Monday 4 March 2013

Life in the South. Or, slightly on holiday.

My friend The Horticulturalist arrives. We catch up.

‘How is your blog?’ she says, politely. (I think it amazing of her to ask. Most real world people really don’t.)

‘Well,’ I say, ‘the awful thing is that I have not written it for two days because I was, you know, doing actual life.’

This is the thing that always startles me. I can do the blog and do the Facebook and twitter the tweets, because I resolutely refuse to have any social life in Scotland at all. I occasionally go up for cocktails with The World Traveller, and have been known to accept gratefully a Peroni beer after an afternoon’s work at HorseBack. About twice a year, I put on a frock and go to the Sister’s house for some celebratory occasion, but that really is it. I do all my socialising in my hectic visits south, and then return to my northern fastness and sit very, very still.

Also, I do not do the whole husband and children thing.

Thus, there is space for the blog. What astonishes me is that there are those of you out there who do have the families, and do have the social life, and still find time to write amusing online things and put up lovely pictures and generally illustrate your lives. I have no idea how you do it.

Admittedly, I was tired from the road. Someone over on Twitter told me to Buck Up since it was only five hundred miles and she did that with just one lav stop. More steely stamina than I, is all I can say. I used to do the thing in one go, and now I take it in two easy stages, and I still find my eyes a bit starey and boiled after squinting at the M6 for four hours at a stretch.  

Also, it was one of those weekends where there are many old friends with whom to catch up, and not a moment to be wasted. We have to talk very fast and almost make lists, to fit everything in.

But still, poor effort really. So sorry about that.

This is officially a holiday. Often when I am down here with the cousins, I am still working, carrying my laptop on my back as if I were a snail. This time, I have not had a break since June, so apart from my HorseBack work, I am taking the time off. The blog will be shorter than usual and there may be days missing. You can imagine me doing some lounging. And possibly some drinking. And even a nice little old lady rest in the afternoon. (The Beloved Cousin has the most comfortable beds in England.)

Also, I have to study and re-study the form for Cheltenham. So forgive me if the nature of this thing is a little spotty for the next two weeks.

In the meantime, here are some quick pictures for you:

4 March 1

4 March 2

Southern dogs. I love them. They are very like my old girls:

4 March 3

4 March 10

Apparently, these people have been doing a great deal of outrageous Spanish Riding School of Vienna dancing and prancing since I have been gone, although of course here they have their butter would not melt, dozy donkey faces on:

4 March 10-001

And this fella is being both good and helpful, and sounds as if he is being outrageously spoilt:

4 March 14

7 comments:

  1. A fortnight away from the fourlegs. That will be a Big Change, but Good For One, or so people tell me it would be if we did it, but we haven't left The Dog behind for almost two years now, not since a family wedding in Spain when we went away for a week. You see, he is eleven this month, and his sweetness gets more and more concentrated as every year passes, like a wrinkling apple. We can't think of a single foreign resort that could compete...

    When he is gone we might buy two round-the-world air tickets to make up for it, though, before we get The Dog #2. However, when I think back to how Stanley came into your life, it's unlikely...

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  2. Are your Southern Beauties carrying a HAT? (At least it's not a bright red one!)
    ENJOY your vacation!!!! PLEASE!

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  3. Enjoy your slight holiday. Do love the face of Stanley in the bottom pic. x

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  4. Somebody whose initials are STANLEY is awfully adorable.

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  5. Oh, and the Southern Dog you have portrayed is the dead spit of my old Bess (1968-82) who was a collie/lab with the same white cross on the chest. Thanks for it - the memories flooded back and my face must have been wreathed with smiles as I spotted it.

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  6. Rest, relax, racing...enjoy and don't worry about bloggage.
    Anne.xxx

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  7. Enjoy the break. I agree about the travelling. Our roads are not conducive to fast travelling (traffic not condition of roads!) and I now find one visit out of Colombo and back necessitates an early night. Not so just ten years ago!!!

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