79 Days of Summer

I have thoroughly enjoyed blogging on every day of my summer holiday. As I outlined at the start the idea was for it to make sure I didn't waste a day. If you look through there are probably only about 3 or 4 where absolutely nothing was achieved. This however could be seen as an achievement in itself, recognising that it is ok to do little, occasionally...

I knew this was going to be my best opportunity of having a care free work free extended period before a gap year in 22 months time. I feel I couldn't have done it any better and I've loved sharing it all on this blog and would love to look back on it in years to come. I am even looking into how to save the posts as documents so they won't be lost when somebody hacks Tumblr.

The following is a 'Highlights Week'. It has nothing to do with the quality of blog posts but these are what I can say have been my favourite 7 days. They are in no particular order, but I'd say 1, 2 and 3 are ones I would live over and over again.If you click on the day/date it will take you to the post. Here goes:

Day 23: July 6th- The trip to Cadbury World

Day 26: July 9th- The 24 hour day to Trinidad

Day 63: August 15th- Run to Camp Nou and then tour & fountains.

Day 5: June 18th- D of E group sleepover

Day 17: June 30th- D of E climbing Sugar Loaf Mountain (I have chosen this day as opposed to the final day of the trip because, if you read, that was full of frustration and only really ended with relief, doesn't make it into the Highlights Week)

Day 47: July 30th- This was a sense of achievement, tough day but ride complete.

Day 34: July 17th- An absolutely incredible experience

Why did it take me so long to get round to the last post? No valid reason but I've got there. (School starting and all was a factor)

Last JRPC session today and after heavy strapping and heating etc was applied I still wasn't sure if I was going to be able to participate in any of the session having not ran in 12 days. When it came to it I couldn't even manage the first of the warm up laps which was depressing. Too much consistent pain throughout top half of left leg meant that even with a lot of stretching it just would have been stupid to attempt it as it would risk a much worse tear.

Watched the first two hours before recieving by 1 on 1 feedback and leaving at 4. Now you get treated to a TFL rant, lucky you. I wanted to get the Metropolitan line from Moor Park to Liverpool Street and then Victoria home, easy and probably just over an hour. But how could it be that simple. The Metropolitan line only ran one stop from Moor Park, to Northwood. Here after realising a useful bus wouldn't take Oysters, I opted for the ever reliable replacement bus service. This also would have been too easy and in reality it only ran as far as Wembley Park. This again shouldn't have been an issue as I could have got home via the Jubilee line. However what they didn't tell the bus passengers was that this was an equally useless service as the Jubilee line was also shut. Wembley would be an entirely pointless station to end up at, as it was closed... It was a joke. My Aunt lives 5 minutes from Pinner so I got off the bus here and she drove me from here to Harrow and Wealdstone Station where I got the direct train to Euston and got picked up by dad.

Throughout this wholly frustrating ordeal I was trying to keep up with the Arsenal vs Leicester game on below 20% battery. Overall it took me 2 and a half hours to get home.

Today did not start well at all. I presumeably got up too suddenly as on getting to the door outside my room my vision went blurry, I felt myself swaying and the next thing I remember is waking up in huge amounts of pain, struggling to breathe, collapsed on the floor with my back against my chest of drawers. This has happened once before in the kitchen but there were people there that time. Apparently it is down to low blood sugar and it is true that I hadn't eaten for about 14 hours. The only evidence are a couple of scars on my back where it must have met the corner of the drawers.

Moving on with the day I finished the Geography homework, physical and human which felt good, only maths to go.

Today was uncharacteristically productive. I had a mission to achieve a certain number of tasks I will list these but it doesn't exactly make good reading.

Started by making flash cards for all members of the cabinet plus a few others. Our Pre-AS task for politics was to learn these people and as many details as we can about who they are and their role.

Also got to work on Physical Geography task which involved analysing natural disasters over last 50 years. Not too bad. It will be the rock dissection geography stuff that I'm really going to struggle to stay awake during.

Went to Natwest to open a savings account. This took absolutely ages but got it done nonetheless.

I ordered a new 16-18 oyster card as current one expires at end of this month and it says it can take up to 3 weeks to arrive.

