Kerry Buckley What’s the simplest thing that could possibly go wrong?

This has been the first week of stricter enforcement of the “three together, two wherever” (ie at least three days in the office) policy at work. It’s mildly annoying, but at least it’s not too far and I’m colocated with people I actually work with. It must be very irritating to people forced to make a long commute to sit in an office full of strangers, each on their own Teams calls. More to the point though, and more on-brand, it indirectly provided this week’s tale of incompetence. Having decided to take advantage of three consecutive days in the office by leaving my laptop in my changing room locker rather than lugging it in and back on my bike every day, I thought I might as well leave my jeans there on Tuesday too, given that I only needed running gear to go out in the evening. Only when I got home did I remember noticing early in the day that my car key was in my pocket, rather than in its normal place on the kitchen table. Fortunately I managed to scrounge a lift to Felixstowe for training.

On Wednesday I got a train to Norwich to see Jim Bob at the Waterfront. There was no support, just one set with just Chris TT on piano, then a second with the full Hoodrats band. A very quiet crowd by Carter standards, and no bubble machine from Mr Spoons during Touchy Feely at the end, but a great night of Carter and solo tunes nonetheless.

I managed (just) to wake up and drag myself out of bed to run for coffee on Friday. I even put some effort in on the Strava segment through Christchurch Park, and surprised myself by recording my fastest time. Garmin’s also marked it as my fastest 1k, which makes for a very flattering time given how downhill it is.

Inspired by that, with no Sunday racing to provide an excuse, and with my usual parkrun run & chat partner working a Saturday shift, I pushed myself on Saturday too, and managed my tenth-fastest parkrun, second-fastest on that course, and second-best age grade. Then a long slow run in Sunday’s drizzle to really finish my legs off.

Having commented on how fortunate last Sunday’s weather was, given how far we had to walk in shorts & vests before and after the LB 10k, Monday demonstrated just how fortunate, with wind, rain, hail and a sudden end to the brief spell of summery weather almost before it had started. I opted not to leave the house.

I’ve now finished watching all the A-Team episodes. Season four started getting silly (from, to be fair, quite a high starting point), with big name guest appearances (Hulk Hogan twice, Isaac Hayes, [Cow]Boy George etc), and Season five completely lost the plot, in that they end up working for the CIA (in the person of Robert Vaughn), Murdoch’s been released from the VA, and they have a new team member for no obvious reason. No great surprise that it was cancelled midway through, although it’s a puzzle why the last two episodes were swapped round, with the obvious finale followed by what looks like a very low budget last outing, that begins with footage spliced in from a previous season then mostly takes place inside an Italian restaurant. Anyway, if my count is correct they only get locked in a workshop five times (plus once in a toy/firework warehouse) across the whole 95-episode run, which is fewer times than Endo off of Lethal Weapon makes an appearance as a generic baddy henchman.

Apparently I’ve now solved my Rubik’s puzzle cube over 2,500 times (and that’s just the ones I used the timer for), which I’m sure is perfectly normal and fine. My average time is now around 50s, and I don’t think my memory is up to learning enough extra algorithms to get it much faster.

Wednesday should have been Run for Beer, but once again a poor weather forecast put everyone off. I went out for a little solo trail run anyway, and to be fair I did end up slightly cold and wet. The bluebells were nice though.

For some reason I kept thinking Thursday was Friday, to the extent that I even made rock buns in the evening to take to parkrun. I was quite disappointed to wake up the next morning and remember there was still one day of the working week left. I did at least manage to refrain from eating most of the rock buns, so I could still take them to parkrun.

I ate a bit of the extreme chilli chocolate from a long ago beer festival that’s still in the fridge. It’s been long enough since I ate any (not sure how long exactly, but it’s best before 2015) that I thought maybe it wasn’t so painfully hot after all. I can, however, report that yes, it very much is. Maybe I’ll have another bite in a few more years.

I went for a long run on Sunday, and missed most of the traditional “Where’s Wally” activity of trying to spot people I know in the BBC London Marathon coverage. Lots of people seemed to do very well though. Obviously I’m never going to do a marathon, but also obviously I’ve put myself into the ballot for next year as usual.

Quiet week, apparently.

Spring seems to have very much sprung, with temperatures hitting 20?C at the weekend (first week of cycling to parkrun with nothing over my T-shirt) and bluebells etc springing up everywhere.

Little Bromley 10k on Sunday – one of the fastest local races of that distance (my PB is on the older version of the course). Good weather again, which is always a relief as there’s quite a distance to walk from the car park to the start and even further from the finish back to the car, and I wouldn’t fancy that if it were cold and raining. It went pretty well, and I came away with my second fastest ever time, which is pleasing as an increasingly old man. Then after getting home we cycled to the pub for a few pints outside in the sunshine, which has naturally written off the rest of the afternoon.

Er …

… that’s it.

Leftover item that I forgot to include last week: a return visit to the dentist for a replacement filling. All very straightforward and painless, despite the lack of injection. Well, apart from the price, I suppose.

I took advantage of the second extra day of weekend to get a longish slow run in, even managing to find a couple of miles of trails I’d never run before (including a slightly hairy crossing of the A12). The route back through the Fynn Valley took me past the tyre swing over the river (well, stream really), that I’m pretty sure I’ve never passed without having a quick go. This time I found that both the rope and the tyre had been replaced by beefier versions, although it now hangs a bit lower, increasing the risk of wet feet. It later transpired that it had been replaced by someone I know, after someone cut the old one down.

Back to work, and the usual procedure of trying to work out what on earth I’d been doing before taking a week off. Fortunately I’d had the foresight to leave a long commit message to my future self explaining what I’d left half-done.

I managed to make a coffee run on Wednesday, for the first time in a while. There were only three of us, one of whom was rushing off afterwards, so we didn’t actually stop for coffee (which is fine, as I can make a better cup at home than I can buy from Ian Greggs).

My [so-called] Mini had its MOT test on Friday (the first one since I bought it nearly a year (and a massive 2126 miles) ago. Fortunately it sailed through, with only a couple of tyre-related advisories (which was, surprisingly, three fewer than the previous year). Surprisingly, the cost of an MOT test (with a discount code) seems to be 25% cheaper than it was 20 years ago. And 20 years ago it definitely wasn’t possible to check the test status and advisory list on your phone while walking to the garage to collect the car.

Hopefully another year’s cheap (and more reliable than the Roadster!) motoring awaits.

Another long run on Sunday, on a slightly longer variation of Monday’s route, and this time with Holly. Obviously we both had to have a go on the swing, and both ended up with slightly wet feet (but didn’t actually fall in). The weather’s suddenly started getting warm again, with very little pause in the Goldilocks zone of running temperature. Thanks to last week’s long run technically being this week, it’s been my first 50+ mile week of the year.

We’re now 25% through #48in24, and I’m still keeping up. I definitely haven’t ever written code (albeit not much code) in so many languages in such a short time before.