It was pretty hot after lunch today. The clouds had cleared and the sun was beating down outside. I felt thirsty and went to the special drinks fridge in the garage to get a zero calorie Coke (yes, I’m dieting again, as usual – nothing much to report yet but I live in hope); well I was walking back through the garage to get to the side door when I noticed, for the first time, a cabinet on the wall, which had the name of a pub on it. I was intrigued. “Could there be a dart board enclosed behind those small doors?” I wondered. And there was.

Feeling rather sporty nowadays, after my glorious introduction to cloud-shooting the other day (and yesterday – another arrow in the bucket! But it bounced back out, honestly!) I thought I might try my hand at darts too. There was a blue line on the concrete, which I gathered meant that that was the correct distance for serious gamesters.

At last, after a great deal of trying, unsuccessfully, to fit my size 10 feet (Australian sizing) in the three inches of space between my car and the blue line, I decided that it was not quite the thing to throw darts when on tiptoes. I had to allow myself the advantage of three extra inches over the blue line. Aided by a big gulp of slimming Coke, I composed myself – it felt good to have the can of drink at hand and I could quite understand why darts players are usually armed with a pint of beer (authentic professionals do not worry about slimming, perhaps because added weight gives stability).

So, eventually, I threw the first dart with great force and it hit the board sideways and fell straight down onto the concrete. The second dart dangled by its end for a tantalising few moments before joining the other on the floor. The third fluked a triple nineteen. Bolstered with renewed confidence, I retrieved the darts and tried again. This time I hit a bullseye first off, as you can see from the photograph (no trick photography or cheating), but I soon got bored – no fun playing on your own -and I went cycling instead. My bike, seemingly with a will of its own, sent me in the the direction of the Hyperdome where it is impossible to be bored and I bought another hat for Chris, in case he doesn’t like the other one.

What of work? “Tomorrow is another day…”