It is a Bank Holiday Monday in the UK and for what seems like the first time in decades, they have good weather there.
This is not at all like my childhood, when the weather was invariably crap and Bank Holidays were spent mooching indoors bemoaning the weather. When the weather was rubbish, you watched the Bank Holiday movies. This was in the days of only three tv stations, so not a lot of choice no Netflixing, no Disney channel, no Nickleodeon, just the same old list of films you’d seen a thousand times and usually war-themed. To be specific, 2nd World War films. The damned Germans, nasty Japanese, plucky French, swanky/swaggering Yanks, and heroic Brits. Regardless of nationality women seemed only to cook, do the ironing, and weep occasionally – the full complement of stereotypes. Now some of these movies were undoubtedly classics, but when you’re a kid there is a limit to the number of ‘stiff upper lip’ war movies you can watch. And they were in black and white too.
So, hurrah for something different and one of the most popular regurgitated movies in our house, was Jason and The Argonauts, in glorious technicolour. No clipped accents here, a man wearing a rather fetching loin cloth affair – although I think I was a bit too young to really fancy him. Fantastic monsters that came to life from stone, sea creatures that could take out a boat – think Jaws and needing that bigger boat. We didn’t realise that they were glorified puppets – no wizard special effects available at that time. Jason of course acquired his Golden Fleece and all was right with the world until the next rainy Bank Holiday, when he’d return to battle with the same monsters and still we marvelled at them.
It is not a Bank Holiday in Italy, and so all of the commercial traffic is back on the road. I had in mind to run about 9 or 10km. We’ve had our good friends J&G staying with us for the weekend, during which we have eaten, drunk, laughed, slept – pretty much on repeat. We had a casual agreement that on Monday the three of us would go for a run. Mr JCR is excused as he can’t run due to his back surgery. J&G didn’t have a great night’s sleep, so decided to catch up on some zeds. I however, didn’t have that excuse. Getting ready to go, using my new Body Glide gel which prevents chafing and blisters – I realise I’ve just smeared my feet liberally with Dove roll-on deodorant. Aarrggghh, stupid tart syndrome hits again. I then apply the proper stuff over the deodorant hoping that will work. As an aside, in Italy there are two types of Body Glide – one for runners and sportspeople, the other for more intimate needs. Given I am so stupid, I may as well have bought the second type! Off I go, giggling at my own stupidity.
Usual route to Mill Lane, Lover’s Lane only this time – I decided to take the barking beagles on and play them at their own game. They lie in wait until I am passing and then always seem to make me jump when they bark. My new cunning plan, to quote Baldrick, is to run quietly up to their home, cause them to bark and then run away. It was childish, but it worked a treat! On I went to the bendy, scary road, through the village and rounding the walled bend, my first encounter with a juggernaut. A large camper van took the corner very closely and I ended up kissing the wall with my hands. Not so great, but here everyone runs or walks on the same side and direction of the traffic and I run facing the traffic, so I guess they weren’t expecting a pedestrian to be there. Ho hum.
Carrying on towards the fish shop village, I’m overtaken by a crane, a tractor with its trailer and three large coaches in convoy coming towards me. The difficulty with the juggernaut traffic is the noise, if they are on the road, I can’t hear any other traffic, so I have to stop running for safety reasons. I did a lot of stopping on this run. I continue down bin lane and see all the domestic bins are out – this means I could have to dodge the bin lorry. Luckily not, but as I turned the corner onto the Rome road, yup even more lorries hurtling towards me, so I took refuge in the driveway of a local business. After a cavalcade of lorries, noise, and exhaust fumes, I made it to my ‘pick up’ point.
I survived the juggernauts and ran an acceptable 9+km, not quite an epic journey à la Jason, no Golden Fleece as a reward, but a very nice brunch with J&G, followed by the first Aperol Spritz of the year.
The pic shows an Argonaut – this is Argo, our dogshare – strictly speaking he is our neighbour’s dog, but when they are out he likes company and so pays us a visit. Here he is supervising Mr JCR on the lawn cutting.
Thanks to Gabi who has donated to my Alzheimer’s Challenge using my alter ego’s name Auntie Bubbles – I’m looking forward to afternoon tea on Sunday.
Playlist
Rock The Casbah – The Clash
Modern Love – David Bowie
Hungry Like The Wolf – Duran Duran
Avalon – Roxy Music
I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down On me – Nik Kershaw
Crazy In Love – Beyoncé
Smile Like You Mean It – The Killers
Disco 2000 – Pulp
Down In The Tube Station At Midnight – The Jam
Girls and Boys – Blur
Let’s Go Crazy – His Purple Highness
Talk Talk – Talk Talk
Born To Run – The Boss
Change – The Lightning Seeds
Is Vic There – Department S
It’s Called A Heart – Depeche Mode
Parklife – Blur
Marvin Gaye – Puth and Traynor
Stats
Distance 9.80km
Time 1:05:48
Average Pace 6:42
Elevation Gain – 37 metres
Alzheimer’s Challenge
Kms Run 793.6
Kms To Go 1224.44
