Saturday 18 July 2009

Heel

Today we took The Scarpers for her fourth gun-dog training session. She was excellent! No really.

Pause. Awkward silence.

Well, she was very good anyway. Her heel-work is very good, she's much better on recall and her retrieve is, well, not very good at all really. She dashes off to collect the dummy and sprints about half-way back before deciding it'll be rather more fun to run about in circles with the dummy in her mouth, taunting me with it all the time.

She does eventually bring it back but our Grade One test is in a month and i'm moderately concerned that she won't quite get it in time. That, of course, is probably the reason she's not doing it yet.

On the other hand her quartering is great and she's been so much more responsive, alert, and engaged with us since we started the training. The trainer (Allan Hender) is really excellent, so although it's a big time-commitment, it's well worth it. We're personally hoping for a Distinction on the test.

Friday 17 July 2009

Popcorn

Almost one year since i started working for youDevise. In that time i have had many adventures and written none of them down. i'm not sure anyone noticed.

So what did you miss? youDevise continues to be cool. My Brompton is excessively cool but cycling in London is deeply terrifying. Considering the Mayor cycles to work (using only his abundant hair as a helmet) i am amazed on an almost daily basis how poor the road network is for cyclists considering that there are about one million of us now.

Cycling really lets you see the cold dark interior of London's polluted heart. I've been yelled at, called countless names, moaned at by the police and nearly bashed off my bike by dozens of taxi drivers. I've even been told by one particularly prickly taxi driver that i'm lucky to be alive and that running me over is just about preferable to obeying the rules of the road.

In short i absolutely hate cycling to work. Mainly because i don't really want to get mashed by a truck or smacked by a black cab. So i actually tried rollerblading, which was disastrous. And finally, my new plan is to run to work. Starting on Monday. I might let you know how it goes.

Why is this entry entitled "Popcorn"? Because i was just eating some.