Roadies

Well, today's run was pretty splendid, quite frankly. I use the term "frankly" a lot, as it now bears a double meaning for me. Obviously, it indicates frankness in nature, but has also become a high accolade of indicating Frank-ness in nature, too. It's only appropriate that I over-use it. Anyhow, I agreed with running Dave that we'd go for a lunchtime run today, and we did. Dave said that his legs felt heavy, which I viewed as being a good thing (you can read that any way you choose, although for the record, I only viewed, I didn't also feel), as it must surely slow him down. He said he was going to let me pick the pace. He's said this before, and it never works, we still end up going much faster than I ever run alone. He said he's been running with a brand-new runner who makes me look quite fast, which was flattering in its own way, I guess. We did our usual trip around the rowing lake, which is WAY over 5km, but I'm not allowed credit. Our average was 9:53 min/mile, over 5.47 miles, and at some points we were going faster than that. Also, we had a great old chat, but I view it as being none of your business, so you'll have to imagine it. I think there were some blog-worthy moments in it, but actually, I've forgotten what they were. I can divulge that Dave works WAY too hard, and should really just refuse. I thought he was an upstanding union member, as well. When I got back from the run, I thought I had half an hour until my meeting, but found the person waiting for me, (I still think his meeting must have ended early) so having agreed that Dave could shower first, I had to renege and ask if I could go in before him. He didn't seem to be around when I got back, so I collared someone who sits near him and asked him to tell Dave that the shower was free, forgetting it was Pete, who will seize any opportunity for wind-up. "Oh, don't pretend that you haven't been showering together" he said. "If you don't have any gossip, make it up" I told him, "But go with that one".

When I posted on Facebook that today had been a Dave-run, long and fast, Sally commented "Crumbs, can you rephrase that please"... I've been thinking of how to do so ever since but words fail me... it was a perfect description. I could have said "Speedy and Far", if that would make her blush less?

In the evening, I had (obviously) a full-on, and carefully scheduled evening planned. It went like this: (1) take bus to Shrewsbury Ave, pick up hire car. (2) Drive back via Pets at Home, pick up anything Frank might need (3) Go home, pack, learn lines for tonight (we're "scripts down" now). (4) Go to rehearsal (5) Go home, pick FRANK up, drive to the parents (Sussex).

So, I couldn't see any minor flaw in that. I mean, Frank has been moaning at me for years now for going away, and never loses an opportunity to climb into my bags if he sees me packing. Just because he's never been in a car before, or in fact, ever been away from the house before, I couldn't see any problems in my plan whatsoever. I even bought him a cat basket on wheels, because I thought it might be easier. He could have liked it. If he'd thought it was my bag.

Anyway, it went surprisingly well. I mean, 4/5 isn't bad, is it? Actually, the drive was OK. Frank lay on the back against the rear windscreen howling, looking out behind as if to say "Let me STAY", and also every time other cars were nearby, "HELP", but that only lasted 40 minutes. I was just picking up signs for Stansted when it abated. He repositioned by putting his head forward between the front seats for a while, but he couldn't get onto the front passenger seat because someone had left a cat basket there (belted in), so he just lay on the handbrake. Then, realising the error of his ways, he lay on the back seat, and I threw his blanket onto it, which he seemed to appreciate. I spent a long time worrying that when I got to the Dartford Crossing, he'd leap out of the window at the toll, but when I got there, found out it is free after 10pm, which was fortuitous.

The purpose of the Thursday-night journey was to arrive in time to deal with some contractors who were arriving on Friday morning, and because they'd said 9am, and I wasn't sure at the time that the parents were going to be around to ferry me from the station, (and I had to be at rehearsal on Thursday night), I decided to drive. They later told me they wouldn't arrive till 11, which was irritating, as I certainly could have got there by train for that time, but it did allow me to hatch the plan to see how Frank dealt with travelling. Dad is always asking me to stay longer, and I'm always reluctant to push the good nature of my friend Maggie too far in the cat-sitting element, so I usually have to hurry back. If I could bring him down occasionally, it would be a possibility, but only if it didn't stress him out unduly. So, this was a first time experiment. But as we arrived just before 1am, how he got on in a new house is another story.