Don't Talk To Me About Railways

June starts wet and on Sunday I dodge the showers on the park while L dodges them on the back lawn with the mower. It has set in totally by the time we play tennis at 1pm but we go ahead anyway. It is fairly treacherous. Afterwards we head over to visit L’s Dad in hospital and then stop for Sunday lunch on the way back at the Nurseryman.

Monday brings the latest bout of A52 roadworks. The access road to Pride Park from Nottingham is closed for 13 weeks and the Derby bound exit is shut for a mammoth 13 months. With Ascot Drive closed as well, I opt for the bike. It’s a good decision although even cycling to work wasn’t pleasant as Chaddesden was basically a car park.

On Tuesday I risk the bus which isn’t too bad as closing the Pride Park exit actually makes it easier getting through to Pentagon Island.

The main reason I’m on the bus is I have a night out planned with my friends from school. I meet one of them in the Alexandra, where we shelter from yet more rain, before meeting the other at the Cosy Club. Which is a novel variation for us but sadly almost everything foodwise is off, so they must have been expecting me. We got something half decent in the end.

Wednesday, I’m back on the bike which is windy but dry. L and Daughter run in the evening while I go dog training for the second time this week after already having done so on Monday.

On Thursday I finally risk the car and survive to tell the tale. The journey does take longer but it’s not excessive. Getting to Sainsbury’s at lunch time however is another matter entirely but, on the upside, when I do get there there’s hardly anyone one there and there’s loads of reduced stuff. I guess these roads works aren’t doing much for their trade.

My tennis is off because my opponent has gone for a wet and windy weekend in Wales, which sounds romantic. Although I can't imagine him doing romantic. L’s tennis is on as usual.

After work on Friday, I meet L at Quad as she gets me to a Derby Book Festival event and at my recommendation she joins me in going to a talk by Simon Jenkins. Jenkins is a Guardian columnist who has in the past been editor of both the Evening Standard and The Times. 

He writes an awful lot of sense about current affairs and politics in general but in particularly about Brexit. As he released a book called 'A Short History of Europe' in October last year I was obviously expecting a talk along those lines but no. Jenkins is introduced as apparently being sick of talking about Europe and he is going to do a talk on another of his books 'Britain's Hundred Best Railway Stations' which he released in 2017 instead. Oh. Somewhat disappointed is an understatement.

Jenkins is a bit of a railways fan, who has served on the boards of both British Rail and London Transport, and it is interesting but seriously?

(Friday 7^th June)

Meeting Myself Coming Back

Very occasionally we both wake up before the alarm, meaning there's time for a romantic kick start to the day before walking the dogs whilst still making it to the pool for a few lengths. Well, not the pool bit for me obviously but everything else went swimmingly .

Getting in the car spoils it. The traffic is pretty bad which makes me late but bizarrely there are still several free car parking places, so everyone else must be stuck somewhere as well.

This morning, I received the following email...

“Congratulations on finishing the Saucony Cambridge Half Marathon 2017. Despite the weather, we hope you had a good race and day? Please fill in our race survey below.”

Then this afternoon, I received the following email...

“We are really sorry if you just received the Cambridge Half Marathon Survey email and you didn't actually take part. This was a mistake and should have only gone to participants.”

My mother has always said that one day I will meet myself coming back and I thought for a minute there I’d managed it and achieved the elusive being in two places at once trick. Oh well, I shall keep trying. It is an ambition of mine.

Tonight there is a meeting about the new Derby County website and I’m on the testing team, so I go straight there from work. It’s just a brief session but I’m not that impressed. The proposed new website is very flash of course but when their ‘fixture list’ option can only fit one fixture on the screen at once you know it’s all style over substance. Unfortunately this is what they think people want these days and obviously some people do but not me.

It’s dogging later and afterwards at the Mason where it’s still same beers despite the fact I’ve missed a week off.

(Tuesday 21^st March)

A Forest Of Sore Thumbs

I’m late for work again. It was not entirely my fault as someone had blocked the A52 but it didn’t help that I was two buses later than I should have been. Oddly we both tend to end up running late when we don’t get romantic in the mornings than when we do, as we both just fall back asleep. L has a term for that, old age.

I have another session with the bunnies tonight in the gym. Bunnies they certainly are and that’s just the blokes. The place is packed with New Year’s Resolutionists and they stand out like a forest of sore thumbs as it’s clear they don’t know what they should be doing. So mostly they’re just sitting there talking getting in everyone else’s way.

Still I manage 15k on the Watt Bike and then I’m met off the bus by L with the boys who escort me home for a Friday night. 

(Friday 6^th January)

Eying Up The Competition

This morning the wind is romantically howling away outside the bedroom window. Shame we have to get up but Doggo would have a wobbly if we didn’t.

With the wind and rain both predicted to increase in ferocity throughout the day I get the bus and leave the bike at home.

After work I go for a brief pedal on the Watt Bikes. It is mayhem as the gym gets ever popular and particularly the bikes. I manage to get the last of the six before a queue starts to form. I get into my session and eye up the competition. There are two speedy girls, one speedy chap and two guys just heading off down the shops for a pint of milk.

One of the girls is shipping more sweat that even me. At one point she briefly takes her hands off the drops to pull her shirt over her head and chuck it on the floor. I don’t want to appear sexist but I think a bloke would have been thrown out for doing that.

When I’ve done my session, I get the bus home. L and the boys meet me off it.

(Tuesday 26^th January)

Romantic Listening

It’s a grotty morning unless you’re still in bed then its romantic listening to the rain pounding on the roof but all good things come to an end. Otherwise known as having to get up for work or as L puts it, to fund our mad lifestyle. L has her new empire to go to and I have my battered old one.

Did she say mad? I’m not sure what’s mad about it? All seems quite normal to me.

Things still seems quite normal when later I’m sheltering under the eaves of a small shed in the middle of a muddy field waiting for the rain to stop so that we can start dog training.

It could be an interesting session, wet underfoot and bloody windy. Yet MD is brilliant. So brilliant in fact that I consider leaving after only ten minutes and not because of the weather. Now is the time to go in case things take a turn for the worse because they can’t get any better tonight. Bless him.

(Monday 18^th May)

Almost Romantic

L’s feeling her finest. Now there's an admission and she’s got a bad knee to add to her woes. This means we have almost the same ailments now, which is almost romantic.

She heads home to bed (allegedly) while I head off to the final dogging session of the year. After which schools out for the festive period.

L is painting when I get back (not in bed) and I am strongly advised not to touch anything. I assume one of the things I'm not to touch is the freshly painted door with is about to get a dog stuck to it. 

(Wednesday 17^th December)