THE GOOD BUCK

To cheer myself up I’ve been down my allotment today. It is something positive to be thinking about. It’s gone from this: to this: Mine is the plot edged by the mine tape to the left (of the bottom picture) and the sticks and unturned earth to the right. At the top of the plot I’ve left a big space for my tomatoes (when I can plant them out, and have had more of a chance to kill of the more persistent weeds) then there’s the potatoes. First early, second early, and main crop. That took some digging I can tell you!     That’s my first section; potatoes, in which section is included tomatoes. Don’t ask me, I don’t make the rules. Behind them you can see the start of my second section; legumes, onions and roots. On the picture you can see the red and white onions. Viewed from the second picture you can see I have extended the section. It now has leeks, spring onions and carrots as well. There is a gap between the second and third sections that has not yet been turned over, this is for my french beans, mange tout, and dwarf beans. I forgot to buy some canes otherwise I might have got that done as well.   In the third section; brassicas, I’ve dug lime into the soil and planted savoy cabbage, quick heading calabrese (broccoli) normal calabrese, (because I’m not sure if it’s different or not) some broccoli and two rows of cauliflower.   The three sections are for crop rotation, apparently. One lot takes something from the soil, the other lot adds it, and it keeps the diseases that attack each on the hop. I don’t know, you just have to, OK?   Then there’s the strawberry patch, the asparagus, redcurrant bush, small gooseberry bush, and braeburn apple tree. It started off the plot looked huge and I’d never be able to get to the end of it, not I’m wondering where I’m going to put stuff. It’s too late this year because I’d lose the flowers/ crop, but I have another two apple trees, three blueberry bushes, two pear trees, a cherry tree and a blackcurrant bush to plant in from the garden. One of the pear trees is a dwarf/ pot one so I might keep that here, and the cherry is looking mighty fine at the moment, that might stay as an ornament. It’s only it’s first Spring in the garden and it’s flowering like that! So the allotment is almost up and running. I have to dig over the end of the second section, incorporate lots of manure, erect some canes and pea nets then get my peas and beans in. The rest really is just digging over and weeding the little bits that are left.   My goth chic is definitely out of the window this year. With all the exercising in minimal kit and now the heavy gardening I fear a tan is […]

I had a run worked out on ‘Gmaps pedometer’ (a site that lets you plot your exact route, allowing you to zoom in and click it turn by turn if you are following a path or otherwise not on a road.) The same route I was running before I buggered my knee. It worked out as 20 miles, when I did it more exactly it was 20.1 miles. Since those heady days I have done one ten miler, rested for three weeks then ran two more ten milers. Yesterday being the last day off of my long weekend I was supposed to do a half IM distance tri. I did the 1.2  mile swim in the morning then couldn’t really motivate myself for the 56 mile ride and 13 mile run. Then it started raining. I was doing a sterling job of prevarication in fact, then my Triathletes World magazine arrived and inspired/ guilt-tripped me. I looked on Gmaps and worked out where 3.1 miles was from our house. Then set off on my run. I left a note for Wendy saying that I was going to go out for a run, if my knee was up to it do a half (13 miles) if it still felt alright do the full lap (20 miles) and if I could manage it do a full marathon (26.2 miles). For a change, first time ever in fact, I set off at a good pace. Normally I set off too fast and have to struggle the first mile or so as I wait to fall into a comfortable rhythm. I got to the five mile point doing dead on 8 minute miles and hardly breaking a sweat so decided to keep going. Same pace by the 6.6 mile mark, at the end of my lap one minute off the pace. I carried on for the final 6.2 miles. That was hard. I ran within 100 yards of our house after 20 miles (2 hours 41 minutes of running) and had to force myself to carry on. I did. It was fair horrible, but I kept going. When I turned around to do the last 3 miles home it really kicked in though. By the last mile I was seeing my time slipping away and shouting “COME ON!” at myself but I just couldn’t go any faster. I did it in 3 hours 31 minutes, 21 seconds. To put that in perspective, the  Ironman world champion can run that in 2 hours 36 (after a 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike ride!) and the national average time for a marathon I read recently is around 4 hours 30. So not to shabby compared with some, piss poor compared with the best. I have to think that he is THE best in the world and that is all he does, professionally train for triathlons. And he’s ugly*.   All well and good. From out of nowhere I went out and did a (until the […]

Woo-hoo! Finally a development! Obviously not with my works, who are the biggest bunch of knobs in the history of ever. Our Robyn (my niece) said to apply to Jack Richards (hauliers) for some weekend work last year. At the time she was dating the son of one of the transport managers, so believed he would look upon my application favourably. Anyway, my works said I couldn’t work my weekends off for anyone else, I was still thinking I might get taken on as a driver with our works and I didn’t want to risk giving up a full time job for occasional casual weekends. When my works finally came clean with me (that they were never going to let me drive for them) I immediately started applying for anything and everything. Robyn gave me the number of the chap again. I didn’t want to ring him cold and say “Give me a job, your lad’s ex said I could drive for you”, so I went online. They had no jobs advertised but there was a standard application form. I thought it would do no harm to fill it in anyway. I was honest on it, putting that I had my licenses but no experience. That was a few weeks ago. Out of the blue last Friday I noticed I had a missed call and message on my ‘phone from Jack Richards! I rang them back on my break at work and arranged an interview. I went for it yesterday straight from work. The chap was almost apologetic about the job, and kept saying things like “you go away and talk it over with your missus, if you want to go ahead call me back”, and such.  The deal is; I drive with someone in the cab teaching me the job, for a week unpaid (which sounds frighteningly familiar!) then at the end of the week I go out for an assessment with the chap who conducted the interview. If I pass I get taken on,(with allowance made for my working my week’s notice) initially on three months probation. This is the best offer I’ve had. As he suggested I’ve booked a week off work as holidays. He was saying to do it so I would have money at the end of the week but I think it is so I will still have a job to go back to if I fail the assessment. Both reasons work for me. The job I’ve said I would do (see under ‘anything, any hours, any contract’) is tramping. He said if I get taken on I would serve my probation without nights out while I got the hang of it, then after the three months move on to tramping. This would entail picking up my own truck (apparently the cabs are big enough to stand up in, so quite roomy!) setting off on say, the Monday, pick up, drop off until out of driving hours (9 or 10 hours a day, 90 […]

