Feet back on the ground

The first day back to normal after a trip away is always a bit of a downer and I am blaming that today on the fact that I am tired both from the journey that ended up at eleven hours and still from being part of the back up team for a friend doing Ironman Frankfurt on Sunday.  

We had a very early start for that, having woken up before the alarm at 3.30 am local time. The race swim start was about fifteen miles out of the city and there was a diversion that made it even longer. Then a long enough walk in to the start area. Being a supporter is a tiring job in itself though it is as nothing compared with doing a massive endurance race like that.

 

So leaving for a long drive home the next morning is an effort and when you get home there is all the unloading of our van that in our case includes two bikes and a pile of sports kit too. So this morning started with unpacking the bags and piling mountains of clobber out by the washing machine for the big clean up operation. 

The fifth load of washing has just been pegged out on the washing line on our little garden. That is when you know that the holiday is really over. I do a bit of hand washing during a vacation but once home I am a bit obsessive and like to make sure that pretty much everything goes in the washing machine, has a flutter on the line, get folded nicely and placed in the cupboards designated as the needs ironing pile. 

My first job when I left school at fourteen was in a small dress and separates shop in Worthing just off Montague Street. I was given a lesson on how to do ironing correctly and then proceeded to iron every newly bought item of stock before it was placed on rails or on shelves or displayed in the shop window. Many of my friends say they just fold things up carefully so they don’t need ironing but having been trained to make every piece of clothing look neat and presentable I could not possibly hang things in the wardrobe without having carefully ironed them first. 

Between loads of washing and hanging etc. I wrote a nice blog page and was just going to place it on my diary page when the phone rang. I hastily shut it down without saving and so lost it completely, a page and a half! That did not do a great deal for my blood pressure and after a couple of good searches decided not to drive myself mad and told myself to close the door on that particular piece, not even trying to re write it. Guess it was just being so tired.