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)

No Fit State

Well I’ve done all the training for Friday and Saturday’s dog shows, so today I thought it best to do some training for Sunday’s bike ride and on the right bike as well. Yep, as it’s a nice day, I get my new bike out and ride it to work for the first time.

It takes me around five minutes less than usual, although it wasn’t quite the fastest I’ve ever done it. It’s not that my new bike is that much quicker, it was just a case of having to see how fast I could do the distance.

My posh wheels cause a bit of a stir at work and everybody admires it, which is kind of nice, particularly as no one likes it enough to nick it. They say there's no turning back once you've ridden your best bike to work... we’ll see, I’d hate to get it dirty.

The football fixtures are out today and yet again its Leeds v Derby first game. I’m so glad the first game is away, as I plan to be on holiday that week but I’m a bit gutted to miss going up to Leeds for that one.

Luckily not one of the mad events I have planned in the near future clash with any home games. So I came out of that rather well, for once, and highly unexpected, as everything clashed last year and I missed three of the first five home games.

I’m fast riding home as well. Then, as I arrive with stinging legs, it dawns on me... I have a squash game tonight. It’s 6.15, I can barely stand up and we’re playing at 7.00 rather than at the usual 7.30, which gives me less time to recover.

So basically I’m in no fit state for squash, to coin a phrase 'fit for nothing', consequently I get slaughtered because he happens to choose this week to be on his best form, and I spend most of the match lusting for the post match pint. This, when it arrives, is incredibly well received.