Toilet pipes, finally

And so we finish Thursday and here I am again writing an update.

A bright moon

I'll start with the moon last night; it was super bright and amazing to look at. This picture was taken from the guest room bedroom window and later on when I headed to bed it was almost like daylight outside on the balcony.

Clearing the cement away

Making trellis tripods

So many weeds, and roots

Lots of clearing to be done

Another batch of mowing

Today I dropped Rosie to school and when I got back Bekir and Halil were already in and working. The first task for the day was to start clearing away the blocks and cement on the patio so the slabs that were there could be lifted and all the weeds dug out. Angela was making trellises for the garden, sat on the back patio in the shade. I was working and then at lunch I went out with the mower and cut the grass up the side of the driveway. The final bit to do on this round is next to the washing line and I planned on doing that after work. As it happens I did not do this, which is also fine.

Bekir starts to drill for the pipe

Tyre change on the trailer

Toilet pipe underneath sand

The other end, ready to go up the wall

After lunch Bekir got the breaker, and then the smaller drill, out and started making the hole through which the toilet pipe will go from the upstairs toilet out to the pumps. Orhan came over mid afternoon to borrow the trailer and Halil noticed that there was a huge tear in the side of one of the tyres! Not good but fortunately it was a very quick job to change. We'll have to get the tyre replaced on the spare urgently though. Late afternoon we finally heard that the pipes for the toilet were in stock at the shop so Halil took Thomas down and they collected them, got the bill for all the materials, and also picked up a couple of nice pallets for Angela to use in the garden. With the pipe in hand it was laid along the channel, and up through the hole Bekir had drilled that morning, and now the first one is in and ready. This is a big moment indeed.

The trellis around climbing flowers

Tomatoes ready to climb

When Rosie got back from school she was not in good form really; she also had quite a tumble on the patio and scraped her knee, but then she was super naughty also. We are so lucky normally that evenings like this one are a shock. I did get to go with her around the garden a bit and see the awesome trellis work that Angela had done, on the flowers and also the tomatoes.

So there you are. Update done. Thanks for reading.

This update was very delayed as Blogger's photo upload broke last night.

Returning. A blur of exhaustion

Well it has taken me rather longer than expected to get round to doing this update about my return journey from England to home here in Bulgaria. I have been so busy and there has been so much going on that finding the time to sit and type an update about anything other than "what went on today" has been really hard. Today I have decided to make a start and hopefully complete it as well as I want it out of the way so I don't keep feeling guilty for not having done it. So, without any more faffing, let's see how much I can remember.

My final meal before leaving

So I was at John's and all ready to leave; he had helped me to load everything up and get the freezer into the trailer and then strap everything down nice and tightly and then he headed off to work. I did my final few bits and pieces around the house and made myself a quick snack before actually leaving, making use of the hotdogs and some lovely fresh bread Magda had brought from the bakery the day before. It doesn't look like much but it really did sort me out. I can remember washing up afterwards and feeling so very excited as the time to leave drew closer.

The face of a Beard holding a baby

I left around the time I had expected to and set the satnav to take me to CJC's house. The leaving process went well as I was able to pull up in front of the house and go back inside to drop the keys and the remote control for the gates. My drive to CJC's was really easy, Thomas pulling the trailer without any trouble and the views were lovely. I arrived quite early and so was able to get out and take the puppies (and now thinking about it, what tiny puppies they actually were still then!) for a walk around the block. I knocked on when I got back from the work and they were very happy to see me and I them; it was immense to see my lovely namesake and congratulate them both from both of us. I also got to give the final presents including a bottle for H to be given him on his 18th birthday.

Celebrating the arrival of H in style

We had long planned that I would take CJC up to the pub for a meal and to get him out of the house for an hour or so and we strolled up to the same one we'd been to as a foursome last year. The food was excellent and the company outstanding and we had a lovely time talking about everything and catching up. It seems strange to think that I won't be seeing CJC for ages now as I've managed to move to a distance that makes casual visits slightly awkward. I miss his whole family.

Short break to check the straps and let the girls run around

Too soon it was time to walk back to his house and for me to get into Thomas and start the journey down to Dover and my ferry. Hugs all round and we were off. I was testing out a bit of software on a mobile phone to do a stop motion capture for the whole journey and had found on the way to CJC's that the free version only recorded for an hour so I paid for the full version and set it going before leaving. I got to Dover very quickly indeed, stopping on the way to let the puppies out for a run and to give myself a leg stretch as well, and as I arrived it was raining a bit. I had a quick walk again with them then got my moose neck pillow out and dozed off for an hour or so, waking exactly at the right time to be loaded into the ferry.

I said goodbye to the puppies, climbed the stairs and found a bench to lie down on and eventually fell asleep, no thanks to the really noisy hordes of french adolescents running around for the entire voyage. I woke just before we pulled in and was able to join the queues and get to Thomas without too much delay. The journey from the ferry terminal out of France was very unpleasant indeed. After the short distance winding through the roundabouts to get out of the industrial estate you are suddenly thrown into the maelstrom of the motorway with screaming lorries flying at you from all angles and with the weather being not so great, raining hard, I found myself suddenly waking up very much after my doze.

