the funniest thing...

Sitting in the living room, Murphy on the sofa next to Richard. He's been eating crap, as usual (Murphy, not Richard and literally crap - of dogs). Of course his digestive system is not what it once was and we all suffer the consequences - although not Murphy - noticeably. Until tonight!

It was hilarious - his nether regions let out a prolonged fart - quite high-pitched, if you want the details. He was snoozing and raised his head, ears pricked, looking at Richard in surprise. You could just hear him - 'What did you do that for, Daddy?"

Then he did it again and our hero turns his head and looks at his own nether regions in even greater surprise!

Priceless!

Good visitors?

We went to visit Fiona and Robert today for a dog walk and lunch - a very pleasant day altogether! No sheep in the vicinity, it's pretty much all Forestry Commission so we could let the dogs off.

However, as well as Baxter, the bearded collie, they also have Eric, the cat. From a distance he looks like a lovely, soft cat with a white face and grey colouring. I say from a distance, as he was 30 feet up in a tree when we saw him and he didn't look like he was coming down any time soon! Unfortunately Maddie had spotted him earlier and while I don't think she chased him up the tree, she was certainly doing her best to make sure he stayed there!

Oops. Sorry Eric!

Puppy pilates

We were talking about this at Pilates yesterday - I've been going for almost 10 years. I know this because I have vivid memories of trying to do pilates exercises on a Saturday morning when Murphy was a puppy. He didn't like being excluded from anything so, since he barked to be let into the living room as soon as he saw me (and I didn't want to wake the whole house), I had to let him in.

We also had Eddie the cat at that point (the whole reason Murphy is called Murphy - geddit? - it was Andy's idea, pretty cool I thought). So there I was, lying on the floor doing leg-lifts - or trying to. Pilates is hard enough without having to do it with a roly-poly puppy sitting on your chest and a cat hanging off one ankle as you try to lift it in a controlled manner!!

Memories of a roly poly Murphy!

The day we got Murphy, aged 8 weeks. Can't believe it was ten years ago.

a special day

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MURPHY!

ten today - and looking good on it, babes. He had steak for dinner, I've never seen anything disappear so fast, he practically inhaled it! Lucky I took the candle out first.

Of course, Maddie had to have some too but she was fractionally more ladylike in her consumption - practising for her own birthday in a few years time?

And Murphy got lots of birthday wishes from his pals on FB, he's a lucky boy - couldn't happen to a nicer dog!

Sunday walk

It was such a beautiful day on Sunday - sun shining, blue skies, warm weather (not just mild, actually warm!) that we took the dogs down by the river. There's a spot right at the beginning of the walk where we usually throw sticks into the river for them. Of course they know this, so as we walked down towards the river, our keen water hounds tore on ahead, straight through a (very surprised) wee family group and down to the water's edge. There they stood expectantly, awaiting the sticks. I'm surprised Maddie didn't start barking impatiently!

Would have been OK, except that the family was clearly trying to take some nice photos of the toddler with them, with the river in the background. I'm not sure they really wanted a large, wet, hairy, orange beast in the background - thank you Murphy! At least I managed to entice him further along the path before he shook himself!

Settling in again

Murphy is still a bit hoarse and still thin, but getting there. Maddie is her usual ebullient self and Gizzy continues to be very friendly - particularly when we're eating fish! Maddie decided she was a cat this morning on our walk and climbed a tree to get at a bird - or to try to, anyway. I'll post a photo shortly.

We're all getting back into a routine, and I for one am deeply grateful - I like getting back into our routine, into the swing of things and getting organised. Still haven't downloaded all the photos from New Zealand but fully intend to do so!

It's Murphy's birthday tomorrow. He's going to be ten. TEN! Can't believe it! He's slowing down a bit and likes his snoozes, but still likes his exercise and runs around with Maddie. Bless him!

Well, here we are again

I'm tired today. Gizzy woke me up about 4 times through the night. Think she wanted fed but I wasn't getting up to find out!

Recovered from the holiday although Murphy hasn't yet - he's still hoarse from 3 weeks' barking! And very thin, although I've been feeding him the cat's leftovers so hopefully he'll gradually put on a little weight.

