🎵 A persistent buyer came back early Sunday morning with a new offer for the Dark Side of the Moon cassette. He caught me in a moment of weakness on the day of rest. Scratch that. I had only managed one cup of tea and so wasn't fully functioning. I accepted the £9 offer - £1 below the Buy It Now asking price. That should translate to three CD's, thank you very much. One out, three in. Job's a good 'un 👍 #
📻 Maxwell Hutchinson was back with Robert Elms on BBC Radio London. It's been a while. Or maybe I have just missed his appearances? Max is a quality broadcaster with a London tale for every topic. He even manages to outmanoeuvre Elms at times with the richest of London's history that runs through him. He's also incredibly honest - a very much appreciated value in a broadcaster. He spoke in clarity about his recent illness and the NHS. And then he went on a fantastic oratory tale of where we live in later years. He made a grim topic sound reassuring.#
🚴 A miserable bicycle ride in the pissing rain over to Brightlingsea followed. If the weather doesn't get you then the close passing Petrol Heads will. I was asked by a ticket inspector on a train into LS last month: "Why do you cycle in London? You must be mad!" Not as mad as cycling in the bloody Estuary Wilds, fella.#
🚣♂️ The occasion for a roll out over to Brightlingsea was the next round of the Harker's Yard Winter Series with WivGigs. I wasn't feeling fighting fit, tbh. My arm is still sore after the flu jab on Friday. Racing in a blustery estuary against a dozen or so other competitive crews wasn't how I wanted to spend my Sunday lunchtime.#
🐌 A little humour was added with a stray snail. I met up with the other club members and had a good social catch up. It was almost time to race. I went to the gents to check my looks, etc. BLOODY HELL! WTF is that? I had a massive bulge above my eyebrow. Oh. That will be a snail then. It must have been inside my bicycle helmet overnight, and joined me on the ride over to Brightlingsea. The other WivGigs crew members were far too polite to mention this.#
The women raced first in blowy, wet conditions. In short, this was not a Sunday for messing about on the water. The public pontoon came close to sinking under the weight of the many rowers from across the Harker's Yard family of rowers.#
A brief crew swap, and soon I was seated on second stroke for the men's race. It was a 15 minute row over to the start line. Fifteen minutes in and still weren't there. Oh dear.#
The waves increased in size and pace as Point Clear came into sight. I had memories of the Round Mersea race over the summer when our boat had to be rescued. It was pretty much the same crew and cox as well...#
This wasn't looking good. I have a good sense of danger and can spot it a maritime mile off. My arm was f-ed as well. I was rowing one-handed, often not even making oar contact with the water. We weren't even at race pace as we tried to reach the starting line.#
I fessed up: "I don't feel safe." I don't think I was alone, but I was the first one to come clean. The cox agreed. We managed a 180 degrees turn and headed back to safer waters. I felt deflated. Completely broken and a sense of failure for letting the other crew members down. I didn't hang around. I cycled back to base feeling a fraud.#
🌳 It didn't get much better with Forest away at Arsenal. Realistically we were looking at a 2-0 defeat ahead of kick off as a decent result. That Wembley optimism from only five months ago seems like a generation away.#
I do admire how Steve Cooper seems to have found his preferred starting eleven though. The run-in last season was built around the same faces, week in, week out. We're getting there with the Forest 2.0 model. It's only cost us £150m+.#
I was also made up to see Reiss Nelson come on as an early sub for Arsenal. He was an SE17 kid from back in the day. I have memories of watching him playing football in the playground as a primary school kid and thinking, yep - he's half decent. Fifteen years later and I'm washed up in the bloody Estuary Wilds, listening to BBC Radio Nottingham commentary of a kid I use to know, now scoring a couple against Forest. Funny old game.#
Forest were down and out. It was dark before 5pm. This wasn't the most optimistic Sunday tbh.#
🧻 We had a little toilet humour when A's Prime Subscribe and Save order for Andrex almost served us up with 30 packs of nine toilet rolls. It even reached the despatch stage before we were able to put the brakes on. No shit.#
🎯 Darts and Gervais ended Sunday evening.#
