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WEATHER
It is cold and wet and blowing a gale. It seems the rest of the country are blowing blizzards rather than rain. Not fair! I want snow! It looks better. Yes, I know, it causes chaos too but it is still beautiful.
DEMONSTRATION
Last nights demonstration went well. I did the demonstration of mediumship with my back to the people and with a helper, a young woman from the audience, to tell me if the answer from the recipient was a yes or a no. It went far better than I at first thought. It turned out that one of the recipients was the aunt of the girl who was helping me and she never gave anything away at all. I had no clue. Her voice did not betray her at all. It turned out that the communicator who was a woman in her late 30's to early 40's form what I could see, had died of cancer and she wanted to talk with her mum. Which she did. She gave other details too. Her mother was the aunt of the girl who was helping me. Even more astounding for me was this was the very first time the young woman had been to see such a see such a demonstration. It was very moving. It had only been 29 weeks since the woman's daughter had made her transition so the feelings were still very raw.
DOG SHOW
My eye is much today. I have more or less mastered getting the ointment into my eye. I feel confident I shall go for my swim in the morning. After that, it will be preparing the dogs for the show on Saturday. Only one dog though, Whitney. Micah is retired for now until his coat matures. Whitney is no longer a puppy, being over twelve months of age so Saturday is her first Junior class.
PREGNANCY
Shameless puked up most of her food last night so I have fed her half her amount this morning and the other half will be fed this evening. She will have to be on split rations now as she is obviously too full of puppies to eat her one larger meal.
KNITTING
Am almost to the end of John's socks and have completed the back piece of my garter stitch wool sweater using the Brother Garter Carriage.
HOOKED
I had a painful night last night so didn't sleep that well. Recently I have taken pain killers before retiring which obviously was working. I didn' t take any last night because I wasn't hurting and I find it very hard to take pain killers prophylacticly so I didn't. Now I think it is good idea that I do. I am just scared of becoming hooked.
I have had my dogs since 1972. It has always been my dream to breed and show them. I have not been able to until recently and this last year has been my first full year of showing.
I have enjoyed it immensely. The UK is the hardest place to show dogs as our competition is high in quality and numbers. We get on average 150 at a show.
I have shown three dogs that I have bred and have rarely gone unplaced (meaning in the first 5, usually in the first 3). All three have qualified for Cruft's.
Anyway, to the point of this post: I am getting very tired. I don't know if I am so exhausted because I am in the middle of a flare(bad pain/inflammation) or I am like this because I am doing so much. I am doing a show a week now, long distance driving, getting up at 2am and leaving by 4am and usually home again by late afternoon.
I have to attend the shows to find out for myself which judges are worthy of my entry and which are not. Also by keeping going, one becomes part of the show scenery.
I don't quite know where I am leading to in this post. I have another show, short distance, this Sunday and then next Thursday a show 250 miles away. I am thinking I maybe won't go to that one. Yes, I will lose the entry money but save more than that by not going.
There is also this to consider: if I just ignore how I feel right now and keep going, I might end up missing more shows because I wreck myself...
Between shows I do little. I swim half a mile at the pool at least 4 times a week. It gives me relief from the joint pain whilst I am in the pool and gives my a CV workout the only way I can.
I knit and watch tv all other times, apart from doing what I need to with the dogs.
So I don't think I am overstretched in any way, in fact written down it seems I don't do much at all!
Normally it helps to think 'aloud' and maybe if I read this again, I'll come up with a solution.....
It was a beautiful warm day. Clear skies. All hell broke loose on the way home though. This is my friend Linda, the woman I sleep with when I go to Scottish shows. Linda works with the disadvantaged. She is what I call good people. I admire her greatly. She has suffered the worst grief possible yet she hasn't stopped giving.
Minor Puppy Dog class(the boys).
Now if my blog was not public(what would be the point?) and if people here didn't know who I was, I would say a lot more about this show. I choose not to! ;-)
Micah was 2nd in Post Grad and Shameless 3rd in MPB. Both qualifying again fro Cruft's 08. You have to place 1st 2nd or 3rd in specific classes in order to qualify. They both achieved it for the second time today.
Kelso was beautiful, I could tell, but the weather was crap so not seen at it's best.
Second visit to Scotland in my lifetime, the first just a couple of weeks ago. Crap weather the first time too.
Two old men in kilts the first time, none at all this time.
I have gone off Scotland.
Tantra's Micah and his daughter, Tantra's Shameless both qualified for Cruft's today.
Micah won second place in Post Graduate.
Shameless won first place in Minor Puppy Bitch.
I am up at 2.30am to go to a dog show.
Am about to bath dogs now. So will not be answering emails till Friday night or Saturday.
Yesterday at Bath, or more precisely in a large field come swamp near Bath, it was rather difficult. Very soggy. At home time, it was extremely difficult to manoeuvre my trolley back to the car.
We got moved out of the tents by request of one of the exhibitors as it had stopped raining and the rings outside looked good. Who was I to object? Even though I was 99% positive that the heavens would open again. And open they did during the class of the woman who made the request....
Micah was placed 4th in his Post Grad class. (Now in the UK we have the TOUGHEST dog show scene anywhere. Whilst in the USA or Europe one my get an entry of 20, we had an entry of 144 yesterday and that is not high.)
Shameless showed her heart out but to no avail and she was thrown out with the rubbish. I knew this was going to happen. No, not because I am psychic but because of this:
Judge: How old is she? 8 months?
Me: Honest and not thinking: no just 6 mths.
