What a weekend! I needed all day on Sunday to recover but gosh was it worth it.
Friday night straight after work was a quick dash to Hillsborough Park, Sheffield to see the Arctic Monkeys perform their first home town gig for five years. It was an outdoor concert in a park so in June it could have gone either way, rain or sunshine. Fortunately we are in a bit of a Yorkshire heatwave at the moment (well 29 degrees, but in Yorkshire that’s a heatwave!) so it was glorious. Just under eighty thousand people, all packed into a park to see what is definitely the best concert I have ever, ever been to; and being a bit of a music fanatic I’ve seen lots of bands, and my tastes are very varied, I’ve seen everything from Andrea Bocelli, to Whitesnake, to Paul Weller to Aida at the Verona opera house. I just love music.
I was there at their last concert five years ago because I’m a bit of a diehard fan, and that was great, but this just had everything. What must be the coolest, sharpest dresser in the whole planet singing the greatest set list in that amazing voice, which is just like melting milk chocolate it’s so smooth. A man so clearly at ease in his own skin, without being arrogant, he was clearly over the moon to be back home in Yorkshire.
I was a little disappointed with the setlist the last time I saw them as some of the old classics like ‘Brianstorm’, ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’ and ‘Mardy Bum’ were missing, but they were all there this time, including my absolute favourite from the new album, ‘Body Paint’. And they were all delivered with perfection, by a lead singer with so much stage presence and charisma. He’s one of those front men who does not say much, he doesn’t need to, but when he does it’s quite profound. He doesn’t bounce around the stage, there’s no fancy stage outfit, no swearing. He has his trademark sharp suit and shirt on, his Ray Bans and just delivers one song after another, with one foot up on the monitor speaker. He’s a lover of English Literature and a devout Ernest Hemingway fan and it shows. I just adore some of his lyrics, like “I wanna be your setting lotion, hold your hair in sweet devotion” from ‘I Wanna be Yours’, makes me smile every time, and the lyrics to ‘Body Paint’ for me are probably some of the greatest he’s written. He finished the concert with “Sheffield you’ve been absolutely amazing” but Alex Turner, so were you!
Anyway, the music was one thing but my goodness me………….there was an ice cream van inside the park! So not only did I hear some excellent music I got my Mr Whippy with chocolate flake fix all at the same time! I must have looked as excited as a small child as I got raspberry sauce and sprinkles too! It’s the way forward I’ve decided, all rock concerts should have an ice cream van.
I was meant to be very well behaved and not be led astray by my eldest this time, as I had my Barnsley Boundary Team Relay race on Saturday morning, Leg 3 at 8:30am, and then the Joe Percy 10k a couple of days after, and I needed to be in tip top condition.
Last time I went to see the Arctic Monkeys with him I was in anything but tip top condition the morning after. He had led me to the front row telling me I’d be ok in the mosh pit, subsequently lost me in there and my poor little feet took weeks to get over it.
Now I don’t think I did too badly this time. I safely avoided the mosh pit and the worst thing that happened was getting hit by a flying toilet roll and narrowly missing a flying plastic pint glass of urine (just why do they do that?!).
However I am no slave to my training plan and have absolutely no will power when it comes to sports nutrition. I doubt the pre-race night diet of a finely tuned athlete consists of the aforementioned Mr Whippy, a pint of Amstel lager and a portion of large fries on the way home at midnight because I was so hungry. However, in my defence both the lager and the fries contained pre-race carbs.
So Saturday morning I was up bright and early to meet at the start of Leg 3, my leg of the Barnsley Boundary Relay race. There are 10 legs in this 73 mile race and it is run in a team of 10 with each person running one leg. My running Club had entered 9 teams and I had been placed in the Veteran 40 Ladies Team. Now on my own I’m not that competitive and if I win a trophy (I won my first one the other week) it’s usually by accident and I have no idea I’ve won it, winning just isn’t my goal when I’m running on my own, I’m just happy to be taking part. However, I am a bit of a team player and when I’m in a team I am really competitive as I’m determined not to let the team down.
So fuelled with ice cream, lager and fries in 29 degree heat I turned myself inside out to run my leg and came in second lady, one second behind my club mate who was in the much faster younger ladies team. I made a mistake on the clothing front wearing shorts. The nettles and brambles were huge but I just tried to plough on through them and just blank the pain from my mind. This caught up with me a little bit in the end and a little medical attention and pampering was required when I got to my Mother’s afterwards for my Saturday visit. But she had bought me an appropriately named and specially chosen chocolate bar bless her, you’ve got to love her, I’m still getting spoilt (and told off in equal measure) at 52!
However it was all worthwhile as the Veteran 40 Ladies team were victorious in lifting the trophy in the evening!!!! HERE COME THE GIRLS!!! The second trophy in a month. So very proud of every one of our efforts, we all took one for the team because it was hot out there. So any competitive athletes out there, forget the lettuce, you need a pre race-day late night, beer, fries and ice cream.
After all that excitement, Sunday was a much needed day of rest and calm at home. A day of snoozing, books, birds, streams and pretty summer foxgloves…………
………..Oh, and a dressing up box. Child number one has now moved on to his summer placement just outside London and has sent some of his possessions home for his personal assistant (me) to store until his Uni return. I spied a student dressing up box on clearing his room! Being in his third year (that’s lots of booze fuelled fancy dress parties) he’s now accumulated quite a little collection. Being a bit bored, and in touch with my inner child, I just could not resist a rummage through the box, a few donning of outfits, and a few photographs for him of his one and only mother in disguise, clearing his room. There were hats, a pair of angel wings, a halo (very me), and a fab beard and sunglasses combo! I had a very enjoyable afternoon, until I was reminded by him that I was meant to be just putting his stuff in the loft, not rummaging through it……ooooops!
