Eddie Stobart Depot

Since there weren't any Eddies at the Truckfest, we had a morning trip out a couple of weeks ago to the new Stobart depot at Appleton Thorne. Loads of Eddies, including service vehicles as well as lorries! It's only half an hour from home, and there is good dog-walking and coffee-stopping en route, so I suspect we may be going back!

I bought Debbie an eternity ring this month, too: it has diamonds and emeralds in it, which I thought would match Debbie's beautiful green and sparkly eyes. I realise now that Debbie's enthusiasm for the emeralds might in fact be because the green and white (emerald and diamond) also matches the Stobart livery!

TruckFest, September 2007

No Eddie Stobart display for Debbie this year, but we took Gus along to see TruckFest NorthWest at Haydock: lots of painted-up lorries, overpriced junk-food, noisy displays, fairground rides, overflowing portaloos... what more could you ask for on a Sunday morning? We enjoyed looking around for a couple of hours: sitting in the sunshine with coffee and chips watching the crowds, seeing all the truckers polishing their chrome and buffing their bumpers, letting people pat Gus and marvel at his unprecedented ugliness. The whole thing is shockingly overpriced and almost everything you can buy is a total rip-off, but it's a bit of fun and, even though there were no Eddies for Debbie to sit in this year, we had a good time. And Gus found and ate about 17 squashed discarded burgers, so he enjoyed himself too.

Dog Agility!

As part of Gus's "life of Reilly" programme, we splashed out on a set of Dog Agility toys for him: hurdles for him to hurdle, a hoop for him to go flying through (haven't tried the flames yet) and a tunnel for him to squirm through like a furry rocket-powered worm. He thinks it's brilliant. But then, Gus thinks everything is brilliant. That's part of his doggie charm. He's a bit like the dog on the Sky TV dog-and-duck advert. "That's brilliant. What is it?"

So, with little bits of dog-treat to coax him through the early stages before he got the hang of it, Debbie set him up at the start of his track, and... he got the hang of it straight away!

Over the hurdles, through the hoop. Through the hoop, over the hurdles. Anything to follow that little bit of dog-treat! Debbie had tried to get into the local dog agility class, but the people there were so rubbish they couldn't even return a phone call. So, taking matters into our own hands we now have a little dog agility school of our own. I'm just wondering, once Debbie has Gus trained, how long will it be before she works her way down the hierarchy to me. Then the cats.


We haven't tried him with the tunnel yet, but I am confident that he will think that's brilliant, too. Watch out for the doggie Olympics on the telly: Gus and Debbie may be there!

A big box of new books!

Debbie and I returned from an enjoyable Saturday morning of horses, dogs, cafe breakfasts and shopping to find that the postman - or more likely a small team of strong postmen with a forklift delivery van - had left an enormous, and enormously heavy, cardboard crate on our doorstep. Although the morning's shopping included some delicious-looking scones and 3 big sacks of dog-agility equipment, the unpacking of that load was put on hold as the mighty box was hauled into the living room and carefully cut open. Inside the box, under the protective flaps, beneath the enveloping bubble-wrap: books! Mostly, in fact, one enormous book: the Times Atlas. It is, by far, the biggest book I own. Or have ever owned. It may be the biggest book I will ever own. I am very pleased with it. I don't think that I could have brought myself to pay the £150 that is printed on the back of it's protective sleeve-box, but that's only because I am so mean. I don't doubt that the book is indeed worth that amount, especially to somebody who likes to look at maps as much as I do! In fact, perhaps, thinking about it, I would have paid for it if I had to. I actually got my copy for, er, nothing. It was a "free gift" as part of my Folio Society subscription deal. Also in the delivery today were three other books, each in its own protective sleeve-box, and a note that two further books that I ordered are not yet printed and will be delivered in due course.

It is always exciting getting deliveries by post, but somehow with books, especially when you get several delivered at once, the prospect is much more delightfully drawn out than with the delivery of, say, a gadget or a toy. The gadget or toy can be unpacked and in full service within moments, and often you can have seen everything that it can do within half an hour. Sure, you can look forward to doing it some more, but the discovery phase is over and it is only the continued use phase that lies ahead. By contrast, with a book, all of the discovery continues to lie ahead even after everything is unpacked and played with. There is still the reading. Every page could hold a new delight, and you won't know until you read your way slowly, gradually, through the pile of books exactly what those delights will turn out to be. Indeed, often one reading is not enough: you know that several readings, perhaps over many years, will gradually release drop by drop the pleasure of this new purchase. In the case of a reference book like an Atlas or an Encyclopaedia this pleasure of anticipation is in addition to the knowledge that you have also acquired a valuable tool, rather like a good power-drill that you know you can get out of the cupboard when the need arises. With my new Atlas, and a small winch, I am confident that I will be well placed to know what's where for the foreseeable future.

Debbie saves a sheep in the river

Debbie jumped into the River Dane in Cheshire today to rescue a stranded sheep. We spotted the sheep bleating away at the bottom of the 6-foot vertical bank, with no evident means of climbing back up to its field, as we were walking Gus along the Dane Valley Way. Debbie leapt in and herded the sheep to a point where we could hoist it up from the river, but it was so heavy that it took two of us pushing and pulling with all our strength to get the soggy sheep to safety.

We were worried that even if we got it out of the water it might not make it, because it had stopped trying to help itself and was making us lug it around like a dead weight. However, once we'd shoved and lifted and dragged and pushed it up out of the water and onto the bank it scuttled up onto its own feet and scurried away to its friends. We watched it for a while and it settled down to eating with no evident ill-effects from its traumatic morning.


Meanwhile, Debbie was entirely soaked up to her knees, our boots were full of water and we were covered in mud but we felt as if we'd done our good deed for the day!