Meerkats

Its -3 outside, so it’s going to be icy isn’t it? But I really need to bike. I can barely walk, so running is out of the question but I need to do something, so bike it is.

It turns out to be not too bad at all, there are a few patches of ice but they prove easy to avoid. Less easy to avoid was the suicidal buggy woman who materialised out of nowhere, weaving frenziedly, Meerkat like, in and out of the gridlocked traffic through Spondon. If I hadn’t quickly put the anchors she would have scuttled headlong in to path and would be now wedged in my front forks.

The dogs got a ‘treat’ of sorts this morning, we're out of dog food, so they had bread and left over Chinese pancakes for breakfast. The kids have eaten most things in the house whilst we were away but I didn't think they'd started on the dog food, well I hope they didn’t.

I participate in the BBC Strategy Review Online Survey this morning. Most people are up in arms about the proposed axing of 6 Music, so as usual I can’t resist saying my piece.



The Director-General proposes that they cut back on populist programs and stop ratings chasing by offering ‘something distinctive and better than other broadcasters’ and ‘its radio stations should play pop music that other radio stations don’t’.

So how does that tally with the proposal to ‘Close Radio 6 Music and focusing the BBC’s pop music output on Radio 1 and Radio 2’... Short answer, it doesn't.

In fact isn’t that statement totally the wrong way around? Doesn’t that sentence describe in an instant where the BBC is going wrong?

Naturally there's a Facebook group 'Save BBC 6 Music' and a petition.

Always A Pleasure

L asks if I would take the dogs out this morning. I think L is too crippled by her back injury to do it herself but obviously she wouldn’t admit it.

It’s always a pleasure to walk the boys. Although MD left the house with his nose in the air, constantly looking left and right, and with a ‘let me have em’ attitude written large across his face. Perhaps this is what L is on about when she complains that he’s a pain in the mornings. I sit him down on the pavement outside our house and ask him just what he thinks he’s doing. He’s still not listening and I have to tap him on the nose to get his attention. Meanwhile Doggo rolls his eyes and looks bored; shuffles to the end of his lead and lifts his leg up the nearest gatepost.

Once I have calmed MD and had words about his attitude problem, we continue and the walk then goes ok. We nearly have a ‘situation’ with the usual little black terrier but its owner, rather bizarrely, although perhaps thoughtfully, hid behind a parked car.

I drive to work today, in order to have a pub lunch and therefore I’m well rested and well nourished for squash in the evening. Though I no longer have huge ambitions for our weekly joust on the squash court, if I ever did. I started the year with the simple aspiration to win a game a week but even that hasn’t happened yet. Today, because I haven’t run or cycled, I feel in good shape and I duly get my game.

This does not go down well with my opponent. As tuck away the winning point, his shoulders slump and his jaw hits the floor with a thud. I suppose my lap of honour didn’t help his mood much and he looks about as suicidal as a teenager who’s just been forcibly unplugged from Facebook. He looks so crestfallen I’m not sure whether to get ready to mop up his tears or duck when he hurls his racket at the wall.

That was supposed to be the last game of the match but he talks me into another one, as he doesn’t wish to finish on a low point. Worried that he might go home and put his head in the gas oven I agree. After all I have nothing to lose, having already achieved my aim for the evening. I promptly storm into a commanding lead in that game as well. I hate to think how bad his mood in the pub would be afterwards, had I managed to maintain my advantage... unfortunately I don’t manage it but it’s still a successful night.