Having some breakfast by the side of the road

About 6am UK time I left France and entered Belgium and I just kept going until just after 8 when I stopped to let the puppies have some breakfast, and make myself a bacon butty as well. We did well like this for the journey as there are regular laybyes and parking places where you can safely stop and the puppies are so well behaved they just stay near me anyway.

Germany, puppy exercise, and lunch

Soon enough I was back in the car and on the road again and by about 11.30 I entered Germany. This was brilliant as my plan called for me to maybe make Germany on the first day and here I was, doing so before lunch time. I carried on until I got a bit hungry and then stopped again, making some cheese, ham and crisp butties for myself, and letting the girls have a little run around with their leads tied to a lamppost.

A urine soaked patch of grass

I still wasn't feeling tired so I got back on the road after eating however about an hour or so later I started to flag and so, seeing the motorway church that I'd stopped at with my parents last year, I pulled over and attempted to sleep. My big idea of resting on this patch of grass was spoiled by the fact that Germans may give the impression they are clean people but they piss EVERYWHERE and it stank. I would see many an example of this where a driver was pissing in the bushes right next to a motorway service station. Not cool.

The motorway church

I pulled my stuff over to by where Thomas was parked and did manage to get about an hour of shut eye and when I woke I took the girls for a quick walk to see the church before getting back on the road.

Airport bridge over the motorway

As mentioned before I had some loose targets in my head for this journey and one of them was to make it to Frankfurt for the end of the first day. I was stuck in traffic going past the airport by about 4.30pm and therefore had smashed that target already. The one benefit of being stationary was that when an airplane went to taxi across the bridge over the road I could quickly snap a picture of it with the camera on the clamp in front of me. I've always wanted a picture of this and now I have one.

Heating up pasta for dinner

I kept going again and stopped about 7pm for my dinner and to let the puppies have theirs and get some leg stretching. They were doing amazingly well, as expected, and were sleeping almost the whole way so far without complaining. I cooked up some dried pasta packets for my dinner and then washed the bowl out by boiling water in it; this was a lovely meal and just what I needed.

Sticking plaster for the tarpaulin

I was still not feeling tired by this point however I had noticed some damage to the tarpaulin on the trailer. It wasn't flapping much at all however the motion of the suspension and the slight movement of the tarp was rubbing a hole where the top of the corner posts were. If I hadn't seen this it could have become a big issue however I got the packing tape out and reinforced both corners and this fix lasted all the way home.

Another sleeping place

I drove on for another half an hour before feeling myself beginning to nod and so I pulled up into a spot and had a doze. I was finding that no matter how hard I tried I could not sleep for more than about an hour or two at a time and this was no different. I woke up relatively quickly, feeling really well rested, and just got back on the road figuring there was no point in wasting time and laying in my sleeping bag if I was awake and could drive.

Lovely bacon butties to keep me going

I pulled over once more in the night for another snooze and then just before daylight by which time I think I was in Austria. The laybye I was in was far more populated than the one were A and I had almost been mugged earlier in the year, and I felt quite safe. I slept sat up in the front seat with the moose as a pillow again and again woke feeling really refreshed after a couple of hours each time. I was hungry, though, so before heading off I pulled the cooker out and made a bacon butty or three.

A photograph for my dad

It seemed that all of Europe is being dug up for roadworks during this trip and I was stuck in more traffic jams than I've been for ages. There was one particularly frustrating one where I crawled along for about an hour at 10mph up the single lane that was open only to suddenly accelerate after the car in front had driven past a piece of road-making equipment that was working on the two closed lanes. The entire delay, it seemed, had been caused by people slowing to look at a road digger. Very frustrating.

There is a lack of Harrison in this picture

I kept up my routine though of stopping for food and exercise for me and the puppies regularly, and pulling over for catnaps whenever I was overwhelmed with tiredness. In this way I made absolutely excellent progress despite the road works and heavy traffic and late morning on the third day since leaving Manchester I drove past where Harrison broke down and had to decide if I was going to go past to try and get the stuff we had left. I decided that, seeing as it was less than five minutes off my route, I would go for it however when I arrived there was no sign of him at all in the car graveyard. I saw the helpful one who spoke a bit of English and they denied knowing I was coming back so rather than cause a scene as there was obviously nothing I could do I said "no problems" and got back in Thomas and got on my way.

Getting ready to nap in Romania, with a wild dog close

A short while later I made it to the border with Romania and this was far easier for me than for the ten miles or so of trucks backed up. The queues were so bad they had done a variation of "operation stack" and made the roads one way with the right lane full of parked trucks and the left lane, normally coming towards you, open for cars. It was amazing to drive past so much trucking which wasn't going anywhere. There were no queues to speak of for cars and I was pretty much straight through and making the decision as to which crossing I wanted to go for. I decided to do the mountains and the way I had been with my parents and so head off down the new road which was smooth and almost entirely devoid of traffic. I was starting to feel a little tired again so about 7pm I decided to have a snooze in the first parking place I came to. I got the full bivvy out this time and settled myself down and got about two hours again before being woken up by the puppies barking. There were wild dogs around (which you can see in the video later if you pay attention) and I packed up and got on the road.

