Monday 21 January 2013

Lucky dog

On Saturday night my husband and I had a date!  We suddenly found ourselves childless - daughter off to a weekend scouts camp, and our son had a last minute sleepover so we decided to go the cinema...


Only we didn’t quite go alone - our third ‘child’ Max came with us.


We were told if he barks he would have to leave, but otherwise it was perfectly fine to bring him to the movie - so we crossed our fingers that the singing in Les Miserables wouldn’t set him off…

All in all he seemed to enjoy the film, at one point he got up on the seat and was riveted by the horses galloping through the streets of Paris, but then he got bored half way in and promptly feel asleep.

You have to take my word for it that we didn't bring him along for the cultural experience, it was because we'd been out for the most part of the day and felt guilty leaving him alone again.

But it’s going to be a bit of a shock when we come back to the UK – cos we've got used to pretty much taking him with us anywhere in the Czech Republic: on the bus, the metro, into pubs, restaurants, and now the cinema….of course dogs have to be well behaved (and we usually manage to keep up the illusion that he is by having a pocketful of treats).

I remember once going to quite a ‘posh’ restaurant and was kind of embarrassed that we’d brought the dog in and quickly hid him under the table but the first thing the waitress did before bringing over our drinks was to serve the dog first with a fresh bowl of water!
In fact I'm always amazed that if you're in a restaurant and there's more than one dog, each dog gets his or her own water brought to them at the table.  For us the dog bowl has become the new ‘high chair’.


Don't worry, it's not all gone to the dogs, of course there are some places where ‘dogs are not allowed’-


but unless there is a sign on the door specifically stating it’s a given that they are top dog.




Monday 14 January 2013

There's no fun like snow fun

We just got back from a weekend, 'cross country skiing' it sounds a bit scary and sort of sporty doesn't it?  

Don't worry, it involves putting on some longer type skies, sliding forward and along instead of down and stopping off every 30 minutes or sooner (when the kids starting whining) to get a steaming hot chocolate or obligatory mulled wine at one of the various pubs along the way.

Ok, I admit we did have to put a bit of effort in, there was a bit of puffing up a few hills, but the dog came in handy when the kids got tired...



 (notice the very sporty person on the right doing it properly)







The dog had a blast, I think he loves the snow possibly even more than the kids...

We got lucky with the weather, especially on Sunday when we had sunshine and snow which is always a great combo.

Parts of the track were fairytale-like, secret pathways, tree's laden with heavy powder, and icicles hanging from wooden cottages.











I'd say the only downer was the lycra loving skiers that took themselves way too seriously and got snooty when they found an English woman in a tangle in her skies on the wrong side of the path, and a labrador running out of control tripping them up!

Oops...