A Popular Service

I take the car to the garage on Monday but they send me away again, they can’t look at it until Wednesday. So it’s fingers crossed that it gets me to my committee meeting, which it does. Before I head out to the meeting Daughter arrives having run from hers to ours. Wow. Quite the athlete.

Dog TV is no longer broadcasting. I wondered if the Lad had perhaps turned it off so that he could chew on the shower gel in peace. I wouldn't put it past him but I get home to find that the camera has simply stopped working. It was quite old, even if it’s rarely been used.

Tuesday brings the threat of ‘heavy snow’ according to the local paper. Damn. I’ve not got my shovel with me. L says it’s raining in Nottingham. Yes, raining here in Derby too but... hang on... what’s this. As I walk to meet my friend for a few beers it starts snowing, very very lightly. Then it stops. That’s probably that for another year.

With L being largely AF, I am out on the lash for the first time this year. Unfortunately my friend also isn’t a big drinker so it’s just a couple of pints and then off for food. At least I talk him into an Indian rather Wetherspoons. I barter with the chap outside the Shalimar to get the two-for-one offer that should end at 7pm, it’s 7.15pm. He has little choice than to agree if he wants our trade.

On Wednesday, the garage equips the car with a new set of spark plugs and a timing coil. So it’s good to go again, which is good news for the Lad’s training. He does the seesaw tonight which must look pretty daunting if you’re a young dog seeing it for the first time. L’s always said she thinks it looks dangerous, which is all the more reason for him to quickly get the hang of it and not to fall off it.

Meanwhile L is off to see if she can keep up at her new running club. If not she reckons she’ll be joining Notts Womens’ purple army instead. I’m sure she’ll be fine.

On Thursday I do my weekly long run and make it all the way home, a distance of 24km (15 miles). Then after a quick recovery shower, I pick L up from tennis as usual.

On Friday I’m in the gym after work when I get told that I’ve had a delivery of Maltesers from L’s Mum with instructions to dispose of them. It is a popular service that I offer.

Derby are on TV again away at Preston but I don’t pay for that. A mere league game without the threat of penalties isn’t going to be very exciting. In any case, L is playing tennis outdoors despite the fact it’s freezing, so I will have some serious warming up to do when she gets home. That’s another service that I offer, I think it's popular. 

(Friday 1^st February)

An Unexpected Success

After another night of hearing weird alien-like noises, we get up and head off to our Crufts qualifier in Newark. I track the noises towards the Uni. Students?

At the dog show we mess up the seesaw on run one but that was better than runs two and three which were pretty much a total disaster. The problem is run three was the all important team run in the Crufts qualifier. Not only did MD have faults, he self-started before the baton change had been done and got the team 20 changeover faults too. With only one of our three dogs clear and 55 faults, which is practically a cricket score, that’s surely that for the day.

I think it may have been too hot for him or it was because now after a few showers it’s blowing a gale.

Having said we’re having a bad day, everyone else is having a worse one. Our team, despite it’s cricket score, is currently in second place albeit with a long way to go though. Even the leaders picked up 20 changeover faults. It was a pretty tough course.

Bizarrely, after all 43 teams have run, only two managed to not get at least one dog eliminated (which scores 100 faults) and we were one of them, so we came second. What is even funnier is that it turns out that the first placed team had already qualified for Crufts at a previous heat. Which means the qualifying place goes to the second placed team... which was us. So… OMG. We have qualified for Crufts. 

Time to celebrate...

After having offered to show my tennis opponent how the pubs of Canning Circus have changed since the 1990s we are not surprised when it doesn’t happen. We go anyway and spend the evening in first the Hand and Heart, then the Blue Monkey.

 

(Saturday 27^th May)