Keep going – In the name of Thiago – Day 137



Yesterday was blog number 136 – not a significant milestone by any stretches of the imagination, but it did feel like the most positive day in all that time. So you’ll forgive me if I hang on to the coat tails of it for a little longer, and fill you in on the piece of unfinished business from yesterday – the rematch with Señor Pasta.

As you may recall, possibly Cheadle’s leading Brazilian tennis player subjected me to an awful, chastening defeat on Sunday morning. Well I am delighted to announce that I punished his impudence last night by closing out a hard-fought 6-4, 6-3 victory shortly before 9pm as the night closed in.



I am kind of pleased that I managed to avoid letting out a loud guttural roar as I finished things off with a straightforward forehand volley into the open court, but it was a close run thing. Those of you who know my tennis playing habits – and I’m looking at you here Craig Leese – will be reassured to know that the constant swearing and personal rebukes in between points was still very much in fine fettle, as was the refusal to chase down some shots, which were slightly out of reach, in order to conserve energy for the greater challenges ahead.

This probably explains why I only clocked up a paltry 6,000 steps on my fitbit watch thing. In fairness I did chase down a couple, although I must bow to my South American opponent for his stupendous effort in pursuing hopeless causes. He pulled off a couple of show-stoppers in his defeat, which was honourable.



Tomorrow is an altogether different challenge. A Mr Bill Bridgeman awaits for a 3.30 afternoon appointment. He’s a far more challenging proposition altogether as a seasoned player of racquet sports. I intend to destabilise him with appalling gamesmanship interspersed with some random acts of gentlemanly conduct. Perhaps I shall also play in my pants and smoke a cigar (see Monday’s blog) for good measure!

It’s very warm in the summerhouse tonight, where I’m writing this. It’s become part of my early evening routine to retire to this spot. It’s like my quiet, safe space and I very much like it. A nice cold beer is my current reward for another very productive day of employment and then we shall see what else…



I’m expecting it will involve these, in fact I ought to crack on as Angelica will be home soon and some willing needs to be shown. A couple more beers and two phone calls with good mates after some nosebag will hopefully round off what I’m sure will be a very pleasant evening. To further guarantee its pleasantness, I would naturally welcome you to donate to the ‘In the name of Thiago Memorial Walk’ cause. Come on you lovely people, you know you want to!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thank you and good night - In the name of Thiago - Day 330

Image
  For the 330th and final time - at least in its daily format - I will collate my thoughts and feelings of being a grieving father.  When I think back to early January,  I really had no idea how this was going to pan out. But today, nigh on a year's worth of blogs later, I'm allowing myself a smile. On the 8th January when I decided that if I was going to do this blogging thing seriously that I had to commit to doing it daily, I knew that it would be tough but then I also knew that walking 350 miles (which I thought would 'only' be 280 miles at the time doh!) would be a very tough challenge too.  The two challenges have run parallel to each other all year and it is with a heavy heart that I say that the time has come to call it a day for the time being. But it's the little man in the picture there that we all have to thank for the existence of this blog, the fundraising I've done, the rediscovery of my joy of writing. All that walking for quite a fat lad like me
Read more

Getting through the pain - In the name of Thiago - Day 1

Image
You know how it is. The kids are going back to school, work has reared its ugly bastard head and you start to think what am I doing? Well if there’s one thing that the death of your child does: it’s focus the mind. My name is Chris, I’m married to a wonderful lady called Angelica and have a beautiful daughter called Elisa, who has just turned 11. But I’m also fat and worse than being fat, I’m feeling fat and frankly I’ve been doing very little to alleviate the weight gain for quite a while. But you know what, I’m going to give myself a break because my beautiful boy Thiago (the gorgeous lad in the picture) died at the end of November and we only buried him a week before Christmas. He was a week shy of being ten months old when he checked out and ever since, I’ve been an absolute fucking mess. Every day is racked with emotional pain. I start the day crying, I end it crying and in between well you can probably work it out. So I thought to myself, what can I constructively
Read more

Thiago Day - In the name of Thiago - Day 328

Image
  I'm settling down to write this at 4pm, as truthfully I have no great expectation to be much use to anyone this evening. And that ladies and gents, I think is perfectly fine. I'd been hoping that the worst part of this week would have been over before today but the truth is, that it has absolutely smashed me to pieces. But the other thing today has done, is show me how incredibly well-loved my family is. Today has been a seemingly never-ending procession of gifts as Angelica's work colleagues in particular, have shown such incredible compassion and extraordinary kindness. We've been sent two videos today as well, both of which have had me clutching for the Kleenex - I should have shares in the fucking stuff! Angelica has a special close group of nursing friends Kathryn, April, Niki, Mica and Hollie, who sent us one of the videos and the other was so touching as well. This was the scene this morning from the breakfast table after we'd polished off the oatcakes of c
Read more