Where We Went Wrong

At a bit of a loose end today and I’m not into loose ends. L’s got Pilates and all manner of gym sessions planned, whereas I could perhaps stay home and cut the hedge. Alternatively they are sort of entries up at Bakewell at the dog show I’ve booked for tomorrow and they’re offering some pay on the day classes, so I decide to go for today as well. I take my bike with me, just in case there’s not enough dog stuff to keen me occupied.

Turns out that there are just two classes that I can pay for on the day, one for each dog. I ask the organisers if they would let me run MD ‘not for competition’ in some of the others. They are a bit awkward and say no. Some shows will, some shows won’t.

MD runs his one class very well, very smooth, quite fast, but has a couple of poles down. So just the one with Doggo to do then, then I can perhaps get my bike out. I expect the two classes to run one after the other so I should be finished by lunch and then I can go for a spin around the Peak District. Nope. Doesn’t work out that way. They make me wait until the afternoon, not even using the now vacant ring as a practice ring, which would have been useful.

Finally when Doggo gets to run, it’s a great round and amazingly we go into the lead, though we are eventually displaced down to second. That’s still not bad, in fact it’s very good. That’s out of all the large dogs. Unfortunately they intend to run the two smaller size categories over the same course and combine the results. Yep, we get beaten my couple of mini pooches and end up 4th. Still... better than me last night. L reckons it was probably the Chinese Doggo had last night, perhaps that’s where we went wrong. Chinese for us next weekend then.

Once Doggo has run it’s too late to get a meaningful bike ride in, so I head home to L, where both Son and Daughter are both out. Oooh the decadence of having the place to ourselves. Later we head out as well, leaving the dogs to rest up for tomorrow but not before I get a phone call haggling about the running sequence for tomorrow’s team event. My own fault really, I suggested a logical change of order. This was a bit illogical of me.

(Saturday 10th July)

Fond Memories

Daughter’s party seems to have gone quite well; at least I’m not crunching through the kitchen on broken glass. In fact downstairs seems to be just as I left it.

It’s kind of odd for L to be out of the house early this morning and to leave me lounging in bed. Well it wasn’t actually that early, not compared with my sort of dog show/bike sportive/duathlon type early.

She heads off to Pilates and then gym. She offers me the chance to join her but somehow I don’t think Pilates is quite me. However I could go for a swim I suppose, if the pool is open that is. A swim looked infinitely more inviting yesterday compared with the mini gym session I ended up doing. Of course this had nothing whatsoever to do with the new blonde lifeguard they have. Almost worth drowning for, slowly. Probably the first slim female attendant I’ve seen there. Why is that? Why is that most leisure centre staff, and particularly the female ones, look like they’ve never set foot in a leisure centre?

Instead I take our old tent in for repair, damaged after a dog managed to dig an escape route from it on our last trip. I also test out the new one by putting it up in the garden. We’ve gone for the same tried and trusted design, yet they’ve tampered with it again and attached both inner and outer sheets together. This is pointless and annoying. Can’t see me getting on with this model.

I decide it’s too hot to walk the dogs. I try a bit of training with MD but it’s too hot for that as well and we soon both drop from heat exhaustion.

Later we head off to Newark on the train for a friend’s 10th Wedding Anniversary. I thought I ought to put in an appearance. A 10th anniversary is 'Tin' I believe, but I'm not into cans so I take a couple of bottles instead. It’s not a bad do actually and they have photos of the wedding with L and I on. It was L’s long hair era, nagged for by me, which I have fond memories for. I too have an impressive amount of hair, I have fond memories of that as well.

We're back in Nottingham early due to the last train annoyingly being at 9.10. Time for a quickie in the Ropewalk, beer that is.