A day out

I managed to drag Keith out for a wander around north Wales today. At least, that was the plan but by the time we got going, it was lunch time and nearly everyone else in the universe had had the same idea, so traffic was almost down to a stand still in places. What also didn't help was that the unusually summery weather had obviously had a strange effect on some people's brains. There was the woman quite happily parked on the exit from a garage, totally oblivious of the fact that she was blocking everyone else's way, followed seconds later by the two cars who decided to go the wrong way up a one way track to get onto the main road.
Slightly scarier was the police motorcyclist, coming at great speed in the opposite direction, who was overtaking three cars and narrowly managed to squeeze back onto his own side of the road before meeting us head on. And that's not to mention two other cars coming round a bend, also in the opposite direction, who had apparently forgotten that in Wales, we drive on the left, just like in England.
All in all, I was quite relieved to get home.

Service with a smile again

Today I spent yet more hours going through my accreditation application with a fine tooth combe prior to printing it out. If I get anything wrong or provide insufficient evidence, it will be 'deferred' and I will have to pay another £70 to resubmit it. In true Sod's Law fashion, the printer was playing up yesterday and a frantic phone call was necessary to order more toner, which arrived this morning - much to Keith's relief, as he wasn't looking forward to more stressing from me.
So off I went to the post office with a 39 page application plus two copies (117 sheets in all), to post it by recorded delivery.
"Is it worth less than £30?" enquired the man behind the desk.
"Well, a lot of blood, sweat and tears have gone into it," I replied with a smile.
"But is it worth less than £30?" he asked again, without a smile.
I wondered if it was the fact that North Wales is not going to be involved in tomorrow's postal strike that had put him in such a bad mood.
Anyway, watch this space, because it will only take the powers that be until the end of November to decide on my application...

Night-time fun

Aha! Thought that title might attract some attention. Now for the disappointment. It's all about Paddy and it really wasn't fun at all, for him, for us or for the unfortunate object of his attention.
The bedtime routine is that I send Paddy out into the back garden to do what he needs to do before settling down for the night and usually, this works fine - except when he becomes aware that the garden is host to night wildlife, some of which he almost certainly has never encountered before. I can only assume that this is the reason why I went out to investigate a sudden bout of frantic barking to find him poised over a hedgehog, doing what hedgehogs do best and curling himself up into a nose-destroying ball. Being Paddy, of course, he just had to test that out for himself, for no way in the world was he going to give up and walk away.
Hence I had to drag him forcibly back into the house while I turned my attention to the poor hedgehog, who was not so poor actually, as he seemed quite happy curled up, patiently waiting for the mad dog to go away and leave him in peace.
It seems that Keith has a lot more sympathy and compassion for hedgehogs than he does for cats (he's very much with Paddy on that one), and he scooped up this little fellow in the dustpan so that I could take him down to the little lane nearby and release him into comparative safety. Because Keith likes hedgehogs, he made it very clear to Paddy that he had been way out of order, an offence compounded by the fact that, in all the excitement, he had torn the lining under the pebbles, so painstakingly laid by your truly some weeks ago and the poor dog was sent to bed in absolute disgrace, nursing his sore nose.
But he still crept onto the bed in the early hours, as he always does. A dog's memory is short!