Author: Buck

Wendy is on the mend! Yay! She had her operation but had unrealistic expectations of how minor it was going to be. The operation itself was around 4 hours long, the woman preceding her took 45 minutes, so it mustn’t have been plain sailing. Then they have to fill you full of gas to inflate the guts so they can make room to move about. Her guts were sticking out a bit and she’d put on 8lbs. Devastated. Then her wounds were a bit manky. Started having green puss and puking up and such. I told her I’d had worse and to stop being a mardarse. She went to the doctors and they said it was “infected” and she needed “antibiotics”. Pah, nanny state. Doctors, what do they know? Anyway after that she soon started getting better. She’s on her feet now, did the shopping with me today and went to church. Her stomach was hurting a bit afterwards, but not crippling her like last week. She reckons she should be able to go back to work a week on Monday. This is good as last week I only got two days work. The two weeks prior I had two good weeks, a four day (with the Bank Holiday, 3 days at £17.52 p/h) and a 5 day. £600 a week take home. Then this. This is the exception, but it’s not good.  I am torn. Is it better to try for a regular job that won’t pay as much (even for a 60 hour week) but will be every week, and have holiday pay? I’ve seen two jobs advertising for full time drivers lately. Neither particularly good jobs, with only OK money (compared to my current pay rate) but it’s the guaranteed hours that appeal. And a better start time. Long term, if I could get a full time job where I am, this is the job for me. I’ll have to wait and see how much work I get.   In other news, my masterplan to get my fitness back is working. I bought new boots for work, new supportive trainers for running, ran every third day to give my legs time to recover and ran off road to stop the stress injuries. It’s all worked swimmingly. By which I mean my legs are still working. That was two weeks, now I’m trying to move it to running every other day for a few weeks. After that I’m back on for operation #10milesaday. It’s not all been good. I’ve been wearing a hat to try to heat condition myself. I hate the heat when running, totally kills me. So the sunny weather of late, with a hat, have been tough. Also my fitness is shagged and I’m a porker. The long and short of which being I’ve been struggling on some days just to keep going for 10 miles. Yesterday it was pissing it down, but it was a run day so I just donned a long sleeve […]

It’s been a hell of a week. Operation #10milesaday has been a killer. It’s shocking how quickly you can go from ‘can I run a fast 20 miles?’ to ‘can I complete 10?’ My first ‘run’ was painful and slow, the second with my GPS watch merely quantified *how* slow by the third I’d buggered my tendon, it was stiff and painful, took me the first mile to loosen it up. It wasn’t enough to stop me so I did a third, while on my diet. I only had 300 calories then set out to expend 1,240. I crashed and burned like the Hindenburg. That was dreadful. Approaching 7 miles I was dying, by 8 I had to stop for a few minutes. I shuffled home in a very sorry state. Since then I’ve been having 500+ calories before I start. So far, so not too bad. My tendon has been getting worse, yesterday it was stiff as soon as I got out of bed and took me most of the day to loosen up. I did another run, my fifth, but the injury was worse afterwards so I’m resting it for a day or two. I went online to work out how many calories I need to eat to lose weight, I worked out my Base Metabolic Rate, timesed it by 1.55 (for regular exercise 4 times a week) which gave me 2,460 calories a day to maintain, therefore I’m trying to eat less than 2,000. So far I’ve lost 4 pounds in 5 days. I had actually lost that in 2 days, but then inexplicably put a pound back on. Still, as long as it’s moving and I’m not actually starving to death. The runs have improved in just 5 days. At first every step was torture, now, once my tendon is working, there are miles that are OK, where I can get into the rhythm and more or less forget about it. I was even pushing on a bit on my last run. In 4 (timed) runs I went from 1.27:47 to 1.23:46, but more importantly in the first run I had two miles over 9 m/m, and 5 others over 8:45 m/m, on the last run only one mile was over 8:30 (an 8:31, dammit!). I would normally be horrified to be posting 8:30’s, but this is now, that was then. Now I have to regroup, accept where I am, and build on it. I used to consider 8 m/m my all day plodding pace. The default pace I dropped to if I didn’t keep the pressure on or if I was too knackered to push on. *sigh* The other thing is, as always, my heartbeat. My watch records it and splits the results into zones; 1: Watching Corrie (minor), 2: Bit of an effort (maintaining), 3: Getting a sweat on (improving), 4: Grafting (highly improving) and 5: Taking the piss (overreaching) All of my training is in zone 5. I have no idea what I’m […]

The times they are a changing. Had Wendy’s parents over for 10 days, stopping with us, for Wendy’s niece’s wedding. While I was working nights. And they are deaf. You can imagine how much fun that was. Added to the usual quotient of their god-squad bigotry. *in with calm* Anyway, got to grin and bear it. They are cake fiends though. I ended up making 2 fruitcakes (8” circumference x 2” deep) a cheesecake (same) and two lots of flapjacks. They were away from our house for 3½ days! Wendy says I should take it as a compliment to my baking, but I reckon they’d have eaten a rat if I’d have sprinkled it with hundreds and thousands. Anywho, the reason I can bake all the above is because I have a sweet tooth. So I was tucking in. I’ve not baked anything for ages before their visit as Wendy can’t eat it/ was dieting. They went back, I saw a rather natty summer coat on ebay, tailor made, height, chest, weight… OMFG! 11 stone, 12 pounds! Crash diet. Waddle my lard arse around a 10 mile run every day. I’m currently filling up on humble pie. Last year I had the attitude “If  you can put one foot in front of the other you can run a mile, if you can run a mile you can run a marathon. Just do it.”  I started on project #10milesaday yesterday. Luckily my GPS watch was flat and my other watch needs a new clasp, so I just let my legs set the pace. I was satisfied just to waddle the full 10 miles. The last time I saw a finish as a goal was that 50 mile run last year, it’s been years since I was happy just to finish a shit-slow 10 miler. I went out today with the my GPS watch but the same strategy. Turns out I’m averaging 8.46 m/m. *hangs head in shame* Woe unto the house of Bucky. My plan is just to grit my teeth and do 6 x 10 miles runs a week (they say you should factor recovery into training) until I feel I can push on again, then up the pace and distance.   Due to the nights gig I’ve given up on the tready. I never got to train because of the noise. I’ve sold it on ebay. Collection only. A geezer from Ireland bought it. “Can you post it?” He wanted to send a parcel company around to pick it up. I said it was nearly 6 foot tall and 120 kilos, it wasn’t going to go in an envelope. Eventually he arranged for 2 men and van to pick it up. At 0800 hrs. I stated repeatedly ‘any afternoon’ and ‘selling because I work nights and can’t train’. Dick. So, a week later two Polish lads turned up with a van and took it. Huzzah! Wendy is ecstatic now she’s got her roomy kitchen back. Now we’ve got to […]

