Merry solstice!
I got an email from Anglian Water saying that I appear to have another leak (a mere one litre per hour this time). I assume this just means they didn’t do a great job of repairing the leaky meter last time, but I need to remember to turn the stop cock off overnight at some point to check. There’s no indication of any joined-up thinking at their end – you’d think maybe something would flag up the fact that there was a leak at the same property only a couple of months ago.
The weather’s been heating up (too much if you ask me), and after a couple of weeks with strong winds and/or threatened rain we had no excuse not to cycle to Felixstowe for Tuesday’s training session. Neil and I had a leisurely ride there with a bit of a headwind, and were joined by the less leisurely Dave and Ryan for a fairly speedy ride back, making the most of the wind at our backs.
Back to the Fat Cat on Wednesday for the delayed meet-up with current (Rupert) and ex- (Mel and Tony) colleagues. It was nice to be able to sit outside at last, and I also benefitted from a one-pound pint as it was the end of the cask (well it was Mel who benefitted really, as it was his round).
The heat had really set in ready for the Bury Friday 5. For some reason this one always seems to be warm – at least since the 30°C one in 2022 – and this year we were running in temperatures only about a degree below that. Unsurprisingly I was a minute and a half slower than a couple of weeks ago at Sudbury!
On Saturday I made a flying visit to Southampton for a celebration of the life of my brother in law Pad, who died suddenly in his sleep last month (my sister lives in Spain, so the funeral itself had been over there). As usual with these things, it was nice to catch up with some relatives I’d not seen for far too long, but we’d all have preferred it to have been in better circumstances. It was a happy occasion though, as he’d have wanted – they’d booked out the pub where they held their wedding reception, and one of Pad’s friends had but together a booklet full of photos and people’s recollections, in the style of a Southampton FC programme, and had copies printed up for everyone.
I decided to ignore the heat and go for an easy run on Sunday, and for some reason set out at the warmest part of the day for what I originally planned to be a loop out along by the Orwell and back through Nacton. Checking the route near Levington I realised that I wasn’t all that far from Trimley, and decided to head that way instead and get the train back. While making that decision a weasel appeared and dropped a dead mouse at my feet, which was exactly as weird as it sounds. Nearing Trimley I asked my phone to direct me on the shortest route to the Half Moon for a quick bit of pre-train rehydration, but Google warned me that it would be shut so for some reason I then decided to continue into Felixstowe. After a quick pint at the Owl and Pussycat I continued down to the pier, then along the front and up to the station. Apart from the heat it was a nice route, mostly on the new(ish) King Charles coastal path. Apart from the weasel I saw a couple of muntjacs, loads of dragonflies and some oystercatchers.