I found a keyboard in pretty good condition which is now up for sale on Ebay.

I have yet again had a bit of a unintentional break from updates but the final straight is being updated now.

Ellen and I planned to ride to Lea Valley and then go up the Lea as far as possible. This was all going to plan until about 4 minutes into the ride when Ellen got a puncture. Due to her dad claiming that her tires were '100% not going to get punctured' we had no spare inner tubes and so had to head home. To be fair to him his assumption was correct as we were going mainly on roads and paths and she had huge chunky mountain bike tires.

We decided to head back out in the same direction and wander around the Olympic park. Annoyingly I didn't have an oyster so cycled to Lea Valley (15 minutes) while she got the bus. I won't list them all but we worked out that if you listed all mishaps on this day out as plan A, B etc we got to plan E! 

We didn't end up having breakfast till half eleven which sort of messed up day's eating schedule which you'll discover. Planned a cycle route for tomorrow and did what you could only describe as 'slobbing' as we watched some Big Bang theory episodes.

I left about 3 to get to physio appointment. This one much more painful than last and seemed to involve an extensive amount of 'finding nerves', this is not fun... Was given some strapping and he seems to think I will be fine for Sunday although I am less sure. Had a pret which i suppose was my lunch at 5.

Got up fairly late and then met Ellen at 2 and we went and saw Inbetweeners 2. After getting on the right bus going the wrong way (fault of the bus not I, don't put Wood Green on the front of the bus if you're going to London Bridge...). Knew full well this could be a cringe worthy film to watch with your girlfriend but it was brilliant and stood up to all it's reviews, being even better than the first. One of those films when you come out just wanting to recount scenes.

Went back to hers where I beat her at scrabble while her parents watched some TV, (to extend my board game winning streak to 4, not that I'm counting). There may have been some fairly dubious help given to me by her.... Then watched first episode of Breaking Bad series 4 (forgot to mention I've caught up on last 6 eps of Series 3 over last two nights). Although I had felt a bit Breaking Badded out, had to see it as previous episode ended with one character pointing a gun at another. 

The tour of family continued today this time mum's side in Suffolk. The original plan had been along the lines of a picnic on the beach and going crabbing at Walberswick however the torrential rain that lasted all day pretty much put an end to this.

We adapted though and with Aunt and Uncle, Grandparents, cousin and her son we picnicked in their Summer House! Still nice and showed my grandma more pictures than she had seen on this blog of Trinidad and Cycling. Went on to play monopoly which myself and her came second in. To be fair it was a long shot but I tried to win the game with hotels on the light blues and browns alone. It nearly came off and managed to drain two other players but eventually lost out to Mum and my aunt Zoe who's oranges I could only avoid for so long.

Journey home felt longer because of bad weather but was great to see everyone.

Went to Sunday lunch at Jo's. Hadn't really seen any extended family since before Trinidad so good to have a general catch up and food was amazing as always epitomised by the selection of 4 types of ice cream to accompany two deserts. :) 

Home for about 10 minutes before we headed out to the 50th Prom of this year's series. The first half had the Dvorak Cello Concerto. This was good however I didn't feel it gave the clearly exceptionally talented Cellist that much of a chance to show off, it is also possible our appreciation of her was diminished by our sitting in the choir seats which I've got to say were great for everything else the concert had to offer. 

The second half had the incredible Beethoven's 7th Symphony. I'd heard them before and it wasn't my favourite due to the slight repetitiveness of the first movement but the second and third were magnificent. I also felt that for such a work it should have a grander ending. Then again; with my speculative C in GCSE music composition who am I to critic Beethoven!

Today myself and dad were on a mission. We had a number of jobs to do and we had the aim of doing them in as little time, as efficiently as possible. 

After some research we found that Moss Bros sell suits. We went to Moss Bros and bought 3 suits, black, grey and blue. Sorted. Tick. This was really how we saw the day. Phrases such as 'do you think I need that', and 'that could be nice' were totally banned. 

Objective 2 was 6 school shirts. We walked straight to John Lewis, found the school uniform floor and bought 3, with the other 3 ordered to be in Waitrose to pick up within 24 hours. Tick.

