Wednesday

Ride

There were four of us on the ride today, it was cold and the roads were wet so that probably put a lot of people off. My bar is a little higher, I’ll start as long as it’s not actually raining.

Truck

Even though we were on a three-lane road the truck driver was under the impression that he had every right to pass us as close as possible and be annoyed that we were riding two abreast. He made his misguided displeasure as clear as he could with the use of his air horn. Some truck drivers just assume that whatever they think is the law of the road should be is actually the law of the road. The fact that they are encased in metal and have the ability to kill me with very little effort doesn’t help the situation.

Fast

The others are normally a lot faster than me but today the speeds were reasonable and I managed to keep up to the second roundabout. Two carried on and two of us turned round and headed back. The fast boys caught us at the lights for the turning onto the boring road. All the lights were with us along the boring road. I kept up until the last set of lights but then the will to peddle went and I dropped off the back of the group. I was quite happy with the ride.

Bus

There was a very fat man on the bus, he took up two seats, and he only paid for one.

Bomb

We were told over the PA that we should leave the building by the south entrance as there was an ongoing incident outside. We later found out that explosives had been found in a neighbouring building. I felt that leaving by the south entrance was the least I could do.

Swim

I was tired when I got to the pool. It was probably a combination of getting up early and swimming for three days in a row. I struggled my way through the session, the only thing that kept me going was thinking that if I gave up at this how would I fare at the end of a long swim. The very last part of the session was to swim lengths underwater doing fly kick whilst wearing fins. I got a third of the way down the pool when my right calf cramped. The whole calf muscle turned into a very painful brick. I struggled back to the edge of the pool and waited for the pain to subside. I’ve not cramped like that for a long time and I really don’t want to cramp like that again.

Call

I finally managed to get though and find out where we are with “the big adventure”. There was a lot of hesitancy from the other side of the world so it looks like I won’t be able to delegate some of the arrangements.

Soup

Loved One and I had a bowl of soup to replace the energy lost in swimming. I suspect that I replaced more than I used.

Tuesday

Ear

I woke up with a sore ear and no desire to leave the warmth of the bed. I vaguely remember feeling like I had water in my ear last night so I put the sore ear down to that. I needed to be at work reasonably early this morning but not so early that I needed to rush about like a mad man. I don’t like rushing in the morning, it puts the day out of balance.

Weight

I shouldn’t have stepped on the scales this morning but I did. They gave me the news that I dreaded. It wasn’t quite the weight with many zeros but it was far too close. I feel that I need to cut down on the eating a bit more.

Bus

It was particularly miserable on the way to work. There was misty rain and everyone looked damp. I wondered if it would be like that tomorrow morning. The thought of cycling in that sort of weather wasn’t appealing.

Meeting

My ill colleague had returned to work but he definitely wasn’t better. We had a meeting early in the morning which he managed to cough so much that he started sweating. Our boss promptly sent him home. The rest of us were quite happy about this, none of us wanted whatever he had.

Coffee

Even though I don’t drink coffee I had to go and buy some coffee pods for the coffee machine. I felt far from confident about what I was asking for. Coffee is a mystery to me.

Exit

I left work at exactly the earliest acceptable time so that I could go swimming. I’d run out of useful things to do anyway so I felt no guilt in walking out.

Swim

I planned the session as I wandered over to the pool. It was based on a session that I’d seen on a web site. I had the outside pool to myself for the most part and I like that. It meant that I could just get on with the swimming. I enjoyed the session. It was hard work but enjoyable.

Call

I’d organised to ring someone this evening to sort out some details. There were time zones involved so arrangements had to be made. I was slightly annoyed that after making all the arrangements that they didn’t answer. I went to bed fuming.

Monday

Lie-in

Even though it wasn’t an epic lie-in and I had to go to work, we still managed to have a little Monday morning lie-in. I felt that after the weekend we had had that we deserved it.

Work

Everything was a bit slow today, lots of people were out ill and those that were in weren’t that inclined to do much. I passed the day half working and half chatting to people around the office. It was too miserable to go out at lunch time so I busied myself with a few things that I wanted to get done.

Stroll

I strolled over to the pool via the park and noticed that the fallen tree had been chopped up into smaller pieces and the path had been cleared. The pub on the corner looked very closed, as it had on Friday. I learnt when I got to the pool that it had closed down. We would have to find a new venue for our Friday night drinks.

Swim

Yet again the swim session seemed easy on paper but was actually quite testing. This was exactly what I didn’t need after a tiring weekend and a day at work. I persevered my way though and completed the session but I felt exhausted by the end. All I really wanted to do was to go home, curl up into a little ball and go to sleep.

Soup

Loved One had prepared a vat of soup so we had some of that for tea, the rest was destined for the freezer. It was just enough to replace the energy from the swimming but not enough to feel bloated and full. After the soup I sat on the sofa and slowly fell asleep.

Sunday

Rush

There was a lot of reluctance to get out of the bed when the alarm went off. It was cold and wet outside and felt like a day where people should be huddled round a fire drinking warming soup and doing very little. Eventually we got in the car and headed for the swimming pool. This was a perfect day for swimming indoors.

