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.

Armchair Television Sport

We've been watching the Championships from Glasgow. (Does it not have a more imaginative title than that? Not Eurosports or something ? Not exactly an inspirational title for a sporting event.) It's the cycling events. What a weird sport. Riding round and round on a sloping, wooden, track. A load of men (and sometimes women), dressed in tight-fitting, body-hugging, garishly-coloured garb, made of Lycra, or Spandex. By the way, how on earth do they get into these suits? They look incredibly uncomfortable. Then they wear helmets (good that they do when you see the accidents some of them have.) and have visors of a reflective material, which also means that you can't see their eyes, giving the impression of some sort of astronaut or at least, character out of something like 'Star Wars' or some such science-fiction epic movie. Then, what's this with the funny little man on a scooter, looking as if he's drifted in by accident, a postman, Mr Bean-type character, who has to ride round and round (the Derney Bicycle or something?) The pace-maker or something. Totally weird, and somewhat amusing. Well, to my sense of humour at any rate. I can't see that going round and round in circles on a bicycle is a sport. Oh dear, I know it is. But it's an odd sport, to say the least. Oh, right. Cycling across country, or round a city centre (as they did a few days ago, around the streets of Glasgow) but round and round in circles? I just don't get it. This Derney Bicycle looks like Mr Bean. Just out of place. Then Women's Madison or something. Doing around 120 circuits. How far is that? But they don't get anywhere. They go miles and miles but then land up where they started! I know that's not the point, but I think if I was to ride a bicycle that far I'd want to have got somewhere. Not back where I had started from.

Who on earth comes up with the idea of diving into a pool of water? From goodness knows what height. Amazing that someone would want to do this. I have trouble just getting into a swimming pool from the side let alone jumping in, or at least, diving, from a board some twenty or thirty feet from the ground. Or off a spring-board and then doing all sorts of twist and turns as they head for the water.

Swimming, in open water, for 25 km. What's that in miles? I have no idea, but it's a long way. From a distance, a large group of men and sometimes women, look a lot like spawning salmon, swimming up-stream. Then they're followed by people in rubber dinghy's, or at least look like rubber dinghies. Is it in case they get lost? How can they see where they're going? Then, how about running, swimming and cycling? It's not the swimming or running that would be difficult, not that all of it's difficult, but the idea of swimming and then having to cycle, in no doubt wet clothing which would put me off. Must be uncomfortable riding a bicycle in wet clothing. A bit squelchy, to say the least.

Well, then there's darts. Oh, please!  (Alright, I know, not part of the European Championships, but they do take up a lot of airspace on the television channels at times.) That isn't in any way or shape or form a sport. Just throwing pointy things at a sort of target thingy. Not even breaking a sweat. Then probably downing pints of beer and the men looking definitely over-weight. Just moving your arm, standing still. I realise there is a skill in doing this, but it can't be classed as a sport. And neither can snooker. Apart from anything else it's just boring. Again, it is a definite skill to play that, but to me it still can't be termed 'sport.' Next thing well get tiddly-winks as a sport.

A Flying Visit

Sunday Morning. We spent quite some time tidying the house, vacuuming the carpets, mopping the kitchen floor, generally making the place a little more than spotless. We knew we were to get a visit from our landlord's wife at around 2 o'clock this afternoon. We watched some of the European Championships 2018 from Glasgow, some of the rowing and then the women's bicycle road race. Interesting to see Glasgow and somewhere we'd like to visit.

Carol was to get another visit from the nurse to give her the antibiotics, but she must have been running late and didn't get to us until around 1.20. We were concerned that she was going to be here when we had the house inspection, but this particular nurse is extremely efficient and managed to do what was needed within around 30 minutes or so. Some of the other nurses who come seem to take much longer. Once she'd gone, we were left to wait for our landlord to visit. 2 o'clock came and went. It is somewhat annoying that you spend all that time and effort cleaning the house and arrange a time and then- they don't turn up. Probably because we're very punctual, like to be on time for things. Then a large car turned up outside the house at around 2.25. We had to put poor Alfie in the garden and shut the patio door because I don't think our landlord's wife likes dogs. Alfie kept looking in through the glass door but settled down to lay on the grass. I think he quite enjoyed being outside in the sunshine.

The car contained  the landlord's wife and their daughter, who we've never met before. She had a leather folder in her hand. They came into the lounge and sat down. They had a new tenancy agreement for us to sign and then proceeded to fill in the relevant details and we signed. They were going to take it away and get it photocopied and then give us the copy. It was this document which we were eager to find, without success, when we turned the house upside down in our attempt to find an earlier version of this document, and then the landlord had put the letter through the door which stated that he was our landlord and how much rent we paid each month which I immediately took to the Council offices so that we could complete our application for Housing Benefit. There was no attempt to inspect the house, although it was very clear that they could see how clean and tidy the house was. Somewhat annoying because we'd spent so much time and effort in cleaning and tidying the house. The only comment we got was about the garden, particularly the front lawn which is, admittedly, in definite need of mowing, but, due to the extremely hot weather I had left this job. The landlord said that they could help to get the garden tidy and the lawn mown, but in all honesty I wouldn't want any of them coming to the house. As it is, they leave us alone as no doubt they realise we are reliable tenants; we pay our rent on time and look after the house. True enough. And that was the end of that. They couldn't have been in the house much more than ten minutes. So, we should get a copy of the rental agreement and we no doubt won't see them again for another year. Most definitely a flying visit. It seemed that they didn't want to over-stay their welcome, and we could have easily done without all the effort we'd been to to clean the house for their benefit.