Another cricket breakfast to start the weekend.
Brilliant.
It was backs to the wall for Jonny Bairstow as I necked the Bran Flakes.
Come the close of play and the situation wasn’t so delicate - both for Bairstow and the Bran Flakes fall out.
I was actually quite excited about Saturday morning as it had been scheduled as the occasion when I presented Anna with her Christmas present.
She was unaware that I bought her a rather decent MTB from the lovely Re-Cycle charity up on campus earlier in the week.
Anna has run to the ground her old estuary wilds MTB along the Trail over the course of the past six winters.
I rocked up at the Re-Cycle stall on Wednesday morning, not expecting to find anything appropriate to be honest.
But they had a ladies Specialized, front suspension, disk brakes and look rather SEXY.
I’ll have that, I thought.
I didn’t tell Anna about the bicycle purchase, but dropped a few hints that it was the BEST present that I have ever bought her.
Last Christmas was all about golf balls.
And so I left the new MTB in the shed, knowing that Anna would probably first find it as we cycled off to Park Run together.
I am always late at leaving for the weekly Castle Park race that isn’t a race. We tend to cycle along the Trail independently.
But I was determined to be with Anna as she opened the shed door on Saturday morning.
Incompetence on my behalf meant that I was still shaving as Anna saw the BEST Christmas present ever.
Hey hoe.
She thanked me by cycling into Sunny Colch on the old bicycle.
Cheers, luv.
I was pretty pumped for Park Road. I’ve put the hours [minutes] in on the treadmill this week; I was BOOZE free, and had eaten sensibly the night before.
I positioned myself at the front of the pack, and legged it all the way around the 5km course.
The reward was an official race time of 21’42” - 10 seconds off my Colchester PB.
Arse.
I’m not sure where I can find the extra 10 seconds to be honest. I was at my absolute peak this morning.
We cycled through the Hythe and on to the pool for a swim.
The post-swim rubbing down was spent watching the fag end of play in the Test match.
The Trail was stunning as we made our way back mid-morning.
Back at base and Dotty [stop it] was a little over-excited about the great outdoors.
Having had the female snip earlier in the week, we have scheduled in Sunday morning for the first time when the kittens can both have a heavily supervised exploration of the back garden.
Dotty did a runner a day too early as we returned.
Anna grabbed her and grounded her.
A brief Co-op run coincided with a ‘day of action’ [?] by the local Labour party.
“Would you like to save the NHS?”
…was the question.
wtf?
No - I wouldn’t like to save the NHS, actually.
What kind of shitty question is this?
We both calmed down by planning an afternoon bicycle ride. I was keen to take the Tourer our for a spin for the first time in over a year.
Team #LIDL rides again, innit.
Landmere Quay was the pin the tail in the donkey choice of location. It was a lovely roll out through the Tendring lanes. It was quite charming without any cars around.
We arrived a Landmere, looked around at the low tide for around five minutes, and then f-off back on the train via Thorpe.
A brief Quayside walk then took place when the train pulled in. I admit that the estuary wilds sunset was pretty stunning.
And then Saturday collapsed into BOOZE, with a bit of football, darts and boxing thrown in.
#chinchin