26th July 2022 - Birthday Weekend
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last weekend was my Dad's birthday weekend. Seeing as I started to 
feel less dizzy on Thursday and felt fine during some test drives, I 
was able to go down to Plymouth and visit. It was a lovely weekend and 
ended up being very funny. On the Saturday we went for a bottomless 
brunch. It was really tasty food and certainly we had plenty of drink. 
The restaurant was in the old Customs House in the old part of 
Plymouth. It is a rather lovely building from the 1700s I think. 
Certainly the inside had a Georgian look in terms of stonework. This 
was empty for a while so it is nice that someone is making great use 
of it and seemingly being successful. The time limit worked well as it 
felt like we stayed longer than if we had gone for a meal. After that, 
we went and played some mini golf. It was something daft and a good 
laugh. We were pretty terrible. I am sure that had something to do 
with rather a lot of mimosas. Balls were flying off the course left, 
right and centre. I was amazed that no one got hit! Then we had to 
cool down with some beers in Brewdog bar. While the brewery is not 
exactly the most ideal, the bars are pretty good for trying new beers. 
There are not many places selling triple dry hopped beers alongside 
sours and what not in Plymouth. We started to get hungry again and 
ended up in a dodgy mexican restaurant called Las Iguanas. Of course, 
we had to make use of the 2 for 1 cocktails... Turns out that was not 
the most sensible choice for my Dad. He ended up falling asleep! His 
face was only a couple of inches from falling into his dinner. We 
eventually got him awake enough to get to a taxi rank for home. He 
fell asleep against the wall as we waited. Once we got home, he fell 
asleep again on the sofa. It was funny and we all had a fun time. My 
Dad said it was the best sleep he had managed in a fair while. Not 
surprising as he seems to be ping ponging between my Grandparents and 
Plymouth on a regular basis. The Sunday was spent together chatting, 
relaxing and eating cake. It was lovely to see everyone and I had the 
pleasure of feeling my neice causing my sister in law lots of 
discomfort as she wiggles in the womb. The next time I see my sister 
in law, she will have given birth. That is a weird thought. 

During the weekend, the Nagoya basho finished. It was a strange basho 
with a third of rikishi going kyujo due to covid or their stable being 
exposed to covid. However, we ended up with Shodai escaping kadoban 
status once again. After a terrible start, he managed to get a 
fantastic series of wins with some great techniques. Mitakeumi ended 
up kyujo and so never had a chance to clear kadoban. Will he stay and 
have another chance to clear it or will he make drop a rank? Of 
course, the big news is that Ichinojo won. Yes, ol'Snorlax won his 
first yusho. He was certainly genki and tore through the Ozeki and 
Yokozuna early in the basho. There was a brief wobble which previously 
would have lead to lots of losses. However, he powered through. It was 
a race between Terunofuji and Ichinojo until the last match. This was 
Takakeisho vs Terunofuji. Takakeisho fought hard and did a fantastic 
job in forcing Terunofuji to step over the bales. Congratulations to 
Ichinojo! I am so glad he has met his potential and won. Tobizaru 
deserves special mention for being in the running for the yusho for 
most of the basho although he was made kyujo as part of the covid 
precautions. It was a shame as he certainly was in the running for a 
special prize and performing really well. I do not envy those who have 
to produce the next banzuke. There are some very difficult choices 
to make!