A funny thing happened to me on the way to the…studio

Had a rather busy day today. It all started with Carmen licking my face at 6am to tell me it was raining…which it wasn’t. I let the poodles out and went back to sleep for another hour only to be woken by the recycling truck. I gave up and just waited for the alarm to go off at 7. I drifted in and out of consciousness until it did. I then rang a bleary sounding Mirinda so she could enjoy the morning as much as I had so far.

After coffee and toast I hitched the girls to their lead and took them on a good, long walk around the park. We met a few other intrepid early morning walkers. Fortunately I had built in an FSI buffer because Carmen decided to collect some particularly delicious samples to bring home with her. I needed the buffer because the taxi was arriving at 10.

After bathing Carmen and having a shower myself, the taxi arrived and took us to the kennel for the poodles’ holiday treat and then drove me back. I was going to repeat my last trip by taking the taxi to Frensham pond and then catch the bus back home but last night I received a phone call from someone on the Talking Newspaper to ask if he could swap times with me for today. Originally I was down for the 2pm slot which would give me heaps of time but he wanted to take that and give me the 12pm one instead. I actually preferred this, though it does mean a rather late lunch, but it meant I had to get the taxi both ways in order to get home in time to leave again.

I made it in plenty of time and set off along the path towards Farnham reciting my limited French in my head. I do this sometimes because I’m weird. Mind you, it doesn’t take very long. By the time I reached the end of the path, I had gone over my entire vocabulary about 150 times.

Standing at the end of the path were two chaps and a stroller. Standing beside the stroller was a child with blonde hair and blue eyes (about 2, I think) who smiled up at me and said “Bonjour.” Normally this would have caught me somewhat on the hop but I just naturally replied “Bonjour” with a smile and kept walking. It wasn’t until I reached the end of the lane and a woman said “Hello” that I realised I wasn’t actually in France. Very odd.

Anyway, the Talking Newspaper went well though I did have a bit of trouble saying “Liphook United under 10s…“. I had to say it four times! I kept missing out the ‘United’. That’s the problem with cold reading. You never know what particular bits are going to trip you up until they manage to do it successfully.

Back at home I finished testing yet another database, missing the dogs. I was engrossed in the screen when I heard a noise in the house. I turned the music off and listened. A tiny tinkle could be heard. It sounded like Carmen – the way her name tag hits her collar. I was stunned. Perhaps she’d managed to walk back from the kennel on her own after re-enacting the Great Escape! I stood up and quietly walked into the bedroom. Sitting looking at me was the crazy screechy dog from next door, smiling and cheerful.

I took it back home, meeting the neighbours as they were coming over to look for it. I then spent half an hour blocking up the hole under the fence where it had managed to crawl through.

Eventually I had dinner. Because of the lunch time Talking Newspaper, it means my lunch is at 4pm so dinner is at 9pm. What a crazy life!

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2 Responses to A funny thing happened to me on the way to the…studio

  1. Claire says:

    Gary, it is about 6am here and already I have been laughing at your writing skill. A wonderful way to start the day. You are amazing. Claire

  2. Mum Cook says:

    I did not get on to your blog yesterday so have only just read it (Sat) and you are somewhere else, but it was good as Claire says a lovely way to start a day.
    Love mum

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