It got very dark shortly after this and started raining and I was cursing my decision to take a break as I had to negotiate some very dark roads with sudden corners in pitch black driving rain with lunatic drivers both going the same way as me and coming towards me. I survived OK and the weather passed and the driving got a little easier again. That's not to say they got anywhere near easy and when I hit the mountains around midnight it got very interesting indeed with the trucks wanting to go faster than I was going and overtaking me on the climbing lanes, or just the wrong side of the road. I hit "record" on the video on my phone to capture the excitement of this and you can hear just how tired I was by this point in my slightly rambling running commentary. It was hair-raising though.

The dam from a distance

I was starting to feel ready for another nap by this time so I kept a ready eye open for somewhere to stop. Pretty soon I found a layby and pulled into it only to be greeted within seconds by a policeman in a policecar who had followed me in. He didn't have a problem with me or anything about my vehicle, he just wanted to warn me not to stop there as there had been a lot of carjackings in the region recently. They were really friendly and when they saw Thelma and Louise (who I got out for a quick walk as I was stopped) they got into a lovely conversation about them and their own dogs. It was a really nice experience though it did put me on my guard so when, later, I was approaching the dam on the Danube that I really wanted to get a closeup photograph of and I pulled in to the carpark there and the white van with one light followed me in I took a deep breath, pulled straight back out and got out of sight as quickly as I could. As it happened just a little up the road was the carpark we had stopped in on the way with my parents so I pulled in there, got a long distance shot of the dam again, and went to doze, then decided to back Thomas in amongst a couple of eighteen wheeler trailers so I was a little less conspicuous. Shortly afterwards I saw the one lighted van drive past. Now I don't know that it was someone who wanted to jack me, but I'd always rather be safe than sorry.

Crossing into Bulgaria

I woke up feeling rested enough to continue but then got quite confused at a roundabout where you had to go away from the obvious direction to avoid going through a town centre. After a few U-turns (not very easy with a big trailer and feeling that tired) I was back making good progress and soon I was at the border and crossing into Bulgaria! I was home! What a feeling!

Not the best place I stopped on the journey

It took quite a while for me to find a vignette for Bulgaria but I wasn't too worried as most petrol stations sell them, just not those close to the border it seems. I attempted to avoid the really bumpy village we had gone through last year but still hit it and had to creep over the cobbles really carefully. The roads are hard work up there in the far north of the country and I was starting to be quite hungry so I began to look for a place to stop. It is an indicator of just how exhausted I was that when I did stop it was in a very narrow layby with trucks zooming past within feet of where I was sitting and it was on an uphill so I began to panic slightly about getting going again. After their breakfast and mine I didn't doze but got straight back on it and bless him Thomas got me moving without any trouble. What a relief.

And so I drove down out of the mountains, found a place for a vignette, went round Sofia (past many more roadworks) and then out along the road I know so well towards my home. They were doing even more roadworks on this road, replacing the bridges. Quite literally replacing them as they had people with pickaxes smashing the road away from around their feet and then further on bridges that were further down the process and were having the new surface put on. I was tired and even though I was desperate to get home I had to pull in to one of the service stations south of Sofia for another hour's kip. I worked out that with that I had slept about 10 hours in total since leaving CJC's house.

Arriving home, finally

Everything was going swimmingly and I decided to take the mountain road back so turned off the motorway and went through the villages that mean I'm getting close to home. It was just then that I heard it; a groaning sound from the hitch. I stopped immediately and got out and found that there may have been a problem between Thomas and Trailer but I wasn't totally sure what it was. Rather than panic I got back in and decided to drive really carefully and therefore I took the entirety of the remainder of the journey at 30mph or less and I only heard the sound a couple of times after that. I was driving along willing him to make it now that I was so close and as we came up the hill to the village, having text A to let her know we were there, I celebrated finally. The feeling was even better as I turned the corner, was greeted by my neighbours, and saw A stood at our gate with Rambo waving and taking pictures as I drove up. What a relief.

I didn't stop at the gate as it's quite a steep bit but pulled straight in and through and parked Thomas up on the patio then got out with the puppies to meet A and what a lovely reunion it was. It had been too long since I'd seen her and I had missed her loads! I think she had missed me also, or at least I hope so, but she'd done so well in my absence, what with getting involved in the village and other things that I could tell the decision we had made had been the right one. I stopped the video capture on the phone once we had greeted and it's above; I think it is interesting and I hope you agree.

So there you are; I'm sure I missed some things (like being fined by the Austrians for not sticking the vignette to my windscreen, whoops) but it's been a fair few weeks now since I got back. I'm glad I got this done and written up though as now I can stop thinking about it.

