I slept right through until the alarm off at seven o’clock
this morning. I don’t know how everyone else slept, but I didn’t hear anything
all night long.
Being the first of the month I cracked out a new razor
blade, and once I’d scraped I sorted toast and had a look to see what the
Internet had done overnight.
Yesterday evening before I went to kip I wrote up some CPD. Quite a
few people had had a look at it. Over the last week it has been looked at over
one thousand three hundred times. I can’t see the attraction myself; it is dull
in the extreme.
I sent out a birthday wish to the one friend having a
birthday this morning, and then the dogs came downstairs. By the time I’d taken
them out and gathered up an epic collection of dog turds so everyone had woken
and was swarming about downstairs.
We had brekkie… or to be precise some of us did. Others (littlun)
turned their nose up at a succession of offerings.
And leaving “Daddies’ Little Angel TM”
laying in state on the sofa the rest of us drove round to Repton and a rather
muddy Dog Club. We arrived and opened up, and before long people started
arriving. Pogo had been before, but he probably didn’t remember, and responded
like pretty much every other dog does on their first time. He found it all
rather overwhelming to begin with, but before long he was in the thick of it.
Just like so many other dogs I’ve seen there. Little Rouleaux is a classic case
in point. A month ago he arrived toward the end of a session, hiding behind his
mummy’s ankles. Just like Honey who came for the first time a year ago and who
also wouldn’t leave her mummy’s side. Today both of them left their mummies at
the gate and came charging in to join in the fun. Mind you Dog Club probably
isn’t for everyone; some rather posh woman who came for five minutes last week
came along again today. I heard her apologizing to everyone about how her dog
jumps up, how she’s been to so many trainers and still he jumps up. And how Dog
Club doesn’t seem to be helping at all with the jumping. I just smiled – we
don’t run a dog training session. We just hire a secure paddock in which dogs
can run and play and generally get used to there being other dogs around. Personally
I like dogs jumping up at me, but that’s just me.
After twenty minutes I saw this woman standing off by the
paddock’s fence looking down on everyone else in much the same way that God
might judge a dubious creation.
But we had at least twenty-one dogs along today (I
counted a few times) so we can’t be doing it entirely wrong.
Pausing only briefly to drop “er indoors TM”
at craft club we came home. As we drove Steve was doing the Mystery Year
competition on the radio. Ian Dury – Hit me With Your Rhythm Stick and Driver
67? !978 definitely!
I was one year out.
We got home. Having fetched in a bumper crop of dog dung
before brekkie I went round the garden again and got another epic harvest of
the stuff. And then we spent the morning watching silly animal videos on
YouTube and gathering up the washing up until it was time for me to fetch “er
indoors TM”. I needed a break.
We came home. Littlun carried on wreaking havoc until ”Auntie
Chel TM” came to visit. ”Auntie Chel TM” is
littlun’s current favourite; there’s no denying that.
“er indoors TM” drove “Daddies’
Little Angel TM” and Darcie WaaWaa TM” home
midway through the afternoon. I had a little tidy-up as the dogs slept. They
were worn out with it all. As was I.
I ran round with the Hoover; the smaller dogs didn’t even
have the energy to try to attack it.
“er indoors TM” returned and did
me sausages and chips for dinner. I’d suggested she baked up the leftover KFC
chips from last night’s dinner. In retrospect it wasn’t my best idea.
She then went out with Steve and Sarah to the Old Dairy
Taproom where an old mucker was playing with his band. I’ve known Rick for over
forty years. It would have been good to have caught up with him, but there’s
only so much catching up you can do with the lead guitarist of a band; they are
busy as they are working. And I’ve seen his band before, Whilst they are vey
good they are also very loud. I resent going to see any sort of live music as I
end up spending far too much money just to come home with a headache.
Instead I did a second dishwasher load and set the washing
machine loose on the undercrackers and settled on the sofa underneath a pile of
dogs watching more “Poldark”. Mistress Morwenna has married the sex pest
vicar. Lieutenant Armitage has unhealthy desires on Demelza. And Aunt Agatha croaked.
