An Apology Of Sorts

I’m not sure when, or if, I’ll wear my spooky t-shirt from yesterday’s race. L also declines to wear hers today in the gym and opts for her classier Great South one instead.

Meanwhile the Great South market research people have emailed her an apology of sorts for them doubting her.

“We are sure you all have experienced times in your life in which somebody told you that you were not good enough to accomplish certain things. For some of us, not being believed in is extremely demotivating; for others, it is actually an additional source of motivation.”

Apparently people were randomly told that either they were ‘crap’ or they were offered a gift card of either £10, £20 or £40 for meeting their goal. Now I’ve got the hump as well because clearly they thought they could bribe me into running faster by only offering me £10. I feel so cheap. I should have held out for the £40.

Despite that, L’s still enthused. So I bang in entries for the Stamford 30k, as a training run for Brighton, which opens today and always fills quickly. Needs must, as they say.

Also, totally unprovoked, L enters the Watford Half Marathon which her sister is already signed up for. Their website says ‘Hurry up! Only 1795 places available’ As there were 1880 finishers the last time it was ran in 2018 (2019 was cancelled because of the weather), that’s only 85 places taken... So I shall delay my entry for a while until they’ve finished mucking around with the football fixtures and hence I know whether I'm free that day or not. Although not entering things does have a habit of coming back to bite me.

Then she mentions ‘Britney Runs a Marathon’ which is on at the cinema this weekend. It's not on my 'must see' list so I might let Daughter take her to that one.

MD is at the Vets later for his annual check-up and booster. This petrifies the life out of him. We’ve also got the Lad there so that they can both be Kennel Cough vaccinated as well. It takes two of us and a muzzle to hold MD still enough to get the vaccine up his nose. The Lad meanwhile can’t wait to have his nasal passages squirted and seems gutted when it’s all over so quickly.

Then it’s home to bang in another race entry as entries for the Ashby 20 go live at 7pm. When they open, it was like Glastonbury all over again and entries sell out in 20 minutes flat. However, unlike Glastonbury, we’re in.

(Monday 28^th October)

The Jury’s Still Out

It’s in the news that everyone has loads of old gadgets stockpiled in drawers. Well yes, we have quite a few lined up to recycle ourselves. Of course what should happen is that councils should make kerbside collections of electronics. They just need to put a plastic collection bag through everyone’s door like the charities do then collect it the next week. They’d only have to do this once every six months. Unfortunately the whole refuse collection system, with it’s one size fits all approach but a different size for each council, is a mess so this won’t happen.

 

We have just three days at work this week before we depart for our usual summer break in Scotland.

Monday is dog training, which is on after a quick whip around to see if we have enough dogs without Kennel Cough. There’s a lot of it about at the moment.

On Tuesday there’s a match as Derby take on Bristol City. This means L will go for an early night to avoid spending all evening chucking balls in the garden. However it appears the Lad isn’t very happy with this decision and spends his evening lobbing balls up and down the stairs on his own.

Then on Wednesday I slot in a night out with my mate from school. It’s just the two of us this time and we meet in the Exeter for drinks and food in an effort to break the deadlock of good beer\rubbish food (Brunswick or Wetherspoons) or decent food\no beer (all the restaurants\cafes). The beer was good while the jury’s still out on the food... but it was better than the usual suspects. 

(Wednesday 21^st August)

Welcome Home

We get home from holiday to the overpowering smell of our drains. Well I do, L has no sense of smell and can’t smell anything. It looks like someone has had theirs cleaned out because our garden is full of sewage. Ugh.

We quickly arrange for the same guy who came out last time to take a look. In between looking at our drains he bonds well with the Lad, who loved him but still managed to pull all the washing off the line in between jumps of joy. He has a Kennel Cough jab tonight, up the nose, which might calm him down a bit.

The chap again says it's all detergent that's causing the blockage but doesn't see how it can all be us. He wanted to pop next door to put a camera down their drain as well but it seems they've built their conservatory over it. Helpful!

He advises us to contact Severn Trent, as it’s really their problem, and get them to have a look but unless they knock down next door’s conservatory I can’t see what good it will do.

