Sunday, it was wet and windy, so apart from taking my meds and watching too much TV I did bugger all. I did re-sew the buttons on one of my shirts and put my washing away, apart from that I cannot claim to have done anything useful at all. I found listening to the test match quite mesmeric and was suitably disappointed when rain stopped play with England needing 35 runs with three wickets in hand. There was no further play meaning that everyone had to come back on Monday for the sake of 35 runs.
Monday I wake up quite late and take my time getting up after taking my vitals and having a hot drink. Of course I check the cricket results and find that England have managed to lose by 6 runs, so another defeat clutched from the jaws of success. India, their opponents must be laughing themselves sick at England’s ineptitude. I get into my training gear and have breakfast and morning meds before going to the garage and the rower. My partner has gone to the gym to go bobbing about in the water (aqua aerobics) so I decide it’s time to up the ante and stretch myself a bit, I set the controls for a 90 minute row, something I have not dared do for literally years. So I set off trying not to look at the monitor and just set up a rhythm, letting myself sink into fantasy. I do get into a rhythm but nothing engrossing appears on the fantasy scene, which means the session is going to be a flog. I grind and just grind till the first hour is done and I tell my self the additional 30 minutes are a bonus. Do I have the energy for a bit of a sprint with 10 minutes to go? I try and manage to get over the 17 kilometre mark and surprise myself by burning in excess of 1000 calories. That’s 4 Mars bars! So in my world 2 and 1/2 Boat Races = 4 Mars Bars! Go me.
Why you may ask, well because my oncologist keeps telling me that strenuous exercise is the most effective way to allay the side effects of all the medication I am on. I do it because I hope it mitigates all the after eight mints I eat and other confectionary. After cooling down and downing a couple of yoghurts and some Lucozade I take a shower, put my feet up and draft the blog. Today is a Tesco order day so I wait patiently for it to arrive while I start to read Ian Rankin’s Let it Bleed, one of his Rebus book, which are new to me. I am not up to the intellectual challenge of setting up a new website for my poetry today besides which I have not thought about what format I want it in or what I am going to call it. So I require a period of reflection before I dive in, it is also the details that I am going to share with the Ruler’s Wit team who are going to do the technical side of the website set up for me, so there is quite a lot at stake. So for this afternoon it is Let it Bleed, a new author to me, if I like him it could prove quite expensive as when I find a new author I like I tend to read everything they have written, only ever failed once in this when Balzac got the better of me. Fifty two novels he wrote and he wrote them in sequence which I did not know or notice until I was a good number into his output.
I read until Tesco deliver and then it will be time for tea and a gentle evening watching the second series of Sinner but not before being ritually humbled by Only Connect. Personally I think the quiz is going soft I managed to get two things right last week and got bits of the puzzle wall right as well. It will be early night meds and early to bed to night as tomorrow I will be having my nails done again. I’m feeling quite chipper after my long row, perhaps the oncologist is onto something or I am just feeling the benefit of the endorphins.
