Further thoughts from a Columbus coffee shop

Phew...

I am totally, without question or doubt, knackered. This weekend has involved packing, heavy lifting, driving, buttock straining, radio listening, lying in agony, and some other stuff that was too painful or dull to remember.

On Thursday afternoon I was indeed driven to Philadelphia — by a moderately inexperienced driver, who terrified herself whilst only making me slightly agitated once or twice. In the evening I returned, all on my lonesome, listening to my old best of the sixties CDs — which I hadn't listened to in years. The reason I did this was so that I would have a motor vehicle to move some of my stuff with over the weekend — well that and I didn't think that the aforementioned driver really felt comfortable driving and navigating herself all the way to Philadelphia airport — well that and it was a day away from work or packing.

On the morning of Friday I was the proud controller of a little car... only for my boss to turn up, with no prior notice, and give me the keys to his car, with which I was meant to, and in fact did, drive to Columbus today. So Thursday morning zero cars, Saturday morning two cars, on Monday I eagerly awoke expecting to have four cars, only to be disappointed.

On Sunday morning I hurt my arse... well it was my thigh, arse and lower back to be entirely truthful. Not entirely sure how I did it, some combination of dreaming, getting up, doing the washing up and then sitting down. The fact that I could neither bend at the waist or the knee made my planned packing activities, on Sunday and Monday, both very slow and very painful. After each little burst of work I had to recover with a little lie down on my sofa listening to the excellent BBC Radio Five Live.

On Tuesday morning, still in moderate to severe discomfort, I thought it would be a good idea to get up at 5 am (yes that 5 am, the one that comes four hours before 9 am... at which time any civilized human being should still be in bed) and drive to Philadelphia to pick up my car owning friends... it was nearly a very bad idea — not picking them up the 5 am bit. By the time I arrived, I was almost asleep and in near total agony. Fortunately after an hour or three's break from driving I managed to drive the second half of the way back without feeling overly tried or painful.

Then followed six hours of mad packing forcing the entire contents of my flat in to a Ford Mustang and a Mazda hatchback. Before a much needed beer.

This morning featured about an hour of apartment cleaning, the returning of my apartment and office keys (the latter of which netted me the $50 deposit I had to pay the bastards for the right to enter my office and do my job)... oh and a coffee. This lunchtime and afternoon featured a nearly six hour drive from lovely State College to the office of the rental company here in Columbus. Which by the way I arrived at at 5 pm, just as it was closing. A signature (on a cheque) later and the keys were mine.

The apartment is similar, but not the same,to what I remember. The bathroom has moved from off the bedroom to off the kitchen and a third room has been inserted between the bedroom and kitchen. It has all wood floor and exposed brickwork, both of which are nice. Um, and I almost completely buggered myself carrying all my stuff up from the car to the apartment... which I think is a reflection on my current fitness, or lack of it, and the sheer weight of some of my luggage, rather than anything to do with the apartment.

Even after two double espressos' I am too tired to write more... plus I suspect that most of what I've written is drivel.

To finish though a quick summary of my reaction to the recent sporting events.

David Millar grrh, grrgh, and I was going to bet on you in the prologue, grrh, are the all bloody on something?

Maria Sharapova... (insert sort of soft contented purring sound here)... whoo, whoo, whoo. Yankee boy lost to Swiss boy, ha ha ha. Yankee boy is very gracious and amusing in defeat ("I think I'll have to start winning some of them before me can call it a rivalry")... feel bad about the laughing.

Schumacher... again.

Greece? Greece? Greece? European champions? Greece? Greece? Greece? Greece? And they lost to Russia. Greece? They do know how to party though. The defenders were terrific. But Greece? Maybe there's hope for England yet.