Finally achieved it!

Good morning. Well, it was actually a bit dull and miserable with a shed load of rain and cloud. I was certainly not feeling inspired to dig in the garden which was the task I had set myself for today. The corn is getting out of hand in the raised beds and it really does need replanting. Not a chance today, it rained most of the morning. At about 10am and after several coffees and the animals breakfasts, it started to brighten. Good. I was not feeling inspired and sat with my blanket over my legs like a granny until then, watching You Tube clips.

When I did go out, someone was very happy about the rain!

My pond is back!

Having had no motivation whatsoever, when the sun made an appearance I suddenly got the urge to be productive. I decided the garden would just lead to me getting soaked and so I looked down my to-do list and thought the garage probably sounded more achievable. I set to it.  This is the mess.

Mess!

 More mess...

More mess

To be fair, the actual mess was caused by me when I was rat hunting. The filth was already there.
I am a bit of a stubborn one and once I start something, I generally finish it, grumpy or not. As the heat got up I was up and down to the main living area for drinks quite regularly - it is dusty in there. I spotted our friends had sent a message and said they were going to call in. That was a lovely surprise as I have been alone here, except for the drainage men, for a week or so.  Just before they arrived I started to move things around.

Clear one, fill another

The bottle room that I had cleared a few weeks ago actually came in handy. It is dry and I think storing stuff in there for now is a good idea.

I didn't want to, but I decided that I couldn't do half a job and I got stuck into the wood pile. I had been taking lumps of wood to burn from this pile up until the point it became warm enough to go without a fire at night. As the pile diminished, I started to find rat droppings. I knew there were still rats around as some poison had gone missing recently and I had also spotted some fresh droppings in the back rooms. Sure enough, another nest; thankfully empty.

Another nest

I threw all of the wood that was within the area of the nest out to in the pile that would be burned (along with the window frames with paint on them) and I carried on clearing up with my face screwed up, as usual. The thought of these critters makes my skin crawl.

I eventually got over the whole rat thing, wearing my thick rubber gardening gloves obviously, but it was tidy again. Halfway there.

Stage one, complete!

 As expected, S&S arrived around 2pm with their intern. She is a lovely girl, from Paris and clearly fascinated with the buildings and lifestyle.  I got S to help me with all the heavy moving inside; the sink and the dining table and then we all pitched in to move the trailer out the back of the garage. This makes it a lot easier for me to get stuff out the back now, so that is great!

Back home

 S&S had arrived earlier to bring me the sat nav I feared I would need if I was to find their place in the mountains, so now I can visit. This is a lovely thing to have the loan of. It makes me feel a lot more confident. After they left I carried on stubbornly with the rest of the garage clear out even though I just wanted to go and lay on the chair on the terrace. I am so glad I did. How great it feels to have another room cleared.

Mission accomplished

 How much better does this look? Although, it does show some apparent damp spots. Hopefully the drainage will sort this out finally.

At last

 I had been putting this off for ages and I am so pleased I finally got the motivation to tackle it.
Sat on the swinging chair in the porch, winding Rambo up about the birds I spotted some unusual colour down at the end of the garden by the fallen quince tree. I have no idea what he planted last year and I suspect he doesn't either, but look at these beauties!

More random flowers

 After a busy day in the dust and heat, Rambo and I took ourselves to the balcony for the last couple of hours of the day. He struggles with the heat at the minute as he is only starting to shed his coat, so the shade was the best place for him. I on the other hand am pink and hoping that I will be a little browner in the morning!

Chilling with Mum

I am not quite sure, but around these parts it is usually an Egyptian Vulture that circles in this way.  I am sticking with this. There seems to be lot of these around the area at the moment.

Vulture

With this, I bid you goodnight. I am starving and have been putting dinner off for a Skype call and also the blog.  Take care.

Leka nosht.

A x

Puppy Love

It barely seems possible that it was just a week ago today (as I type this) that I collected the girls. So much has happened with them, every day being a new day of discovery for all of us, that I wish in a sense that I had written this in daily sections to accurately capture my feelings at that point as, unavoidably, those generated today are strongest in my mind.  This is going to be a really tough blog to write for another reason as I have shot 22 videos and taken 230 photographs of Thelma and Louise and I have to try and whittle that down to something a bit more manageable for the blog.

 

After one day, they had already done this

This blog actually begins last Sunday after I finished writing the previous update. The girls settled in really quickly, having slept in the car on the way home as described before. My plan for them is to have them in the kitchen during the morning and afternoon while I’m at work and then to have them in the front room with me at other times. At night they will be sleeping the en suite next to my bedroom where I can hear them if they start asking to go out to the toilet; a distant dream at the beginning of the week. The toys I had ordered from online were proving to be a success already and the hand grenade (which my dad told me to never carry in my hand luggage) was their favourite. It was also already starting to fray even by the end of Sunday as their sharp little teeth and claws ripped into it.

