Stubbylee Blog

Its been a while since my last blog update, since then I seem to have been spending a lot of time driving up & down motorways, sleeping in hotels and just generally being very busy with work. Whenever I’ve had some free time I just haven’t felt inclined to sit down at a PC to write a blog, it’s been more a case of disengage brain & flop.

Just back from my latest London trip and a stay in the Holiday Inn hotel next to the M4 Junction 4, works standard hotel to use for visitis to head office. My room was upgraded to one of the executive rooms but one with a difference it was fitted out for disabled occupation. At first sight this meant that the room was similar to all other executive rooms but with less furniture - no sofa and a smaller desk. The bathroom was enormous - I’ve stayed in smaller hotel rooms, you needed binoculars to see from one side to the other. Then you noticed other things - the wardrobe rail was half height so my shirts dangled on the floor, alarm pulls all over the room - I spent half the night worrying that I’d pull the one next to the bedside light by mistake; the air conditioning control was at waist height so I had to kneel on the floor to read the temperature on the screen. Finally there was the sink this was set below waist height ideal for wheelchair users. It was concave with a mixer tap. Problem - turn on the tap too hard the water would hit the sink and shoot forward right at groin height.

Travelling back from West London is always a drag M25, M40, M42 and then the crawl up the M6 to the M62. Miss the traffic at one point you’ll hit it at another or on bad days you seem to hit it everywhere. The slightest breakdown or accident and everything grinds to a halt as people stop to stare. Why?? just get on with it. And while I’m at it why do Volkswagen Passat drivers seem to think they mst stay in the outside lane even if there’s nothing in the other lanes.

Sorry rant over now, hopefully I’ll be able to keep the blog updated a bit more now, it will provide a welcome break from watching Christmas adverts on the TV

Back home after a week caravanning in Ireland with Andrew and three of the dogs - Star, Magic & Leo. We were incredibly lucky with a week of sunshine; I don’t think we’ve had such nice weather in Ireland before. The first part of the holiday was in Killarney walking the dogs around the National Park and driving round the peninsulas such as Dingle and Iveargh. The dogs had a super time hunting deer around Killarneyand chasing the waves at Derrynane beach, for them it was their first encounter with sea and sand.

On the Friday we drove to Northern Ireland for 2 days at Belfast dog show aiming to stay near Newcastle, finally managing to find a site in the Castlewelan Forest Park. What a journey - only 300 miles but it took around 7 hours - roads in Southern Ireland can be terrible. By the time we got to the side we just couldn’t be bothered pitching properly just drop the legs and connect up the water & electric hook up and leave the rest for Saturday.

Belfast DS seemed a bit lacking in atmosphere an d it was strange on Sunday with Leo, being at a Championship show and not reallyknowing anyone there.

After two hectic days with early starts for the dog shows Monday was a relaxing day touring round the Mourne Mountains before driving back to Dublin for the evening ferry. We were travelling with Irish Ferries or East European ferries as they should be named judging by the majority of their crew. Its a pity those at the port are a bunch of officious jobsworths. Irish Ferries used to be a really friendly relaxing service to travel with but that’s changed over the years. Having said that the journey back was dramatic as we had to divert to rescue a yachtsman in distress with his yacht battered by the strong winds and waves. It was impressive watching them manouver the ferry alongside and then using a rescue launch to bring the sailor on board. With the delay we didn’t get home until 4:30 in the morning ready for a 6:30 start to go to a work’s conference.

A busy weekend of showing with Driffield today and Burnley & District yesterday. It was a big day as Andrew was taking Leo to his first show. There were no breed classes just AV but it would be good experience for his first show. We took Magic for company and more experience for her and Diva as there was a qualifying heat of the KC Junior Warrant Stakes.

First in was Magic who went really nicely to be placed 4th in AV NSC Puppy and then it was Diva in AVNSC Open. Diva was pulled out second but then some woman with a Keeshound who was placed third somehow managed to get herself into 2nd. Liz didn’t say anything until afterwards when quite a few people said she was placed 2nd. By then though rosettes had been awarded and when queried with the judge he said 3rd - but there was to be revenge - more on that later. Liz & I were forced to leave the hall whilst Andrew went in with Leo, otherwise he has a tendancy to look for us and Magic. Leo went really well to win his class and then went on to Reserve Best Puppy in Show - not bad for first time out. Then it was on to the KC JW Stakes with Diva and the Keeshound and 17 others. The judge pulls out 5 dogs to qualify plus one reserve. Diva made one of the 5 but the Keeshound was only reserve. Revenge is sweet.

Today was Driffield and Leo’s first Championship show with 130 Border Collies. Andrew was thrilled to win his class and qualify for Crufts to complete a fantastic weekend for him. The Collie people were so friendly towards Andrew and made very nice comments about Leo. After spending all his life with Borzoi the tables have now turned and we have to go and cheer the pair of them on….certainly no hardship, we are very proud of them both.