Objective 3 was shoes. After trying on 2 pairs we bought a pair that looked functional. Tick.

I have purposely written this post in block like form to reflect our approach to shopping. The women of the household however set out 2 to get one pair of school shoes, returning at 8 with 3 pairs among other items 'they found'. 

Watched the Everton game. I feel very frustrated when it looks like we've bought 2 world class players in Ozil and Alexis and yet we are choosing to play them out of position. Ozil was weak and pretty ineffective on the left wing while Alexis' speed and ability was wasted as a central striker as Distin towered over him. Everton played such a deep line that it looked like we were just too predictable. Anyway once again the Welsh Jesus and Giroud dug us out and usually each goal from the Frenchman gives him about 48 hours away from the totally out of proportion criticism he receives from fans that refuse to look at his figures for the club.

Today was not great... After getting back from Ellen's pretty late I made my way to a physio appointment for my messed up hamstring. I've strained a muscle and have a load of stretches to do. Walking is a bit painful but he thinks I should be fine for the trial next Sunday.

After a break for lunch my day of pain continued with a trip to the Orthodontists. Hadn't worn retainers for months and yet she still found a way to force them into my mouth which was followed by an excruciating hygienist appointment who after waving sharp things around my gums lectured me on the usual 'angle of the brush' crap.

Woke up and went into school on my own listening to the Springsteen album. It had some very suitable songs on it- Lonesome Day, Countin' On A Miracle and Further On Up The Road to name a few!

Got results and was angry so after a McDonalds breakfast I returned home, posted them through letter box and headed out to Southgate to smash a hockey ball as hard as I could for around 2 1/2 - 3 hours. Looking back it was fairly inconsiderate to the family who were desperate to know if I'd failed them all or not!

What I got was 5 A*s, 4 A's and a B. This on the face of it are a good set of results but my anger stemmed from getting A's in English Language and Geography. In both of these I should have got an A*. In the case of English language I only required 68% in the exam and had been getting in the high eighties throughout mocks and other practices. Somehow it went disastrously and I only got 58%. Geography was a similar frustration. It is split into 4 equally weighted units. On the first three I got 98, 95 and 84. With 90% being the A* boundary I only required another 84% but the final exam was shockingly bad and 60% meant I wasn't even close.

Oh well. I'm told only 7% of grades are the top one and if you look at A*s and As I'm alright. Meanwhile Ellen is a total genius. Celebrated at hers and was there till late.

Freedom to get up late for the first time since Saturday and took full advantage. Once up Ellen and I went to the fun arcade on the southbank called Namco. It is well hidden between a McDonalds and the aquarium so isn't even that busy in the middle of summer.

We came back earlier than expected so were locked out due to me assuming Kate would get back from her outing to the Olympic park swimming pool before us. Got a pasty from Greggs and ate in the park so was fine. 

At 5 Ellen had to go to buy trainers and I was meeting with John's family (John from the cycle ride, yep, you're with me) to go and watch team GB face Iceland in a qualifier for next year's Eurobasket. The Copper Box in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in a great arena for such an event. The team had to win by 13 points to get through their group and and despite huge optimism when we were 12 ahead at half time a 3rd quarter collapse with 2 injuries meant it wasn't to be and we lost by 71-69. 

After a long good luck embrace with John we headed home. Tomorrow- Results.....

Up at 8 today. Had to be at Alex's house who was giving me a lift to get to pitch by half 9. Performed really poorly in the morning. Felt it was my worst all season. Not sure what it was, lack of sleep, sharpness, muscle tightness and some frankly terrible drills all contributed. There was one in particular that proved how little England Hockey seem to care about defensive work (strange seen as GB lost 9-2 to the Netherlands at the Olympics). It was a 4 vs 2 set up in the attackers favour. However the defenders started with the ball on the edge of the D. It was our job to loosely transfer it between us before hitting it as hard as we could at the line of 4 attackers so they could counter attack us. The way the coaches looked at it:

- If the attackers messed up, it was their fault (not our pressure).

- If the attackers scored, well they should do, it's a 4 on 2.

