Morning all. Hope you had a good night.
@Sortingmyselfoutdayatatime sorry about your elbow, that's frustrating. Hope you're on the mend. I hit the chocolate too - chocolate milkshake is my bedtime tipple of choice these days. Not ideal, but certainly the lesser evil.
@WendyWagon have a fab time in London. I love London (was born there), endlessly fascinating and alive. Would love a dream cottage. Sometimes I look at Estate Agent websites, wondering which one I'd buy if the Lottery numbers came up. Although I remind myself that I'd still have to put out the bins and do the dusting.
@ShyMaryEllen glad your LFT test results were good, that's brilliant. So cute about your grandpuppy too 💖. You've reminded me about my own brush with the law with dogs. A few years ago, I was driving a crappy old car and had two dogs on board - my own Parson Russell in the back and Hettie (a Giant Schnauzer of uncertain temper who I dog-sat sometimes - rarely was her fur trimmed, so it was often longish and tousled all over. Plus she was massive - more small bear than large dog) 'riding shotgun' in the front passenger seat. Driving to work one morning, I noticed in the rear-view mirror that we were being followed by a Police Officer on a motorbike. On exiting the first of two adjacent roundabouts it became very clear, from his flashing blue lights, standing up as he rode and obvious hand signals, that we must pull over and switch off our engine. After negotiating the second roundabout, I steered the car into a lay-by and parked up. After telling the dogs to ("for goodness' sake, girls!") behave themselves, I wound down the window and waited for the officer's approach, wondering what I had done wrong to attract his displeasure, and assuming it was the crapness of the car.
We sat in an uneasy silence as the Policeman got off his motorcycle and marched crossly towards us with a face like a smacked-arse.
"Hello sir!" I greeted him brightly, trying to smile and not look shifty, "Is everything all right?"
The Rozzer glowered down at me. "Is that child wearing a seatbelt?!" he barked angrily.
"Excuse me?"
"THAT CHILD!" he snapped, irritably. "In your front passenger seat! Is it WEARING a SEATBELT?!"
"Um...."
At this point, and with impeccable comic timing, Hettie turned her great shaggy, tousle-furred head to look at the officer. The Policeman did a spectacular comedy double-take, screamed and leapt backwards at least three feet in length.
"Aaaarrooohhh!" he yelped, mid-jump, almost tripping over his own feet in his shock. "It's a DOG!"
"Yes." I replied, torn between being amused and wondering how anyone could be so stupid as to confuse the back of a dog's head with that of a child's, as well as being mindful that I didn't want to aggravate an officer of the law in an already testing situation.
"A dog!" repeated the Policeman. "Not a child! But from the back it looked-"
"Yes." I said, "She's got my eyes and her father's tail. We're very proud." (I instantly regretted saying that but it popped out before I could stop myself).
The unfortunate Plod gaped, open-mouthed, at all three of us, temporarily incapable of speech, while I nervously awaited his displeasure at my cheeky insubordination.
"Erm," spluttered the Officer, trying (and failing) to recover a bit of his lost credibility. "I'd better let you get on your way, madam... I am sorry to have troubled you..."
"That's OK. Thank you." I replied, though this was lost on the Policeman's hastily retreating rear as he stumbled back to his motorbike and sped off as quickly as the law would allow.
We gave him a second's grace before we exploded in merciless laughter. I kept laughing as we went on our way again. At least, until I stopped at the next set of traffic lights and my mind started to operate properly again. The man thought that a grizzly Giant Schnauzer was legitimately MY CHILD... I rubbed my chin again and decided it was time to get me an ol' shave (or at least break out the tweezers)... 🤔 That remains the only time when driving that I've ever been stopped by the Police. The county's finest.😀
I have started making plans for what I am going to do on Saturday morning. Some gardening, I think, plus topping up the bird feeders, then out to cricket. Last weekend, I found it helpful to have a plan in place for what I would value and enjoy doing when I woke up sober and capable on Saturday morning. If I write it on here (I hope you don't mind), I'm more likely to stick to it when the danger-zone of Friday evening looms large. So I am going to email my neighbour in a minute and ask her if I can have access to our shared garden-waste bin on Saturday morning. Then I'll have to stick to it. Said neighbour doesn't drive, so I might offer her a run out to the local garden centre as well - she's got some tokens burning a hole in her pocket.
Hope you have got some nice things lined up for your weekend. Strength and love to you. x