3 September 2022 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Geo-Meet, Pond Work...

Not being at work today I stayed in bed until half past seven. That is quite the lie-in for me. I made toast, and got ready for the off. With “er indoors TM off out with her mates at some rock gig or other (?) me and the dogs had been left “home alone”, and I had plans…
 
We wandered up the road to the car and drove off to Whetsted. As we drove in a novel break with tradition I didn’t have Radio 4 on. Instead I tuned to Radio Ashford and listened to Steve. Or that is I listened to Steve in between the music and the adverts. There was a *lot* more music and adverts on the local radio than there ever is on Radio 4. Steve was running a contest in which various records were being played and he was listing various things that happened. Unfortunately the reception gave out when I got to Leeds castle so I never did find out what the right year was… I *think* it was 2008.
We got to where we were going -  Whetsted and Ted’s Field where there was a meet-up of the “Kent Dachshund” Group. I’ve been keen to get the puppies (and Treacle) meeting other dogs, and I thought (hoped) this might be a good opportunity.
It was.
It was really good. Everyone was so welcoming, and it was such fun with dachshunds everywhere. It was fairly obvious which one was Bailey (as she was the only white one there),  but Morgan just melted into the swarm of dachshunds, and the two of them charged around with their new friends non-stop. I didn’t count, but there must have been over twenty dachshunds and daxie-crosses of all shapes and sizes and colours.
Treacle stayed with me for much of the time; she’s generally terrified of other dogs. But she was fine all the time the others didn’t get in her face. Sniffing her bum is fine with her; but not her face (bit like me, really). But she wandered off with the other dogs from time to time.
The meet was scheduled to run for an hour; and after an hour everyone went their different ways. It was a dedicated dog-training field and someone else had booked it for twelve o’clock. We’d each paid two quid per dog for the field hire. I thought that was rather good value…
 
From Whetsted we braved the traffic and made our way to Tunbridge Wells to show our faces at the geo-meet. It was only just down the road from “dog club” so it would have been rude not to have turned up.
I only stayed for a few minutes, but it was good to catch up with those people I knew. The meet was a picnic by the cricket green, and it was hard to tell who was geo-meet and who was “normal people”.
 
From the meet we came home. I wanted to get the pond sorted… I turned off the filters and cleaned them out, disassembled the old cascade (built last week) and moved it out of the way. I then heaved the new one into place, then got the filters where they should be and buried the electricals and plumbing, and had a bit of a go at landscaping. Thirty seconds to type; over two hours to do. And I’m still not sure I like the finished thing… not that it’s finished. One of the filters has only a fraction of the flow of the other. I think I might need to rod it out or get some new tubing. But I decided that could wait till another day.
 
I did the dogs’ dinner, and then foraged for mine (in the direction of KFC) then spent the evening ironing two weeks’ worth of shirts. What with one thing and another I didn’t get round to ironing them last week. Can’t think why (!)
As I ironed I watched more episodes of “Shadow and Bone” as the dogs snored. Dog club certainly wore them out. Much like the afternoon’s pond work wore me out.
I think a restful day might be a plan for tomorrow…

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