New fence

10,000 miles

First service for the car today...very impressive I must say. You can just walk into the garage, you don't have to make an appointment, book your car in for a service and its ready in about an hour. While you're waiting there's a TV to watch, books & magazines to read, a Playstation, internet access, coffee, etc, etc. Its really pretty comfortable! All was done in an hour and on my way I went!

Ferrets

Well I've discovered that my next door neighbour is now keeping ferrets. Four of them, no problem with that but unfortunately, their house is right next to the fence where the dogs srun is! Consequently Indi is no permanently on ferret watch. I'm going to have to do something about the fence to stop her breaking through it...not sure what yet though...

Wedding...

On Saturday night we went to The Bonser Suite at Bescot stadium. It was the wedding of C & J. Wasn't a bad night, the suite was OK...nothing spectacular I don't think...my dad took us and picked us up so no taxi fare, thank god...it would have been a bit expensive!

They actually got married in Great Wyrley but had their reception in Walsall...bit of a distance I must say...!

On Sunday afternoon, aside from the paddling pool, we also took the two Moot's for a walk with Harry, a black labrador owned by SJ's friends J & R. Harry was absolutely petrified of Indi & Chief and it didn't help that they weren't overly keen on him!

We wandered around Shareshill & Calf Heath and by the time we walked back, they were getting on OK. It was also an opportunity for SJ to try out Chief on Cani X. This is something she wants to try out this winter and we thought we'd give Chief a whirl to see how he got on. He didn't do too badly, although it was too warm really and the bungee he was attached too was a bit long. We'll try it again on a cooler day and with a shorter lead on think...

Paddling Pool

We went into Telford on Saturday to do a spot of shopping...joy of joys...but we did end up buying a new present for Indi & Chief. Take a look at the video below...they absolutely loved the pool...Chief was so funny as he kept trying to dunk Indi's head in the pool!

Radlett

Went down to London on Thursday night to meet SJ. She was out for a meal with some customers at a posh restaurant off Tottenham Court Road. I was supposed to meet her there but having found the restaurant, I discovered it was a No Entry street. I did try and find the correct entrance but gave up after about 15 minutes of sitting in traffic. I decided to head towards SJ's flat (another 45 minutes to do 1 mile). I dropped the car off and went for a meal in the Bengal Tiger again. Was very nice...after that I headed down to the Booksellers and SJ turned up about 9:30.

On Friday, we headed to Radlett to look for houses. We did find a really nice one, just round the corner from the High Street. After that, we went over to Harpended to look at the Estate Agents there...not a lot about really...made sure we were registered with all those we saw and headed back home.

Rugeley & beyond

They've eventually opened the path from my estate, through the park to Rugeley, so on Tuesday night the dogs and I decided to have a walk into town. Its actually quite a nice walk, not too far, probably a couple of miles in total but a different walk for the dogs. It was sniffing galore, lots of new smells. They really enjoyed it. Was going to take them again last night but it was just a little bit too warm. I've worked out that if the temperature is over 19 degrees, they really don't like it.

Monday's...

I hate Monday's...I'd much prefer it if the week started on a Tesday, still then I'd probabaly hate Tuesday's anyway. SJ wasn't going back until Tuesday so we had a whole Monday together. She went off to have her nails done in the afternoon, so I sneaked off to do the Dog trail again as we didn't finish it on Sunday. I managed to go round in under an hour, was about 54 minutes I reckon. I'm trying to get it to under 45 minutes but that might be a hard task...

Tomorrow (Tuesday), I'm off down Luton and then back up for Wednesday/Thursday. On Thursday night, I'm off to London and then back up with SJ on Friday for the weekend.

More dogs...

We decided to do the Follow The Dog Trail on Sinday evening after we'd been round to my parents. So we started off at about 6:30, thinking we had plenty of time before it got dark. Incidentally, the car park closed at "dusk". Now, just when is "dusk"? IS that as it starts to get dark or when it is dark? Anyway, that was another minor niggle but still...

So off we trot around the course and we get to the big hill in the middle and its starting to get really quite dark. There was no way we would have got round the rest of the course. What we'd failed to realise is that in the wooded parts of the trail, its dark in daylight, let alone in "dusk". Anyway, we cut short the ride and headed back down to the car park by road...

The test...

Well, the Moot's failed again. In all fairness, I didn't expect Chief to pass but I did have some hope for Indi...still, it wasn't meant to be...Chief did great heelwork but not good Stay's whereas Indi did OK Stay's (not great) but rubbish heelwork anyway. Its really annoying as I would like to progress to the next class but I just can't seem to get them through this damn test! I do have one excuse though, today was the hottest day of the year..not great for Malamutes!

A night at the proms...

On Saturday SJ and I went to Shugborough for their Night At The Proms spectacular. This is an annual event where you take chairs/tables food and lots of drink, sit in the open air in front of a stage and watch a "proms spectacular" This year, like last, was hosted by Angela Rippon. There was quite a few of us who went, about 15 in total. It was pretty good really, they had a Spitfire doing flyby's at the start and fireworks at the end. All in all a goo night even though it did take quite a bit of stumbling around to find my dad who was picking us up!

Jetlag

Was felling pretty tired from the drive back up from Gatwick after the Houston flight. Not entirely sure if its jetlag or just the effects from being awake fo over 24 hours! Surprise, urprise the M25 was shut...again...this adding to the general misery of the Crawley - Rugeley run. I went dog training on Thursday night as it was the last session before the test. I only took Chief though as I was too tired to do 2 hours of training. Went OK, still don't think he'll pass on Sunday though...

Houston - Day 4

Started the return journey home today...we had (another) meeting, but this time in the US offices (they happen to be next door to the hotel). We had breakfast at Denny's - another mountain of pancakes, eggs and general cholesterol...we were supposed to have lunch at another diner before we left but to be honest, we couldn't face more food! We headed back to the airport around midday for our flight at 3:45. I did think I'd be able to buy SJ a present in the airport but no such luck unless you counted NASA spacemen keyring's as presents! we had a burger in the airport and then boarded our plane (we flew Continental by the way). The flight back is actually an hour or so shorter than the flight out as they take a different route via Greenland.

We landed back in Gatwick at 6:55 in the morning...

Houston - Day 3

Another early start, although we did manage to get breakfast in the hotel so had an extra 30 minutes or so. Actually the breakfast was pretty good. the meeting started at 7:30 again so no time for looking around again. Lunch was again at the hotel...was OK...nothing special. The meeting finshed early today though - around 3:30 so N decided to use the opportunity to hold an impromptu UK Sales Meeting. We walked down the hotel drive (dual carriageway) in the 36 degree heat...it was boiling! Eventually we found a restaurant to get some drinks from and had our meeting there.

On the night we went to an Italian (can't remember the name) but it was very nice food (and wine). Back to the hotel afterwards for one drink then the bar closed again. I was really tired tonight though so wasn't entirely upset about that!