Last night I was trying to catch up on all my happenings but was too tired and had to go to bed after updating my training. There is other stuff; for instance I found out that the race results for the Marazion Middle Distance triathlon, although displayed as ****** in the results boxes, tell you your time if you hover your cursor over them. Joy! So I now know that even given the very hilly and windy course, with no motivation and not really trying (just finishing with my head in that state was an achievement) I did the fifty six mile ride in 3.19:56 and the run in 1.48:37. To put that in perspective; for a flat race I was only expecting a time of about 3.40 and my time for the Warrington half marathon (same distance, but flat and without the ride before it) was 1.43.38. That was a very pleasant surprise.
Today I got a nasty surprise though; six weeks until the Outlaw! Aaaaarrgggghhhhh! Panic!
In other news, we went out for a quiet meal for Wendy’s fiftieth. It was godawful! Shellie’s in town. The food was mediocre served with pretentions of adequacy (though the pudding was nice) but the worst thing was the owner. She felt the need to come and talk, loudly, about how the pizza place had stolen her idea of making someone stand around in a sandwich board to advertise her cafe. “And I said this to the mayor, and the mayor said ‘her family’s been here for generations and done this and done that for this town’.”
There is never a Kalashnikov to hand when you most need one, is there? Grrrrr.
Wendy did apparently have a wonderful meal with her chums from work though. Some really fancy Indian restaurant in Manchester. One of her work mates hails from Pakistan or has roots their or some such. Speaks the lingo, anywho. It was she who knew the best place to eat, set it all up, picked Wendy up, made sure Wendy didn’t pay for her meal, etc. Seems like a really good egg. For her troubles she got abused in Urdu for sitting with English people and for not covering her head. She was in ethnic kit when she picked Wendy up. Funny old world.
I have seen a (n agency) job advertised that said ‘new drivers considered’. Observe me not holding my breath.
At work we are having a bit of a to-do. The rota for de-kit is pretty shit. When I went back in full time I was told I would be on permanent 6-2, but only get every fourth weekend off (although it is a long one, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday) the other three weeks you just get days off in the week or a Saturday or a Sunday. Within the short time I’ve been back in there it has changed to one weekend off every six weeks. Which is even shitter.
The lads were getting so pissed off with it there was talk of asking for a transfer into the main warehouse as pickers, where at least you are guaranteed every other weekend off. Hearing of the mutiny in the ranks Karl, the supervisor told us to arrange a rota whereby we get every other weekend off. He’d put it in to the management. We did, he did, the management are looking like they are going to refuse it.
Pooh is hitting the fan.
The job is not getting done. Everything is a mess. They had to call a manager in on his day off today, all day, just to try and clear some of the crap. Hopefully this will force their hand. If not it’s going to get bad in de-kit!
I have decided that after my last triathlon this year I am going to change my plans. I think for next year I’m just going to do a few middle distance (half Ironman) triathlons. 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile ride, 13 mile run. It’s short enough that you can enjoy it a bit. The full Ironman is never going to be fun. Do the Outlaw (Iron distance) this year to get it out of my system, then concentrate on speeding up my times for some middle distance events. Sort of a fun run, ride and swim. The other thing is to go back to Kung Fu. And do my sax.
Oh, and win the lottery.
Well, that’s this year planned out then.
Later,
Buck.