Magic thoroughly enjoyed herself in the ring and behaved with some decorum despite  Leo occasionally barking encouragement! At home they are always together, eating, playing or sleeping and have a fantastic relationship. I am sure that he was very proud to watch his girlfriend win Best Puppy.

I went into our local Morrison’s supermarket on Saturday and there next to the quick checkout were advent calendars

 September 13th and they’ve got advent calendars on display

I haven’t even had my Summer holidays yet and they’ve got bloody advent calendars

Not only that some of the calendars had 32 days - where has that one come from? 30 days hath September, April, June & November all the rest have 31 except February with 28 - oh yes and some advent calendars with 32.

Bloody prodcut merchandising. Why not take it to the logical conclusion; lets have 364 day advent calendars where we can start the countdown to the next Christmas on Boxing Day.

After a break during August its back to dog shows again starting last week with a trip to South West Hound where Liz was judging borzoi. I’d volunteered to steward for her but also did the rest of the breeds in her ring; Deerhounds, Irish Wolfhounds and - completely different - bloodhounds. The show was held at an auction mart with plenty of good facilities and a pleasant welcome from the committee. The only blight on the day for the show was the presence of a KC Field Officer.  From experience there seems to be two types of Field Officer, those that see their role as helping Societies make their shows better and run efficiently and then there’s those who seem determined to pick fault in the minutest detail. Unfortunately this one was the second type.

Yesterday we went to Darlington with the Diva, Rush and Magic.

What a quagmire.

It stayed fine for most of the day but there was mud everywhere, lakes were forming in parts of the showground - even some of the rings. You could see a track of mud developing in rings where dogs had been moved round. Outside the Secretary’s office was a sea of mud despite the woodchip that had been put down and great gouges where tractors had moved around. The tractors were kept busy towing vehicles off the showground, some had simply sunk and bogged down where they were parked.

Despite it all the Committee did their best to ensure the show ran as smoothly as possible and should be congratulated - as I said to the Treasurer when I collected our stakes winnings I hope they are able to complete the show.  It was amazing how many people were complaining about everything as if the Society had made the ground like that on purpose. One thing I saw - not sure if its a definition of optimism or stupidity - was one woman walking through the mud wearing white jeans.

As for the showing the judge was a very pleasant & polite Australian. Rush & Diva both won Reserve Best of Sex with Magic winning Best Puppy. Diva & Rush were in the Portable Conveniences Open Stakes - what a great, glamorous title - both finishing second and winning £20 each and with some very nice words from the judge. In the puppy group Magic was unplaced but we didn’t expect anything when we saw who the judge was, his arrogant and brusque manner was the complete opposite to our breed judge or Mrs Chapman in the stakes. Some of these judges need to realise that even dogs at Champ shows deserve a bit of respect and consideration when they are being judged especially puppies - yanking their mouth open doesn’t do a great deal for a young dog’s confidence.  Judging quickly & efficiently doesn’t mean you have to be rough. You do suspect at times some judges think its all about them and see themselves as being far more important than the dogs being judged.

Its been a while since I last did a blog entry, there’s just times when you don’t feel like sitting down in front of a computer to type something. August has been a pretty lousy month with lots of things going wrong - sick dogs & sick cars. Probably the one good time was a short break to Dumfries & Galloway testing out the caravan before we used it for the Munster Circuit. I took Twiggy & Weasel with me, we stayed at a super campsite near Dumfries. It had lots of walks for the dogs either through woods or across farmland Twiggy really enjoyed shambling amongst the trees. The dogs took to the caravan well, it must have been a lot more comfortable for them than the tent - the only problem was waking from a good sleep to find Weasel’s nose two inches from my face - its a bit of a shock.

Dumfries & Galloway is an area we’ve only ever driven through to or from Stranraer but it was an excellent place for a holiday with a bit of everything. Hills, sea cliffs, beaches, castles, beaches, little harbours and even a distillary at Bladnoch. Well worth going back again.

If all the vehicles displaying Motorway Maintenance stickers were banned from the roads there would be no traffic congestion.

Why is it that so many people can afford to drive expensive Mercedes & BMW’s but can’t afford a hands free headset for their mobile.

Beware of cars driven by people wearing head gear. These fall into 4 categories.:

1. Women in headscarves or hats (in some cases both) who will spend more time talking to their passenger - invariably another woman similarly attired - rather than getting on with driving.

2. Elderly men in flat caps trundling along in the middle lane at 50mph because that’s fast enough for them and should be for everyone else

3. Baseball cap wearers either boy racers or middle aged men determined to let no one past

4. People wearing baseball caps back to front - Sorry but if you can’t even put a cap on the right way round she shouldn’t be let anywhere near a steering wheel.

Traffic matricees lie. They tell you what the road conditions were like 2 hours ago or will be like tomorrow but any relation to what they are now is purely coincidental.

Travel news informing you of massive delays will come on the radio 30 seconds after you’ve passed the junction to avoid the hold up. By the way why is there so little travel news at weekend - doesn’t our journey to do something interesting matter? During the week when you are only trying to get to work the damn bulletins interrupt every 2 minutes

We went down to South Wales yesterday, taking Magic (S. Magic Moments) for her first show. Although she’s had plenty of ringcraft classes -well 1 - we weren’t quite sure how she would take it all.

