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I attempted my first run since surgery and managed a somewhat plodding mile up the hill and down again. But I felt OK during and after and it wasn’t as much of a struggle as things usually are when I haven’t exercised for a couple of months. The chemo is now two weeks behind me and (though I’ve been told different things) should all be out of my body by now. I seem capable of doing all the things I have to do and it’s now impossible to tell if tiredness is down to what I’ve been through or just the regular kind I get from being an older dad. Once again the streamlined lunchbox makes underwear and running more comfortable. I am struggling to see the downside of what I’ve been through.
It was also 100 days since my last alcoholic drink (which is actually starting to feel like it might be my last alcoholic drink). Since I stopped drinking I have lost a testicle, so I can’t recommend this course of action to those who want to have balls getting in the way of exercise or have to readjust their junk.
I decided to bet on the Grand National and added another bet on the outcome of the Liverpool match which I predicted would end 2-1 to the reds, even though Tottenham were not involved. I felt pretty certain that this was going to come to fruition even when Liverpool went a goal down and even when they had a goal disallowed. I watched the last ten minutes, where it seemed the fizz had gone out of the game and it was going to end 1-1, but I still had certainty that my prediction was right. So much so that I maybe should have put more than a fiver on it. But it came good and I won £45.
And I chose some horses based on names I liked, Cloth Cap, Definitly Red (which I thought had to win because they definitely didn’t know how to spell definitely) and another horse that was 100-1 and that I immediately forgot the name of. Even though something had drawn me to it. But I just put £2 each way on it.
I watched the race - and yeah it’s a pretty nasty affair and I felt bad for getting involved, but I’d got sucked in due to nostalgia. Though my parents were anti-gambling I think they did allow themselves a flutter on the National and we certainly used to watch it as one of those Saturday special occasions like the FA Cup and Eurovision where we were allowed to have snacks. When Red Rum was going for the third win my dad said he’d bet £100 on the horse, which seemed a huge amount to me (and was actually quite a large sum at the time). Red Rum won, but it turned out my dad had been joking. The joke was on him though I guess.
Anyway the two horses whose name I remembered didn’t get anywhere and I definitely hadn’t bet on the winner. I looked later to see how my choices had fared, only to discover that the horse that came second was my 100-1 shot (I still don’t remember what it was called) and so I had won another £42. What a day! Gambling is great. As long as I ignore all the money I’ve lost.
We watched a couple of films tonight: Palm Springs, a fresh take on the Groundhog Day genre, which was extremely engaging and interesting and very well written and highly recommended. It also stars the woman who turns out to be the mother in How I Met Your Mother, who ruined that (already ruined) series by being much more likeable than any of the main characters and thus leading to it being horribly upsetting that she died. Spoiler alert. And an anti-climax that the dad man went back to the girl he’d fancied all along. Because they had no chemistry and in any case were now well into their forties, so them getting together now when they were so old and decrepit was just sad and disgusting.
Anyway, Cristin Milioti was ace in this too, as was Andy Samburg. And there were some neat twists and new territory from Groundhog Day. Even though it might seem like an unoriginal topic it was a highly original and sophisticated comedy.
Unlike the other film we watched Thunder Force, which was pretty boring and leaden and felt like it had not only been improvised but that all the actors had insisted everything they said had to be included in the movie. Do not watch it. It wasn’t even enjoyable in a Adam Sandler way. It was sadly (as I like the actors in it and it was a female led film with plenty of diversity) just a bit boring. And weirdly the second film we’ve seen this week where the characters sing that Seal song about roses (though it was done best and first in Community).
