Max and Paul's Excellent Adventure

 And now...  For those of you who read the last blog entry, this is the antidote.  Voila Shacky!  Short for Shackleton. As in Ernest, the explorer, (and who was also called Shacky by his friends, apparently) of whom the homeowner was a fan.  Arriving at Hook Norton, having driven through some of the most picturesque Cotswolds countryside, we felt like we'd died and gone to heaven.  Peter and Adrianne welcomed us with great hospitality. Shacky was too busy having his dinner to pay much attention. We were fed beautifully made Thai chicken curry, plied with G and T's and lots of wine and given the home and doggo rundown.  Shacky was absolutely delightful. He's a "beddy whippet", so a bedlington terrier x whippet, otherwise known as a lurcher.  A lurcher, I discovered, is any sighthound breed crossed with a terrier, and they invariably end up looking like Shax.  He was about the size of an Italian greyhound with boundless energy and just the...

  And here he is, the Jinks factor, who liked to start his day between 4.15 and 5.30 AM. After two weeks he started to settle down a bit and not be quite so reactive.  The owner told us that he'll bite if he doesn't want to do something. That includes getting out from under my feet in the kitchen when I'm flying around trying to cook. And also when someone knocks at the door and you need him to move in order to answer the door and not have him escape and die on the busy road.   Huby is a cute little village with some exquisite homes and the best run and stocked community shop anywhere. It has a pub that we tried to go to, but was booked out.  And that's it!  A shop and a pub.   England is full of these little libraries. They're just exchange sites, really.  A great idea, though. Take a book. Leave one. Or not.  York is an historic viking town. Not that we did any touristy things. The whole tourist strip, of course, is overpriced and corny, bu...

  Our time in Great Whittington was short and sweet. The rear of the home, with wall-to-wall glass doors, overlooked large fields full of sheep and lambs. The home was lovely - modern, well-equipped and very comfortable. A huge TV with all the streams (Netflix, Prime etc) is always appreciated.  Our charges were happy pets and easy. They were characters, though, and full of mischief. Jarvis was like a tornado and would jump on top of Mole, out of the blue, for no good reason. You could almost hear him cackling as he sped off again. 🤣 Mole, from the minute we arrived, wanted to shag my (Max's) leg. This went on and on for a couple of days until the morning of day 3 he came flying upstairs and jumped on my bed, only to start the business immediately. That got me out of bed quickly and we had words... Mole was pint sized (a border terrier, I think?) who made up for his size with his perpetual unimpressed look. He wasn't grumpy, though, and he WAS adorable (apart from the shaggin...

 Whitby is an old fishing village in the north east of England, where, supposedly, Dracula arrived in England. Its main landmark is a ruin of an Abbey on the top of a hill, originally built as a christian monastery before Henry VIII confiscated the building and its contents in the 16th century. We had a very comfortable Air B&B on a farm just out of the village which, after spending a few weeks in busy areas, was a blessing to have some peace and quiet. The Abbey is now being looked after by 'English Heritage', which translates to "it now costs a lot to get close to it". Where I took this photo was 40 pounds cheaper than two steps closer! A view from the Abbey looking down on Whitby and its port. The graveyard with the headstones facing the sea. 🎶"Oh I do like to be beside the seaside..."🎶 After 3 days, we were off to our next sit up north in Corbridge, Northumberland.

Well, it's been a while since posting a blog as I've been tied up with video work. I'm still waiting on the result of my UK passport application appeal, which is due to have a ruling this week, so fingers crossed on that.  After spending a few weeks in Sevenoaks looking after chez Daniel and Ellen's we booked a few more pet sits to fill in time whilst waiting for a government department to get back to me.😄 The highlight was Max's birthday which was celebrated at a Turkish restaurant and a gift of 5 hours of massages, which, I must say, was gratefully accepted! The Birthday Girl The books that can be found in charity shops - Sevenoaks. Notice the bottom line 🤣 (The poems weren't as good as the cover!) Since the bookings were last minute we didn't have too much in the way of choice. The sit in Milton Keynes was a short and an easy one as looking after Doogle was a breeze. The house owners made us feel very welcome before heading off for their weekend in Wale...