And what sharp claws they are; by the end of Sunday I was covered in little scratches from them climbing up and down my arms and just walking on me. In no way are they aggressive towards me though this is just an accidental by product of their affectionate way with me. When I went to look at them before I bought them I was only planning on, as you know, getting one puppy but I couldn’t choose between them. You can see just what a good choice this was here; they play together really well and even by the end of Sunday I was totally smitten, convinced of the correctness of my choice.

 

Fish and chips with peas; a meal fit for a king

One thing I have decided on right from the beginning is that I will eat my dinner and then feed them; this is to establish some kind of order to the household and so they get really used to being part of the pack which I lead. My dinner was fish and chips picked up from the shop opposite where I got the girls and it really hit the spot though the little rotters were bouncing around my feet a lot and I knew I would have to do something about that pretty soon. What, I wasn’t sure at the time.

 

Both of them nomming hard

Once I had finished my food I went to the kitchen and put a handful of the food given by the lady into a bowl each and set them on the floor. At first I was filming this but it was quickly apparent I would need to get a bit more involved than just standing watching like I could with Ralf and Rambo. I shut the video off and sat down with my legs dividing the two bowls and one puppy on each side. This worked out really well and I was able to both keep them focused (there is NOTHING so tempting as the exact same food but sat in your sister’s bowl) and encourage them to finish off every scrap. This they did at this first feeding time.

 

Puppy poo and wee

And so to bed and I took them up about 9ish and settled them down while I read for a bit in bed next door. I was expecting some ructions however they dropped off very quickly and with no problems at all and didn’t disturb me at all in the night. I can’t say the same for me however as I needed the toilet and had to go in and wake them to use the loo. Even after this, and they were super bouncy at me when I did this, they went back to sleep quickly and therefore so did I. I fed them again in the morning using the same technique to separate them and they were about the same though neither of them finished all the pellets I gave them and then I was off to work leaving them alone for the first time in the kitchen. I would be lying to say I wasn’t concerned for them and for the chaos they could have caused when I arrived back at lunch but what a pleasant surprise. Not only was there no ripped up walls and trashed room they had done their poo and wees on the cardboard provided! On the first ever day of being left. How impressive is that!

 

Waiting in bed while I make my butties

I stood to make my sandwiches while in the kitchen with them and they were jumping again around my feet and generally getting in the way as I tried to move around so I took A’s advice and put them in their bed and every time they went to move I told them off. Again demonstrating how clever these two are they got the hang of this very quickly and ever since then they have been confineable to their bed with just a word and a pointed finger. What awesome puppies.

 

Anything can be a toy. ANYTHING!

I moved through to eat in the front room and again was able to control them really well into their bed but once I finished eating it was a free for all. They were sniffing everywhere and exploring as puppies will and found an even better toy than the hand grenade in the green canvas bag which I have used to keep their stuff in. After watching and laughing for a few minutes I took it off them so it didn’t get destroyed like the real toys do.

With that avenue of fun removed they settled down to what has become a theme this week; fighting. Now they don’t seem to do it to hurt each other (often) and mainly they are just bouncing around and chasing each other but I think there is also something serious here in that they are trying to work out their order in the pack. You would have thought that Thelma would be top dog and I think she was when I collected them but by forcing them to eat at the same time I think I have given Louise some more confidence and she is now fighting back.

 

More toys for the girls

Louise loves the new sheep toy

It was really hard to leave them that first lunch time and go back to the office as I had so much fun playing with them and watching them play. I didn’t stay late in the office at the end of the day though and went back, said hello to them (some less successful toilet experiences this time) and then went out to Tesco to get me some food and them some treats and more toys. A thinks I’m spoiling them but I think they deserve every bit of it.

 

They are too small for their harnesses, bless

I had bought a couple of tiny harnesses and some leads for them so I would be able to take them out for walks after their vet trip on Wednesday so I got these out and tried to fit them on. It turned out that small as they were the harnesses were way too big for these girls. Thelma kept getting one leg through and then tripping up while Louise was able to just shrug the whole thing off and leave it behind as an inconvenience. The collars on the extending leads were also way too big so for now I had to leave them collarless and think again about how to solve that.

 

The destructive nature of a puppy

The bed had already started to suffer from puppy-attack and the hole opening up in its front was getting larger. Pleasingly the section of seam which I had fixed before had not come away and it was a different part that was ripped. Maybe I missed my true vocation.

 

A plethora of toys

Anyway they could hardly complain about being hard done by for things to play with; this is their current toy collection and there are a couple of other things at my parents yet to be collected. They play with each and every toy as well as things which aren’t toys so they aren’t being wasteful of my largesse.

 

Having a snooze after a play session

For the rest of the evening I sat on the floor and played with them while they crawled over me and then finally fell asleep on me which I allowed to continue until my bum got completely numb from being sat with no cushion so I had to disturb them and move up to the sofa. Not to be denied after a short while I running around after this they were back and curled up right on my feet; how terribly cute these two are. The evening was a quiet one and I once more took them up to their bed about 9ish and read until I was ready for sleeping. My life style had already completely altered to allow me to fit in around these two.

