Childhood Memories

It’s still icy so I drive to work again but with it currently being just a fifteen minute trip it means longer to linger in bed before I leave.

After work I head off to the match where Derby beat Leeds 2-0. My parents and I have a right problem finding anywhere for a post-match drink. Our usual haunt the Navigation in Thulston is shut, so we carry on to Shardlow where the Dog and Duck is also shut. We end up in Aston-on-Trent’s White Hart. A place I haven’t been in for years in the village of my childhood where my folks still live. I was barred from here once for being underage when I wasn’t... 

(Tuesday 30^th December)

Basking In The Glory

In light of yesterday's victory for MD at the dog show I decide to not enter him in any more shows for a while, so then we can bask in the glory for a lot longer.

L’s unread book count has now topped 170 plus the 40+ on her kindle. They are all now on shelves awaiting reading. If she halves that total my next December perhaps she’ll be allowed to put a book on next year’s Christmas list.

Later I pick her up from John Carroll Leisure Centre even though she’s at the Tennis Centre. Damn wrong way. I knew I’d do that.

Then we meet my brother and his family for a late lunch at his house and then at the White Hart in Duffield where he now lives.

We drop in at L’s parents on the way home, collecting more presents, this time sent up by L’s sister. I get even more bottles of beer, so I’m very well stocked now. It’ll be a trawl to get through it but I’m sure I’ll cope.

(Sunday 29^th December)

Deer Psychology

We have the plumber in this morning, fitting new bath taps and new trim. He's also on hand to offer his views to L on deer psychology... the ones on Wollaton Park are all psychos, but we already knew that. MD knows that and has been trying to out-psycho them for the last few years.

All of which has made one difficult decision easy, we're having venison for Christmas lunch this year. We know the one we want, his card is marked. MD and I will sort it, in the dead of night.

I’m not sure tennis is going to happen but my opponent is convinced that the rain will cease at 6pm. I'm not so sure...

BBC forecast says

"The more persistent rain will clear north by this afternoon, a few brighter intervals possible but with further heavy, slow-moving, thundery downpours likely.

Further rain across the region this evening and overnight, perhaps heavy and thundery at times."

There are no squash courts free, so we don't have that as a backup option. If it is on, I can see I’m going to be busy with the court squeegee.

They look at us oddly, again, when we book in but we do actually get a full match in with only a brief shower. We even get a few extra games in as we wait for L to finish her ‘pump’.

Then it’s a pint in a rather crowded White Hart where the pool match seems to have pulled a bigger crowd than Cristiano Ronaldo's one man show against the Czech Republic.

(Thursday 21st June)

A Very Small Tea Cup

I leave the house this morning noticing that the spare key is still in the front door and L’s keys are on the worktop. L meanwhile is out with dogs. I leave the front door unlocked correctly calculating that someone has forgotten their keys.

The traffic is horrendous again as I drive to work.

The dog club call an emergency meeting about what to me is a very small storm in a very small tea cup but some people like to decant these things into a bigger cup and stir furiously in the hope of getting a good crisis going. I refuse to attend. I have an appointment with a couple of spreadsheets and a curry tonight.

The spreadsheet appointment is with my mate to get a few ticks in his ‘squash games’ column. I suggest we ought to do what those guys in Thame did... 200 games. I bet their spreadsheet is looking healthy.

We manage four and I don’t win any of them.

After one in the Globe with him, I meet L, who has walked up with the dogs, at the now refurbished White Hart. The Thursday curry has gone down from £5.00 to £4.49 and they’ve added a free pint and poppadoms but taken away the naan bread. The free pint is Greene King IPA but they agree to pour me something more decent for an extra 50p, taking it back up to a fiver plus a £1 extra for the naan.

It wasn’t as good as it was before but it was ok and much better than the Wetherspoons one we had at Christmas.

Tonight’s ‘emergency’ meeting was cancelled. Must have ran out of cups.

(Thursday 19th January)

Playing Myself

Doggo is finally deemed fit enough to get a proper walk this morning, which must have been hell for L, what with three days worth of sniffs and wees to catch up on.

We lied about the collar. Doggo gets another day in it, much to MD’s disgust.

I’m on the bike and it's a bit blustery to say the least but it’s what I need, a bit of hard training as I’ve got that half marathon coming up and I can’t run far.

The weather is foul all afternoon, luckily just after we got back from our pub lunch, but fines up by the time I bike home.

L runs to Portland Leisure Centre where I’m playing squash and goes in the gym. I find out that my opponent has had to cancel at the last minute but only after I’ve paid of the court. So I play myself for half an hour before getting bored and heading off to meet L. Well at least I didn’t lose.

Tesco Watch. We decide to skip the pub and head home to open a bottle of wine instead but with the White Hart still shut we couldn’t have gone there for a curry anyway. I hope it doesn't stay shut too long. We know what happens to pubs that stay shut for longer than a couple of weeks. They become a Tesco and there isn't one for at least a quarter of a mile round there, so it's a distinct possibility.

(Thursday 6th October)

Just Part Of The Game

Another puncture. Clearly, something is askew in the heavens. Though it was my own fault really, I put a wheel down a hole I knew was there avoiding one I didn't know was there. Sigh.