Marshalling

Loved One went off to prepare for her races and I started the preparations to marshal the swimmers for their starts. As this was a long-distance event there were rolling starts which added another layer of complications to getting swimmers to the right place at the right time as each of them needed to give the time keepers a sheet of paper. Luckily though there was plenty of time to fix any mistakes I’d made which was good as I made quite a few.

Wilting

Scotty brought me a cup of tea half way through as I was starting to wilt. It had been a long time since the breakfast that I hadn’t had. The big problem with the long distance event is that it takes a long time. I was glad when I realised that it was almost at an end. I felt that I’d worked harder than the swimmers.

Results

Loved One came out of the changing rooms just as the results were posted. She had come top of her age group in both of her events. This made her very happy.

Pub

We gathered in the pub around the corner for a drink, something to eat and a lot of gossip, which, after all, is the whole point of going to these events. We ordered our food along with little miss impatient. She couldn’t wait for the buzzer to go to say that her food was ready so she waited by the serving hatch and “chatted” with the staff until they got fed up with her and served gave her her dinner.

Tired

I was falling asleep in the car on the way home so it was no surprise to Loved One that I went directly to the bedroom and fell asleep when we got home. Marshalling is hard work and I felt I deserved the rest. I woke about an hour and a half later feeling a lot better.

Ironing

Neither of us felt that hungry this evening so we nibbled on the leftovers from yesterday. I would have liked an early night but there were shirts that needed ironing. I tried to ignore it for a while but the thought of not having an ironed shirt for the morning or even worse the thought of having to do some ironing in the morning was too bad to bear.

Whisky

I finished the evening with a glass of whisky while Loved One fell asleep on me as we sat on the sofa. She was tired but was refusing to go to bed as it was too early. I had no such qualms.

Saturday

Sun

There was a complete lack of heavy rain when I woke up, I didn’t mind as I was quite looking forward to a lie in. Loved One had other ideas. She was intent on going swimming, she persuaded me to go with her. I wasn’t sure that it was a good idea.

Swim

The swimmers gathered in the club and deemed the rough dirty sea “swimable”. The waves weren’t that high but there was a strong current running up the beach which helped push us through the dirty water. The current became obvious when we turned around. We seemed to stay in the same place for a very long time. Eventually, we gave up and struggled through the waves to get to the beach. Some days the sea is a little too adventurous.

Domestics

The rest of the early afternoon was spent doing all those dull domestic tasks that I’d put off for another time. It seemed that now was that other time.

Dressing

We had been invited to take part in a quiz at a surf club this evening but there was a catch. The theme of the evening was “all class above the arse”. I had a particular lurid pair of fish scale patterned tights that would do for the lower half. I added some clogs which clashed nicely. The top half was a white shirt, bow tie and cream jacket. I felt that it fitted the bill nicely however I had no intention of being seen in public for too long dressed like this.

Platters

Our team assembled in the corner ready to begin the quiz. The first task was to fill the table with a mountain of food that we had all brought. We may not have been aiming to win but we certainly made sure that we would be well fed.

Quiz

This was a good quiz, there was a good spread of questions that ranged from the easy to the almost impossible. This meant that unlike other quizzes that we’d been to we could answer some questions in each round. We managed to finish in a credible but mediocre position but we had a lot of fun getting there and that was the point.

Late

Loved One and I got home late and we should have gone straight to bed but Loved One insisted that she should pack her swimming bag for the morning. I may have been asleep by the time she had finished.

Friday

Forecast

Last night’s weather forecast had suggested the possibility of rain this morning so I’d taken that as a prompt to turn off the early alarm. I wasn’t woken by the sound of rain, so I could have gone cycling. I just didn’t have the motivation this morning.

Sick

I got to work to find that most of the team was off ill. It was going to be a long quiet day.

Home

I left the office at the earliest acceptable time even though quite a few people had left earlier than that. It was Friday and it’s traditional to leave early as far as I’m concerned.

Swim

The coach claimed that today’s session would be an easy one as there was a competition this weekend. I wasn’t really feeling up to a swim regardless of whether it was easy or hard. I struggled my way through the set but my heart wasn’t in it. I just felt tired.

Pub

We went to the usual pub after swimming to find that it was closed due to “unforeseen circumstances” we went to the pub up the road instead. I wasn’t feeling adventurous so I went for the chicken schnitzel. Sue, on the other hand, went for lasagne pie. I couldn’t see how a lasagne could be improved by casing it in pastry. Sue seemed to enjoy it.

Bed

There was just enough time between getting home and going to turn off tomorrow’s alarm as cycling had been cancelled.

Thursday

Card

Today is our wedding anniversary, I smuggled a card into the kitchen so that I could write a message in it. I knew Loved One was doing something similar as she asked me to put the light on. We swapped cards and presents over a cup of tea and felt good that we had found each other. It was a shame that the working world had to intrude on our day.