 

Matching collars for the girls

The next morning went off very similarly to the previous and I was off to work after feeding them and making them stay in their bed while I did the washing up which once again they did very well indeed. On the way back at lunch time I popped in to the pet shop round the corner (I’d actually been in the day before to get some pet food but forgot about that til just now) and got a tiny collar and lead set for each of them. When I got home and after they had jumped all over me in excitement I was able to get these to fit and so they are now proudly sporting matching collars. They were not very pleased at the time and spent most of the lunch break itching and spinning them around.

For those of you who don’t believe that the puppies could possibly be being so obedient as to stay in their beds just with a verbal command please check the video above. I swear this was taken on the Tuesday and they just stay there until they are allowed to leave. In fact sometimes you have to encourage them to get out of the bed once you’re done whatever you are doing which makes you want to limit them.

For sure their favourite toy so far is the hand grenade as you can see in the video there.  They will play with it individually until the other notices and tries to take it away at which point they’ll start doing tug of war. They are also, however, interested in chasing it which is great because that is exactly the reason I had for buying this toy. I want them to become expert ratters and chase things on the floor you see. I don’t know if this will definitely help but I can’t see it hindering.

 

Mauled and mangled hand grenade toy

They are well on their way to destroying it already; this is pretty tough rubberised material and it is becoming shredded very quickly. I have since ordered another few of these to take with so when this one finally goes to the great toy shop in the sky they have replacements lined up.

 

A bit of puppy proofing

About the only thing about the kitchen that concerned me with leaving them alone in there was the fridge; everything else is quite well hidden but the plug for the fridge sits out in the open where any inquisitive puppy could find it and possible chew it with fatal consequences. I put this block of wood in place on Monday evening after realising how risky it was and as of now they haven’t even tried to move it; the only irritation is it falls over when I open the freezer but I can cope with that if it keeps the girls safe.

While I eat, they wait

Dinner was some lovely lamb steaks with chips and really filled the hole nicely. The girls again demonstrated their excellent obedience and stayed pretty much like this right the way through the meal. After I had finished I took them and fed them then played with them until it was time to take them to bed again. It seems the girls have two modes; they are not sat on my lap and fighting, or they persuade me to pick them up and then fall asleep happily. Very cute.

 

Thelma and the canal

Louise likes beer, apparently

Wednesday followed pretty much the same pattern and lunch time was a pleasure of tasty butties and fun romping with the both of them. After work I left very promptly as they were booked in for their first vets appointment at 4.30. I had time on getting home to try them out with leads as I had arranged to go to the pub afterwards with my boss and was thinking of taking them down. I went past the post office on the way down to collect my birthday present from A which had missed delivery the other day and made it to the vets in plenty of time. I wasn’t in there long and only had to endure a lecture on cleaning their teeth (what?!) and watch them both submit to an injection which they took with no complaints at all and then I was out the door and decided to go straight to the pub rather than going home and walking round. I left the girls in the car while I got my beer and then took a seat down by the canal where the sun was on me and I could let them run around a bit.

 

The little boy wanted to feed the puppies

I became something of an instant celebrity sat there with the girls. The landlord and lady and family came over to see them, random walkers went past and stopped and one little boy down to feed the ducks came back after he had almost run out of bread with a small amount each wanting to “feed the puppies”. Fortunately these girls are really friendly and they were very happy to be fussed by all comers. The little girl from the pub wasn’t very impressed when she was called in by her parents and tried to steal a whole bag of crisps which were on our table; she cried as I told her “no!” and I didn’t even feel slightly bad about that at all.

 

A super tasty curry that we both enjoyed very much

After we finished our pints it was agreed that, as the pub were not serving, we would go to a local village for a curry. We got back to mine so I could feed the puppies before we went out and I realised I’d left without paying. There was no problem when we got back and then Gerd kindly drove onwards to food. It was a really good indian that he had talked about for a while and I was very glad to finally get to appreciate it. The food was good, the service excellent and much fun was had.

 

Snoozing now I am home

When he dropped me off afterwards I found the girls of course very happy to see me. I was happy that they had proven able to be left in the evening as well. Now I don’t have lots planned for going out but there are a few things coming up and now I know that so long as I get them fed and have early evening with them, letting them alone for the rest of the evening isn’t a terrible thing. They both were tired and I ended up having Louise sleeping on me and Thelma sleeping in the bed and peace reigned again.

 

Exploring the garden for the first time

And so dawned my birthday but forgive me if I do not admit to an age. I was up early, fed the girls, opened the pressie from A (an outstanding bottle of whisky that I knew I would like and so did she; thank you darling) and then went into work where I managed to keep the day quiet for the most part which is just how I like it. The vet hadn't been sure of some timings around jabs and travel, and also wanted me to check if they had been treated for worms yet, so I made the required phone calls and found that timings were OK and they hadn't been treated. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and when I got home after work I decided to take them out in the back garden and try them out on the leads. I used the extending leads and they were pretty good though of course I wasn’t trying to take them anywhere, just letting them run around while on the lead.

