a new puppy

Went to visit Jill & family yesterday - they've got a Golden Retriever puppy called Tully - at 11 weeks old he's SOOOOO cute! Curled up in exact,y the same position as Murphy used to when he was tat age, except Tully's that almost white colour whereas obis. Murphy's a mid-dark colour.

Murphy pretty much ignored him (except when Tully showed an interest in his stick, when he semi-growled at him) other than helping himself to Tully's rawhide bone chews within the first 2 minutes of arriving in the house!

We had Sally and Haggis with us too, and Haggis (a 2 year-old Westie for those of you not paying attention) and is about the same size as Tully! So they had a few runs around.

Once I find the photos I'll upload them.

- and here they are!

In the first picture the wee-est is Haggis. In the other one, Tully is fast asleep with the soft toy he thinks is his mum - aww, cute!

latest

Hello world, once more! So -

what's been happening? Well, we had to go to a funeral on Wednesday. It was very strange - not like a Scottish funeral at all. Probably because it wasn't! Although I suppose I haven't been to a non-religious funeral, well, ever… so who knows? An old family friend of Richard's. He was the same age as Richard. We arranged for care for the dogs and flew down to London.

It turned out to be a long day with not much breaks. We got to the crematorium about 15 minutes early to join the queue for Rory's "Barbecue" (as he called it, apparently) - and that was a measure of his attitude and sense of humour. As his brother said - always irreverent but never malicious. His coffin had a police strip round it, an L sticker on the back ands several other signs attached - "Marinated in beer, sherry and red wine", "Toxic Waste" and "Sponsored by SAGA".

It all took and hour and half (I guess that's why they had the last slot at the Crem.) and I've never seen so many men in business suits cry. It's a reflection of the affection Rory was universally held in that there were way too many people for the crem "room" (is that what you all them?) and about 30 people had to crowd outside - unfortunately that meant they couldn't really hear much of the service and it included us! We're really glad we made the effort to go, but given that we had to heard back to the airport immediately after, it does seem a hell of a long way to go to stand for an hour and a half and listen to some vague murmerings!

Luckily for everyone the one hymn they sang was "Jerusalem" - which I don't know.

Isn't it always the people who are larger than life that go too soon? Is that one of the ironies of life?Maybe one we could do without.

Sigh

The truth is coming out, literally.

Richard says it's clear that Maddie WAS the sweetie culprit after all (no further details needed, thank you!)

I still don't understand how she got them out my handbag on the table, without knocking the bag over. I have a picture in my mind - the Tom Cruise-style lowering of her in a harness from the ceiling, "left a bit, right a bit..." Who was the accomplice on the other end - Murphy? Surely he'd have taken the loot. Gizzy? She'd probably have dropped Maddie half way down just to annoy her. Guess we'll never know...

Whodunnit?

Well it's a complete mystery - I have no idea what happened to those chocolates.

We had some chocolates left over from Guides so I took them home for Richard to eat. The remainder - ones he doesn't like - I dumped in my handbag and left on the dining room table to take to work. This morning I bethought myself to put em in a wee bag so they didn't get mushed at the bottom on the way in, but lo and behold - there was no sign of them!

The handbag was still upright on the table, there were no wrappers anywhere (and yes I checked Maddie's bed and her bush). But no chocolates. They have disappeared into thin air!

Surely even Maddie couldn't delicately remove all the sweeties without knocking over the handbag and leaving chewed wrappers scattered about the place?

Perhaps the mystery will solve itself over the next day or so. Until then...