🎵 A persistent buyer came back early Sunday morning with a new offer for the Dark Side of the Moon cassette. He caught me in a moment of weakness on the day of rest. Scratch that. I had only managed one cup of tea and so wasn't fully functioning. I accepted the £9 offer - £1 below the Buy It Now asking price. That should translate to three CD's, thank you very much. One out, three in. Job's a good 'un 👍 #
📻 Maxwell Hutchinson was back with Robert Elms on BBC Radio London. It's been a while. Or maybe I have just missed his appearances? Max is a quality broadcaster with a London tale for every topic. He even manages to outmanoeuvre Elms at times with the richest of London's history that runs through him. He's also incredibly honest - a very much appreciated value in a broadcaster. He spoke in clarity about his recent illness and the NHS. And then he went on a fantastic oratory tale of where we live in later years. He made a grim topic sound reassuring.#
🚴 A miserable bicycle ride in the pissing rain over to Brightlingsea followed. If the weather doesn't get you then the close passing Petrol Heads will. I was asked by a ticket inspector on a train into LS last month: "Why do you cycle in London? You must be mad!" Not as mad as cycling in the bloody Estuary Wilds, fella.#
🚣♂️ The occasion for a roll out over to Brightlingsea was the next round of the Harker's Yard Winter Series with WivGigs. I wasn't feeling fighting fit, tbh. My arm is still sore after the flu jab on Friday. Racing in a blustery estuary against a dozen or so other competitive crews wasn't how I wanted to spend my Sunday lunchtime.#
🐌 A little humour was added with a stray snail. I met up with the other club members and had a good social catch up. It was almost time to race. I went to the gents to check my looks, etc. BLOODY HELL! WTF is that? I had a massive bulge above my eyebrow. Oh. That will be a snail then. It must have been inside my bicycle helmet overnight, and joined me on the ride over to Brightlingsea. The other WivGigs crew members were far too polite to mention this.#
The women raced first in blowy, wet conditions. In short, this was not a Sunday for messing about on the water. The public pontoon came close to sinking under the weight of the many rowers from across the Harker's Yard family of rowers.#
A brief crew swap, and soon I was seated on second stroke for the men's race. It was a 15 minute row over to the start line. Fifteen minutes in and still weren't there. Oh dear.#
The waves increased in size and pace as Point Clear came into sight. I had memories of the Round Mersea race over the summer when our boat had to be rescued. It was pretty much the same crew and cox as well...#
This wasn't looking good. I have a good sense of danger and can spot it a maritime mile off. My arm was f-ed as well. I was rowing one-handed, often not even making oar contact with the water. We weren't even at race pace as we tried to reach the starting line.#
I fessed up: "I don't feel safe." I don't think I was alone, but I was the first one to come clean. The cox agreed. We managed a 180 degrees turn and headed back to safer waters. I felt deflated. Completely broken and a sense of failure for letting the other crew members down. I didn't hang around. I cycled back to base feeling a fraud.#
🌳 It didn't get much better with Forest away at Arsenal. Realistically we were looking at a 2-0 defeat ahead of kick off as a decent result. That Wembley optimism from only five months ago seems like a generation away.#
I do admire how Steve Cooper seems to have found his preferred starting eleven though. The run-in last season was built around the same faces, week in, week out. We're getting there with the Forest 2.0 model. It's only cost us £150m+.#
I was also made up to see Reiss Nelson come on as an early sub for Arsenal. He was an SE17 kid from back in the day. I have memories of watching him playing football in the playground as a primary school kid and thinking, yep - he's half decent. Fifteen years later and I'm washed up in the bloody Estuary Wilds, listening to BBC Radio Nottingham commentary of a kid I use to know, now scoring a couple against Forest. Funny old game.#
Forest were down and out. It was dark before 5pm. This wasn't the most optimistic Sunday tbh.#
🧻 We had a little toilet humour when A's Prime Subscribe and Save order for Andrex almost served us up with 30 packs of nine toilet rolls. It even reached the despatch stage before we were able to put the brakes on. No shit.#
🎯 Darts and Gervais ended Sunday evening.#
