Tuesday 26 June 2018

Overdoing it and week 12 weigh in result

The run of big nights and days started on Thursday. We went to a wine tasting event in Sheffield with Rich's wine club. We don't profess to be wine buffs but, as with real ales, we don't like the bland blends and find that the wine club provides us with some more quirky options.  We'd rather detest the odd bottle but love some than find them all slipping down unnoticed.

So, Rich having saved up a nice little war chest in his account, we set off into Sheffield to abuse the ticket price and try to find some wines we really like. It was all big, generous sloshes and enthusiastic reps. As we drink more red than white we decided to spend more time on the whites to work out what we like.

Our notes started off as measured and detailed but, as we became fired with, erm, enthusiasm, they deteriorated to more "pithy" statements like "yum!", "meh", "yuk"...etc! We put in a solid 2 hours on empty stomaches before picking our 2 mixed cases and staggering off to a chinese buffet restaurant which would guarantee to feed us before the last bus home.

I had a solid hangover on Friday morning and thanked my stars that I was working from home that day.

There was no Friday evening trip to the pub or weekend bottle of wine with our steak..... Just a nice sunny dog walk and an early, jaded night.










Saturday dawned bright and early for golf.  It was the mens' Captain's day and, for the first time he had invited the ladies to play. Rich had already fixed up a team by the time we knew we were included so I arranged an all girl team.

It was a perfect day for golf and we played pretty well. I was gutted to miss a short putt on the last green bringing our score to 79 rather than the 80 we should have scored. It's horrible when you muck up the very last shot of the day. You never remember the missed shots mid-round, but you never forget the missed putt on the last!! Especially when it cost our team first place!!

Which is probably a good thing as it might not have been politically sensitive for a team of girls to win the mens' Captain's Day at first time of asking!!  So we were chuffed with our second place and Rich was pleased with his team's 4th place considering that he carried the other 2 round!!

It was the Captain's BBQ on Saturday night. A lovely, if somewhat midge ridden evening with a band and a moderate amount of booze.  Here's Rich with the assistant pro working on getting an extra sausage.


There was nothing moderate about Sunday though. We had tickets to the cricket at Old Trafford for the fifth and final one day international in the series against Australia. England were 4 nil up so a win would be a first ever whitewash over the Aussies. After the terrible test series we endured in Australia, it would be pure heaven to see us beat 'em!!

We got the early train to Manchester and set ourselves up for the day with a traditional cooked brekkie from Wetherspoons. I changed my order to have the modest one rather than my previous usual "fat bastard" brekkie. Small changes add up.

This was our stand!! Yikes. We were very pleased to be in row 9 not 59! Especially Rich who is not good with heights!



The Aussies were in to bat first and everything was going swimmingly.  After a hot scoring few overs the wickets started to fall and they were all out in just 32 overs for a modest 205. Happy days.

Off we toddled to watch a bit of the England football game where we were satisfyingly whooping Panama's ass 6-1! This international sport is easy....





Erm, not-so-much. When we came back after our lunch break, England were already 34 for 4 and the wickets just kept falling. It wasn't looking good for the whitewash. It was always possible to win as our target was low but only if we could stay in.  At last Buttler and Raschid made a stand and nearly got us over the line.

But then, with just 11 runs needed, Raschid got out and our last batsman came to the crease. It was torture. Watching him block ball after ball until Buttler could get back on strike was incredibly nerve wracking. All was well though, he made it through and England knocked off the last few runs.

Whitewash!!


During the quiet period when things were looking bad, our spirits were lifted by a couple of giant inflatable melons pinging around. It's the little things...


All this socialising was likely to play havoc with my primary goal of weight loss. Although I saw 15.12 on the scales on Sunday morning, I didn't trust that. I meant to have a proper tough day on Monday to try to get a drop but that didn't really work due to the heat and my mild jaded hangover.

So I was thrilled with a whole lb off taking me to 15.13.6 and a total drop of 26lbs. 15s!!

I celebrated by going for an early morning 5km run without the dogs. Much quicker than with them and kinder to them in this heat. My average time per km is down to 8.21! And I ran 5.2km which is 1km more than my last run.

I'm still on the move despite the booze. Need a quieter week this week.

1 comment:

Peridot said...

From the outside, you’ve sped towards those 15s - although it may feel longer from your perspective. Congratulations!

I read your sports commentary - I’m still baffled (although I did like the watermelon beach balls!) but it’s excellent that you and R are two of a kind!

Good news on the wine: what did you buy, grape-wise?

Px