Busy, busy, busy

What a day! It was almost non-stop…and the bits that were ‘stop’ I had no control over.

First up, because I’d been nice and swapped a Talking Newspaper date with Ann, my day was effectively cut in half. That’s five hours gone in a gesture of good will. Normally it wouldn’t matter but I had a lot of stuff to do before we left these shores later in the day. This added appointment meant getting up a bit earlier than I needed to in order to fit a few things in. (I should stress that I didn’t wake up five hours earlier!)

Having put a load of washing on and changed the sheets on the bed, I headed off for town and the Talking Newspaper studio. And what a lot of fun we had. Seriously. It was the most enjoyable session I’ve had for a long time. One memorable mistake was me reading out that an electrical company was trimming trees in Farnham Park including cutting back vegetarians. There was a lot of laughter over that little gaffe.

After reading, I headed back home, stopping off at the pantry for a jar of much needed coffee. At home I just had enough time for a cup of it before I had to head down to the vet with the girls.

The other day I had my yearly reminder that they were due their booster shots. I figured it could wait until we’d returned from Brittany but then I had a text from Sue. She asked if they were up to date because she wanted to visit with a woman who had a ten week old puppy. I’m sure they would have been fine but you never want to take a chance with babies so I booked them in for today.

Both of them did not like going to the vet! They were fine with the weigh in, delighting the reception staff with their obedience. In the examination room however things were a bit different.

Emma spent a lot of time shaking with fear. Freya just wanted to escape. To be fair, Freya did have the grass seed extraction procedure last time she was there and it was by the same vet who saw her today which may explain her reticence but Emma hasn’t had a problem since her tooth and she has been fine for her checks and shots since then.

Anyway, everything went well, despite their attempts at prevention, and we were back home in time for me to adjust a few things because Sue needed to change the delivery time of the girls because of a phone call. No problem, I said as I fiddled a few things.

Then I started receiving texts from Mirinda with extra things I needed to pack for her (she’d packed on Sunday…almost). There were quite a few texts. I also had to do my packing (which took about ten minutes, Trace).

Washing dried, packing complete (or so I thought), papers organised, I headed round to Sue with the dogs and my wicker trolley stacked high with dog food.

I had a bit of a chat with Sue about her son’s wedding and her trip to Washington (or DC as she calls it) but had to leave quickly to be home in time for Mirinda’s arrival which would herald the subsequent arrival of Carole and her taxi.

Naturally, as soon as Mirinda arrived there were extra things to pack so that we were just ready when Carole arrived, packed us up and took us away.

The trip down to Portsmouth was fraught with delays of every kind. I was starting to fret in the back seat as the digital clock obeyed the horrid arrow of time, intent on making us late.

We pulled up outside the Brittany Ferries terminal, paid Carole, checked in and were on the ferry in less than 15 minutes. It was possibly the smoothest ever boarding. We even had a kettle, coffee, tea and milk in our cabin. And a telly! I mean really? A telly? That was a bit weird.

Naturally I had livarot (the oldest cheese in Normandy…which possibly explains the smell) instead of dessert in the restaurant and we had a bit of a stroll around the deck before retiring for the night.

The stern of the ferry

I fell asleep very quickly.