Best laid plans

 ITU World standard distance triathlon Championships in Edmonton, Canada 2014 Bike racking.

The best laid plans..............

Yesterday looked like a busy schedule just from a glance at my diary. The same appointment notes were made on the calendar in the kitchen and in my phone. What could go wrong?

Starting with just an hour on the turbo trainer because it was set to be a busy day, but training is my first priority with another sports year crammed with exciting events both at home in the South England and in Europe later in the year. Dates are being bandied about as far ahead as October.  So because there was only time for an hour, Steve my husband/coach selected a short hill climbing session from the pile of sets we have on DVD’s in our little box room. We don’t start turbo training until 8am for the sake of our close neighbours, fair’s fair. When we had finished the set we were both drenched in sweat and so a quick bath was next in the order of things. It was all a bit of a rush to get ready for my next date that was with my dentist for a check up, although I knew it would lead to another visit because I had a broken tooth. 

Steve took me to the dentist because he had to go to the office of our insurance company. He dropped me off at the door before going on only fifty meters away to sort out my car insurance. I had arrived on time but had a bit had a wait, 40 minutes in fact, that I spent usefully trying to start learning the next poem for the ‘By Heart’ challenge at the next meeting of our poetry group called Scribblers.

Once in for my check up the dentist did all the usual torture and said that I would have to come back for him to work on the broken tooth. Bad news. I must have it crowned he said, no question. I told him then and there, that I could not have that done until after the triathlon season. The even worse news was that it would cost £260.00! He said that if I insisted on waiting until October that he would have to do a temporary filling for the jagged edged tooth and that would cost £60 odd. And would then be removed for the crowning!

 In Kona at the Ironman World Championships with John Lunt very well known master race director. 

The day was not going too well. Our next move was home again, for an hour of office work; invoices, emails, phone calls. Then we had to drive to Chichester to do some household shopping and I had a shipping order of things that I needed. That turned out to be a good deal. Boots card holders who are over 60 get some amazingly good deals with their points system and with the Senior Day Event on, a collection of vouchers that came through the post I ended up with a third off my goods, all things I buy there regularly plus a free Boots brand gift that is quite expensive on the counter of my choice. Plus points for the things I had bought. It was such a good deal that it didn’t make sense from their point of view, but you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth do you.

Photo here is with Ian Douglas Sweet who made a TV film featuring my Kona story, He called it Hawaii 5-5.

My next appointment was at St Richards Hospital, at the Maxillo Facial Unit. Let this be a warning to my younger friends in the sport of Triathlon and in particular long distance events. I have regular check ups for my face because of sun damage. I had beautiful skin when I took up the sport and now it is showing the result of spending all day long in the sun in many of my most important events. I have frequently started a race at 7 am and not crossed the finish line until getting on for midnight. My face has paid the price for this indulgence. I have had to have a number of nasty little things freeze burned off, and also one small surgery.
Use the sun block! I know it’s hard, because you are sweating whilst you are biking and running but you might have to pay the price later for neglect.

Arriving at the reception desk for an appointment that I had waited ELEVEN weeks for, for a bi-opsy on more suspect places on my face, suggested by the consultant on the last appointment back in October, after waiting for that appointment since summer after visiting my GP. The young lady told me that I was a day late for the appointment. I did say that was not so, because I had written the date down in my diary as soon as the letter came giving my the appointment. Anyway I was turned away. They said it was my fault, I said that was not possible. Stalemate. No point in getting angry, mistakes happen to us all. Steve had taken the day off work to come with me because he didn’t want me driving the 12 miles home after a procedure. Two wasted days than, and possibly another three months for the next time slot!

My husband, is an absolute Saint as I often remark, I actually do call him Saint Stephen quite often. His answer to the ignore the way the day was going was to turn it into an outing.  It was getting on for 4 pm and he thought that to make it seem like a better day we would go and have something to eat in the town and then go to our favourite art house cinema and catch a movie. He chose Carluccio’s that is very close to the New Park Cinema. We had plenty of time to relax and cool down there and enjoy the rest of the day.

Our seats in the cinema were a little close to the screen because the place was almost full the seats are so comfortable that it doesn’t matter.  The new version of Little Women was marvellous and I see Oscar’s circling for the most amazing cast. Saoirse Ronan was simply astonishing as Jo, Emma Watson as Meg and James Norton who was recently on TV as Stephen Ward was John. Timothée Chalamet was a delightful’ Laurie. He played the young Henry V in the movie The King in 2019, what an amazing young actor he is. Steve had taken me to the cinema just as a consolation prize and he actually did not fancy the film at all, but when the lights came on he raised both thumbs and said that it was a full 10 and that he had loved it.

I had loved the original 1949 film that I had been taken to by my mother when I was ten or eleven years old. It was a blockbuster then, full of big stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Janet Leigh, June Allyson, Maureen O’Hara and Peter Lawford. I was ever a movie fan.

As we got up to leave he asked me what it was like sitting next to somebody just like me?? The man next to me had fidgeted all through the film. He had taken his coat off, put it back on, then taken it off again. He had got up from his seat and gone out of the cinema in the middle of the film and of course disturbed us all when he came back in again and started eating and drinking.

We were home by 9 pm greeted by our cat Birdie, who said we were very late for his dinner and made a lot of noise complaining about the neglect.