Relief all round

Sue and I did go into Edinburgh on Monday and we did do bus practice. By the time we'd been on 4 buses she'd got the hang of it. We then met up with Jim and stopped at a cafe for some lunch and she did her usual up and down business, but I think the buses and walking round Edinburgh had tired her out, so after about 20 minutes she actually went to sleep. Yeh!

I don't think Jim was terribly impressed with Sue's behaviour as when we were walking back to No. 2 Son's he would say things like, 'Is she supposed to be pulling you like that?' I was concentrating so hard on trying to get Sue to do things right I couldn't swear at him. He was lucky!

We stopped off on the way to get my phone unlocked, so I can now use it in Thailand. Last year when I went over there I bought a cheap local phone. The only thing was no-one could work out how it worked, not even my Thai friends, but at least I had a number and that's all I needed. Anyway, Jim has convinced me to keep this old iPhone I have when I buy a new one (which will be as soon as I can get one of the new small ones) and use it exclusively for when I'm abroad. Sounded good to me. And at least I'll be able to answer it with no difficulties.

Sue and I scooted home in the afternoon and spent time doing some training and then she slept while I worked on my book stuff.

The next day I dropped Sue off at Freda's and went off back up to Edinburgh. I was meeting up with Neil, who I used to work with for lunch, and then spending the evening with Jim. His last night in Edinburgh before he went off to Europe for the rest of the week and then back to Scotland to spend time with his family before he goes back to Australia in just over a week's time.

Lunch was lovely. Neil and I went to David Bann and spent a happy couple of hours talking about what's happening with my old job and was great to hear all that's going on.

My evening with Jim started off with a pre-dinner drink and then went off to The World's End pub as we'd really enjoyed it before. We shared a bottle of wine there and had a lovely meal. Then it was up the road to Whiski Bar - another one of our haunts - to listen to the music, which was traditional Scottish, but a bit low key until Jim decided to join in singing (he was invited by the band). He got an ovation, which I'm not so sure the band appreciated, but Jim was very happy and then spent the rest of the evening basking in the glow of his fanbase, which included whisky. This wasn't a great idea and especially when Jim decided I needed to join him. I'd been on soft drinks since we got there, but, as the clock passed midnight common sense flew out of the window and so I drank up. Not a good plan!

Yesterday morning I woke up with an incredibly bad migraine and had to spend the day sleeping until it wore off. The bad thing about this was that I didn't wake up until just before 4 pm and I was supposed to pick up Sue in Selkirk at 4! Luckily Freda was wonderful about it. The good thing about waking up so late is that I got a message from the optician that my glasses, that were broken over a week ago, were ready to pick up. So before I drove home I went to get them. Such a relief to have them back. Such a relief my migraine was finished. Such a relief that Freda could look after Sue until I could get there. That is until she told me that Sue had come into season overnight. I was not relieved at all about that, but then not much I could do but accept it and get on. But I'm sure Sue's puppy walkers will be highly relieved that she had her season with me and not with them when they get back!

Now, of course, Sue can't go for walks anywhere near here. Today we went into Galashiels for her to get a bit of a walkabout on the lead where she behaved appallingly. In the end I phoned my friend Susan who has withdrawn GD, Folly and her current GD pup, Amber for help to let Sue get rid of some of her energy. And it worked! Sue had a wonderful time. I also had a wonderful time as it was the first time all day I could relax.

Folly, Amber and Sue having fun outside while I sat inside drinking tea!

And by the time I got home, Sue was exhausted. I was, once again, very relieved.

I'm going to miss not bumming around the various night spots of Edinburgh with Jim, but I also have to say I'm not sure my stamina would've been up for many more 3 am finishes. Time to slow back down and be a good country person again. Well that is until I go into Edinburgh next week. I'll save that news for another post.