On Sunday, before heading north, we called in on the Greigs at their country retreat. Alex was on good form, surveying his laaand, and Sarah looked amazing 3 weeks after having "Little Ted." Edward was the usual placid baby the Greigs are famed for, and the spitting image of William and Oliver at that age.
Oliver is turning out to be quite a character with a cheeky grin that is always saying: "You can pin nothing on me." William had a bit of a fright: we didn't realise he was in the garden when released the "bear" for a runaround. JD bounded down the garden to say hello, mouth open, tongue lolling, prompting tears and accusations that Jeff wanted to eat him. Oliver soon got the message from his big bro, and by the time we left, he was also convinced that dogs eat people.
The horses in the next field came over for some carrots from the boys, and Jeff jumped up, paws on the fence, to sniff noses and exchange pleasantries. He still wants to be a horse (or maybe a cow) when he grows up.
We made up with William by lauching his rockets with him (awesome toy - I want one!), but Jeff was determined to be cast as the big bad bear by chewing any unattended toy he could find in the garden (not strictly bad behaviour- all the toys in our garden are his!). We left presents of furry toys in our wake as an appeasement and headed north.
Next stop: Manchester, so much to answer for, and home of Harv, Sarah and Holly. Now then, Jeff and Harv are friends going way-back, but Jeff was enjoying cultivating his badboy image. He was "too big" for Holly and not popular with the cats, Beryl & Dave, either. Holly was eventually persuaded to pet Jeff and there is hope for his rehabilitation, but what is fascinating is how much more comfortable Daniel Burdon, age 2, is with Jeff despite the size discrepancy. This seems to be simply because he's grown up with Amber who, although technically a dog, has no teeth and would be lucky to weigh 1/10th of Jeff. The only thing fierce about her is the halitosis.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
The Arnolds
We had a great time at Laure and Rob's wedding: amazing venue, super food and from what I can't remember, excellent booze too. Well what else would you expect from a half French wedding? They even had a cheese course.
Laure of course looked stunning and Rob scrubs up pretty well too. If the ash cloud plays it's hand well, their 2 week Seychelle honeymoon could turn into a month! Congratulations!
It was great to catch up with the rest of the gang too. I had my first ever oyster, and so did Mark - who, in one of my most evil practical jokes ever, I persuaded was starting to have an allergic reaction.
"You're starting to get some blotches there, Mark. What, you've never had oysters before? We're miles from a hospital here. Seafood allergies can be quite extreme. What were you thinking having your first oyster ever out here?" With some back up from Dave and Danny, we almost had him convinced for 1/4 an hour.
Laure of course looked stunning and Rob scrubs up pretty well too. If the ash cloud plays it's hand well, their 2 week Seychelle honeymoon could turn into a month! Congratulations!
It was great to catch up with the rest of the gang too. I had my first ever oyster, and so did Mark - who, in one of my most evil practical jokes ever, I persuaded was starting to have an allergic reaction.
"You're starting to get some blotches there, Mark. What, you've never had oysters before? We're miles from a hospital here. Seafood allergies can be quite extreme. What were you thinking having your first oyster ever out here?" With some back up from Dave and Danny, we almost had him convinced for 1/4 an hour.
The Bear of Rodborough
That was the name of the hotel we stayed at: and we heard rumours there was an actual bear prowling the corridors. You guessed it: Jeff dog was allowed to stay.
We were down for Rob and Laure's wedding and hopefully to catch up with the Greig family and their newborn too.
There was another wedding party at the hotel each night. And on Saturday, the reception had gotten out of hand. When I was checking out: I heard the manager explaining why the hotel bar hadn't been open late... guests already too drunk... fire extinguishers... reception bell rung for 2 hours... guests breaking into the kitchen for food, etc.
Things had been relatively quiet in our wing until 3am. At that point a clearly inebriated man was pounding on his own room door, yelling, "I'm standing outside MY room". We presumed his wife to be inside, too drunkenly sound asleep to hear him.
We could though, and so could Jeff. He wasn't about to let that drunken a-hole mess with our beauty sleep. He gave a series of such loud, deep growl/barks that I could feel my innards vibrate, and there was instant silence from the corridor (I like to imagine the drunk skulking off to sleep in the rock garden to dream of bears). I settled Jeff down with a special stick he had selected from the grounds earlier, and we all got back to sleep.
I had hoped to get a picture of Jeff in reception the next morning standing on his hind legs, next to the 2 stuffed bears. A police line-up type shot was what I had in mind, but with the amount of bark and twig scattered all over our room, paying quickly and leaving seemed most prudent.
We were down for Rob and Laure's wedding and hopefully to catch up with the Greig family and their newborn too.
There was another wedding party at the hotel each night. And on Saturday, the reception had gotten out of hand. When I was checking out: I heard the manager explaining why the hotel bar hadn't been open late... guests already too drunk... fire extinguishers... reception bell rung for 2 hours... guests breaking into the kitchen for food, etc.
Things had been relatively quiet in our wing until 3am. At that point a clearly inebriated man was pounding on his own room door, yelling, "I'm standing outside MY room". We presumed his wife to be inside, too drunkenly sound asleep to hear him.
We could though, and so could Jeff. He wasn't about to let that drunken a-hole mess with our beauty sleep. He gave a series of such loud, deep growl/barks that I could feel my innards vibrate, and there was instant silence from the corridor (I like to imagine the drunk skulking off to sleep in the rock garden to dream of bears). I settled Jeff down with a special stick he had selected from the grounds earlier, and we all got back to sleep.
I had hoped to get a picture of Jeff in reception the next morning standing on his hind legs, next to the 2 stuffed bears. A police line-up type shot was what I had in mind, but with the amount of bark and twig scattered all over our room, paying quickly and leaving seemed most prudent.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Thai Tees
Not Tyne-Tees, you heard right.
Pipes Parkin recently let on that he now felt "too old" to wear his Red Bull T-shirt. You know the one, everyone who's been to Thailand has one: white with blue piping at the collar and cuffs, Red Bull in Thai script across the front. The fact of the matter is that DP could still fit into that T. We're not all so lucky.
On the way back from their round the world jaunt, Maria, John & Fin picked up what they thought would be the perfect gift of a T-shirt combining my love of wacky Thai T-shirts with my well known coffee obsession.
What they forgot was that a large Thai man is not as big as a large Englishman. Could you just pop back and exchange it for me?
Pipes Parkin recently let on that he now felt "too old" to wear his Red Bull T-shirt. You know the one, everyone who's been to Thailand has one: white with blue piping at the collar and cuffs, Red Bull in Thai script across the front. The fact of the matter is that DP could still fit into that T. We're not all so lucky.
On the way back from their round the world jaunt, Maria, John & Fin picked up what they thought would be the perfect gift of a T-shirt combining my love of wacky Thai T-shirts with my well known coffee obsession.
What they forgot was that a large Thai man is not as big as a large Englishman. Could you just pop back and exchange it for me?
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