I'll try not to be controversial this time, well maybe, OK , I'm not going to try at all, so lets see how we get on.
My latest job came to an end just recently, no more trekking to Cheltenham to suffer working at the University Admissions Service UCAS, you know for educated people, Universities can be tremendously frustrating. So I was lightly relieved that my stint in academia had come to an end, mind you that was probably more down to not doing a 132 mile commute every day whilst fighting my way through the Wales and the West motorway traffic. We had a bit of a farewell nosh, and whilst doing the usual "stay in touch" bits I asked one of the lads where he was from, I never was much good at accents. Peter comes back with "Hungary", "Oh!" I say, "Which part?", should have seen it coming really - "Budapest" he says, "Did you go?".............
Back in the UK, my Club, Newport Harriers, kicked off their season at Coventry and their famous blue track. I have to say it was weird spending a whole day in the sun, but I suppose we were a long way from home in England even if the water is from Wales. The first round of Division 2 of the Midland League was a new challenge for us after our 3rd season of promotion, a lot of the juniors were making their league debuts so it was all a bit of an unknown quantity. The day went stunningly well, my girl clocked a 22cm PB in the long jump (all down to her marvellous coach I recon - IE - Me), but I had to watch the Pole Vault from afar through gritted teeth as two young guns took over the event for us. They took 2nd A & 1st B but the heights were not beyond my reach. Watch your backs lads, the old boys ain't finished yet and 2.60m isn't enough guys. Paradoxically, I'll probably wind up coaching them to better heights and shoot myself in my last remaining good foot.
We had a really good day as a club, made lots of noise cheering ourselves on, there was a real buzz which was constantly being fuelled by team members winning races as we went on to win the match by 32 points over our English rivals. It was a hot day and I managed to get sun burnt which totally ruined the following bank holiday, and so I proved that my old bottle of Factor 30 is now useless other than to act as a lubricant.
Talking of lubricants, (mind briefly drifts to the whisky cupboard opposite!), my Achilles has been stubbornly refusing to heal up despite buckets and buckets of ice cold water, tubes and tubes of Ibuprofen gel, and tubes and tubes of Volterol. I was getting desperate as the thought of having it sliced open and scraped out loomed large in my mind, so just as I was about to drill a hole in it and squirt in some WD40, it gets better. This may be related to the shoulder injury that has dogged me since September, I have had an ultrasound scan and yes it's injured! 9 months for a doctor to tell me that? What do they teach these guys? So he offers me a Cortisone injection, if I want it of course. GIVE ME THE NEEDLE - I'LL DO IT MYSELF!! Actually I let him proceed as I guessed he might have done this before and I have only experience of the pointy side, any which way it felt like having a six inch nail stuffed into my arm - wince!!! Then the genius noticed my mode of transport. Our car, bless it's little diesel socks had expired in the Cwmbran ASDA car park, dumping a couple of gallons of diesel and oil on the drop off zone making us a popular pair. This meant I was riding a motorcycle, not mine of course, as mine was in the dealers consuming god knows how much on new tyres, sprockets and a service. Anyway, Dr. Genius says "Oh, you won't be able to use that for a couple of hours". He was probably right too, after all I have a six inch nail sticking out of my shoulder don't I, so how am I supposed to get home?
So with my body awash with Cortisone and who knows what other hydro-carbons, and waiting only twenty minutes, I rode home in search of other disolvable pain killers. The next day, my shoulder was inevitably complaining that somebody had left a six inch nail stuck in it and would they like to take it out now, but my Achilles was somehow streets better. So I'm hoping to fix my shoulder some time soon by having a Cortisone injection in my foot. Whilst I wait for this unlikely scenario, I'll settle back and watch the rugby in Gaelic AKA Eastenders and down some Caol Ila to deaden the pain.