- If the defenders tackled them, still no credit.

It really was infuriating. The talk on taking illegal substances didn't do much to improve my mood. It pretty much went round in circles, telling us the simple message- don't take them. Anyone that didn't know this already probably shouldn't have been there in the first place...

After this we went out for final session of the 2 days and I felt terrible. My whole left leg and lower back was in pain. Had issues with the knee all season but now it was all of it from my gluts to calf. After stretching as much as I could I decided after my rubbish morning I might as well give it all I got and risk dying trying!

Finally after some core strength work we went into a triangular of 20 minute 11 a side games. I think selection is very unlikely but I gave these games everything. Playing at right back with a centre back I knew helped, and I pretty much bombed up and down the right flank solidly. Our team won 1-0 and drew 0-0. This was enough to win us the tournament not that this was relevant. As explained in the previous post the fact I didn't concede meant I was happy. I also made the under the shoulder blind pass inside which was one before the assist for our goal. I came out in more pain, but happy.

I've been very sloppy. Sorry. Have ended up a week behind. Sorry. It is all coming now. I have NOT GIVEN UP.

Today I had my first of 2 consecutive days of JRPC trials. They went alright and I felt the fitness work I'd done in the last week really helped. They tested us in this regard a bit but also wanted us to get through all 8 hours of the sessions.

Wasn't looking forward to it and my lack of playing even over 4 weeks was very apparent when doing the very small sided stuff. 9 vs 3 in a very tight circle where you only have 3 seconds to get a pass away. I suppose this helps them narrow down who can cope with the pressure. In terms of my role during a game if I ever was closed down by three players with this intensity I would be applauded for hitting it as far away from anyone as possible and relieving the pressure. At Centre Back this is an underrated skill even though the pressure comes in a different form. I would say I struggle on the mostly attack centred drills but hopefully can make up for up when I am seen doing what I do best. Playing in defence, and preventing the other team from scoring. If I play defence and we don't concede I will always consider it a good game; my objective has been achieved.

Our lecture at lunch time was on food and nutrition and I really did nearly fall asleep. It was all the stuff I've heard before with very little added. Good balance of vegetables, carbs and protein etc. Don't snack unhealthily. Feel they could have used the 1 hour lecture sessions much better.

Took advantage of Skype working and was talking to Ellen till late. Then went for run at 6. I would not advise running more km's than hours you've slept up to a certain point.

Anyway the sunrise at Barcelona's coastline was fantastic and in 30 minutes 6.2km  was managed. May have got a bit lost resulting in reduced breakfast but was pleased I had done it with 8 hours of hockey in the space of 30 coming up.

After nearly losing phone in the taxi to airport, (I fell asleep and dropped it), we safely boarded the plane. After some sleep and a train from Gatwick to Victoria.

Unpacked and watched Mo Farah win gold at the Euros, before attempting to mend puncture on Uncle's bike so it could be returned. By this point tiredness had really taken over with the combination of no sleep, a run, and travelling. I therefore managed to puncture the new inner tube as I put it in. Need to sleep!

(There is no filter on photo)

Just didn't wake up in time for run this morning but not a disaster and will run tomorrow. 

Today we visited the Sagrada Familia. It wouldn't be the first thing on my list of places but I did spend 3+ hours at the Camp Nou yesterday... Personally I didn't get that excited about the outside carvings but what they have done to renovate the still being built attraction inside is something else. I love the fact the stain glass windows can just be nice stained glass as opposed to having to tell a story and there was definitely enough symbolism for people who like that kinda stuff. My other unreasonable quarell is that I think an attraction should be finished before people pay to go inside... I'm sorry, but the London Eye wasn't open before it turned was it...

Went to watch Arsenal in Dunne's Irish Bar in the afternoon. Talk about stressful.. On the whole I thought it was an alright performance especially from all three new boys. I trust we will continue to gel with continuous game time. Also, we have the Welsh Jesus. 

Went to delicious Paella restaurant by beach to round of holiday. To those who think they've escaped the promised 'perils of cycling with family' article, they haven't, it'll be written on the plane tomorrow and posted promptly :).