Young Enough To Stare

Back on the second-best bike today which is perhaps a bit of a risk as it's Friday the 13th but there are no punctures today. I do tussle with a lass on an electric bike, who assures me her 'other bike' is a proper one as we chat going up Risley Hill, me out of breath, her being chauffeur driven.

Meanwhile my first-best girl is unashamedly eyeing up some 'sexy' Spaniard at the pool. He was apparently doing stretches on the side of the pool but L had to swim very slowly past doing breaststroke to notice that. She says she’s old enough to be his mother but young enough to stare, which is the sort of thing I’d come out with. Wait until I get her home.

Lunch comes courtesy of a very small, very expensive sandwich from Starbucks as my usual venue of choice (through lack of choice)  for crap sandwiches, Greggs, is shut for a refit. Quite what they can do differently there I don’t really know.

I attempt to do a few beat boxes on my way home from work but I’m not confident it won't end in disaster. I don’t puncture this time and I cycle an extra 10km, visiting 12 beat boxes of which 8 acknowledge my presence. The rest are all flat. I meet a fellow cyclist who is doing what I had hoped to do by visiting every one but he’s now resorted to marking them off with pen and paper such is the number of ones that no longer work.

When I get home I find that just 2 of the 12 have registered on the website scoring me a massive ten points rather than the expected 110. L has had a similarly frustrating quest. We both Facebook the box people to complain, well not really complain, just to let them know about the problems there are. It’s a great idea and hopefully if it comes back next year they’ll have ironed all these problems out.

L has her ball. The Poundshop had a choice of either Superman or Pink Princess. Naturally she went pink, not that that will make much difference to its chances of ending up in the garden.

(Friday 13^th May)

Hurricane Gonzalo

Hurricane Gonzalo stops me cycling, the b******. So I take the bus, which is any one of those silly minibus things again, which they all seem to be now. Really worth the £8 return ticket and not comfortable either after getting caught in the downpour that started the moment I reached the end of our street.

I see a few hardy/stupid folk cycling but I feel not cycling was possibly the correct decision today.

We’re on a recruitment drive to our dog classes and tonight I have a young student lass booked for initiation. When I get there there’s not one but two of them. Bonus, for the club that is. One has a Dalmatian, the other just a notebook. She’s just come to study what we put our dogs through. She’s probably better off not knowing.

Meanwhile, a late penalty gives Derby a 1-0 win at Blackpool and sends them to the top of the table. Where we expect them to stay.

After class I again meet L and her brother at Masons pub.

(Tuesday 21^st October) 

The Return Of Shipstones Bitter

L, born again cyclist (maybe), is cruising the bike shops looking for some better cycling shorts. She asks what brand I would recommend she goes for? Expensive ones... That’s generally how it works out with cycling gear. I offer to treat her to a pair. I do like a lass in cycling shorts.

After work, as I figure it’s about time I started training for next week’s Cheshire Half Marathon, I go for a run. Eight very hot and draining miles later, somebody incredibly lets me on their bus to complete the rest of the journey home.

From born again cyclist to a born again beer (maybe). Shipstones Bitter is apparently on its way back. Although to be honest some things are perhaps left in the past. It was never the greatest and anyway I thought the Belvoir Brewery, who are involved in this revival, have been brewing it for years under the name Belvoir Star or was that just a marketing (?) ploy.

To his credit, the guy who is taking this on is vowing to brew a version from the brewery's glory days rather than the dark days of 1980's which is how I remember it. Good luck to him. It's only in bottles at the moment but I look forward to trying it on cask when that arrives.

(Tuesday 9^th July)