She loved it!

She took everything in her stride meeting people and other dogs. First she’d carefully lean forward with a little wag of the tail and then it was hello please talk to me. In the ring she was the baby in a big, competitive puppy bitch class but showed confidently, moving really well even starting to extend at times. We were thrilled when she got 2nd.

Zorro won his class and Diva got 2nd in her class but didn’t move well, I think she wanted to go to the loo rather than show. Taking Diva to the loo is an epic exercise. She wanders around a bit until she closes in on a suitable spot circling around like a horse on a lunge rein until the exactly right place is found, start to squat, change her mind move forward about 6 feet start to squat again then No. Its not the right place We then wander around most of South Wales going backwards & forwards meandering all over like a directionally challenged drunk. Finally she finds the ideal spot  and does her business -in the same bloody place we’d found half an hour earlier.

 After the breed we’d entered the stakes classes the baby went really well in minor puppy but wasn’t placed, Zorro got 3rd in Yearling and then Diva was 2nd in the Junior stakes so we managed to collect some nice prize money.

 It was our first time at South Wales and were really impressed with the show and the facilities - one to go to again. Its just a pity we’ve got to go through the M6 / M5 junction to get there.

Today was the first time we’ve been to the Cheshire Agricultural Show, with it being a weekday normally we are busy working or just overlook entries until its too late. But what a great day out it is. A ‘proper’ agricultural show there was lots to see and do, all the animals plus events, cars, stalls and of course the dog show. At times with Championship Shows with the competition for tickets or to Crufts qualify your dog or gaining points towards other competitions you can forget one of the most important elements is for you and your dogs to enjoy yourselves. Open shows with the relaxed atmosphere and agricultural shows with so much else going on are an ideal antidote.

We’d taken Diva and Zorro with the hope of gaining the one point Diva needed for her Junior Warrant (its that pressure again). Diva won Junior but as there was only her & Zorro in the class no point was gained. We’d also pit Diva in Open; there were two other plus Diva and she won - so hopefully that’s her JW - Go help me if I’ve got the maths wrong I’ll be on bread & water for a month. To make it even better Diva then went on to win BOB.

Waiting for the group we decided to have a wander round the show. It was ideal experience for Zorro who’s not as used to being out and about as Diva & Rush. He alternates between treating it as a fantastic time with new things to look at and being a bit overwhelmed by it all. Unfortunately there are some tents we couldb’t go in - whats wrong with letting Borzoi in the rabbit section and flowers - they like flowers - Zorro finds many of them quite tasty.

Wandering round Zorro kept increasing in confidence especially with people wanting to stop and cuddle him. As he’s so big people tend to go to him first rather than Diva, you could see her getting more and more into a huff - I’m the BOB not him ,it’s me you should talk to first NOT HIM. Then Zorro discovered there’s lots of food stalls and free food samples at the show and people drop them so the rest of the walk was spend with his nose pressed to the ground hunting out discarded chips, doughnuts and Spam fritters (you don’t want to know).

Back to the rings for the group judging where Bob Gregory was standing in for Jack Bispham and fantastic - Diva won the hound group beating 14 other BOB winners. BIS eventually went to a Doberman with a Dalmation taking reserve but what the heck it was a great day out.

A final trip round the show ground buying a new Wax coat before wandering home. Yes the showing went well but despite that and the weather it really was a fun & relaxing day.

We’ve done quite well with the youngsters and realised that Diva had a chance of gaining her Junior Warrant so we’ve entered her in additional classes to try and gain points. Last week it was Tyne, Wear and Tees (which we fondly refer to by its acronym). Diva was entered in Yearling where there were 2 others present (although he wasn’t needed thanks to Moira Ellett who offered to show her boy who was injured if we needed to make numbers up), Diva wa lucky enough to win. Then she was in Open as well (she’s not eligible for Post Grad after her CC) , we’d also taken Luka along - we felt that she wouldn’t beat Diva as she’s still carrying a bit of extra weight. There was one other in the class, Liz handled Diva & I had Luka - you can see what’s coming - Luka won with Diva second. Oh damn its a long way for me to walk home from Durham. In BIS Luka had a lovely time and moved well and managed to get shortlisted. We got one JW point and need 1 more from a non CC show

Yesterday we went down to Southern Counties at Newbury. Its the first time we’ve been to this show, we were impressed with the showground and facilities, the weather was fantastic as well which always helps. The showing was disappointing as Rush and Diva both came away with seconds - the first time Diva has not won her class at Champ shows this year. I suppose thats the thing about dog showing you win some - you lose some. 

When we arrived at the show and just parked up when  a car pulled up next to us, a Bentley complete with Afghan on the back seat with a sparkling diamante collor. We had the Vauxhall Astra and our dogs on chain collors. I loaded up the rucksack with show gear as if setting off on a mountaineering expedition - they had a Cartier holdall. You obviously seem to get a better class of exhibitors at southern shows.