Really. Basically this is to update you on Twitter. Work has suddenly turned around. After me bitching it was a great job but not enough hours suddenly last week I was blitzed. I got 6 shifts and 58 hours pay. This job is definitely a keeper. It’s only 4 weeks until I’m on pay parity which would have had me taking home £773 for last week. As it is I’m not complaining about £617. I don’t have a life, all I do is try to sleep and work, but with Wendy running out of (a very generous, 6 months) sick pay and our debts (from the bastard tax man and car) to clear, but pronto, that is all for the good. Besides, get the debts paid off (£1,500 paid off in 6 weeks, Wendy on half pay not withstanding!) and then we can get me a Harley. I’ll still not have a life, but then I’ll have a Harley so won’t mind. Wendy is going stir crazy. She’s been stuck in the house, on her own with no one to talk to, and now can’t make any noise all day as I’m asleep. She’s too weak to go out and do anything and daren’t eat any more than the bare minimum to keep her alive. She’s a shadow of her former self. She was dieting before all this bollocks, (rapid weight loss being a trigger for the condition, ironically) but now she simply daren’t eat. Still another 2 months before her pencilled-in, ballpark, estimate for an operation date. So not great.   All my sporting plans for the year are in ashes and ruins. Until I can adjust and get some decent sleep I am in no condition to do anything. I was reading something recently that explained that getting 3 or 4 hours, getting up as you can’t sleep, then having a few hours later before work is no good. You need a long sleep to go through the different sleep stages to get refreshed. I’ve had a few good days, but usually it’s degrees of bad. From tomorrow it’s about to get a whole lot worse. Wendy’s mam and dad are here from Spain for a fortnight. They are a bit deaf, so pretty LOUD. Oh dear oh dear. Anyway, nothing happening. Work, dream of sleep and work.   So to Twitter; The DMreporter had: MYSTERY: Was flight MH370 hijacked by a foreign, benefit claiming nurse on the way to a climate change event? Help us out here. EXCLUSIVE: We character assassinate Prince Harry’s girlfriend because her failure to get engaged on our timetable is messing up ad sales. This week’s Daily Mail Cancer List: Mo) Swiss roll Tu) Baldness We) Attics Th) Cocktails Fr) Disco music Sa) Denmark Su) Non-Christian gods GEORGE OSBORNE: "The middle classes like the 40p tax rate; it makes them feel like big men with a strong seed in the belly of their woman."       MailSimplified added: TEEN MOTHER BEHIND THE […]

After me going on about how much money I was going to be on and how this could be my job for life it’s all gone a bit Pete Tong. The shifts are too short. You’re lucky to get a 9 hour shift (paid, plus 45 minutes break) as a driver you expect at least a 10 hour day. Then I was stood down for one day one week, two days last week. Admittedly I had to take an extra day without work/ pay to do my driver training (CPC) course, but still, a 3 day/ 27½ hour week is no good to anyone. The CPC thing is a new hoop the government have introduced through which drivers have to jump. You have to do 5 days of training every 5 years. Not practical training, just classroom stuff. Without an exam. You just have to attend. And it’s so badly arranged you could take the same class five times and still get your card. The one I did was designed for Walkers and was based around safe, fuel efficient driving and pre-op checks. One bit had me in bits. The trainer was explaining the two main groups of defect; minor and serious. Minor being that which you could legally drive with (radio not working, dent, etc) and serious being that which grounded the vehicle (VOR, Vehicle Off Road). He asked one guy, who he obviously knew well, to give an example of a minor defect. The guy said “Flat tyre.” The trainer said “FLAT TYRE? A minor defect? You’d drive that would you?” He continued “Of course, if you’re not sure you can ask someone more qualified.” (To the guy) “In your case a passing dog. ‘Ere, mate, put down that turps for a minute, what do you think of this?” I hooted. But back to my point, unless I can start to whack in some hours I will have to start looking for work again. This is a total bummer, as the job remains the easiest and best paid I’ve had. And the best treatment I’ve ever received. Before I got into this gig I thought people liked drivers. Not even. Most places they are tolerated as a necessary evil. It might work out. Perhaps this has just been a blip. It’s still a lot of money for what I’m actually doing, just not enough hours. However, if it doesn’t work out, Asda and a few other companies are currently building *massive* distribution centres (DC) right next to the M62 junction 9 (Ikea) exit. Right on my doorstep. I know I can pass the driving assessment, I think it’s supposed to be good money and lots of hours. And as they are opening a new DC they will need new drivers. Lots won’t relocate or commute. Anyway, I’m just saying if this doesn’t work out there are other options. I would really like this to work out though. As it stands this job would pay the bills, but not […]