If I could represent the last half of July in pictures it’d look something like this:
Bad luck arrived in droves once we’d dropped the boy off at the airport. What, with being hit by Swine Flu, the chickens getting sick, Minkey the guinea-pig being near deaths door, the pond pump breaking and the largest fish tank we had bursting a seam, you might have thought we’d received more than our 3 strikes. But no, then the computer mouse stopped working which is just what you need when you’re trying to shop online for the best deal on a fishtank, pond pump and treatments for sick animals.
Unfortunately the shitty luck didn’t stop there. For some reason I got stuck in a rut of waking up at stupid hours through the night and early morning which left me tired and out of sorts. Then last Thursday after an hours motorbike lesson in which I came off the bike and trashed my knee, I failed my first Motorbike test module by not reaching 50kph through the speed trap on the swerve avoidance test and emergency stop. You get two goes, I failed to reach the speed needed on both attempts, the last being by 1kph. I felt burned out, weak, gutted and still so shakey from having been down with the flu for more than a week. I soothed my dejected soul by crying for the rest of the day and scoffing the rest of a bag of licorice I had twisted up in the cupboard.
On the bright side I managed to find a cancellation spot to retake the test on Friday. I spent an hour and half today with my instructor going over and over the manoeuvres necessary for the re-test and I feel pretty good about it now.
Worth mentioning though since we’re talking about having a shit run of luck – the bike I’ve used nearly every lesson since May decided to die a slow death in the training centre garage today so I’ll be going into the re-test on a bike I’ve spent an hour and half getting to know. Jesus does not love me.
In other news I am finally feeling better. It’s taken more than 2 weeks but yesterday after having another day of feeling the remnants of illness still robbing my energy I drank more water than I’ve used to bathe in the last week and took myself off to running club, on the theory that I was either feeble from being sat around for 2 weeks (lethargy breeds lethargy) or I was really still ill. Either way the club run would finish me off completely or sort me out. I’m pleased to report that today I feel the best I’ve felt in weeks, so it was clearly the fix-it cure. I feel inspired now to get my ass into gear for the next week and then sign up to that 3rd and final Mountain Bike Endurance Race on the 16th. That’s right – just over a week away. I won’t be expecting much this time as I’d planned to place better than the 9/13 I got last time. I’ll just settle for not coming last – August will not be the month for losers!
