Office Companions

I’m the car today, which L thinks is because I can't walk due to my allegedly broken ankle. She does have a point. I don’t think walking for the bus is helping my ankle, mainly because I’m always rushing at both ends.

However the main reason I'mon the bus is in case I was going to book the vets for MD, as he still has diarrhoea and seems a bit off colour. He is eating but only chicken, sausage, rice and Doggo’s posh food but not his own dog food. 

I read somewhere that if a dog is ill then they might develop a phobia about their current dog food, thinking that is what may have caused it. So we might have to switch him to something else to see if that works. In the end, we don’t take him to the vets.

Both L and I seem to have the same problem with our office companions. Her seventy-something one is often snoring away before 10 o'clock in the morning while the twenty-something in my office is usually doing the same. Today he went outside to his car for a smoke and fell asleep while he was there. I think there might also be a potential fire risk there.

Derby have rather unfairly had their FA Cup 3rd Round tie with Manchester United shifted to tonight because they are Manchester United and that is what they wanted. It’s not even on TV. After a 13 year run of 58 consecutive televised FA Cup matches this one hasn’t been chosen. 

The reason for the shift? They were supposed to have the League Cup Semi Final on Tuesday... only now they haven’t because Bristol City knocked them out in the Quarter Finals. Oh how we laughed, not that it helped us as it was too late to shift the game back. Derby give a good account of themselves but lose to two late goals.

 (Friday 5^th January)

Senior Citizens Special

Daughter stops over, probably exhausted after her weekend with the boys, and then heads home first thing as she has the whole week off. That’s some recovery time for dog sitting but probably warranted.

I walk Doggo and then leave him eating his posh Senior Citizens special dog food while I head to work, as I’m running late. Little did I know that he would abort the moment I left the house. So MD comes back from his walk and thinks all his birthdays have come at once as he finds a bowl of salmon dog food on the floor awaiting his return. 

So MD gets the posh nosh and Doggo gets a bowl of 10p tinned dog food instead but naturally wolfs the lot.

Tonight was supposed to be our dog club's committee meeting but I’d already rescheduled that for next week before I found out that the today's planned trip to London has been postponed. Even though I’m now free tonight, I daren’t ask them to move it back again.

I should be in London tomorrow... and I've asked L to steal me some latex gloves from her clinic. Which are for my work in London, honest. 

(Monday 13^th November)

A Frustrating Dog

It’s a wet day, so I don’t bike and take the car instead. I take the opportunity to go to the local Kennelgate to try to convert the vouchers that the sponsor of our upcoming dog show has given us into dog food. Usually they courier us 24 bags of dog food but this year we just have an envelope full of paper. Saves on costs I suppose, for them at least.

Kennelgate are happy for me to purchase 24 bags of dog food with my 24 vouchers, although each one has to be a separate transaction which takes a while and they also don’t have enough in stock, so I need to come back next week to collect it but at least its all sorted (almost).

Talking of dog food... Our frustrating dog, Doggo, still will not eat on a regular basis. We know that being frustrating is his speciality but he’s starting to fade away. L is doing him chicken and rice tonight, probably curried, probably the same as what we’re having in fact with naan bread.

It’s tennis tonight and, given the weather, it’s probably a good job we’ve already practised in the wet this season. Although, they do say its supposed to be fining up and it will be a nice evening...if you believe that sort of thing.

For once, the forecast is right and we even sit outside The Crown afterwards in the sun. L runs to the pub and beats us there.

(Thursday 20^th July)

Blameless

On the bike today.

Doggo is playing us for fools with his eating habits these days. This morning he mopped his bowl clean but then rice and potatoes does tend to hit the spot. Well, anything that's not dog food basically. We'll probably be the same at that age.

After some stags are rescued from the main road having escaped Wollaton Park, I have to check with L that they weren’t given a helping hand in escaping from MD. Apparently he’s blameless.

L goes to physio but it was very brief. The way things are going the NHS will be doing it all online soon to save time. She now has even more stretches to do but has been told not to stop any exercise although she didn't own up to running and having the Thunder Run looming. 

At lunch I palm my last old fiver off on Greggs.

Tonight’s Friday night is followed by curry and wine. My kind of evening.

(Friday 5^th May)

Indulgence

Doggo must now really look forward to see what we’re going give him every meal time to liven up his dog food up as dog food alone now seems to be below him. I was torn as to whether to give him leftover potatoes for breakfast and to save the leftover rice for tea but I indulged him in the end and gave him both. Of course none of these are actually ‘leftover’ as we now routinely cook extra just for him.

I bike to work while L has a leisurely morning at home. Ball chucking, cleaning a few windows while chucking a ball, hanging out washing while chucking a ball, that sort of thing. Then she goes into work for a bit just so that she can have a cup of tea without chucking a ball.

Then she heads off to her romantic lunch date. Which is with me, in case you're wondering. We meet in Derby and I indulge her with the £5 pint and a sandwich deal at the Brunswick. Hopefully I’m on a promise for later after such indulgence. 

(Friday 21^st April)

Loading And Unloading

I only manage to get one day on the bike this week as today is my last day at work as dog show duties beckon and today I’m in the car so that I can head over to our training venue where we need to load up the tents we need on to a trailer. I’m also hoping to off load all the dog food and trophies I’m carrying so that I don’t have to make multiple trips tomorrow.

Unfortunately there is a blockage on the A50 which forces me to go through the city centre instead subjecting me to almost an hour’s journey to get to the other side.

I get there eventually and a small group of us load everything up. I also manage to pass on my whole cargo to others.

(Wednesday 27^th July)

Shanks’ Pony

This morning I remove the dog food from the Managing Director’s office at work; he’s back from holiday tomorrow. The downside of using my bike and shanks’ pony to get to work is that it can get a little tricky to get 15kg bags of dog food home when I order them online, amongst other things. I have the car with me today.

L has a similar problem with the two pillows she's bought. Strapping them to herself would make her look like the world's wimpiest cyclist. Which of course she might be but there's no need to advertise the fact.

Dog training looks dubious tonight as a lot of rain falls during the afternoon but it fines up and training goes ahead as planned. MD even looks like he knows what he's doing.

First though I have to take him to the vet for his annual booster injection for which he is totally petrified but we get through it. The vet was in a bad way though, she couldn’t bend down so we had to pop MD up onto the table. Turns out the vet is training for her first half marathon, the Great North Run. Her first and last she tells me.

(Monday 5^th August)