It's A Dog's Life

We got a dog!! On Monday last week I spotted an advert on Gumtree from someone looking to rehome a ten month old black labrador. I spent the day exchanging emails with her on my phone and organised to go and see the dog in the evening. I met Frazer (because he was borrowing my car at the time) and we came home to pick Isla up first as we thought we all had to make the decision. The only problem was that we had to go to Winchburgh which is quite a long way from Peebles.

The difference between him and the dog we saw last Saturday was incredible. Whereas that dog sat and growled at us and shook for half an hour, this dog came running to greet us, licked us to death and then wanted to play. The decision was made, and we brought him home!

His name is Rocco and, as I said, he's a ten month old black labrador. He's a very handsome boy and has the glossiest coat. He's not been exceptionally well trained, but he is generally a good boy, and he has the loveliest nature. I think his previous owner made the mistake of thinking that teaching him tricks was training him. He can sit and give a paw but that's about it. He does come when he's called which is good, and he's good off the lead, but not so good on it! We're working on that one though!
On the first night he was completely hyper - probably a little bit scared, and he cried when we went to bed. And he's cried every night since! Only for about ten minutes but it's wearing. But tonight he's gone to bed in the kitchen very happily next to the aga. I've given him one of my fleeces so that he has something that smells of me (as he seems to have become my little shadow!), but he has also been for a massive walk in the woods today - we must have walked 5 or 6 miles! And with all his running around he must have done at least double that!

So, our little family is complete for now! It feels like a proper home with a dog here. The cat's nose is put firmly out of joint but we're making it up to him by letting him sleep on the bed with us for now! Spoilt moggy!

I have suggested to Frazer that he takes the dog to obedience classes so watch this space!

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Parent's Evening

The dreaded first High School parent's evening took place last week! Isn't it strange that when you walk into a school you immediately feel as though you should be sitting outside the Head's office in disgrace for something! All schools smell alike as well - it must be a mixture of poster paints from the pictures on the wall, and sweaty adolescents!

The first teacher we were meant to see was the French teacher so we searched the corridors for the room he was meant to be in (I have no idea why the teachers couldn't have seen parents in the rooms they normally teach in so that the kids could find them!), only to find that he wasn't there because he had been taken ill at the last minute!

I was very proud of Isla all evening - the techy teacher said she was, and I quote, "the ideal pupil"! The science teacher was impressed by her, the maths teacher was too - in fact all of them were, except the Modern Studies teacher but hey, you can't be good at everything and he was a bit of a tosser anyway!

So, as we were so pleased with her we went for a chinese afterwards, and I gave her an extra £5 to spend at Claire's Accessories with her £10 voucher that she got for Christmas.

Keep up the good work Isla!


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A Good Day

I just wrote a great big post and then I lost it. Pissed off does not even begin to describe it! Grrrr, note to self - remember remember remember to save as you go! You'd think I'd have learnt that by now!

Anyway...to summarise...we're getting a dog! We haven't found the right one yet, we're still looking. We went to see one yesterday but she was too nervy, growly and too little labrador and too much cringing collie. Don't get me wrong, I like collies, just not the ones with a tendency to cringe! What we're looking for is a labrador or a golden retriever, between one and two years old and playful enough and lazy enough! Isla has already agreed to come home at lunch times to let it out and play with it, so it's just a case of finding the right dog for all of us.

After we saw the dog we had to go to Livingston to see a car for Frazer. His crappy old Mondeo finally kicked the bucket last week so we have been car sharing, which isn't an ideal solution! Especially as he's regularly in Glasgow, and is actually away two days next week for a work thingy. So, he's now the proud owner of a gunmetal grey BMW 3 series, and he's picking it up on Tuesday.

The next item on the agenda was the Gyle centre so that Isla could spend her Claire's Accessories voucher that she got for Christmas. She got a nice little necklace and a hat. I hate hats but she really suits them. I got myself a new handbag, because I desperately needed one, and a wee Hello Kitty clock thing that attaches on to the bag. I used to have a similar one with a cherry clossom on it, but I left it on an old bag and threw the bag away. I didn't realise until the bins had been emptied. I was a bit upset as I had bought it in Japan.








That done, we went to the cinema to see War Horse. Now, some of the reviews I've seen haven't been hugely complimentary. All I can say is that's it's a Spielberg masterpiece. Brilliantly shot, excellent story, and it had me crying almost all of the way through! If I had one criticism it would be that the beginning part of the movie could have been squeezed into half an hour rather than taking up a whole hour. In all the quiet bits though, you could hear most of the cinema stifling sobs and sniffs! Even Isla cried!


We've had a lazy day today - it's been lovely. That's what Sundays are all about!

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Happy New Year!

Well, that's it all over again for another year. The decorations are put away, the house looks bare after a month of tinsel clutter and there's the anti climax of going back to work and carrying on as normal with the only change being a new digit at the end of the date.


I love Christmas and New Year but it is always a bit of a downer once it's all over and you realise it's another year until it all starts again. And it hasn't even snowed properly this year - I know I complained about it for the last two freakishly cold winters, but it's a lot nicer than never ending greyness and rain. Snow makes everything seem so much brighter, and that in turn makes people so much more cheerful. So what if you've just struggled to get in to work - the sun is shining, the sky is blue and the ground is all white and you're in a great mood! I'm not really being grouchy. We had a lovely Christmas with Frazer's parents. The aga decided to misbehave on Christmas Day and I struggled to get everything cooked at the same time - for some reason using all three ovens at once reduces the heat in all of them so all my carefully timed (well, carefully-ish!) cooking went awry! We ate by about 7.30 so it wasn't too much of a disaster. I have realised why I loved Christmas so much when I was younger - my mum did all the work!! Even when I was in France we did all the work together. Frazer helps, but it's not the same. My mum taught me how to cook, so we do it the same way and work together as an excellent team. They'll just have to come over for Christmas next year, and possibly bring my dogs too once the passport laws have been relaxed. Yes Mother dearest, that is a hint!!!!








Frazer's mum and dad left on the day after Boxing Day, and Santa brought me a late present of a full blown cold! Thanks! Despite that, I had to go back to work on the Wednesday. Luckily it was completely dead at work which, on the plus side, meant that we were getting paid for nothing, but on the other hand was exceedingly dull! We had a lovely New Year - we hadn't really planned much so my friend Ailsa and her partner Brian and another friend Marj all came down to our house. I made a big Chilli, we all had a fair few to drink, saw in the bells and passed out one by one! So Happy New Year to all - here's hoping that 2012 is a great year for everyone!


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Location:Peebles,United Kingdom