Jolly Ice

L describes it as 'jolly icy' this morning. She had promised to tie me to the bed if it was icy to stop me getting on my bike but I was lying there for ages, waiting but no, nothing and I was so looking forward to it. It was left to the dogs to do their usual trick of pinning me down.

The lid has broken on my thermal flask and looks beyond repair. It was rubbish anyway, it annoyed me, it was incredibly hard to drink out of but I don’t think there are any better ones on the market. I have a smaller metal one that I use for dog shows, so I try that instead. I find a use for an old sock (washed) and wrap that around the flask to stop it rattling.

The problem with that flask, as I soon find out, is that it's far too efficient. My drink stays way too hot and I have to drink most of it after I've arrived at work which wasn't really the point. As for the jolly ice, I didn’t see any. I must have been going that fast I just skimmed over it.

The way home is even more eventful. In fact, I think my bike is trying to tell me something e.g. 'get the bus'. I suffer from a chronic lack of traction in my gears again and eventually I give up before I end up stranded in the middle of nowhere. The R4 bus takes my bike and me back to Nottingham. Where once I get off the bus and back on the bike, my gears are fine again but clearly not to be trusted.

Then it's back over to Derby for MD's second training class, this week with a lot more agility. He gets to walk the plank (dog walk) and bomb in and out of the tunnel. Not exactly coordinated yet but he seemed to enjoy himself.

Again, as last week, we drop Daughter off at L's parents and L runs with Doggo. We reconvene there where the second leg of Derby's semi-final against Manchester United has reached half time. United have pulled back their first leg deficit and some more. Derby are 3-0 down. So game over really but a final flourish rescues the situation a little, we lose 4-2 on the night 4-3 on aggregate and only one goal from potentially taking it into extra time and an away goals win.