I seized the moment today and set out to try to do a full length ride. To set the scene; my previous longest ride was 56 miles, which I did twice. Both times nearly killed me. They say when you are comfortable with a distance increase it by no more than ten per cent. I laugh in the face of such scientifically proven training methods! As it’s my weekend off (yay!), it was quite warm, sunny and not too windy I went for it. I looked for somewhere ‘there-and-back’ so I would have a definite goal (and no option but to persevere when I was knackered). Morecambe fit the bill. 56 miles, the requisite 112 round trip. I had a few delays, not least of which was sleeping in until ten! On 2-10 shift I’ve been getting up at 6.20 to go swimming. I only managed to do it twice last week (for shame!) but it still knackered me, hence the lie in today. I finished faffing about and got on the road at about 11.35. Loads of cereal bars, nut and raisins and energy gels stashed about my person. To be honest, it wasn’t as bad as I’d been expecting. I was planning on a 7½ hour ride, but by 3 hours 14 I still hadn’t hit my turn off the A6 (I’d missed it, it turns out. Not like me to get lost! *facepalm*) and my arse was in a world of pain. Also I was thinking of it getting dark by the time I got back (I didn’t have lights) so I turned around at the Lancaster university and set off back. All was still going reasonably well (I had to put my coat on, a really cold wind was cutting through my cycling shirt) my arse/ shoulders/ small of back were killing, but my legs were still working. Those energy gels are great. I tried one in the kitchen at home when I first got them. A thick, snotty gel that is awful to try to swallow. I had to squeeze it into my mouth, get a mouthful of water and swallow it like a tablet. After 60 miles on a push bike it goes down like water! Gel, squeeze, gulp. Anyway, my point about them was that I didn’t suffer from an energy crash, where you just flop. You haven’t the energy to stand up, let alone exercise. And then you have to somehow force yourself to carry on for however long it takes. I live in fear of that crash, and didn’t get it! I did, however crash as in fall off my bike. Twice. Bloody cleats! Those fancy toe-clip things that lock your foot to the pedal. They are a bastard to get out of! Also I got a puncture in Preston. I took my time to repair it, seeing as I’d failed in my target (and I thought my speed must have been crap to not have hit my turn off). Twenty […]

I’m back to plotting my gardening again, this time on an industrial scale. Jo has pointed out an allotment website. A good job too. The first thing I was planning on doing was rotorvating the whole plot. Apparently this is very bad. You chop up all the roots of the nasty bugger weeds and make a dozen of each. Less than great. What one chap on the site advised was to spray the whole area with ‘Roundup’ (a weedkiller that kills the roots so it can’t grow back) wait up to 28 days for the plants to fully wither and die, then rotorvate. Blank slate to start with then. Monty Don was back on Gardeners World last night, a synchronicity that bodes well for my endeavour. I’ve rushed out today and got the weedkiller, also a set of first and second early potatoes and a bag each of red and white onions. They are tichy, but I’ve popped them in trays like Monty said, and hopefully they will have rooted and be ready to plant out in a month when I’ve rotorvated. I’ve also ordered a bunch of seeds online (lettuce, blight resistant tomatoes, leeks, mange tout, cauliflower, broccoli, more onions – bugger, forgot I’d ordered them- cabbage, carrot, rocket, and two kinds of beans). With the seeds I have from last year that should be enough to be getting on with. Plus I have 3 different blueberry bushes, 2 types of apple trees, 2 pear trees, a cherry tree, strawberries, a blackberry and a redberry already growing in the garden that could do with transplanting. I might keep the cherry at the very least, depending on whether it puts on a good bloom this year. I bought the Warrington Guardian this week, to take advantage of all those people who say ‘shed, free, if you take it down and take it away’. Ha! Not one! Tight bastards. Still, I’m in no rush, cant even garden for a month. Also when I produced my gym membership card (to get the discount for the allotment) it turns out they worded the letter wrong. If you are entitled to discounted gym membership (as you are on a qualifying benefit) then you are entitled to discount. ie, not me. That’s one thing. Gardening, but large.   As work have screwed me over royally and nobody will give me a sniff at a driving job without experience, I’ve had to contact the army again. I am set for a one day refresher on the 2nd of April and if I can get the time off work, the last part of my basic training will be from the 28th of May. Ho-fecking-hum. Get that done and dusted then it’s the trade training section (conversion to army driving) and I should be ready to play. I’m thinking now that if I just get to my unit and put some hours driving in I will be able to blag the rest in civvy street. “Of course I’ve […]