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)

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)

The Wheels Are Clearly Off

A slightly different Parkrun to chuck balls at today as L does Beeston for a change. I don’t participate as I am saving my legs for tomorrow's half marathon. L, evidently being so much fitter than me, has no such worries.

Derby lose 3-0 at home to Birmingham City. The wheels are clearly off.

My brother has invited us out for a meal for this birthday at the Engine Shed, which is the restaurant at the Roundhouse College in Derby where the students cook the meals. Tonight I think they are all former graduates doing the food, so it’s not cheese on toast all round.

It’s a decent AF option before the big race tomorrow but I do have a bottled Derby Brewery Beer and L’s on the go-faster prosecco. The meal is decent enough and outside it starts snowing...

(Saturday 16^th January) 

Relatively Fit

It’s even windier today than it was yesterday, yet it’s still not a patch on Holme Pierrepoint on Sunday. So it doesn’t stop me cycling.

We look at non driving options for Bruges next year. It seems ferries no longer run to Ostend and stopped doing so many years ago. This means the only option really is the tunnel and Eurostar via Brussels where you have to change trains.

We could be right travellers, a night in London, a night in Brussels, a night in Bruges... just like students backpacking around Europe. Of course, as we are making plans, Brussels goes into 'lockdown'.

My squash opponent announces himself ‘relatively’ fit for tonight’s game but not relatively enough to stop me taking a game off him. He stuns us all later in the pub when he enquires about doing Pilates on Saturday, after rejecting the idea for years. Obviously not as relatively fit as he thought. 

(Thursday 19^th November)

The Daughter Project

The latest Daughter project takes us to Manchester for a spot of flat hunting. After looking at some lodgings sharing a couple’s home we hit the student area of Rusholme. Student dives all around and we visit a couple, which come complete with dishevelled students already in situ . Then we visit a post-grad only house which was much clearer, tidier and nicer, far too nice for students.

We sign the tenancy agreement and promise to send a cheque in the post. Then we retire to the Sandbar for a pint and to show off their bus seats. Daughter isn’t impressed.

We also wander around doing a bit of job hunting, which yields a few possibilities.

(Sunday 17^th August)

Meals By Torchlight

I’d liked to have got a cycle in today but the forecast wasn’t pleasant and for once it turns out to be correct. It would have been quite exciting on the bike I guess, in a wet and windy sort of way.

L is at home with the boys today and fills her morning by upsetting Daughter by sending her fifteen emails all containing links to jobs. Daughter prefers to do her own job hunting.

Although it just goes to show that there are plenty of jobs out there now that other students are finishing their courses and heading off to other pastures. So snap them up if you’re in Sheffield and looking for part time work because I’m sure they won’t be available for long. In fact they’ve probably gone already.

Daughter is actually coming home today and we’re all meeting L’s folks in Derby for a meal. I book her on the 12:05 train but at 2:30 she’s about to get in the shower... students.

So it ends up with L meeting her straight off the train and hot footing it over to Derby with her luggage, which they have to do on the slow bus because we’re poor and we’re not paying the Red Arrow's inflated prices just because they won’t honour the all day tickets at rush hour. Actually they originally get the wrong slow bus, but in the right direction, and do a seamless change at Beeston Bus Station.

Meanwhile there’s me twiddling my thumbs waiting for them in Derby. I opt to kill a bit of time by staying later at work and then amble round town a bit rather than go straight to the pub. I end up there eventually and have a pint of Liverpool Stout in the Silk Mill, which has a touch of River Mersey about it.

Just before they arrive, I move up to the Royal Standard where their Stout is much more my style, liquid tarmac.

We then get another bus over to the Mallard Beefeater, which wouldn’t have been our choice for a meal out but the menu doesn’t actually look too bad. That is when we were able to see it. By the time we ask to order a second drink, it is done by torchlight and when I visit the Gents, it is by kind courtesy of the chap at the urinal next to me and the glow from his mobile phone. Cosy.

You see the power failed on them and after several frantic calls to whomever, they eventually admitted defeat. It’s Friday night of course, so the whole department of whomever would have been down the pub in ‘not our problem Guv’ mode anyway.

So we leave after getting all our drinks complimentary and L’s brother chauffeurs us all up to another pub, the Argosy. Which is a real step down in class from somewhere that wasn't even half way up the staircase in the first place.

The menu is a struggle, as there was really nothing on it that I thought was safe to risk, except perhaps the lasagne so I had that. You can't go far wrong with lasagne. Can you?

It arrived looking like they’d had a real battle to get it out of the plastic microwavable tray and the lasagne had lost, badly. It’s not often you go in a ‘restaurant’ and feel sorry for the food.

Anyhow, it was a pleasant enough evening of socialisation, if you forget about the food, and we did also get a lift back to the bus station, which made the journey home one bus easier. 

(Friday 24^th May)

I Survived Les Misérables

Derby County are their usual up and down selves. Appalling last week, when they lose 3-0 to Blackburn, then pretty good this week, when they win 3-0 over Huddersfield. Although it has to be said, the opposition were very poor.

Then later, we take the plunge, off the high board... Les Mis, and as we’re going to our local cinema, the Savoy, it’s going to have to be done without alcohol. Gulp. To be fair, tonight would have probably been AF anyway, what with a race tomorrow but being asked to see Les Mis AF is a particularly cruel challenge, which will make running tomorrow’s race with a two dodgy legs seem a picnic.

