14 October 2023 (Saturday) - Dog Club, Rye Harbour

Despite the excitement of having family round I slept very well last night. I would have slept better had my phone not started bellyaching about wanting to have a virus scan at ten past five this morning. If it wanted one that badly, why didn’t it just do one for itself? Did it really need to bother me about it?
 
I got up, and eventually so did everyone else. Seeing there was something of a delay, ably assisted by Stormageddon – Bringer of Destruction TMI took my three dogs round to Dog Club. Grandson had been keen to see Dog Club, and he seemed quite impressed with what was going on. We had a decent turn-out of pups and the usual mayhem ensued. Mind you when I say “mayhem” it was all good-natured mayhem. Loads of charging about and playing and dog-piggybacks (!)
“er indoors TM and the rest of the tribe soon arrived, and “Darcie Waa Waa TM had a great time alternately chanting “dog dog dog” at the assorted throng and snogging any dog which was daft enough to get too close. Pogo was well-behaved and seemed to enjoy himself. Treacle had a first – she played with another dog at Dog Club. Admittedly it was her brother Pogo, but it was something of a result.
 
Ideally I would have stayed a little later at Dog Club – there was to be a meeting of… I suppose “leaders” or “organisers” isn’t really the right word. But apparently there was an “episode” at one of the later sessions of last week’s Dog Club in which someone brought his newly rescued dog along and then pissed off leaving it unattended. But what do you do when that happens? When the chap who started the club isn’t at the early session I suppose I am seen as “in charge” for the simple reason that I hold the key to the gate. But most people arrive after I’ve opened and wouldn’t know that. At the early session everyone keeps an eye on their own dog, everyone seems to know what dogs are like, any “episodes” are nipped in the bud (most of the time by Morgan having a time-out) and it all seems to work. I suppose having smaller dogs makes it easier? But with having family along and with having yet another one-day weekend I wanted to make the most of the day. So I sent my apologies to the little meeting with the observation tat I think the early session is running OK, and we cracked on with our day.
 
The girls and Pogo got into the “er indoors TM”-mobile, Stormageddon – Bringer of Destruction TM, the dogs and I into mine and we drove down to Rye Harbour for a bit of a walk. We followed the path from the car park to the river’s estuary and back again.
After our little walk “er indoors TM and “Stormageddon – Bringer of Destruction TMwent into the visitor centre to get a cuppa for us all. “Daddy’s Little Angel TM” stayed outside with “Darcie Waa Waa TM and the dogs whilst I sulked. I’d suggested that we went to Rye Harbour in the hope of seeing seals, but we hadn’t seen any. No one else seemed rather bothered, but I was sulking. And then we saw one swimming about. I shouted to the most recent fruit of my loin and she took a photo of it. Several passing normal people heard my shout and came hurrying over, But they were too slow, and were not at all amused when “Daddy’s Little Angel TM” loudly announced “Bollox – it’s gone”. The look of shock on the faces of the normal people gave me quite a fit of the giggles.
 
But just as “er indoors TM came back with our drinks, so the seal came back, and we watched him (or her?)
swimming about for five minutes whilst we had a cuppa.
If ever you visit Rye Harbour I’m told that the visitor centre is a good place to see the seals whilst relaxing with a cuppa. Mind you for all that the cuppa was rather good, a cuppa and a bit of cake all round came to over thirty quid; they don’t give it away.
I took a few photos of our little family adventure. It was rather good, but (it has to be said) the photos of the seal really don’t do it justice.
 
We said our goodbyes; “er indoors TM took the kids back to Folkestone. I came home as I’m on yet another one-day weekend and had stuff to do in the garden.
As I drove I realised the car was quiet. I’d turned the radio off to talk with grandson… and I then realised I’d missed one of the highlights of the week; Steve doing the Mystery Year contest.
 
We came home. The dogs were all soon fast asleep. I rolled out the pond hose and cleaned out the pond filter. As I pootled I realised that the aerating mini-fountain in the pond wasn’t there. After a bit of fiddling about I found it. Laying on its side on the bottom of the pond. Had a fish knocked it over?
I made a cuppa, and as I watched another episode of “Alice in Borderland” I felt a tad peckish. There was quite a bit of KFC left over from last night’s tea. Warmed up chicken is good, but yesterday’s chips?
I then had a (quite frankly) stroke of genius. With far too many left over chips to chuck, I thought they might make the basis of a curry. I put a pan of water on, ripped up all the leftover chips and chicken and popped them in together with some ketchup, an oxo cube and all sorts of this and that which I found in the fridge and left it simmering until “er indoors TM came home.
It went rather well with some rice and a bottle of Piesporter. 

 

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