None of which bodes bode well for this winter when they haven't got around to fixing last year’s pot holes yet and we're just about to head into this year’s pothole season.

L frogmarches the boys down to squash. To meet me, not to play. It's a good four miles, so it's brave of her considering she almost topped herself walking them down the shorter distance to meet us at the White Hart last week. I’m not sure walking them all that way would be good for her alcohol intake afterwards.

It’s a hard fought squash match tonight. He fires the ball into my back at pace, so he gets my racquet smashed down on his fingers, he retaliates with a blow into the ribs with his elbow, so I fire the ball into his eye socket. None of this is deliberate of course, just part of the game and it happens over the course of four games, not all in succession. So bruised but not blooded we complete another friendly squash game.

Unfortunately his blow to my ribs is exactly where I fractured/bruised them when I came off my bike. They were 95% recovered but now I'm set back to about 60%. I struggled through the rest of the game, you do don't you, as long as I don't start breathing heavy they're fine. Cue long breaks between points. I even win the last game.

Then we head off to the White Hart for the £5 curry, only to find it’s closed until further notice. Oh no. I hope it's not another pub biting the dust. We head home and have to cook our own curry.

(Thursday 29th September)

Utmost Confidence

Its ‘A Level’ results day and hopefully our most uneventful exam results day ever because I have utmost confidence in Daughter getting the grades she needs. In fact before I’m even on the 7:10 bus she’s rang me to tell me she’s checked UCAS and she’s definitely got her place at Sheffield Hallam. Although I think I heard the screams of delight from the bus stop. Seems she was one of the few who got on the UCAS site before it went down and the actual results will be a bit of an anticlimax now that we know she’s in.

I run the last four miles into work which is hard work at first, after that speed session with L last night, but I got into it and ran every step.

Daughter’s acceptance letter arrives in the post. So they obviously knew a day or two ago, seems the student is the last to know. Meanwhile the media are spreading the usual scare stories about thousands not being able to secure a place at University. Utter garbage. The university places were effectively doled out months ago when people got their offers.

Having done the whole university application thing twice now in two years I speak from experience when I say that there’s one simple rule to ensure a place at University and that is make sure your child applies for places on University courses that they are capable of getting the grades for. If you don’t, you either won’t get any offers or you won’t get the grades for the offers you get. The system even allows you to hold an 'insurance offer' at lower grades in case you don’t get your first choice. So there really is no excuse. Follow that simple rule and then there’s no panic, no tears and most importantly no clearing.

After a bit of carbo loading and replacement of lost fluids over lunch, in the pub, I’m all set to go for bloody tennis. For which, my opponent seems to have seriously upped his game. He must have been practising, which he denies. I reckon he’s borrowed a wii or something. His improved game actually makes me play better and it’s definitely my best match of the year. I even enjoy it. The result is still the same though.

No, I didn’t manage to wangle a free game out of the nice young lady that L gave me the phone number of. Actually there was nothing nice about her at all, she’d got an inner Rottweiler, and wouldn’t let me use my free pass for the tennis centre on a tennis court.

Later we’re in the White Hart, the former home of the best pint of the much missed Kimberley Classic and now possibly the former home of a decent pint of Abbot too. This week we again have the two beers from Full Mash and no Abbot, which is good in a way because they’re local but unfortunately the bar staff let them down.

It seems to be the very same two barrels and one of the beers is clearly off but remains on sale. Whilst the other is dragging its heels along the bottom of the barrel because the barmaid can’t get a full pint into the glass because the line is full of air. She shrugs as if serving the pint an inch from the top of the glass isn’t a problem. It’s not even froth, it’s just empty. I point out to her that the barrel must be empty but that part of staff training clearly hasn’t been done yet.

On the plus side they do curries for a fiver here with rice and naan included. We try one, in fact we try two, one each, and both are excellent. So we’ll be back for the food if not for the beer.

When we get home about 10:15, the A-Level passees are still pre-drinking in Daughter’s bedroom. They’ll never get cheap curries that way.

(Thursday 18th August)

Wind Assisted Tennis

MD had it on him this morning and kept throwing his ball under my bike as I was trying to get it out the shed. I’m glad I’m not walking him this morning, although I will be tomorrow.

L suggests that if my calf is too sore I could always cancel tennis and rest it in the pub with her. Tempting. Actually it’s not too bad this morning. I’m happy to rest it in the pub after tennis.

That is if it is tennis. It depends on the weather. Tennis is Plan A but if it rains it’ll be squash, we’ve got a court booked just in case.

By lunchtime, with the weather looking good, we’ve cancelled the squash court and are looking forward to wind assisted Tennis. It doesn’t look like rain but it could be interesting serving with the wind, will never keep the ball in court. At least we’ll have something to blame our bad shots on.

I don’t enjoy the first set - 2-6. I’m not enjoying the second set either at 2-4 but enjoy it more when it becomes 6-5. I warn my opponent that after an hour and a half on court I’m not playing a decider if I win this one. It’ll be dark soon. I don’t, perhaps a lack of motivation is the problem here. I lose on a tie break.

L’s in the gym, probably getting a refresher course as it’s so long since she’s been. Although not as long as since I last went. We all adjourn to the White Hart.

(Thursday 23rd June)