I also go into this blind, although not blindfolded (there’s a thought). I have no idea about the story, as I haven’t seen either the musical, any of the previous film versions or read Victor Hugo's book. Naturally I knew there was going to be a lot of singing in it or rather, as is often the case, elongated talking. Something I’ve experienced before, the awful Sweeney Todd springs to mind, but that is often better than sitting through a singing frenzy, like say Evita. OMG I’ve done so many musicals, I sound like an expert.

Set in post first Revolution France, the film tells the story of prisoner 24601 Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) who stole a piece of bread and got sent to do hard labour for 19 years. Well, it turned into 19 years after several escape attempts. He is then released on parole which he breaks. He then steals from the only man who wants to help him, a priest. He gets caught but the priest forgives him, tells him to keep his ill gotten gains, as long as he makes something of his life. We fast-forward in time and I reach for Wikipedia, I’m confused already because Hugh Jackman doesn’t look like Hugh Jackman.

That ‘making something of his life’ translates to taking in Anne Hathaway, which is way beyond the call of duty even for an ex-convict. Give that man a royal pardon please but no, he is set to be constantly hounded for the rest of his life by a rather jobsworth of a police inspector called Javert (Russell Crowe).

Hathaway’s character Fantine gets sacked from her job for reasons I didn't fully understand, then sells not only the desirable bits of her body but also her hair and teeth to feed her child. The really odd thing is that someone wanted to buy these. Becoming a prostitute for money I can understand, that's a service that sells, but hair and teeth? Hmmm. Is this just an excuse to get a teeth pulling scene in, which is a good analogy... Meanwhile I’m still trying to work out why the supposedly reformed Valjean was hanging around the red light district in the first place.

Thankfully within minutes of being on screen Hathaway has died, again not quite sure of what, without us even finding out anything of note about her. With her dying on his watch, Valjean’s task to make something of his life is already looking a bit ropey. This is why I guess he decided to take care of Fantine’s daughter Cosette.

Then we’re into the lesser known second French Revolution. Which I’m sure there must have been more to than some students piling a load of furniture up in a side street whilst they were between lecturers. Amongst them, and clearly lost in France, is a little street urchin kid with a worryingly broad Cockney accent.

Mid-Revolution the rather feeble Marius (Eddie Redmayne) sees Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) and instantly falls in love. They don’t actually speak, words are not necessary. Unbelievably Marius hasn’t noticed the far more gorgeous female beside him, her friend and his, Éponine (Samantha Barks). Who would opt for the incredibly plain Cosette over her, not me. It can’t be because of her personality because; well they still haven’t spoken to each other. No wonder Éponine is so upset. Forget him love, he’s into precious, boring, rich girls who wouldn’t be seen dead on the frontline, you’re too good for him girl.

Valjean is initially worried Marius is going to take his adopted Daughter away from him, for about twenty seconds that is, then clearly he realises how expensive Daughters are and changes his mind. Suddenly he is so intent on getting her married off that he carries the now wounded Marius through the sewers to safety.

Only to come up against the mad singing policeman again. Finally, having been shown mercy himself several times, Javert has a moment of enlightenment and lets them go. Then promptly throws himself off a bridge, still singing. You couldn’t make it up. Well clearly someone did, didn’t they Mr Hugo but I guess if you’d précised your own book, which clocks in at 57 hour 51 minutes on audiobook (I checked), you’d have perhaps done it a bit differently.

Moments later, Valjean dies too, not that we even knew he was ill and that’s the problem really. We don’t know much at all. Les Mis isn’t into character development and therefore we know jack all about everyone.

It’s a shame because I got the impression there was a really good story in there somewhere fighting to get out but there was so much plot missing that it simply didn’t make any sense. Clearly they expected people to know the story and/or had seen the musical. It's has, however, made me want to see one of the film versions (with no singing obviously) to find out more.

Still, it wasn’t as bad as I expected and although lightweight, it was broadly entertaining. Cast wise, my expectations of Russell Crowe were that low, I actually thought he did alright. Hugh Jackman was ok too, while Anne Hathaway was, as you’d expect, distinctly average. Helena Bonham-Carter was as brilliantly maniacal as ever and along with Sacha Baron Cohen brightened up the whole affair with their comical supporting roles. Ah Corgette, how we laughed. 

Both have musical previous of course, in the aforementioned Sweeney Todd and are much better in this. Meanwhile Eddie Redmayne looked simply lost, Amanda Seyfried was, shall we say, very hard on the ears and Samantha Barks, well, I’ll have nothing said against her.Cue gratuitous photo.

Singing wise, the men sang low which worked, the women sang high, which generally didn't. The street urchin child showed them all how to do it, albeit in Cockney. There were also a few actors who had done the stage show, good on you Sammy, and you could tell.

Clearly Les Misérables is a film you’ll either love or hate. If you aren't a fan of musicals, skip it. It’s a total mystery to me as to why the score has been such a hit. If you are a fan of a decent plot, err, I would definitely skip it too.

Overall I feel rather proud that I got through it and if they were selling ‘I survived Les Misérables’ t-shirts outside, I would have bought one.

 (Saturday 2^nd February)