The start of my 47th Birthday opening my cards and presents so that the family were not late for work/school. There was a little rain overnight and a few light showers today but the mostly dry weather was accompanied by much milder temperatures which came as a relief. A walk with Sam, concentrating mainly on obedience and quartering
and got him to do several launcher-dummy, throwing dummy and water retrieves. Home to change and wash before tea and then the drive to Biggleswade to collect the latest revision of the drawings for Cambridge Street.
The main news today was of an Anglo-Irish government meeting on the future of Ulster and the problems of the government trying to get its rail Privatisation Bill past a reluctant House of Lords.
It was a rough start to the day as Sam was awake before 6.00am, whining for no apparent reason and we wondered if the milkman had come early today. He soon settled down again and I therefore managed an hours rest before my shower and birthday breakfast. Some consternation from the family over getting my cards and presents ready in time for me to open but I was able to do it and they were not late for work/school. A walk with Sam, concentrating mainly on obedience and quartering and was surprised to see another dog, once very obedient, now runs scared of Sam leaving his handler very concerned.
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Straight down to work on my return as the contractor had already delivered forty bags of top dressing and the gardener and I had some shredding to get out of the way before we could spread it. At least the weather held up and Sam was good by staying in the "down" position and watching whilst we worked. By finishing the shredding, this was one task out of the way but it will still take Bill tomorrow morning to complete the work on the lawn. I was exhausted by lunchtime and so rested afterwards for a couple of hours before taking Sam for his evening walk.
Though leaving his training whistles behind, I still managed to control him and got him to do several launcher-dummy, throwing dummy and water retrieves. Was particularly pleased that he responds to voice as well as whistle and that he seems to have given up the bad habit of running in when dummies are propelled by launcher. Home to change and wash before tea and then the drive to Biggleswade to collect the latest revision of the drawings for Cambridge Street. The last part of my evening watching televised football and the pleasure of seeing footage of Norwich City do enough to go through to the next round of the European competition by beating Bayern Munich. Manchester United were not so lucky and were put out by a little-known Turkish side.
There was a little rain overnight and a few light showers today but the mostly dry weather was accompanied by much milder temperatures which came as a relief. More fuss over the Child Support Agency but the main news today was of an Anglo-Irish government meeting on the future of Ulster and the problems of the government trying to get its rail Privatisation Bill past a reluctant House of Lords.