Sunbathing together

This was the first time I had taken them outside in the garden and they absolutely loved it, as did I. I am a sun person and being able to sunbathe in the back garden on my birthday was a brilliant thing. After playing with the girls for a bit I decided to get the benefit of the sun and so lay on my back. They immediately jumped on me and sat on my neck which was not very comfortable so I went onto my front and they jumped on my back which was less annoying so I left them there. We lay like this for a fair while in the end.

 

I ate all of this because I am greedy

Eventually the shadow came across so I had to get up and go inside as while the sun was warm it was a bit chilly in the shade. Seeing as I was feeding myself on this birthday day I decided to go for my favourite dish I cook (not my favourite ever dish but then A isn’t here to cook me bangers, mash and gravy) so I got the stuff together and made myself an epic spicy pork pasta.

 

A very happy birthday to me

After eating this and feeding the girls it was back onto the sofa with a dram of my birthday whisky. I poured a very small shot as I was feeling tired and then settled back with the girls cuddled on my lap. Within short order, and after only a tiny sip of the spirit, we all fell asleep and I woke up feeling very groggy about half an hour later. I got my senses together, finished the whisky which was just gorgeous and then headed to bed properly. I do love my quiet evenings and the presence of these two hasn’t disrupted them at all so much as enhanced them.

There really are two sides to these two lovely puppies. I just commented now to A that they are either falling asleep lovingly in each others’ arms on my lap or trying to kill each other. You can see from the video above (hugely amusing to me as well with them chasing each other around the house) and the picture the two sides. You wouldn’t think there was an aggressive bone in their bodies to look at them one minute and then the next they are growling and snarling and dragging each other around by various body parts. I do act as a referee when it seems to me the fighting is getting too rough but ultimately so long as they do not hurt each other they have to find their own level and also this will only serve them in good stead for when they are attacking rats which, let’s face it, won’t exactly back down.

 

Very obediently waiting for me to finish eating

PLEASE PICK US UP! PLEASEEE

Often a fight will develop just after a scene like this one. They will be looking up at me while I’m typing (like just now, for example, as I’m getting this blog done) and then if I ignore them they will start tearing the room apart fighting each other. Louse, while much smaller, seems to make quite a good account of herself. It does make me laugh when Louise continually riles at Thelma who doesn’t seem interested and then slowly gets worked up until Louise has a hard time keeping her feet. They are very affectionate though even when fighting and if there is a squeal or a squeak from either the other will back off immediately.

 

Trailer with shiny new sides

And so Friday rolled round and saw me up early feeding the girls and then getting in Thomas to take the trailer over to the shop it originally came from to have new sides put on it, and also to have some work done to the towing equipment on Thomas. I found it really easily and they saw immediately what I meant about the height of the tow bar. I settled myself in the shop on a sofa, was given a brew, and before I knew it they were ready for me to leave and everything had been done. It towed much better on the way back than it had there and I’m really pleased with the sides. Now I just need to get the tarpaulin and I am all set for the return journey.

 

They love sleeping on my lap

I spent the rest of the day typing away on my laptop and being distracted by the girls as they took great pleasure in me being there during the day and not leaving them alone. I think the next Friday I work from home I will have to leave them in the kitchen and go and work in the office upstairs so I can get a little less disrupted work. No matter, it worked out ok as my jobs for the day were more about thinking than typing anyway. I also treated the girls with the worms and flea stuff which was fun as it had to be droppered onto their shoulder blades and then they had to be kept apart to stop them grooming each other. I was very good and first made Thelma sit in the bed while I held Louise and about half way through the drying process I swapped them over. No favourites here. Honest.

 

Now the girls can't steal the bird bread

Saturday dawned bright and I was up early again because of the girls; no lie ins for me for the foreseeable future I think. I was ready to start the next stage of toilet training of the girls by getting them to go outside regularly and hopefully encouraging them to only do their toilet outside. After the first attempt which took some time for them to realise what I was expecting this went well through the day and I was able to get quite good at catching them before their urges got too much. I also had some fun with them stealing the bread that I put out for the birds and so I took A’s advice again and made a temporary bird table.

 

A real washing line is now strung up

I rigged up a new washing line and then hung out some stuff on it which was great. The girls did me a favour here as well as they needed the toilet so I went out and was able to pull the washing in just as it started spitting with rain, and both items were fully dry. After this I was to Tesco and it absolutely pissed it down while I was there, but I got everything I needed included food for the next week and my leather hat kept me perfectly dry.

 

This stick is actually a growing sapling

It stayed that way, rain storms and then lovely sunshine, for the rest of the day and I was in and out all day with the girls. By now I was letting them run around without a lead and just watching and laughing as they chased each other and chewed up sticks and then chased each other again. Louise seems to be the one who will find the sticks but then once she has them, Thelma will always want to take it off her and then a fight ensues or maybe the stick snaps and they both go away happy for a while.

