The Lurgy and the Cursed Ticket

It's been a WEEK. 

Firstly it was a busy run with 3 days in the office, where I held 6 interviews and and had an in person all team meeting. I'm not used to the socialisation anymore and was wiped out by the Thursday.

Then came Friday. I blame the office and hubby blames my metabolism, but either way, Friday was a write off. Down with a vomiting bug, I accomplished nothing. I fell asleep during everything I tried to watch, dribbled on my book in slumber and couldn't even manage to stay in the bath. (To be fair, when hubby queried how "cool" it was, he was right in that I view a bath as "just right" when you could boil a lobster in it, definitely not wise when unwell, no matter how sore the kidneys).

I did shuffle around a dog walk, feeling like the undead, and apologised profusely to Missy at the shortness of it. She had gotten bored of the duvet day hours previously and had abandoned me to sunbathe in the window. 

Which leads me to the Cursed Tickets. We'd been offered cheap tickets to the Music of John Williams Concert as my friends aunt and uncle could no longer go. Excellent. Then I got ill and there was no way I'd have been able to survive the trip, let alone the concert. We. Asked. Everyone.

Friends - other commitments or not feeling great. Family - all ill with various maladies. Hubby even tried to fob them off on work colleagues who deemed them cursed and wouldn't touch them.

Even my friends mum almost pulled out due to a bad ankle injury (she did go in the end), but truly, cursed.

Then Saturday, after being put to bed with a new teddy, some rice crackers and sugary ribena, I woke up right as rain. 

Typical. 

Missy did not approve of my emotional support shark taking the sofa!

Saturday we'd promised to see friends, so we kept it a short visit. Our friend with long covid really needed a wee break from the kids (his wife is away visiting family), so we took them on a dog walk and to a very nice playpark, returning them absolutely exhausted. 

Then today I had my eldest niece round for a big sewing project: her prom dress! I am flattered she thinks so highly of my skills, and, halfway through, she's absolutely delighted with how it's shaping up.

It truly felt like spring today with the clocks going forward. At least, it did until it snowed. 

Can't win them all! At least I managed my gardening in the sun this morning, there are grand plans for the fruit and veg this year - Good Life, here we come! 

La Fête des Mères

 

Another Disneyland Paris trip down - so I'm feeling decidedly French at the moment! 

Its been a busy few weeks - the leadership course I've enrolled on at work has kicked off and I found myself shortlisting candidates and coordinating interviews for a summer intern position. Then I had my niece round Friday afternoon to sort out one photos for her art project and to make a start on her prom dress. I shall update progress reports on that accordingly! 

Following that, I had a very quiet Saturday before going to my friends on Sunday to crash over in preparation for an early morning flight. 

Key notes of the holiday:

Friend 1 is cursed. She broke her toe 3 weeks ago and both flights were delayed, our return journey had to undergo safety checks having struck a bird. 

Friend 2 is as bad for people watching as myself. Her favourite past time quickly turned out to be watching the character interactions as we waited in the queues. She also had an overwhelmed mini meltdown meeting Stitch for the first time. She was more composed for our second attempt, and managed to get some photos where she wasnt crying out of sheer overwhelmed happiness.

There is no such thing as too many layers. I peaked at 5. Just because the forecast says 11C, doesnt mean its warm, the parks are awful for windchill. But saying that, if you find a sunny spot, practise your best cat impression and bask. It will be glorious. 

We clocked in a whopping 11 meet and greets, covering 17 characters in the 3 days. Friend 1 did not do well with the rides, so we fell back on meet and greets and had a whale of a time. 

Following a very late return, I was glad to have Saturday to myself. Hubby was working and, though that meant both dog walks, I was quite happy with that arrangement. We'll, at least until Missy decided that she had got over the excitement of my return and gave me the cold shoulder/side eye for the day. 

She forgave me this morning and arrived from her morning walk with a card and malteasers for me, as is tradition. We followed the day up with getting some errands done about the house before going to explore the Banchory Village (aka the abandoned insane asylum). It's slowly getting smaller and smaller as the developer is progressing with rearing down the original buildings. I will be quite sad to see it go. 

We popped by Dobbies to get some new fish and adopted a new tree for the garden. I was told 4 fruit trees meant an orchard, so I'm 1 down with 3 to go! (it's a cherry tree, which brings us full circle to Disney for those in the know) 

Time to get organised for a busy work week! Until next time!

Rosettes and Butterflies

It's been a busy wee day! To start with we went to Muirfield Riding Therapys doggy fun show (the first of hopefully many this year). We put Missy in for Veteran (8+), Best Rescue and Fancy Dress. I'll tell you now, I did not envy the judges at all - all of the dogs were absolutely gorgeous. Missy made some new friends, including Wilson who was a fellow competitor for Veteran:

Neither of them placed, but we had a laugh waiting on the judges. They did take it very seriously, asking about breed, age, health and so on! It's the first dog show I've done whicj was indoors and, whilst the sun was out, it was very chilly, so we were glad of the roof and, even better, the heating in the viewing gallery. There was tea and bacon rolls to buy, as well as some stalls selling nice doggy bits (Missy fleeced the lady selling liver treats out of most of her free samples). 

Then came Best Rescue. Whilst I always maintain that I honestly don't mind if we win or not, deep down of course you think your dog is the best. And this is was gonna be another hard one for the judges as I eavesdropped on the sob stories. I kept my rapport with them short and sweet, she was a stray, we're not entirely sure who chose who, she really just wants cuddles and calm and a full belly, so much so, we've been doing carehome visits with Pets as Therapy. Well, I like to think I sold her well, but truth be told, Missy did her best flirting with the judges and lo and behold, we placed first.

After that, we had two categories before fancy dress and found ourselves chatting to the other "champions" who were waiting in the last category, the champion of champions. We found ourselves in good company as we alll fawned over each others dogs and wished them well at the end.

Of course we never won fancy dress, that was always going to go to the kids, but I was floored by the creativity of the costumes. We had Beauty and the Beast (a Vizla), a collie surfer dog complete with cardboard surfboard and baby shark plushie and the winner:

A pony! For a competition held by a riding school, it was absolute genius. 

Next year though, I may have to "borrow" a niece or nephew. 

Then it was champion of champions, which went to a family with spaniels and then we were done for the day. Our friends had recommended Archerfield Walled Garden to us the previous week, so we drove over and decided to stretch legs there rather than bother the ponies in thier paddocks. 

There was a labyrinth, a willow tree walk and a fairy walk. We mooched about for an hour or so and then headed back home.

A busy day, but very good fun!