A Full House

Today should in theory be Boxing Day but isn’t. If you’re looking for it, you missed it, it was yesterday.

This morning the annual Aston Walk. L and I do it. We skip the bingo number checking, they have numbers tacked to trees and if you get a full house you win a set of clothes pegs or whatever else was on offer at Poundland but it's all for charity so I'm not complaining really.

We just walk it or try to. The congestion is of Pride Park standards and is at first very frustrating but things improve eventually.

We still get to check the numbers later and I actually win something. It’s also not a set of clothes pegs. I win chocolate matchmakers, which I had no idea they still made. Although they are now called Quality Street Matchmakers... which I can't see the relevance of at all!



Then a pub lunch at Packhouse in Kings Newton. The beer is good and the food ok but they took a week to cook it.

Forgot to mention this yesterday. Hardys And Hansons' legendary Rocking Rudolph ale is back, again brewed 'down south' by Greene King and is now down to a watery 4.2%. This once great winter ale was once 5% and 'rocked', it was even briefly 5.5% but last year Greene King sold it at 4.5% and now 4.2%, hardly 'rocking'. Next year... who knows.

It's no wonder it now tastes so naff. I'm not really sure why they still bother with it, not now they have their own Abbot Reserve as a winter ale.

(Monday 27th December)

Student Life

One way to get MD geared up for a fast walk is to put his breakfast in his bowl before he goes out on his morning walk. To make him ever faster slip a few of last night’s potatoes on the top. Yep that works, now he’s barking at L to get going, so that he can be back asap. I have tried to do all this surreptitiously but even if he’s out in the garden with the door closed, he still hears the rattle of food into his bowl no matter how quiet I try to be. Then he tries to batter the door down.

I wonder if I could get away with putting his food bowl at the end of the agility course. That would make him fast, though I imagine all the poles would be down.

I drive to my parents' house, leave the car there and then run the 5.5 miles to work. Its hard work and those bloody road works at Raynesway extended my route again. Whether you’re in the car, on foot or on a bike, I'm afraid there’s no chance of anything improving around there any time soon. Nothing is happening because there are no workmen or equipment there any more because the contractor behind the road development has gone into administration. Great.

At least John Grisham kept me entertained. Julia (Roberts) is really getting going on the case now.

L tries to give Son a dress rehearsal as regards managing to survive on his student loan on a weekly basis. She gives him a week's money and off he goes to Poundland... Do they sell food? Don’t they just sell bags of out of date boiled sweets, made by Taiwanese women on £1 a month?

Later he drops off his week's worth of shopping. 6 pot noodles. Oh and a plates and dishes set that he got for a fiver. Which is actually very resourceful of him. I’m impressed. He says he’ll sort the rest of his supplies later and then heads off to meet some friends in the pub. Student life? Seems he's got the hang of it.

The run back the other way to my parents' is much better. I always struggle with morning runs. Unfortunately 99% of races are in the morning.

At the match tonight Derby are even more impressive than they were on Saturday. It's been quite a transformation. They win 3-1 against Middlesbrough, who were a much better team than Crystal Palace on Saturday but we even give them the lead, miss a penalty and still win with room to spare.

(Tuesday 28th September)