Looking Over My Shoulder

We have a new survey from the Biobank project that we are both in. This one is a weird one...

Did you ever believe that a strange force was trying to communicate directly with you by sending special signs or signals that you could understand but that no one else could understand?

Did you ever believe that that there was an unjust plot going on to harm you or to have people follow you, and which your family and friends did not believe existed?

And that’s just two of the questions.

I ride home looking over my shoulder, just in case, but then track cyclists do that all the time.

This evening Derby finally win a league game at the third attempt with an 87^th minute goal at Preston.

(Tuesday 16^th August)

The Long Road North

It’s 5am Saturday morning. We are up and on the long road north e.g. the M6.

First stop Preston and a near underwater Parkrun. I drop L off and hope it’s on.

Second stop Bilsborrow and an equally underwater dog show, which is thankfully indoors but the access roads and the surrounding fields are well flooded. I make it there with two minutes to spare to walk our first course.

The rain is now incessant, I pity anyone parkrunning because the run does go ahead.

At the dog show, run one was very good but MD missed a contact. I thought he got it but the judge disagreed. We come 5^th even with those 5 faults, we would have won had he got that contact.

After I’ve walked my next course I head out into the monsoon to collect L from the bus. However I’m a bit late and she has already started swimming for it. I manage to rescue her before she gets too far out of her depth.

In the afternoon we record a decent 9^th place and then he leads the jumping for ages but our time is finally beaten. We finish 2^nd. Not a bad day all in all.

In the evening we head out for a few beers in the Blue Monkey and the Borlase.

(Saturday 5^th December)

Sort Of Fits The Job Description

Doggo isn’t great but we partake in a short walk of a couple of miles anyway, thinking he needs to do something. Keep him active, so as not to seize up. He seems ok. The trip home in the boot for three hours might do him more harm than the walk.

On the way home we attempt a bit of shopping in Bowness and fail, at the walking shop on the A590 and fail and then in the Low Sizergh Barn Farm Shop and succeed, at least on the cheese front.

Not that we could find any we’d had over the weekend, the Bengdale Blue that I so liked and the Lancashire Cheddar. If such a thing as Lancashire Cheddar really exists. Surely it's Lancashire or Cheddar but whatever. I buy some Cheddar from Preston, which sort of fits the job description.

(Sunday 13th January)

Duller Than Ditchwater

We get up at the unearthly hour of 6.30am and take the tent down in the dark, brushing a light covering of snow off it as we do so. We’ve often erected the tent in the dark but I cannot recall us ever taking it down in the dark.

We then have an hour or so’s drive back down the M6 to Catforth, which is a village close to the M55, not far from Preston. The race we have entered is called the Central Lancashire New Year Half Marathon and is one of many races organised by Fylde Coast Running. L did their Blackpool to Fleetwood race in October.

The weather is bleak to say the least but does appear to be improving by the minute. Although it is not improving anywhere near quickly enough to save the parking field. We are the third car to be ushered on to the paddy field that has been designated for parking but the first to refuse to budge off the gravel at the entry gate as we watch the first two cars going nowhere fast and wheel spinning themselves deeper into the mud. I reverse out of the field and a marshal quickly deduces that we wish to park elsewhere.

The race itself was right up my street, duller than ditchwater, I loved it. Fairly flat throughout on country lanes but with a long drag uphill from 3.5 to 5 miles and with no noticeable compensatory downhill to follow. To liven things up we had a strong head wind at times and a bit of hail, which is all part of the fun. The scenery was augmented with four trips across the M55, over bridges that is, we didn’t have to dash across between juggernauts. Counting is not my strong point though and I’m sure we did it five times but I may have been mistaken or delirious with exhaustion by then. At least I hope I was mistaken or else I ran extra.

Then there was a nice canal crossing over a humpback bridge to finish, which was the prettiest, or rather the only pretty bit.

I made a slow start, 7:58 for the first mile but then as I worked out that this would get me a 1:44:00 time overall I decided I was happy with that. Then I was unsure if my 7:19 second mile was good news or not. It all went very well considering I’d barely trained for it and I felt so strong that I ran a final 7:15 mile to finish, coming in at 1:43:00 exactly. Pleased with that.

As I crossed the line I was handed a medal (ugh, but a nice one), a kitkat (yum) and bottle of water. The organisation was good, two water stations both with bottled water (brownie points earned), it was well marshalled by some rather cold looking folk and they made good use of the village hall where there were plenty of refreshments on offer. An enjoyable event.

I didn't think the bleakness and the dullness would suit L but it seemed to, she said she enjoyed it too.

We get home to find that Daughter has already headed off back to Sheffield. It was disappointing to have missed her but good in that we thought we were the ones taking her back. So we’ve been saved a trip, which after already around four hours on the road today is no bad thing.

