With Much Fanfare

It’s time for another longish training run, so I again get the bus into work.

Then after work I do the same 14km run. It’s not really about stretching the distance out at this stage, it's more a case of upping my weekly mileage.

I get home to find that Doggo is still have rear end problems and has repainted the kitchen with his diarrhoea. It's not pleasant and quite a clean up operation.

Then we take the scissors to his matted rear end and surprisingly he lets us. He looks a lot trimmer afterwards.

The Robin Hood Marathon announce this year’s race t-shirt with much fanfare but it looks almost exactly the same as last year’s to me... It’s got a bloomin’ dear on it of course, which perhaps looks a tad more like Rudolph this time around.

(Tuesday 18^th July)

At What Age Does That Happen?

It’s a lively bike ride this morning. A bit windy and a bit wet but still very good.

It was just mulling to L the other day that apparently the average ratio of job interviews to actually job offers is 12:1. Then Daughter rings to say she's got the job she went for in Nottingham yesterday which I think was interview number 12. So there you go, some statistics might actually be right.

I don’t know if she took my advice in not dissing students as that’s rather key component of the job because they offer essays to students which isn’t cheating, obviously. I also told her to say how much she loves Centre Parcs even though she probably doesn’t as they have a get together there every summer. Either way, clearly something clicked.

L says she’ll now be able to straighten her finances out. Really? At what age does that happen? I’m still waiting.

L has her second session out of three at physio. She has already been banned from running and is only allowed to do gentle stuff. Although she protests that everything she does is gentle especially the running.

Instead she keeps her mileage up by taking MD on a long hike. Even though there is no squash we go anyway and I meet up with them at the end of her hike for a few pints in the Dispensary on Trent Bridge which is right next to the squash courts.

(Thursday 2^nd February)

Hung Out To Dry

On the bike today and as I record today’s mileage in my cycling log, I discover one bit of good news. At 1656 miles cycled so far this year, I have already exceeded 2012’s appalling total of 1628 miles. I’ve still some way to go to get up to previous years' totals but there is still four months of the year left to go.

L gets some foreign currency for this weekend’s trip to Budapest. Most vital is the 1000 HUF (Florin) note for the deposit on the timing chip. 1000 HUF is the princely of sum of approximately £2.85. They charge you about £15 for a chip over here, so it's almost worth keeping them to put on ebay.

We need two of these but it was hardly worth going for just £6 worth of currency and L comes back with 16,000 HUFs. She expresses gratitude she’s not Hungarian, imagining how many thousands she could be overdrawn.

Back on the bike, I have a bit of a race home with someone from Beeston CC which is always nice. I got hung out to dry obviously, but you have to give it a go. Now all I’ve got to do is recover in time for tennis.

During which I was enjoying my impending 6-1 6-1 defeat until repeated attempts to lose by such a score line came to nothing as I went from 4-1 down to 5-5 in the second set amidst the gathering gloom. Unfortunately getting a full game in while starting at 7pm is going to get increasing difficult as the nights draw in.

It was only when we changed ends that I realised how my opponent had gifted me the last two games. Near zero light at the far end of the court apart from a bit of dazzle from the lights on the floodlit courts. This resulted in the ball being largely invisible until it reached the back of the court. Suspiciously my opponent hit everything short and completed the win 7-5.

(Thursday 29^th August)