Off The Substitutes' Bench

Today I get a bizarre call from our local Post Office. They have MD’s dog tag but apparently MD isn’t attached to it. I check with L, just in case she’s lost him, but she assures me he was at home when she left for work. I tell them we’ll pick it up next time we’re passing.

After work I run 5k, then get the bus part of the way home, then run another 5k. That, however, is just the first part of tonight’s running schedule.

With L temporarily out of commission I am called off the substitutes' bench and tasked with running with Daughter tonight. She has already apologised, many times, in advance for being slow. While I feel I should be apologising for being fast. She likens me to a race horse, albeit a slightly limping one, and her a Shetland pony.

I am apparently required to chitchat all the way round our 5k, which isn’t really my forte and not something I’m used to. No one speaks to you when you’re on 1:45 pace for a half marathon, no one is capable of speaking to you.

MD joins us and helps ruin our time, which isn’t what she was hoping for. So she might not be asking us again.

(Wednesday 20^th September)

A Letter From The Post Office

The post office send me a generic letter acknowledging my ‘enquiry’, nowhere in the letter does it mention the missing package I reported.

Things go sort of well at today’s dog show at Scunthorpe. Two clear rounds for MD, which is a rare thing in one day. We do a really scrappy jumping run and get 7^th, which is a nice surprise. Then we do a really controlled agility run and get 8^th, which is disappointing... and confusing, as to how our scrappy run was better than the controlled one. His other runs aren’t too bad either, just a pole down in each. Doggo is also clear.

L does the Park Run at Forest Rec again but nearly a minute slower than last week. Oh dear.

She asks if I’ll be AF tonight before hobbling round, and it will a hobble, the 10K tomorrow. No but I guess we ought to keep it LA (low alcohol). Then we go down one of our locals, the Wheelhouse, for some pasta and a few Abbots. So it turns out not very LA at all.

(Saturday 13^th April)

Something For You?

The Post Office seems to have lost Daughter's contacts lenses. We were out when they attempted delivery and got the usual ‘Something for you’ card. I arranged redelivery for Saturday but they never arrived. So I went to the sorting office and they have no idea where they are. They keep saying they'll call me with details but they never do. Although apparently by Friday, 10 days on from the original delivery date, we can officially declare them lost.

I run home from work and get about 8k under my belt before I feel tightness in my calf again. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. I stop pronto and find a bus.

When I get home it’s straight out with the foam roller and the dogs valiantly assist, perhaps I’ll finish this later. Instead I'll get on with getting tea ready for when L gets home from the gym and from her evening of intellectual literary debate at her book club. 

(Tuesday 9^th April)

Not Playing Ball

So, we’re expecting the gas man and the washing machine delivery man today. Either could be hammering on the door at 8am, so there will be no lounging in bed with my good woman this morning then. Instead I drag myself out of bed and promise the boys that yes, we’ll do the park with their footballs, just once the gas man’s been and gone but of course he isn’t playing ball. So the dog’s don’t get chance to play ball either. Naturally if I’d stayed in bed he would have arrived by now. Finally at about midday I decide to go in the shower. It works a treat. There is a knock at the door.

This time, he’s even brought the part. It’s all fitted and he’s gone in about half an hour, although it’s now too late for the park and I make my apologies to the boys, as I head off to the match. Still no washer but L will deal with that.

Next stop, the post office. Where I have a package. Which could be some free CD’s that a record company may be sending me in gratitude for a review that I did or it could be joint supplement from one of the sponsors of our dog show. As I suspect, it’s joint supplement. Oh well.

The match is interesting and we all sit there in disbelief as Derby storm in to a 3-0 lead. Having come to terms with that, we then all sit there in disbelief as Derby throw away said 3-0 lead and crawl home 3-2. The disbelief includes a bizarre goal where having mistakenly picked up a back pass our goalkeeper throws the ball straight to one of the opposition players to score rather than waiting for the resulting free kick. Clearly satisfied with this act of self-harming the referee declines to book him. Which is poor refereeing as well as poor goalkeeping.

The washer has arrived and I head home to plug/plum it in. L utters those famous last words, ‘this one should last forever’. The theory being that no teenagers will be using it. e.g. running it several times a day as well as double washing everything e.g. adding their washing to what’s already in it, but has already been washed, without emptying it. She is forgetting that the summer holidays from Uni last forever.

(Saturday 24th March)