Refuseniks

We’re a pretty fit bunch at work; almost everyone has a gym membership or a bike habit. Not everyone though, one of the refuseniks asked a colleague whether he had enjoyed his ‘jog’ last night. Ooooh, you would have needed an ice pick to cut though the resulting icy silence. How dare she use the ‘J’ word, j****** is something you do to your memory.

For some odd reason, financial I assume, golf is now going to be an Olympic sport but not squash, which was also on the short list. Now let’s see, racquets sports... badminton - yes, tennis - controversially but yes, squash - no??? Logic - no.

Another angle of logic says an Olympic gold medal should be the pinnacle of achievement for that sport, making golf, football, yes and tennis too unacceptable. Even my beloved road cycling would be excluded but I’d be ok with that, the track is where it’s at Olympics wise. Would any of the top golf players want to play in the Olympics, probably not. Tiger Woods said he would but then he’d be pushing forty by then.



It was interesting to notice what sports are recognised by the IOC as sports. For example, Darts is one that isn’t but another that isn’t is Motor Racing. So Motor Racing isn’t a sport, always suspected as much. On the other hand, they say Lifesaving is. So if you ever get rescued from the sea or your local pool, bear in mind that you could have just assisted a future Olympic champion with their training.

I’ve cycled in today and it was fairly uneventful. Riding home was a bit more ‘edgy’. Waiting at the lights at the set of crossroads in Stapleford, the lights on the other side turned red and I got ready to push off, but a car was still coming from that side at a rate of knots. Our lights go amber, I’d normally go now and the car behind me starts moving forwards but the car is still coming from the side. The lights go green, I don’t move so the car behind me goes around me. The car is still coming from the side. It runs the light and turns right around the corner towards us, the driver doing a one handed turn as he goes, his other hand keeping the phone firmly attached to the side of his face. The car alongside me brakes hard, there are millimetres between them.

I think I saved the front end of his car by delaying him and making him go around me. Useful us cyclists sometimes.

I head to the pool, to do my bit for our first life saving gold medal, and it’s surprisingly quiet in the lanes. There’s just one person in my lane, a chap, who’s incredibly slow. I swim three lengths for every two that he does. This is fine because I can swim down the wrong side when I have to pass him and I do twenty four of my planned thirty lengths with ease. Then another chap arrives and starts doing three lengths for every two of mine. So you can imagine what sort of trouble this puts the first chap in. Suddenly it’s like the Red Arrows display team as we swim under, over and around each other. I do my last six lanes and escape.