May 2017 - The Missing Blogs

18 Feb 2018

May started with a challenge which I had not been looking forward to; mine and @geekyjames’ first Tough Mudder. For those that don’t know, Tough Mudder is an outdoor obstacle and endurance course, the ethos is to build camaraderie among participants in order to complete the obstacles, many of which are not possible without teamwork. We decided the previous year that we would book on to one and give it a try, as a kind of goal in which to train for. There are many ‘Mudders’ up and down the UK and indeed abroad too, but we chose Nottingham - I don’t exactly know why, probably because 1. Neither of us had been to Nottingham before, and 2. There is a BrewDog in Nottingham.

We decided the best approach would be to head up to Nottingham, stay overnight in a PremierInn, scout out the BrewDog and have one, maybe two beers. Most of this plan was perfect, except we had more than one or two beers. We ended up opting to get some wings in the UK’s only Hooters restaurant (it’s not the same as the US) and then crawled around the town as you do on a Friday night. BrewDog was fantastic, and we sampled the new LIVE East Coast Crush beer, which was absolutely amazing.

The following morning I was the opposite of being ready to run around a cold, muddy field, but we both got on with it! The course itself was good fun; we were in one of the first waves of people to use the newly built obstacles, which made it quite fun. I think I enjoyed the Block Ness Monster the most, a big pool of water with two spinning rectangular cylinders suspended above, the only way to get to the other side is to spin the cylinders by pulling and pushing from either side, a complete team effort. After completing the Mudder, we went and have a Burger King to reward ourselves and drove home.

Over the past four years, my car had developed a bit of a problem. It seemed to enjoy the oil being anywhere other than inside of the engine; this was very frustrating as it would cause leaks all over the driveway and needed regular top-ups. Lomas, my sister’s partner, very kindly offered to fix it and after an entire day of ripping it apart replaced the head gasket seal which was causing all the problems. Very grateful for his help, my crappy Peugeot continues to run like a dream, and now I can park it without having to put a baking tray under the engine! Thank you, Lomas!

May was clearly the month for fixing problems as no sooner was the car mended; I was the one being worked on. My wisdom teeth as with many young adults were causing all kinds of problems, becoming infected, sore, and pushing on my other teeth. I decided that it was time for them to go and so after some dentist visits and consultations a date was set for my first ever surgical procedure. Victoria and I headed up to London for what turned out to be a very, very long night, I think we got home at 4 am or something silly. The procedure itself went perfectly well, but dealing with the after effects was much less fun, I was on baby food for just under a week and had a chubby chipmunk face for just as long! Victoria was fantastic and looked after me very well indeed; as I write this, it is her turn to have them removed in just under a week’s time (Eeek!).

Fast forward a week or so and we treated ourselves to a less horrific trip to London, we stayed in the St Pancras Renaissance and saw Set it Off who were touring in the UK. The hotel is a staple favourite, can’t go wrong, not cheap but worth every penny. We had some delicious drinks in the Booking Hall bar and then had my first taste of solid food in a week at Five Guys. Set it Off were really good, very heavy, loud and we were certainly the eldest people there (kidding), they were not as good as that on time they were supporting Yellowcard, but what can I say!