Off on a plastic Noddy boat...

Afternoon all,

Don't ask me why the picture comes up first, I can't get it to shift... Never mind... Wheyhey after the alcohol fest last week with my younger brother it is this weekend time for me and the wife to go on a short break. We are going boating in Norfolk. The map above is of the Norfolk Broads. It is a network of small rivers and peat diggings and most of it is navigable.

We have rented a small plastic bath tub shown above. I believe the picture is actual size of the boat hahahaha!!!

For a week we will be cruising the rivers as shown above. It should be good. I have never piloted a small boat like this but when I was younger I used to have a Zodiac with an outboard which was good fun. It can't be much different I guess... (Famous last words....)

The route goes through some beautiful protected areas full of wildlife...

Plus the route takes you past loads and loads of pubs so there will be planty of opportunity to quaff a few good pints along the way... We are taking the greyhounds as well but I don't know if that is such a good idea... First of all they aren't the greatest swimmers and second off all the are thick as pigshit so will probably manage to fall overboard at the earliest opportunity.... We'll see... As long as I can get some well earned rest and recreation it should all be good fun...

Cheerio,

Seaman Staines.

Izzy and Jay have a barbeque...

Afternoon all!

Here are a few piccies from a barbeque that we had on monday. Izzy has taken to laying behind some bushes in the back garden. I guess its nice and cool there when the sun is out... She thinks we can't see her but the big brown eyes give here away...

Here you can see that she has not settled in at all. This is her version of waiting for the meat to be cooked on the barbie... Flat on her back....

This is Jay and Izzy patiently waiting to be fed with some scraps from the barbie... You can see the damage on Izzy's nose. She got that last week friday when she ran into so fence and scraped her nose badly. The vet glued it up and she seems to be ok with it, no hollering or whingeing... She has been back to the vet since and they say she should not have a scar when it heals up. It jst missed two big veins on here nose... Lucky cow...
This is me and jay sleeping of the barbie. That dog likes his comfort...
And this is them both running off the barbie afterwards. They tore around the garden for quite a while chasing each other. This is the first time we have seen Jay play with his new bitch. He can be a grumpy bastard but he seems to like her...
So, sofar so good, with our new addition. It looks like the little lady is staying!

Cheerio,
Alex.

Stanstead Forest walk....

Afternoon,

As promised, an update of the last walk we had with our temporary guest Amy.

On sunday afternoon we went to Stanstead forest. We took Amy, Jay, Jackie's sister Clare and her two dogs Sheeba and Kahlua. That did make for a full car, 3 adults and 4 dogs. Luckily that the greyhounds stayed in the back and the other two sat on the back seat with Clare. When we got to Stanstead forest we opted for going the long way around as the last three days of rain had changed the paths into a quagmire. As we came around the corner I spotted a huge herd of deer in the distance. Luckily our dog pack did not spot the deer... Otherwise they would have been after it. I know, as one of my previous greyhounds was partial to a bit of torn apart venison...

There must have been at least 50 deer in that herd. So within minutes all the dogs were on the leads as we did not want a bloodbath... Amy was on the lead anyway as we do not let her of in places that are not enclosed. We are not sure if she would come back and I guess Gary and Stacey would not look to kindly upon me loosing their dog hahahahaha....

Ok, she did want to run around with the others but as that was not possible we had her on one of the extendable leads so at least she could join in a bit. When we were out of sight of the deer the other three were off the lead again and a great time was had by all. Just before we got to the car Sheeba and Kahlua decided to pamper themselves with a mudbath... So when we got to loading up the car with dogs we got the dog blanket from the boot and stuck that on the back seat so the wet dogs wouldn't mess up the back seats. So then I put Jay and Amy in the back. Stupid Jay sees his blanket on the back seat and hops over the back rest and gets comfy on the back seat, stupid mutt... After a lot of jigging dogs around we finally ended up with two greys in the back and Clare and her dogs on the back seat... Greyhounds? Thick? Never....

Amy the house guest will be going back on wednesday or thursday after her owners have had enough of sailing down mountains with two planks tied to their feet in Austria. I'm sure we will miss the little tike, she has been excellent! No messes in the house, no fuss about the food and no fights with Jay. All good. She is welcome to stay again!

Tomorrow I am off to Saudi Arabia. I'm overnighting in Jeddah and then making my way on wednesday to somewhere between Arar and Turaif near the Iraqi border for a few days. Should be back on sunday...

Cheerio,
Alex.

Amy and Jay go hunting...

Afternoon all,

This morning, saturday, me and the missus took Jay and Amy to one of Jay's favourite walks. We took him to the Rabbitfield. This is a field where Jay does his best to control the rabbit population by killing them all. Normally in witer there aren't a lot of rabbits about.

This morning though as soon as we got in the field we saw a bunch of hunters on the other side of the river. So after the dogs had a run around and a few dumps they became very interested in what was going on on the other river bank...

The first few shots had them a bit worried but when the first shot bird landed on our side of the river the fun started. Some of the birds weren't quite dead yet, so they had a good time ensuring that they were dead... hahahaha....

Here they are charging back after trying to get at one that fell in the river...

Here is one of the guys taking aim on a pheasant cock... He did get it...
One of the men shooting shouted across the river if we wanted anything we could just pick up what we wanted. Jackie picked out a nice partridge...
I think this was the frst time that Amy had been near a hunt and she seemed to enjoy it big time... Both of them didn't really want to go back home... Tomorrow we are taking her to another of Jay's favourite walks, Bridgestreet Forest. Should be good for a laugh or two as that place is full of deer...

OK, gotta go, off for a curry in a bit,

Cheerio,

Alex.

Waldringfield rules!

Afternoon!

We have just come back from a camping trip to Waldringfield. It was good as usual. The campsite we use is very quiet and they don't mind dogs. So we brought the mutt along.
It was his first time camping and he took to it like a duck to water.

This is the caravan all set up. It was nice weather contrary to the forecast. Snow and rain was forecast but all we got was sun. On the friday when we arrived we went to the pub down the road. The Maybush Inn does Adnams Broadside, my favourite, and they do it well. We had some dinner there too...

At home the missus can never be bothered to cook me breakfast but whenever we are camping she does the whole greasy spoon bit, bloody ace! On the saturday we had to take Jay to the vet as he managed to rip a dew claw of his left front leg. They just clipped it off and gave him a penicillin shot. He didn't whine or whinge about it after that. We went to Felixstowe to do a bit of shopping and then spend the rest if the day at the campsite.

This is Jay looking pathetic with his dew claw hanging off....

The last night it got very windy and the awning was flapping around like mad. The first evening he had happily slept outdoors in the awning but saturdaynight he was adamant that he was coming inside the caravan. We had put him outside but he soon started hollering so in the end we had to let him in. He spend the rest of the night in our bed, the little bugger....

So a great weekend at Waldringfield again, Chris, Thanks!

Cheerio,

Alex.