Other than that, all is well. Maddie is being very affectionate, as usual particularly when we haven't got the TV blaring. he really doesn't like it but we spent the weekend watching sport and she doesn't mind that, quite happy to hang about and ask for bosies.

Sartorial update

For those of you concerned about such things (and I know you all are) and thus worried about my over-enthusiastic adoption of "mix and match"(not) styling, I can reassure you. Having donned the whole outfit (well, added the shoes) the consensus was that it didn't go. So it was a last-minute change of dress to the long black one. Black is best!

Hong Kong - the vertical city

We were in Wan Chai when we came through on the way to NZ; this time we're in Kowloon - Tsim Sha Tsui. It's just along the railway line from Mong Kok - about a mile along Nathan Road. Not really thinking about what the most densely populated area in the world would be like on a Saturday afternoon when it was out shopping, we headed over there yesterday.

Boy, it was busy! Think of Regent Street on the Saturday before Christmas and that about sums it up. It was pretty difficult to get anywhere, you have to duck and dive and go round people, pause and dodge and take your chance. Not easy when there's two of you - I'm better at it than Richard so I was always having to pause and wait for him - or else he for me. There are some junctions just too busy for both people and traffic so there are walkways over and along the streets as well, you get up to them by stairs from pavements.

I can see why you need areas of green and oases of calm when you live in that environment. It's very tiring!

We went out for dinner last night - and (not mentioning the idiocy of my husband in refusing a 45 minute wait at one place when it took another 45 minutes to get a place anywhere else!) ended up at a Shanghai-ese place. On the way back to the hotel after it struck me. We'd gone up in a lift but it was only the 6th floor so we took the escalators down. Some of the restaurants in the building were on the 25-31st floors.

So off we went - down three floors on one escalator, over and down another two on another one, then a final one to the street level. All busy, with people going up and down and lots of folk milling around. That's when it struck me - we would never have that sort of business (public-oriented) up that high, but it's taken for granted here. That's only one tower in a city full of them - it really is a vertical way of living!

Travel broadens the mind

.. or at least the willingness to experiment with your wardrobe! We've spent the last three weeks travel, travel, travelling. To London, Hong Kong and all round New Zealand. A new day, a new destination. So I tried to travel light and bring things with multiple uses.

Different countries have different clothes, even in this international day and age. We all know America wears jeans, and if you want to get some, that is definitely the place to go - cheap and a myriad of different styles, uses and stores.

UK? Depends on where you go - there's nothing I like better than sitting on the Underground in London and watching what everyone wears, as there's such a lot of fashion styles and agendas and they all influence each other in different ways. Places like Aberdeen, people tend to wear whatever is in fashion - so whatever the shops have in - and they all wear it at the same time! So it's pretty boring from a style point of view (of course you do get the odd person who is more original in their clothes choices but not many). Personally, I mix and match for work (I like to think I have my own style but am not a fashion victim), but out of work I wear jeans all the time - it's easier given the weather and my dog-walking duties.

New Zealand? It turns out they don't wear jeans vey much at all. It's such an outdoors culture and they have the right weather too - so it's all leggings, sports-related and outdoors gear.

Here in Hong Kong they're very fashion-conscious and are pretty much built to wear what they like (small and petite) - so it's still leggings but layering as well, with some jeans. And as it's still winter as far as they're concerned (cool summer temperatures as far as I'm concerned!) they're rocking puffer jackets and layering up leggings and skirts etc.

Naturally I'm open to influences, plus I'm running out of stuff to wear! So today, given that I'm balancing the preference for an outfit to hold my head up in downtown Hong Kong (did I tell you we're in Kowloon, 3 stops from Mong Kok - the most densely-populated area in the WORLD) with the wish to be comfortable during our eleven-hour flight to London tonight and the need to be warm when we get to Aberdeen tomorrow, I'm wearing leggings and a long sleeve top with a stretchy leopardskin dress over and a sweatshirt over that. (Holding in the background my turquoise running shoes and matching fleece hoody to top it all off - not sure about that last set but it's all I got!)

World, here I come! One question - socks or no?