This Is The Sea

Bure-En-Braye to Dieppe

Not my favourite day on the road, I’m afraid, and I probably haven’t been the best company either. My wife, who is a far more wonderful person than I deserve, got booked in for an exploratory operation today, following the results of some tests a couple of weeks ago. So what I really should be doing is being at home, looking after the kids and her, and generally being a bit more selfless. But instead, I’m running around the French and English countryside like that’s more important. Which it isn’t. So just to let you know, I’m really sorry; I screwed up.

And the top news is that I’ve just had a call from her, and she’s had the all clear. She was obviously still coming round from the anaesthetic, as for the first time in weeks she didn’t call me a tosser, so one of our more successful conversations.

Honestly, in slightly different circs, I’d be fair skipping around the deck of this ferry. But given the last few days, I’ll celebrate with a gentle wave in her general direction.

But, with the exception of the above, every line in previous blogs has been designed to take the mickey out of what’s been going on, or to deliver cheap jokes at Simon’s expense, both of which I still believe to be laudable ambitions. So briefly…

- Woke up in the night thinking that I had a headcold, which I did put down as just one more thing to worry about and not tell Cath about. She takes her ‘more Alf Tupper than Alf Tupper’ role quite seriously, you know. – Consequently, the one man urine factory that is Simon Levy was joined by Mr Revell marking out the route with what my mother would politely call ‘a productive cough’.

- We ran a short leg today, in theory, anyway. First 10 miles were really tough, so I knocked back some paracetamol which seemed to have the right sort of effect. By the time we were 3 miles from Dieppe, I was relatively in good shape.

- Unfortunately, we stayed 3 miles from Dieppe for some time. We did actually get more lost than we’ve been on this trip, and unfortunately in the middle of the off road bit that we were both looking forward to – as a result we finally got to Dieppe very wet from crossing rivers and a bit teed off from wasting time.

- Have basically decided to dismiss the little beggar who keep biting my legs while I’m running. If you’re reading this blog for the first time, that’s a figurative little beggar, rather than Simon.

- Tonight, the theory is to get off the ferry and run for about 6 miles in the general direction of London, so as to minimise the pain of the long run on the South Downs. Will update on this when time permits.

Just coming off ferry now, a few miles to do tonight in the pitch black…that should be fun…

TTFN