More Weird Sports

So, we've spent the last couple of weeks watching the European Championships 2018, mostly from Glasgow, but some from Berlin. So, how weird is it to have something like this from two cities, hundreds of miles apart? Just think of the coordination. We turned on the television to be confronted by what was called a 'Walking Race'. Really? They didn't look as if they were walking to me, more like waddling. Who on earth invented this strange contest? Over, wait for it, 24 km? Did I read that right? What's that in miles? I don't know, but it certainly wasn't walking. If I was to walk like that, I'd get an awful stitch, or my hips would ache. Then, apparently, they had two events of this sort at the same time, the men and women. How did that happen? Something to do with there being an incident with gas or something. But it just looked so odd. Is it me, or was it odd? It was, no doubt. How come none of them just began to run? I know, it wouldn't be in the rules, but walking? Doesn't make any sense at all.  Then, a bit later, the B.M.X. something-or-other. Young men, on bicycles which looked far too small for them (most of them must have been around my height, around 6ft plus, on bicycles that looked to me as if they were build for children), then they hurl themselves down a very steep slope (!) and then bounce around jumping over what look like little more than concrete-coated waves, along the course, going round in circles. Land badly and you ruin your chances of fatherhood. No, seriously, or have a nasty accident, which several of them did. I just hope the saddles on those bikes were comfortable, although, most of the time, they didn't actually sit down on them, a bit like jockeys in horse races, when they don't actually sit in the saddles on those horses, sort of perched at a rather peculiar angle on top of their mounts. 

The decathlon is another event which is quite entertaining ( more than 'quite.' It's very entertaining.) Who invented this? Swimming, running and then cycling? None of the different 'parts' is exactly a walk in the park. Figuratively or literally. I mean, a run, swim, or cycle in a rather attractive Glasgow country park. Makes football look more like a game of tiddlywinks by comparison. And none of these competitors earn a penny, unlike those footballers who earn telephone numbers. Crazy. They'd have a hissy fit if they so much as got mud on their over-sponsored football boots. In the olden days, back in the mists of time, footballers earned realistic salaries and then had proper jobs in factories or coal mines and played football as a sort of hobby at the weekend.

Thinking again about the road races. I'm intrigued by the camera-work involved. No, really. The actual racing is fantastic, which is odd for me, particularly as I'm not really that interested in sport, particularly those sports that go on interminably, such as tennis, or cricket or, for that matter, football. The last lot we saw, was it during the World Cup from Russia, a couple of weeks ago, (although most of it I watched whilst looking at email or other stuff on my MacBook laptop.) I have to say, looked really bland and could have just as well been a computer simulation or a computer game. The grass looks unfeasibly green and more like astro turf of even fitted carpet and all that advertising that they had all around the pitch was a real distraction. What I meant to say, before I digressed, was the way they shot the events for television. They had a sort of camera fitted to a line stretched across the course, and a camera ran along this line, which must have been quite distracting for the competitors. Then, during the road-races, they had cameras on scooters. How on earth did those cameramen manage to balance on the back of these scooters, and how did they manage to not fall off? I couldn't see how they were sitting on the back of the scooters, usually several yards in front of the leading competitors,  then shooting backwards at them, managing to keep the camera steady, and, by the size of them, along with the lenses, managing to keep hold of the camera and focussing on the competitors and generally taking decent shots. How did they avoid all the 'health and safety' rules and regulations regarding this? Just think of the risk assessments for this, or if it comes to that, the B.M.X. events.

Well, if nothing else, I've managed to get quite a lot of blog posts out of watching these events. And, very surprisingly, become something of a fan along the way. Probably because they've had several sports involved, and you can enjoy the scenery if you get bored with the actual sports, which is quite breathtaking. Perhaps it's my Scottish ancestry coming out, because my father's side of the family came from Glasgow, or at least, just outside somewhere or other.

After so many weeks of scorching hot weather, it's actually pleasant to be having rain, as we had yesterday. I can't believe I just wrote that, because, generally, if it rains in this country, it brings doom and gloom. At first we had a miserable rain, no more than a sort of dribble, but it's now a good deal stronger. I just hope it's enough to freshen up things because the grass looks dead and shrivelled all along the Grid Roads around Milton Keynes. I had hoped to take Alfie for a second walk this afternoon, but it really wouldn't be such a good idea, because both of us would only end up soaked to the skin.

I took the car back to Bleak Hall Motors to have the work done so that it could have it's MoT certificate. Got there by around 7.50 so I had to wait until they opened up. Considerably cooler so I wished I hadn't worn my shorts. Anyway, round about 9.30 they told me it as completed, so payed using my debit card and left. I'm just glad that's done. Fortunately the brakes don't need any work doing, they seem o.k., so that's less of a worry, although the car could do with servicing.

I took Alfie was a shorter walk than usual, because of the on-and-off rain. He'd been expecting to be taken out earlier, but there wasn't time before I had to take the car to Bleak Hall Motors.

Saturday morning. It's a bright and sunny morning. No sign of rain. What rain we had over the past couple of days hasn't made much of an effect on the grass, the garden or any vegetation around where we live. Yesterday afternoon there was a quite violent rainstorm, with fairly high winds, but nothing too dramatic. There was quite a cascade of water running along the front of the house when the nurse came to give Carol her antibiotics. It seems she will still be getting visits until Sunday, so these visits haven't finished as we'd expected on Friday.