Tuesday 17 September 2024: A day at the races?

We had a fairly busy weekend with the dog. Once we’d both finished work on Friday we took him for a walk before tea. But on Saturday we had a big supermarket shop to do, as well as 2 other shops, and he had to make do with zoomies around the garden. We had a lazy start on Sunday morning, and in the afternoon we put a pork joint in the slow cooker and took him out.

The plan was to start at the pet shop and buy him a ball thrower thing. We packed a picnic and off we went. The pet shop was okay and we got what we wanted. But when we went to one of our local nature reserves (where dogs are allowed), we couldn’t get in! Every entrance had been blocked with either a locked gate or lumps of concrete or boulders. We must have done an entire circuit of the reserve before giving up and going to eat our picnic in a car park.

While we ate, I checked online, and the site, managed by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (of which we’re members) has announced that access is extremely limited due to ongoing works there, and why didn’t we try one of these two other reserves, one of which doesn’t allow dogs. 

We discussed the situation, but as time was getting on, we decided to go to the local racecourse, alongside which is a large wood and a playing field. It was St Leger (pronounced Ledger…) Week at the races and we thought it finished on Saturday. But we forgot that Sunday is a family day there, so it was still busy.

As we drove alongside the race track a truck transporting the starting stalls was coming towards us and we though the day was over. We made a quick turnaround, in a bid to miss the mad traffic that would soon be jostling to get out. But the stalls truck stopped and pulled in, and they set the stalls up across the track.

I checked the day’s race card, and there were still three races scheduled. They must have been shorter races than the others, though, hence them moving the starting stalls closer to the finish line. So we pulled in again and parked up and took the dog to the playing field where he had a lot of fun chasing his new ball from the long-handled thrower. 

There’s a busy main road along one side of the field, though, and the race track along the other, and we were worried the dog might carry on running and end up on one or the other. So when the next lot of horses started to trot towards the stalls, we pulled the dog in and got back in the car. He didn’t mind, he’d already had a lot of fun. Being a cocker spaniel, though, he wasn’t as tired as he could have been.

We nipped in to see the poet’s mother on the way home, and when we got home we could smell our pork nicely cooking in the crock pot.

On Monday morning, we both ‘walked to work’, even though the poet was working at home. I spent the morning checking the latest market news and selecting a few magazines and anthologies I might consider sending my short stories to. I also did my 5-minute tech declutter and this week’s diary, as I hadn’t done the diary yet for this week. Diary work includes working on the schedule too.

In the afternoon, I found a campsite for another weekend away, one we can take the dog to. I checked to see if any of my campsite reviews have been posted. One has, out of 4 or 5. I don’t know why the others haven’t been posted. I wasn’t rude or disrespectful, and even quite kind and generous with my criticism (always constructive!). This time we’re going somewhere between Filey and Scarborough.

I brainstormed a Christmas story for an anthology call, deciding once again that it might suit Stevie Beck, which – once again – made the job easier. Today I’ll work on a more fleshed-out outline. This story can be between 3,000 and 20,000 words. If I can’t get going on this one, there’s one I’ve already started that might be a good fit. 

We ‘walked home’ with the dog, and I called it a day.