Oh my woof, how time flies! As I was inspecting the inside of my eyelids this morning, it occurred to me that it is just two weeks before my operation. I must say that I am a little bit worried about it, but I am trying to keep my mind on other things. On Friday afternoon, after a short nap to recover from my hydrotherapy, I took Alex and Richard out for a walk over Hilly Fields. That is, without doubt, my favourite walk. When we got to the footpath between the haul route and Tylers Close field, I reminded Alex that he hadn’t brought a bag out to pick up all the plastic gloves that had been thrown on the ground all along the path. He said he would try and remember in the morning, but you know what he’s like! When we got to Tylers Close field I sat down so that Alex could remove my lead and then I had a jolly good run around. I know I move like lightening, but I do find that I spend quite a bit of time waiting for him! I haven’t worked out yet whether he is just slow or if I am super fast. It would be unusual for a dog to be uber handsome and super fast too, but then I know I am unusual!
On Saturday morning, I decided to take them both for another walk around Hilly Fields. I know I have mentioned this before, but Alex is not the brightest star in the sky … a few sandwiches short of a picnic, if you get my gist. He forgot to take a bag with him for the rubbish again! Fortunately someone had left one conveniently by the path, so Richard picked up the bag and then filled it with the plastic gloves and loads of other rubbish – he actually filled the bag just along that path! After I had had a really good run about in Tylers Close field, we continued through Tylers Close and Orchard Lane where Richard was able to pick up even more bits of rubbish. It is very kind of people to leave all this rubbish around so that Richard can pick it up. Having said that, I am a little confused as to why people have left two pairs of men’s underpants on the path between the haul route and Tylers Close field in two different places – I don’t think Richard wants to pick them up!
On Saturday afternoon we went out in the car. I wasn’t at all happy about that as it was quite warm, but Alex was organising an ‘event’ in the White Hart Barn and he needed to go and buy wine and raffle prizes. I have looked up the word ‘event’ on my Doggy/Human(English) dictionary and it says “something that happens or takes place” which seems to cover just about everything. Anyway, apparently wine and raffle prizes were important and so we had to go and buy them. We went all the way to East Grinstead (East Grinstead is a very long way away … a lot further than Tylers Close field which I suppose is why we needed the car) and had a walk around. When Alex decided to do his shopping I stayed with Richard whilst Alex went into the shop. Judging by the number of bottles he came out with, he was expecting people to be very thirsty indeed! When he had loaded the car, we got back in and drove all the way home – why I needed to go is beyond me!
That isn’t actually quite true – we got back in the car, drove all the way home and then drove past because Alex had forgotten that he needed three bunches of flowers for the evening, so we had to go to Oxted and get them. I do sometimes wonder! Anyway, when we eventually got back home, he was frantically running around getting things together, loading them into the car, (if he thought I was going out again, he had another think coming … although as he had filled the boot up there was nowhere for me to sit anyway!), printing signs and generally being very ‘last minute dot com’. I was, frankly, bored by all of this, so I took Richard out for a walk around Hilly Fields. We had only just got into Hilly Fields and I spotted Richard had brought a ball with him. Boy did I have a good time with that!! I was actually a little bit tired when we got back. Richard went and had a shower (I have noticed that humans seem to do this quite a lot) and got changed and then it was straight out again to the White Hart Barn.
When we got there we met Alex who immediately left to go home for a very quick shower and change before he arrived back at the hall. It turned out that this particular ‘event’ was a kind of party. Basically, there were some singers who sang, people danced and there was food and the wine that Alex had bought (plus some more). It transpires that I am not allowed to go inside the White Hart Barn, so I spent the evening outside on the bench or running in the garden with either Richard or Alex sitting out there with me. Actually, I didn’t mind because there were quite a lot of people inside and it was quite noisy so I might have been a bit intimidated. Anyway, it was much cooler outside because it was a very warm evening!
It turns out that the people who were singing were actually very good indeed. They were all performers from the West End. I wasn’t sure what the West End is, so I have looked it up on Fidopedia, it says ‘The West End of London (commonly referred to as the West End) is an area of Central and West London in which many of the city’s major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings and entertainment venues, including West End theatres, are concentrated’. It turns out that the singers are all from shows in the West End theatres! There were three very pretty girls who are called ‘The Spinettes’ and a chap called ‘Matthew Goodgame’. The Spinettes are a unique vintage inspired trio who sing songs from the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s – they’re brilliant!