 

And back to sleep

Inevitably after playing hard outside we’d come back in and they would insist on jumping on my lap and then dozing off. This was fine but it does make it hard to play my computer game which is what I was trying to do. I ended up playing it only with my left hand as they were lying on my right and I couldn’t move it at all. My heart was aching, though, as they are so adorable and I can’t even imagine life without them already.

 

Playing with the ball

It wasn’t all pissing, shitting and sleeping however. The balls that I had bought from Tesco for them had up til now largely been ignored in the panoply of toys however during the afternoon they suddenly found them and started playing football and batting them around chasing them across the carpet. Thelma is big enough to actually pick one up but Louise has to just kick and nudge it to get it to move. Suffice to say as per usual the one only wanted the other’s ball and there were a few disagreements – it really is pointless buying two of anything isn’t it.

 

Super tasty dinner of minted lamb steaks

Dinner was a couple of minted lamb steaks with potatoes and peas and it was super tasty. Feeding time went well again and then it was snoozing on me while I played my game a bit before bed time. This time I was up a couple of times with them in the night when I heard movement, once at midnight and again at about 3am, and I took them out for wees and poos and this meant that this morning there was no accident at all. What a success and as they settle so quickly I was able to go back to sleep pretty much straight away both times. This also meant I got to have a lie in this morning and wasn’t up until 8am!

 

Cutting my hair off

And so to today.  I had a pretty fixed idea of things which I wanted to achieve today and as I sit here waiting for my dinner to cook at the end of the day I can look back and realise I’ve achieved them all. First of all I had cutting my hair and cleaning the house and I started off with the first. The girls sat in their bed obediently (for the most part) while I piled up a substantial quantity of shorn hair at my feet. I had let it grow ever since returning from Bulgaria so that is what a couple of months of growth looks like. With that done I put the girls in the cage in Thomas and set to tidying which wasn’t just a mop around and spraying the carpet cleaner like I’d already done once this week but involved wiping down all the sides in the kitchen, cleaning the cooker and even washing the draining rack. By the time I got out to the girls I found that they had had an accident which was entirely my fault for both leaving them for too long and not letting them have a toilet break before being locked up.

 

Enjoying their time in the sun with a non-attached stick

This mean that I had to run the washing machine which I hadn’t been planning on doing but with the weather so gorgeous at least I would be able to hang things outside which prompted me to add my towels and other things to the load. While this was running I spent a bit of time online and then took a chair out into the back garden to enjoy the gorgeous weather, and let the girls run around a lot as they love to do. The washing finished so I pegged it out and then it was nearly lunch time so I waited until I could eat without appearing greedy (I’d had a very nice yoghurt for breakfast but I think next time I’ll have two as I was hank marvin after a couple of hours) and then sat outside with my cheese and tomato butties again laughing as the girls fought gently over a stick.

 

What's this "walkies" business anyway

With myself fortified for the next challenge I put the leads on the girls and locked and tried to take them on their first ever walk. Dogs are supposed to love walkies but puppies are always a bit nervous and these two were no exception. It took me about ten minutes to encourage them to get in front of the neighbour’s house and that involved some dragging as they refused to walk. After a while I took to carrying them a bit and then putting them down and encouraging them and this worked at least for Louise who ended up trotting along quite nicely however Thelma was having none of it and by the time I reached the main road I just picked them both up and carried them to the pub.

Dozing again, this time at the pub

They made their usual stir when in there and the barmaid even brought my beer out to my table outside purely so she could get to fuss the girls and after she had gone other people came over as they parked up; a dog is public property here. I drank my pint, walked them a little bit around the beer garden, and then headed back feeling a little nervous as to how they would do. I was very pleased as Louise carried on leading the way and eventually even Thelma got the hang of it and was walking beside and a little behind me without needing dragging. I think I will try and walk them around the block every day for the next week and see what happens; they need to be good at this “being walked” thing by Islay.

And back home in the sun

When we got back it was so gorgeous that I got the recliner out into the back garden and lay in the sun. For a while the girls ran around playing but then the inevitable happened and they came to sit down. Louise demanded onto my lap but Thelma curled up underneath the chair for a bit. After a while she also wanted to come up and so I lifted her and soon they were both totally unconscious; it looks like Louise is falling off here but she really isn’t. I was reading my book and loving the heat but eventually I had to come inside as the breeze was really cold.

The snooze had obviously done them good as they were very excited when they got back inside and played with their toys, beat each other up (I think they look like ninja’s at the beginning of this video) and generally tore the place up. I was chatting to A and making a start on typing this epic update by this time.

Making it difficult for me to type

This was made a little more difficult than normal by the fact that both girls demanded to jump on my lap to sleep and then Thelma would only doze off if her head was on my arm. I managed for quite a long time but eventually had to put them in their bed so I could type uninhibited.

And there it is. Only a short update for you. I will sign off now and go and let the girls cuddle again as they are watching me from their  bed waiting. Well, Louise is, Thelma is snoring her head off.