Redressing The Balance

I’m redressing the balance somewhat this week, three bike rides. Today was probably the best of the week, a bit windy but still very good.

I’ve been told I’m doing next year’s Derby 10k, as two colleagues at work are allegedly doing it and have already entered. Though that doesn’t often mean much, two of them entered last year’s Kilomathon but didn’t turn up on the day. One of the 10k-ers is 'Protégé'. That’s all my health needs, another race against him.

I offer to enter L, at the same time as entering myself, and she promptly asks to be put in the 55 minutes pen. Blimey. I didn’t expect to hear her say that. That’s why I offered to enter her, so that I could surreptitiously slip her into the 55 minutes pen. I was convinced she’d want to be further back. She’s really is getting almost competitive with her 10k time.

A little while later, after a short break to do a bit of work, I also enter us into the Reading Half. No turning back now and no Kilomathon, which is on the same day.

Later we head down to Nottingham’s historic ‘Trip to Jerusalem’, which purports to be England's oldest pub, dating back to 1189AD.



I haven’t been in there for some time and was curious to find out what beers they now stock. Hardys & Hansons owned the pub until they we taken over by Greene King from Bury St Edmunds, who then closed the Kimberley brewery and I think we’ve only ventured down once since. So it was somewhat of a pleasant surprise to find some Nottingham brewed ales on the bar, courtesy of the Nottingham Brewery in Radford, alongside the ex-Nottingham ones which are now trucked up from Suffolk, such as the former Hardys & Hansons beer Olde Trip.

Also on the bar was Greene King’s ex-Oxfordshire beer ‘Old Speckled Hen’ - now sold on draught in its ‘lite’ 4.5% version, as opposed to the traditional 5.2%. Oddly Greene King still describe this as ‘Strong Fine Ale’ on the pump clip whilst its own strong ale ‘Abbot’ at 5.0% gets no such annotation. Confusing or what.

We meet up with some friends and head up to Mem Saab for food. Somewhere else we haven’t been for a while. In our opinion, the Laguna has retaken the mantle as the best curry house in Nottingham, which had been in the possession of Mem Saab for a while. Can it retake the honours?

Well it was good, but not outstanding, so no the title for the moment stays with the Laguna.

(Friday 29th October)

A Decent Burial

Apparently there were flurries of snow in centre of town this morning but I’ve seen nothing. Even L reports it snowing during her morning walk with the dogs.

L’s been looking at cycling undies in Evans Cycles. Cycling undies? Really? There are such things then but apparently there’s not much of a range. Not quite La Senza then. Although I’m not sure L's idea of cycling undies is quite the same as mine.

Finally we get a flurry of snow here. Then suddenly the flurry turns into a white out, albeit a brief one. I check my phone, no texts about dog training being off tonight, yet. They are a fickle bunch; surely it’s just a matter of time.

I receive an email from the Derby Triathlon Club entitled 'Dear Athlete'. Flattery will get them everywhere. The Derby Double Duathlon, which is three lots of running and two lots of cycling, is on again. This year they’ve even avoided a clash with the Derby 10k. It’s the week after, not that that helps much as I already have several options for ‘entertainment’ that weekend. Another weekend where I’ll be pulling events out of a hat.

The Save the Victoria Leisure Centre Campaign rumbles on as the council attempts to close the centre a year early, before it has even obtained planning permission for its replacement. A petition of 3464 signatures and 233 letters of objection have been submitted. There was also a demonstration last weekend that attracted hundreds of people.

One interesting fact about the ‘public consultation’ has emerged. Initially, the consultation on the future of the historic old building produced a majority in favour of refurbishment. That was until the council went into local schools and made presentations to the children. Once their views were counted, the results were reversed and there was suddenly a majority in favour of knocking the place down and building a new one. No doubt swayed by the option of a child-friendly fun pool? Nice maybe but a loss maker for the council. Kids now swim for free and the money the council gets from central Government doesn’t cover their costs. Perhaps they should listen to what the paying customers want but then they’d be in danger of turning a profit.



Shame about the Americanised spelling.

Dog training actually survives the two millimetre deep drifts we have here and I head off over there with the boys. MD’s weaves are excellent. Unfortunately he won’t be required to weave on his debut on Saturday. His jumping is ok; he even keeps most of the poles up. His tunnels though are rubbish. I mean how hard can a tunnel be for a dog? There’s very little you can do with a tunnel rather than go through it but MD doesn’t seem to quite get it yet. Unfortunately, I’m sure they’ll be plenty of those on Saturday.

After training I go around to my father’s again, he’s still having computer problems. Well that might be an understatement. It’s totally died. I take it away with me, to give it a decent burial.