Mahinda’s Little World

Ended up playing tennis last Sunday, for a couple of hours in the blazing heat. Oh, and energy-sapping humidity, as evidenced by the violent thunderstorms that swept through South Manchester just an hour or two after we finished.

Got home, courtesy of Linden’s car, and coughed almost continuously for a couple of hours. No lasting harm, though. Then headed over to Pete and Rosy’s to watch the last two episodes of 24. Which were okay. Not great, though - series 5 is definitely a fair way behind series 1 for me. Now I’ll just have to see how 2-4 compare.

Monday was shooting, and I actually did well for a change. Finally free of my annual hayfever nightmare*, I hit a 97 and 95, both of which were better than the scores indicate - the sort of cards where the bulls are all dead centre and the one-offs are only just out. I might finally be getting use to the trigger action on my rifle.

* Basically, I get hit really badly in May/June - it started out as a week or two of sneezing, about four years ago, and it’s been getting worse year on year

Tuesday saw me stay in and cook. I’d picked up a lovely bit of fillet steak on Monday night, and I had the urge for steak and chips. It must be one of those primal things - every so often, I just need a big bit of meat, still bloody, accompanied by deep fried potatoes.

In this case, I made a job lot of chips, with plenty of paprika and smoked garlic to give them some flavour, and did the beef medium-rare (by accident - I was aiming for rare but got sidetracked by the first batch of chips) with onions and Portobello mushrooms in a peppery brandy cream sauce. Had some fine beans on the side, too, just to stay healthy!

Mmmmmmmm. Though I say so myself, I do make excellent chips.

My hunger well and truly sated (and then some), I waddled to The Red Lion at Kate and Linden’s behest, where I found the aforementioned girls, Adam, Rob and Heather. I’d not really chatted to Heather for ages, so it was nice to catch up.

Wednesday saw the usual hockey-in-the-park shenanigans. Fortunately, the torrential showers let up for two hours - it had been looking a bit biblical just half an hour before we started! Saw Mike and Pam in Hardy’s afterwards, who’d come up from Cheltenham for Mike’s PhD graduation ceremony. Dr Mike, indeed.

And now it’s Thursday. Looks like I’m staying in tonight. I could certainly do with the relaxation.

Okay, nothing to do with me, but three of my mates are attempting a monstrous sponsored cycle ride. They’re not hardcore cyclists (well, they weren’t when they had the idea, anyway), so it really is quite a challenge. They set off tomorrow!

Adam, Mark and Dan are cycling from John O’Groats (top of Scotland) to Land’s End (tip of Cornwall) - hence "JOGTLE" - in aid of MS (Multiple Sclerosis Society), Mencap and Sense (National Deafblind and Rubella Association).

Basically, you should all sponsor them. It’s a bloody long way!