Work

I got to work to find that the major meeting that I had today had been cancelled. This left an endless void on my calendar and not much else.

Toilet

It was just before the earliest acceptable time to leave and I needed the loo. The one on my level was full, so I went to the floor above. That was full as well. I went down two floors; it was the same story. I went down another floor with exactly the same result. I went back to my floor to find it was still full. I went and got a glass of water as I didn’t want to hang around the loo until a stall was free. Walking was getting a little tricky at this point and I really didn’t want to sneeze. I went back to the loo to find one free even though it was very, very smelly. I felt quite relieved.

Leave

I left work at just past the earliest acceptable time as I didn’t want to be at work anymore and I had plans for the evening.

Meal

We celebrated our anniversary in a very nice restaurant on the side of the river. We scanned the menu and decided to go for the chef’s tasting selection. This was a good decision as it comprised of six courses, three starters, a main course, dessert then cheese. None of the courses were that large but that was a good thing. It was all very nice and a good way to celebrate. As a bonus it turned out that the waitress came from Munich and she was more than willing to speak to me in German.

Home

We talked about having a nightcap when we got home but the reality missed the nightcap and went straight to sleep.

Wednesday

Ride

I was woken by Loved One’s alarm, which was a bit of a shock as I should have been woken by my alarm a lot earlier so that I could go out for a ride. Either I’d not set the alarm or I’d turned it off and not remembered. Either way I think that it must have been my body telling me that I needed sleep.

Work

I didn’t rush to work, there didn’t seem to be much point.

Storm

It started raining just after lunchtime. It wasn’t a surprise there had been announcements on the radio in the morning. I was hoping that it would stop before I had to walk over to the swimming pool. It didn’t. I got very wet.

Swim

The coach had designed another seemingly easy but actually very hard session for tonight. The hardest part doing one section to a time. I had serious doubts that I could swim that distance in that time. The first time I tried I missed the time by a few seconds. The second time I actually managed to swim the distance within the time but I was completely useless afterwards

Dinner

The tiredness hit me on the way home but I had enough energy left to prepare a dinner of chicken schnitzel with steamed broccoli cauliflower and carrot. The mean used nearly all the vegetables that we had in the house and brought home the fact that we hadn’t been to the shops for a while.

Sleep

There wasn’t much time between dinner and going to bed. It was long enough to drink a cup of tea and walk to the bedroom.

Tuesday

Awake

The alarm went off, I heard it, but I had no enthusiasm to move. My arms and legs had taken on an inhuman weight and pinned me to the bed. If it wasn’t for the swelling bladder I would have stayed in bed a little longer. Loved One didn’t need the loo so I made us a cup of tea to ease her into the waking world.

Waiting

I started to get hungry at about eleven o’clock, I’d eaten my apple half an hour before so I couldn’t use that to fill the gap. Time seemed to drag. The minutes just before twelve seemed to last hours. I dived into my lunch on the stroke of midday and it was finished minutes after. The only minor problem was that I was still hungry. That was not the desired outcome.

Early

I left the office at the earliest acceptable time and went home via the nut stall. That solved the hunger problem. I felt too tired and exhausted to swim this evening. I got home and attacked all the readily available food in the house. That was despite knowing that Loved One had arranged for us to go out for tea with one of her friends.

Restaurant

We arrived at the restaurant and found that it was closed, Loved One rang her friend and found that she had put the meeting in her diary for next week. I was rather relieved, it meant we could have a quiet night at home and that I could go to bed early.

Mail

I received an e-mail that told me that the dream had returned, I celebrated with a cup of tea before sending off a lot of information to Spain.

Eggs

We had scrambled eggs on toast with bacon for dinner. I liked that, it was simple and small and didn’t need much preparation. The evening very much ground to a halt after that.

Monday

Lazy

I had no motivation to get up this morning so using the excuse that I don’t want to have a regular arrive at work time I decided that a few extra minutes in bed would be a good use of my time. Half an hour later I felt that another cup of tea would also help delay the inevitable. Eventually though I had to get ready and leave the house.

Bus

The bus was remarkably empty this morning, it took me a while to work out why.

Work

I seemed to have more time than things to do today. It was just a little dull. It didn’t help that a long meeting scheduled for tomorrow was cancelled which foreshadowed another day that would be hard to fill.

Swim

The coach said it was a session that I would like, I wasn’t sure what that meant as I’ve never told him which ones I like. It had a long swim in the middle so I guess that he has me pegged as liking long swims. On paper the session didn’t look that hard but I was feeling it by the end. My shoulders were telling me that it would probably be a good idea not to swim tomorrow.

Mail

I received a potentially dream killing e-mail whilst I was swimming, I read it when I was waiting for Loved One to finish getting changed. It didn’t put me in a good frame of mind. I composed a reply on the way home and sent it after reading it out to Loved One to make sure that it sounded right. Hopefully it will keep the dream alive.

Soup

We had soup and toast for tea, I didn’t really want it when I started but I was hungry by the time I finished.

Sleep

The time between getting into bed and being asleep was very short this evening.