The Tivoli

Recovered, at last! Thanks again for all the sympathy and empathy and everything while I was feeling so rubbish. I wish that migraines would leave us all alone forever.

Parkrun

A Facebook announcement yesterday confirmed parkrun would be on this morning: the council had gritted the paths.

I’d dithered over signing up for doing the finish tokens because of all the migraine business; when I looked the other day, someone else had signed up for it. I was bereft. I’d either have to miss parkrun (unthinkable!) or run it (eep!).

I decided I’d run it. Eep.

I hadn’t run since last week, and I hadn’t run 5k in one go for some time. How would I manage?

My friend was there without her husband; he had a migraine, can you believe? Poor lad; I hope he’s better soon. She was aiming to do parkrun in 35–38 minutes, which was the sort of time I now aspire to with my current level of unfitness. I remember aiming for sub-thirty back in the day. While Mr Pandammonium zoomed off, we plodded along, chatting all the way.

The volunteers, especially the ones I see there all the time, were very supportive of me as I plodded round and did a feeble sprint finish. I felt like a superstar at music corner.

After some banter with the funnel manager, who I normally chat to throughout, and the young lass doing the finish tokens, then some banter with the barcode scanner – I’m so out of practice with parkrun, I’d forgot I needed to have my barcode and to have my barcode ready for scanning – I signed up for finish tokens next week.

Mr Pandammonium, who had finished ten minutes before me, was getting cold, so we left and got home by ten. Normally, I’m out till maybe half ten because I have to stay till the end.

The conditions were beautiful: no wind, which makes a massive difference to the temperature in the fens, blue skies, a warm sun, frost-free tarmac (thanks to the council), hard frosty knobbly grass with no mud; the company definitely helped.

I actually enjoyed running it; I might even do it again. My time was 36:32, which I’m pleased with. My friend was a second behind me.

Cambridge

After lunch, I wanted to go out because it was such a beautiful day. We got the train to Cambridge North and walked to Cambridge station.

We passed a pub that a friend had told us had closed down. As we approached, we saw lights on, the (outer) door open and people inside; it all looked very welcoming. We went in. It was definitely not shut.

We also went to another pub, The Tivoli, which used to be a pleasant Wetherspoons pub. It burnt down and was closed for ages, but reopened fairly recentlyish. We hadn’t been in since, so we popped in.

It’s weird. There’s shuffleboard in the basement, mini golf on the first floor and a garden (of sorts) on the roof. The ground floor is the main bar.

The view from the roof is over the river and Jesus Green towards town. We were there when the sun was in its last throes of sinking to become someone else’s sunrise.