L describes the weekend as an interesting New Year’s break, as she tries to get some life out of her mobile phone which seems to have shipped some water over the weekend. I think perhaps she enjoyed it.

(Monday 2nd January)

Worth A Repeat

I bike in. It’s a bit chilly but at least I don’t have any punctures today. I have a new tyre and a new tube, so I would hope that’s cured it.

The number of complaints over Jeremy Clarkson’s comments reaches 21,000. Impressive but presumably it just means the rest of the UK's 62 million population either agreed with him or got the joke.

We decide to stay in tonight again, as I may be getting up at 5am to head up to Preston. I haven’t decided on a departure time yet but last night’s unscheduled night in was so very pleasant, it was worth a repeat.

For romantic entertainment we watch the gruesome thriller the ‘Bone Collector’ which is based on the Jeffrey Deaver’s book that we have both read, well listened to. I thought the book took a lot of getting into but at least a film will usually get straight to the point. Although I can see the film is terribly miscast before we even watch it. Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie are not remotely appropriate and they have to rewrite the roles for them. In fact they rewrite nearly everybody’s roles, so it’s not a great effort.

(Friday 2nd December)

Not The Best Of Planning

I wake up at 5am without a hangover. Phew. This isn’t the best of planning but we have the North West Interclub Agility Championships today, in Preston. A mere two and a bit hour drive. I feel a bit queasy on the way up but that’s not last night, it’s this audiobook of mine. ‘Flesh House’ is the most gruesome one yet.

I arrive just after 8am and pull into a near empty car park... oh dear. Wrong day? I check my info. Yep, correct day. Show opens 9am, competition starts 9.30... Bugger. Not the usual 8.30 start then. I could have had another hour in bed. That’ll teach me to read the info. Oh well, time for a walk then boys. I attempt to nudge the dogs awake.

Eventually everyone else turns up and the competition starts. Well not everyone shows up. Four of our ten person team fail to show, cutting the number of dogs in our team from 16 to 8 with the best 4 to score and with one of them being MD, the odds are not good.

Today, the two boys are going head to head in all four classes. Which should be interesting...

Round 1. Helter Skelter. Both dogs go clear. Which is celebration time for MD, no poles down, although he does waste time by barking at the tunnel before eventually deciding to go through it. Doggo 24.495 seconds, MD 24.621. Round 1 to Doggo, just.

Round 2. Jumping Course. Doggo has a pole down, practically unheard of. MD, despite another bark at the tunnel, clear for the second course in a row, totally unheard of. 1-1.

Round 3. First Agility Course. Doggo clear. MD... ah, had to happen, not just tunnel trouble but a fair few other troubles too. 2-1 to the old man.

Round 4. Second Agility Course. Doggo clear. MD 5 faults. So 3-1 to Doggo but MD has the last laugh and picks up two rosettes for his clear rounds. 6th and 10th. Although they competed on the same courses their results were split by their grades and MD is a much lower grade than Doggo, where rosettes are much easier to come by.

They've both done well, I expect it from Doggo but MD has jumped brilliantly, not a single pole down all day. However he's in for extra tunnel training next week.

Team wise, we are 9th out off 11. We're usually top three and have had three wins in the last four years. So, not good but we were dumped on by those who stayed away.

We head home where we will almost have the house to ourselves because Daughter is at a party, so we should be good for a nice relaxing pre-race night in. If only the pre-party wasn’t at our house... hmmm. Eventually by 10pm they’re gone.

(Saturday 2nd April)

A New Puppy

Doggo got a new football for Christmas and he’s like a puppy with a new toy. I’ve not seen him so animated about anything in years. Particularly not his agility competitions, sadly. Unfortunately our reborn puppy will be ten this year and he’s not really up to such shenanigans any more. Consequently he appears to suffer with a few aching limbs afterwards. I can sympathise. The same thing happens to me, when I think I can keep up with the youngsters in my 10k’s.

In the afternoon a rare victory for Derby at Preston is overshadowed by the antics of a duck. The duck in question being Deepdale Duck, Preston's mascot.



DD got in trouble for continually distracting Derby’s goalkeeper Stephen Bywater during the match. Bywater seem to complain to the referee who ignored his pleas at first, that is until the duck allegedly flicked two fingers at Bywater. The referee then requested that he be removed. Cue a couple of stewards trying to corner the duck, who was reluctant to be removed before finally he was marched down the tunnel and off the ground.

The duck has plenty of 'previous' but I won't go into that here.

We have a race tomorrow, finally, so we stay in but an intention to be AF doesn’t quite go to plan and quite a bit of wine is sunk. Which I shall regret if I’m down the field tomorrow.

(Saturday 1st January)