Judge pulls face.
As I was walking Shameless for the judge, it dawned on me that he obviously thought her too big, which she aint at 9.75ins. I could have just carried on walking right outside the ring but being a person of integrity(read:cowardly) I did not.
Anyway, of course the judge should never have made such a comment and ranks almost as daft as the stupid stupid stupid judge who bent down and put her face right up to my Micah's nose and kissed it!!!! How completely unprofessional and stupid. Did I say it was stupid? Thankfully Micah is sweet and licked her face but.....
Anyway, it was a fun day, seeing lots of beautiful dogs, and meeting friends and listening quietly to conversations that the people involved in obviously think cannot be heard. Most amusing and often illuminating.
I suppose some might think it odd to spend many hours bathing and grooming, driving long distances in all weather, to stand around for hours in all weather to get 5 mins in the ring in the hopes of getting a card from some person who quite often wouldn't know your breed from any other breed.
So today I feel like I have been run over by a lorry. Rolling out of bed took much longer than usual and I have discovered other parts of my body that hitherto had mercifully kept their presence quiet.
Have to take the litter to be microchipped today.
I am also going to investigate the local swimming pool. I have always adored the water and swimming and it has occurred to me lately that swimming might well do me good. Low impact and feels good. I am concerned about getting in and out of the pool. Actually only out, Getting in will be as easy as falling off a log. Also getting from changing room to pool edge. Floors on such places tend to be slippery.
So I want to go and ask if they have routines or support for cripples. I hope so as I am quite looking forward to swimming again. It only takes a while to get used to the lustful stares and groping once I am in my togs. I can live with it. It has been the bain of my life, as anyone with outstanding looks will confirm.
EDIT: Went to the pool. They have a changing room right next to the pool for the disabled so I only have to walk a couple of feet. They have special stairs for getting out (or in I suppose) and I can use my stick to get there. Also, they have suitable practical times for adults only lane swimming. Might give it a go tomorrow.
I am back from the Scottish show. I didn't get back until yesterday, Sunday, midday. I was expecting to be back on the Saturday evening. It was quite an adventure. The trip to Linda's was uneventful except that I did it without a stop and therefore had great difficulty getting out of my car after 3.5 hours! Much to my surprise, I slept fine at her house, even if for only 3 hours after which the alarm woke me. We should have gone to bed earlier. The only other house I have slept well in belongs to my friends' Karen and Kim(male) in Denmark.
We left Linda's at 4am for the drive to Scotland. Now Hartlepool, where Linda lives, was the furthest north, in my country, that I have been. So now I was going still further for the first time. The scenery was beautiful and I even got to see The Angel Of The North up close. I think it is stunning. It was bright and sunny but windy on the drive. Three hours later we arrived at the Showground, right next to the runways of Edinburgh Airport! Now one of our fellow exhibitors is 81 years old and she flew on her own with her dog from down south. Below is her girl. 
I truly admire this lady. She has fortitude and determination and tremendous courage. It was very cold and windy and she got sick. An ambulance was called but she refused to go to hospital. Now she was sort of camped with us and we took care of her and her dog until the ambulance came and the we had to stay with her. I say we but in fact it was Linda who did what needed to be done. Linda works with the elderly as her day job. So instead of us leaving by 2pm we didn't get way till 3.5 hours later thus not getting back to Linda's till almost 9pm and there was no way way I was driving 4 hours home then! Besides which, the cold had buggered my legs and I was in a lot of pain and hardly able to walk.
This is Linda(right) and her friend Debbie.The show itself was interesting. If you have read my blurb about going, I was not going for this particular judge as I had seen him judge before and shown under him once and said I never would again. Yet, i wanted to go to Scotland and be with my friends so Micah went and got 5th out of 6 for my trouble ! ;-) Micah was so well behaved. He loves it all. For some reason he gets very horny when he goes to a show. This makes him strut when being shown. He loves it. He slept on the bed with me, the first time for him. Like most of my Apso, he slept near my feet. His choice. Most of this breed do. I used to have an American Cocker and Dax and they prefer to sleep near you head, or on it !
I am glad I went. I have two more shows up that way this year, in August and next month.
I have another show at Bath this coming Monday.
I didn't manage the dog show today. I decided last evening not to go even tho I had not been to the bathroom all day. Just as well cos I awoke in the early hours with stomach cramps and I was off again till about mid-day today when it has calmed down again.
Now a dog show is not the easiest of outings for the disabled anyway, as they are usually outside in fields. On top of that, the loos are normally quite a trek, even though they do provide disabled facilities. Still a long way away, but they do provide them.
Given the shortage of Pampers of adults and the liklihood of me needing to run fast at short notice over quite a distance, I thought it best to stay home.
I am reminded of a little tale for some reason.
When we first moved here, there was a small shop near the railway station named Wendy Jane's. I passed this shop whenever I went that direction, at least twice per week to pick John up from said station.
In the window of Wendy Jane's were always several models wearing nurses uniforms.
I thought to myself 'so this is where nurses get their uniforms' and thought nothing of it. After all, a small country town, I guessed there was no where else to go and why I had not seen a nurse supplies place in the big city.
Now i did notice that the models' shoes didn't seem appropriate for being on one's feet all day/ night but already knew that women wore shoes that were not the most sensible .....
Wendy Jane moved. Wendy Jane's windows got much bigger. Wendy Jane added more to her display-like stilletto boots, handcuffs, whips, and frilly lingerie....
Okay, okay, so I was dim.....
