
Even though the weather was unseasonably cold that day. The wind came hammering in off the ocean and the temperature was only about 22 degrees (I know – you’re all shouting ‘Heatwave’, but when you’re used to temperatures in the mid 30’s, let me tell you, 22 feels blooming cold!). The kids were really shivering when they came out of the surf and with the wind, they were instantly turned into little sandsickles.
The kids enjoyed the day. Sam loved the game where they had to run into the surf with a surf-lifesaving board and navigate round a volunteer in the water, before turning to paddle back and hand the board to the next team member. Darcie liked the tug of war, especially when Daddy helped her team win.
Last weekend we visited an animal shelter looking for a dog. We had discussed the matter time after time and agreed that now we were in our own home and felt much more settled, we could get a dog to complete the family. We’ve been keeping our eye on the papers for a few weeks, looking for puppies, but nothing took our fancy. There are lots of cross breeds here and breeds like Mastiffs and Pit Bull-type dogs are very popular. Obviously with the kids and Adam’s probable desire to use the dog’s rear end as a pencil sharpener, we wanted to get an animal with a high level of tolerance (we called it the ‘ear-pull scale’). The shelter had older dogs, but the staff were really pushy and kept on until we took one out of it’s cage for a ‘walk’. To say it was ‘hard; was an understatement. It looked like an alcoholic who smoked 40 a day and I’m sure I saw ‘love’ and ‘hate’ tattooed on his knuckles. He even tried to do a deal on an early release for good behaviour. He was a lovely looking dog, but after he jumped up at Adam twice, we just had to say no and he wasn’t for us. They did have some puppies there, but they were Collie crosses and no-one knew what they were crossed with; might have been Shetland Pony or dingo. So with all that in mind, we decided to get a puppy – at least then he could get used to the kids slowly and grow up with them and have more tolerance for ear pulling, tail flicking and pencil sharpening incidents!
We also decided to go for a pedigree so we knew what we were getting in terms of breed and temperament. It means more money for the dog, but it will be worth it if we can trust him with the kids. So, with all that info, we were left with a shortlist of three breeds: Dobermann, Dalmation and Weimaraner. I did some searching on the internet and found puppies for all three breeds, but Paul and I decided to go and see the breeder with the Weimaraners. We took Sam and Darcie to school and whizzed off with Adam to see them………. And fell in love instantly.
Given that, I would like to introduce you all to.........

(those of you who know, we used to live in Pentley Park in WGC and Pentley BARK just seemed like the perfect name for him).
The operation went well and the surgeons are happy that they managed to remove all of the tumour; they’ve sent it off to pathology, so fingers crossed it will all be ‘normal’. It was quite a nasty operation, so you can imagine my surprise when I got a phone call from Paul this morning (Friday), to say ‘can you come and get me? I’m allowed home.’
He looks like he’s had a run-in with the back end of a London bus and has VERY stong painkillers that he’s abusing when he can take no more, but all things considered, I think it looks better than I thought.
He’s got to go back to have his stitches out on Tuesday (all 15 of them!) and then (what we didn’t realise), he’s got to have another general anaesthetic in about 10 days where they remove all the packing that they’ve stuffed his cheek with. At least it’s done now and hopefully following the removal of all the packing, this should be the end of things – apart from the constant checking he will have to go through to keep an eye out for any new tumours.
The staff were absolutely fantastic. As it was a teaching hospital, everything was explained over and over and nothing was too much trouble. It has to be said that all the nursing staff Paul has come into contact with have been amazing and it’s been wonderful that the care has been so good. He’s sitting here tonight though, looking pathetic with a device like a tampon in a sling hung over his ears and resting under is nose. I really thought that the nurses had improvised this dressing until Paul produced a new one, in sealed packaging that was exactly the same! His tampon’s not that good though – he can’t roller skate or go paragliding, or anything!
The house has moved on again – we have plumbing pipes installed now and they have run all the electrical cabling for switches and sockets. I haven’t got any photos of that stuff as we had to limbo under all the scaffolding and dice with death to go and have a look the other week whilst we lassoed the kids in the car – otherwise they’d be out and climbing all over the scaffolding like a bunch of naughty monkeys from a safari park! The solar hot water system has been fitted now to the roof and they want us to OK the render colour so that this can be done. Next step is plastering inside and render to the outside. Amazing really to think that if they got their finger out, they could probably get it done very quickly, but they still anticipate it’ll take the best part of 12 months to complete.
Great! Hot water - no bath yet though!
The council have also been out and approved the planning for the swimming pool, so that’s another job jobbed.Adam’s potty training is complete, apart from the very odd accident. He’s still very clingy though. Here’s a photo of him after he barricaded himself in my bedroom and cried himself to sleep when I popped out to pick Darcie up from school today.
Ar*e!
He got very jealous when we went to see Pentley. I gave Pentley a cuddle, only to have Adam tug at my arm, saying ‘put doggy down Mummy – cuddle Abam’. He seems to have warmed to the idea though and now every time we get in the car, he asks if we’re going to pick ‘Pegley’ up. We’re off to the supply shop tomorrow to get his basket, bowls and all the associated goodies. Can’t wait!