All the same I will draft a letter to Severn Trent, right after I’ve sent one to the council about our recycling bin. They refused to empty it this week and slapped a label on top listing what shouldn’t be in it. None of which is in it. 

In the end I decide to ring the council but the guy on the phone doesn’t know why it was rejected either because the bin men don’t log why bins are rejected. How efficient! So we play recycling bingo as he lists possible things that might have upset them. Having gone through everything he thinks it was probably the shredded paper, which I thought was allowed, apparently not. Who knew? All because we didn’t bury it under two weeks' worth of rubbish like we usually do.

I need a pint after all that, so it’s a good job I’m out in Derby on Wednesday. Which shamefully means I don’t support Cycle To Work Day.

(Wednesday 15^th August)

Taken By Surprise

I take the car to work again as we need to rush the dogs to the vets tonight. Nothing is wrong with them, it’s just the new kennels we’re putting them into insists on a kennel cough vaccination. So yes, everything is against my training schedule even the boarding kennels.

The old kennels weren’t bothered, everyone says it doesn’t work on most strains anyway and last time they had it they came back with a cough anyway.

Lunchtime is spent in the Brunswick, where there’s another long wait for food but at least they get the order right this time. Then we are trapped in the pub by the un-forecasted rain. Thanks Met Office.

I meet L at the vets, so that we can handle a dog each. The vet is surprised to see Doggo again so soon. He is surprised to see her approaching his nose with a syringe, a kennel cough vaccination goes up the nose, so he bites her. Oh dear, not good but then it was really her own fault for trying to take him and us by surprise, not giving one of us chance to grab his nose for her.

Squash is a right humdinger of a game. I really should have won but lose 3-2. Close enough for me though.

(Thursday 17^th October)

Cough

I bike again.

Doggo has a cough. Apparently he has Kennel Cough. Naturally we had ruled out this possibility because we’d had him vaccinated against it two weeks ago. So that was useful then. If it continues he'll need some antibiotics from the vet... the vet who inoculated him against it... Somebody is making some money here.

His cough does seem to be improving but even so L says she’s going to rustle up some warm honey and lemon for him tonight. To dip his Bonios in. Hope she makes enough, because MD will want the same.

He’s not got the cough but then he is a tough cookie. Good job really because Kennel Cough is supposed to be highly contagious and I wouldn’t want to infect the rest of my Crufts team at training tonight. I best keep Doggo in the car.

Training goes well and no coughs.

(Wednesday 21st March)

Just Three Minutes

Oh dear. Quark. That’s going to be taxing, even though I think I know what it is. I’m sure I’ve got it from Sainbury’s before but... the supermarket is in Chaddesden, so I’m not hopeful.

Everyone’s talking about the Horizon programme about how three minutes of exercise a week can get you fit. Fascinating stuff. Clearly we have it all wrong and I shall have to adapt my half marathon training accordingly.

L’s sceptical but then if she cuts down to just three minutes a week think of all the books she’d get read, all the painting she’d get done and think how little she’d need to eat to refuel. It has its plus points.

I head home without the Quark.

The dogs are at the vets tonight for their kennel cough jabs ahead of their ‘holiday’ next week. It will be interesting taking them in together. Who do we let the vet inject first and do we let one watch the other getting it in the neck?

We let the vet do Doggo first, giving him less time to contemplate what’s happening and then of course MD will be easy because he always wants whatever Doggo’s having.

Doggo gets a full body fondle to see if the vet can find a reason for his many foibles but mainly the incessant scratching. This ends up with him being pronounced flea free but on the receiving end of another 'anal squeeze' treatment by a young female vet who is about half the size of Doggo. He also gets a tube of cream for his crusty elbows.

The kennel cough vaccine apparently has to be squirted up their noses rather than injected, which is also entertaining.

Later, at squash, my opponent and I compare bruises but manage not to add to them. We also compare colds. His has been hanging around longer than mine but I think mine wants to come on holiday with me. I wonder if it’s any good on skis.

(Tuesday 28th February)