and CIA agents in the pool. Probably. It's quite exciting when we decide to mix and match our audiobooks.

In the evening, I get home to find that L has finally entered into the World Cup spirit and has put a goal net up for the boys and I in the garden. Then I remember that she asked me to bring the net curtains in off the line before I start kicking footballs with the dogs. Damn. Spoil sport.

(Wednesday 18^th June)

Disaster On Friday The 13th

It’s Friday 13^th but I bike anyway. Naturally disaster strikes and a much older chap overtakes me as if I wasn’t there. Then again, that happens most Fridays and Tuesdays, Thursdays etc etc

L and I have swapped audiobooks. She is listening to my Red Sparrow book about a Russian honey trap spy. 

I’m reading her Gone Girl book about a girl who’s, well, gone. It’s fair to say that both books are annoying us. L bemoans her male author who deems a description of the lead female character jerking off with a hairbrush necessary. Funny that, I bemoan my female author who deems a description of the lead male character jerking off in the shower, notwithstanding without the use of a hairbrush, necessary.

(Friday 13^th June)