The evening was themed around rock and roll and both The Spinettes and Matthew Goodgame sang loads and loads of songs that had been part of the rock and roll era. It was really, really good but Alex had struggled with ticket sales because there had been a 90th birthday part in the hall during the day and people who went to that didn’t want to come out again in the evening. There was also something called the Oxted Beer Festival on and lots of people had gone to that. I have no idea what either of these things are, but it seems they both impacted ticket sales which were apparently important!
Everyone had a really good time though and Alex says he is already looking at booking them again in December for their Christmas Show. At the end of the evening they did their raffle thing (far too many prizes, it went on forever!) and then Alex auctioned a cake that had been made specially and had a figure of Elvis on top. I have looked cake up on Fidopedia and it says, “Cake is a form of sweet dessert that is typically baked. In its oldest forms, cakes were modifications of breads, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elaborate, and that share features with other desserts such as pastries, meringues, custards, and pies”. I have a feeling I have actually tasted cake, although mine was liver cake! I was going to look up ‘Elvis’ on Fidopedia too, but I can’t be bothered, so you’ll have to look that up yourself!
The good news is that thanks to the generosity of Mrs P (she is one of my friends from the village) who bid £110 for the cake, it now appears that the evening broke even which is excellent news. Alex was worried that with the low ticket sales it wouldn’t make any money which was really important, but Mrs P saved the evening! Anyway, enough of this about the evening, what about me? I did have a lovely evening though because loads of people came out and said hello to me! And Bren even brought me a piece of cheese! Sunday turned out to be a really quiet day. I didn’t really fancy much of a walk, so I didn’t bother until late I the afternoon. We hadn’t got to bed until almost one o’clock on Saturday evening, so I was really, really tired. Alex and Richard didn’t get up very early and then they spent a lot of the day doing things but nothing of great importance. Alex did spend some time in the garden and picked his blackcurrants but there weren’t that many good ones left. I did try a blackcurrant but it didn’t taste very nice … Alex went into a blind panic when he discovered I had eaten a blackcurrant and frantically Googled it (Google is the human version of Doogle, but not nearly as good … obviously!). It transpires that they are not poisonous to me, but they are not recommended as part of my diet. I don’t like them anyway! Actually, I don’t like anything he goes so I don’t know why he bothers!
Later on Sunday afternoon, Richard got a phone call from Bren who was inviting them around for a drink called ‘Pims’. I decided to drag them around Hilly Fields first and, when we got to Tylers Close field I played with my ball for a little while. Richard suggested that I was pulling them so hard because I wanted to get to Mrs Cheese (Cathy always gives me a treat of cheese!). My pulling is a bit of a problem at the moment, but I heard Alex on the phone to Amanda from Happy Buddies this morning, so I think he is hatching a plan! Alex seemed to think that would tire me out so I would be less trouble when we got to Bren and Cathy … as if I would be trouble anyway!!
We started off sitting outside but it started to rain so we moved into the conservatory. I rather like Bren and Cathy’s conservatory and I am happy when I’m in there. Richard and Alex enjoyed their Pims (I did look it up on Doogle, but I can’t be bothered to explain it now!) and we walked home to cook dinner. I say we went home, they wobbled rather than walk! Richard was cooking a curry but seemed to be having some coordination problems and then he said to Alex, “I put Ground Cumin in at the end, don’t I? I always forget”. Alex suggested that Ground Cumin is usually a base spice and he was a little surprised but Richard insisted on it, so he put a load in at the end. After he had put in the Ground Cumin he said, “I didn’t think we had any Ground Coriander” – it turns out it should have been Grand Coriander, not Ground Cumin! It wasn’t the best curry ever made!! Alex had to ring Bren and tell him that his Pims is proper falling down juice! This morning I was quite surprised to see them up and fully conscious, if I’m honest, but they did seem to be OK. I have taken Alex out for a walk and I have done quite a bit of running around, so I am a bit bushed. I think I shall take a little time out to push out a few ????s, so for now, must paws … ????
