Paddy here

You know, I sometimes wonder what I have to do to get into Jenny's good books. OK, so she's started giving me little treats when I let a dog go past on our walks without barking at it and I am getting the hang of that, but seriously, would any self-respecting dog stand quietly by when he's got a rabid bulldog growling at him? Of course not, so I do a bit of barking back, just to let the other fellow know I'm no pushover. And then, there are the rabbits. Jenny has discovered a new walk. We have to go halfway round the lake and under a bridge. There's a stream running beside the path there and steps up to another path which leads into a field. This field is one of my favourite places, especially if we go there early in the morning. The reason? It is packed full of delicious scents of rabbits. The place must be full of them! Of course, they keep well out of my way and, as she's got my on this long lead, I can't follow my instincts and charge all over the field like a lunatic until I find one. I only want to play with them, honestly!
Today, we had a glimpse of a fox. It was a bit of a shock actually. It came charging out of the bushes, saw me and shot back in again. Then I spotted a lovely little rabbit and of course I did try to chase it - it was practically shouting 'Come and get me!' but 'the boss' wouldn't let me.
She's such a spoilsport sometimes...

Another car

We had a flying visit from Elder Daughter, Kathy yesterday - in her 'new' car. It's a very nice, well- looked after Saab, which takes a little getting used to for her as it's an automatic.

Mind you, they sold the Porsche first... :)

Thank you, Barclays! :(

Well, this seems to be the week for being grumpy, so let's maintain the trend and turn our attention to Barclay's bank, which is where Keith and I deposit our (lack of) money (as opposed to keeping it in a sock under the bed, you understand.) Now this is not a rant about our brand new, expensive local branch where they have too few people on the till, which means that they have at least two other employees pacing up and down the queue asking everyone if they would like to use the automatic machine to pay in their hard earned groats and offering to help them do it. Nor is it about my perplexity over having these people walk up and down rather than get behind the tills to shorten the queue. I have supreme confidence that Barclay's know exactly what they are doing and have worked out that this is the best use of their employees' time. No, this is about something else entirely.
One of our accounts is a joint account which is used for quite a few incomings and outgoings and which we do our level best to ensure  has an adequate amount of money in it for dates when outgoings are due. So not surprisingly, Keith was less than happy when he noticed last night that money had been paid in to cover outgoings but said outgoings had been refused, which would no doubt give Barclay's a perfect excuse to impose bank charges.
He picked up the phone and within minutes of jumping through the usual hoops, was outlining the problem to the bloke in the other end. After a lengthy conversation, during which Bloke finally conceded that this was a Barclay's Blunder, he pointed out that,  although Bloke agreed not to impose bank charges, it still remained his problem to soothe the ruffled feelings of the people who had not been paid. He did assure Bloke that it was not a personal attack and the conversation ended with Bloke inviting Keith to his birthday party.
No, I made the last bit up, it ended with Bloke trying to persuade Keith to take out home contents insurance with Barclays.
Well, they have to stick to their script, you see, come what may.

Good morning!

Paddy is undergoing a slightly altered form of 'training' at present. In the past, he has always been very erratic in the way he greets other dogs that we meet on our walks. Sometimes, he's as good as gold, he and the other dog have a sniff round each other (recognised etiquette in the canine world) and then we continue on our way. But on other occasions the 'greeting' consists of  barking furiously and lunging with all his might towards the other dog. Often, I think, there is something in the other dog's body language or behaviour which elicits this reaction, but maybe I'm just making excuses for him. After one occasion recently when he got over excited and wound his lead round the legs of the other dog's owner, threatening to topple her over into the valley below, I decided tactics had to change. So, instead of allowing him to approach slowly and greet the other dog - or not - we now have a different system. When we see another dog and owner approaching, we withdraw to the side of the path and let them pass. If he gets this right, he gets a treat before we proceed on our way and he has mostly been getting it right.
So that's him sorted. Now I apparently need to work on my people skills. After all, what other reason could there be for this morning's encounter with a spaniel and his owner. who, when I said 'good-morning' to him, completely blanked me and called his dog away from Paddy?
Oh yes, he could just have been an ignorant so and so, of course.
The spaniel, on the other hand, was lovely and perfectly behaved.

Car insurance

Since we changed our car a few weeks ago, the AA decided that our premium should be practically doubled. Granted the car is a bit bigger, as you can see, but it is also older and the 12 year old that I spoke to was not up for discussion. In the past, when my insurance was due for renewal, I would get a quote from my current company and a cheaper one as an alternative. Now, it just rises steadily and it's 'take it or leave it.'

So, I decided to do some investigations of my own via a comparison website and, lo and behold, I found one, nay half a dozen, which, even with myself as main driver and Keith as named driver, which would have cost me even more with the AA, comes in at just over half the AA quote.

Next was another phone call to the AA to tell them that I wanted to cancel my insurance policy with them. Naively, I did expect the lady at the other end to  ask why I wanted to cancel, even to add some expression of regret. I have been a customer of theirs for close on thirty years and, to be fair, I have, until recently, found their service to be good value. However, no enquiry was forthcoming and even when I explained that I had found another policy for half the price, there was not a vestige of interest or comment. She completed the transaction, informed me of my refund, which is minus FIFTY POUNDS for 'administration'! To add insult to injury, yesterday they sent me a three page customer survey to fill in.
The second word is 'off' AA!

Dog training

Every morning Paddy and I go for a walk and every morning, when we get back, I break up two little chew sticks and put them in a special ball that he has with a hole in it. The idea is that he has to chase it round to get the treats to fall out so that he can eat them.
So far, so good. But every morning, I make sterling efforts to persuade Paddy to go and fetch said ball so that I can put the treats in it and every morning, he looks at me blankly, even when I point to the ball, put it under his nose, roll it past him or do cartwheels round the room with the ball between my teeth. (OK I lied about the last one, but even if I did it, it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference.) Da dawg is not for fetching - balls, quoits, toys - you name it, he won't fetch it, which, considering he would chase and fell a cat at 20 paces, given the chance, is surprising.

So Keith lent him his cap to try and warm up his brain cells.














Which, as you can see, worked a treat!

Pearly whites and goggles

I achieved something quite amazing last week. I managed to persuade Keith that he needed appointments with the dentist and the optician. I think it may have been the pain of his arm being thrust between his shoulder blade that did the trick but, suffice it to say, he has not seen the inside of an optician's lair for at least eight years and, as for the dentist:
"If you don't go," I threatened, "they will charge you for the missed appointment and take you off their list and you know how difficult it was to find an NHS dentist with vacancies..."
So he went to the dentist yesterday.
Bear in mind that this is a man who, I am convinced, was the prototype for Just William and so is never going to be a candidate for teeth whitening and other cosmetic dentistry but who returned from the dentist bearing a satisfied smirk and the news that he needed no treatment. (In contrast to moi who takes fanatical care of her teeth, yet still needed a filling to be replaced!)
Today it was was turn of the optician. An hour later, he returned in a state of some considerable agitation at the cost of his new glasses. Useless to remind him that the last time he had a new pair of glasses, they were still being made with real glass lenses and tortoiseshell frames, the man was inconsolable.
I think he may need to go and lie down in a darkened room...