Wet, Wet, Wet.........

Remember my spate of losing things, well the hands free phone kit was retrieved by the car hire company and left at York station ready for me to collect this week. To cut a long story a wee bit shorter, I eventually got it back after creating a 'scene' at the car hire desk - most unlike me.

So Wednesday night not wanting to take my phone in the bathroom while having a soak, I used the hands free device and chatted away to my beloved wife hands free in the bath - cool.....Until the pesky thing fell in the deep end! I could only laugh, after all the disruption through losing it, tracking it down, then finding it, arguing with an awkward 'jobs worth' to give it back, it falls in the bath - to echo Victor Meldrew's words 'I don't b****y believe it'.

.........and there's more.........

I quickly dried it off, put it on a radiator; thinking it may work, possibly! Jumped back in the bath and finished the conversation with Karen on my phone. Next minute the phone went quiet [no I didn't drop that in too], and I could her talking from on top of the radiator .............the hands free was still alive and had locked on to my phone. Amazing.

How much fun you can have with a bit of technology and a hot bath.

Kids - Don't try this at home, electric and water don't like each other.

Ruthless is Back on the Case

I've had a few days off work. It's been good, I've spent quality time training my dogs, mainly Devo and starting my winter fitness regime.

I realised at training on Thursday I was back to my old running habits again, flat footed, no spring in my pace and basically unfit. So after a chat with 'Ruthless Ruth' I, or was it her, decided there would be no more excuses I had to start getting fit now! And what a great time of year it is to go running. Windy, torrential rain, mud...... I keep telling myself it's worth it.

The biggest fitness motivator for me is Devo and Kodi. Devo is showing a lot potential, I love training him he's so focused and driven.

Kodi is on fire at the moment. He has recovered from the hectic season and is working very well.

Our future agility success is down to me and my fitness.

Back Down to Earth

My UK tour went well although I've been feeling tired today, that could have been something to do with working all day, scaling the EICA climbing walls [see picture taken from the 5th floor of the building, can you make out the man on the ground!] and then driving home from Edinburgh.

I've got a few days off now to recover and catch up at home.

We experienced a 'Black Rock' dinner this evening at a local pub. It's basically a piece of black volcanic rock heated to over 400 degrees brought out from the kitchen with your meat on. You then cook it to your liking at the table. It was excellent, a great idea.

That's it now no more hotels, B&B or restaurants for the rest of the week, it's home cooking ...... Yippee

On a Losing Streak

Rather than collecting mementoes during my two weeks away, I'm losing things instead. This is uncharacteristic of me.

I've left T-shirts in a hotel in Leeds, a hands free car kit in a hire car in York and Devo's head collar somewhere in a park in Dundee. That's three items so hopefully my losing streak is over.

On a more positive note, I've had a busy weekend agility training in Dundee. They were a good group of handlers, they worked hard to learn some new handling skills and I really enjoyed training them and delivering my coaching seminar. On the basis that I've got two more gigs out of the weekend I think it went down well.

Back to work tomorrow, two days at the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena facilitating a business workshop. It'll be a good couple of days, if you've got a head for heights!

The Answer is in the Patterns........

My escapades with hotels continues. Confusion of which hotel I'm booked into, long waits to be checked in, rubbish service and some very good service.

I woke up this morning to beautiful clear sky's overlooking Leeds. On the horizon I could see five Power Stations, one of which is where I've been working. Maybe not the same tranquil view as I get in Hampshire over looking fields and woods, but the steam from the cooling towers created interesting cloud patterns across the clear morning sky. A child of one of the guys who works there thinks his dad works in a cloud factory - sweet.

I received one of those interesting emails yesterday which make you think how on earth does that work. Within a few minutes of forwarding it to Karen, she came back with the answer and apparently it's all about patterns.

See if you can crack it. If you want the answer you'll have to email Karen, much cleverer than me.

http://www.regiftable.com/regiftingrobinpopup.html

Autumn Weekend

The weekend whizzed past again. We managed to fit in a visit to my 92 year old Nan, a bit of shopping, preparation for next weekends seminar in Scotland, odd jobs at home and a nice autumn dog walk.

I'm bored with X factor now so we watched Slumdog Millionaire Saturday night. Totally not what I expected but very good. I've now got the theme tune playing constantly in my head!

Tonight I've been packing for my November UK tour taking me to York, Leeds, Hornsea, Edinburgh and Dundee. Karen joins me for a weekend agility training in Dundee.

Gathering Winter Fuel

This was waiting for me when I got back from work Friday. Two pallets of wood pellets to unload for our pellet boiler, we're very environmentally friendly you know.

This was followed by a delivery of CSJ dog food. Good exercise for the end of the week.