The Old Blind Dog Routine.

It is foggy this morning, I set the alarm on my phone for 6:30 last night, and it is still dark outside when Norman trots into the garden. I don't have to be at Sarah's house until 8:25, but hate to be in a rush and like to eat breakfast in peace and read the paper before starting the day. Norman has to be content with a tin of dog food, as I am having smoked salmon and cream cheese on rye toast, as its Friday. The big hoohaa on the news this morning is the comment David Cameron made at question time, about forcing the energy companies to offer the lowest tarrif to customers. There seems to be some backtracking today, so perhaps it won't happen. At the moment the energy tariffs are in conflict with the government policy to reduce energy consumption. You pay a lower tarrif the more energy you consume, surely it ought to work the other way, a low tarrif for initial consumption and then increasing tarrif bands, the more energy you consume. This would also protect pensioners. The whole energy market is an uncompetitive oligopoly, where the suppliers manipulate the wholesale price to their own advantage. It needs a monopoly commission investigation.
We collect Louis and walk him to school, fastening Normy to the school railings while I take my grandson to his classroom. On the way we pass a display of books for a book fair after school, Louis persuades me to buy him a "Skylander" book that costs eight pounds, only I can't because the fair is at four o'clock, after school. Eventually his teacher, Mrs Wildbore, is persuaded to buy the book for him and I leave her with the cash, but first have to change a twenty pound note at the school office. Norman and I walk back to Sarah's, where I put on my boots before driving to Cherry to collect Dolly and Teddy. The fog is starting to lift as we arrive on Newbald Road and it promises to be a fine day again. There is hardly a breeze and the air is soft and mild, coming from the southwest. We have to wait on a bench by Barbara English's house for Teddy to come back, he probably had a good run of rabbits to chase! When he arrives, he is sopping wet and scraggy looking, hunting rabbits in bramble patches can do that to you. We walk the common again, but take a different route through Burton Bushes, although we sit for a while on Brandon Barker's bench. The reason the Sherrif of Nottingham could never find Robin Hood and his merry men, is because the paths through the woods are constantly changing. In a distance of a kilometre there will be over a thousand trees and one of these will fall or blow over, or lose a branch every few months. Each time this happens, a new route has to be established and so only people who are constantly using the woods can find their way. We get back to Cherry for noon, the lawns are just about dry enough to mow, and as I may not get another chance this year, I give them a trim. Pip is out, but Andrew's car is back, so he must be home from the USA. He doesn't come out of his office, so he is obviously up to his neck doing catch up work. We get home for one, and I rustle up some fish fingers, chips and peas and eat these in the garden again. After lunch, I drink tea and do another puzzle, but the fog rolls back and suddenly it's cold again, so we retreat indoors. At two thirty I drive to the leisure centre and find an empty pool again, so repeat yesterday's 2,000m swim. My strength and fluency are returning, and if all goes well, I will increase the butterfly element to parity with the other strokes from Tuesday. I collect Louis from his after school club at a quarter past five and then drive to the doctors to collect my prescription for anti inflammatory tablets. We arrive at Sarah's house for ten to six, Louis and I sit and read his new book together, it is for ages six and over and he has just turned five, but he makes a decent fist of reading it, with some help on the longer more difficult words. He will be reading fully in a few weeks at this rate. Sarah arrives at six thirty, loaded with fish and chips from Sullivan's, down Toll Gavel. I don't like to tell her I had fish and chips for lunch, so eat the fish and donate most of the chips to Louis. I leave at seven, as Norman hasn't been fed or walked yet. He is waiting for me when I get in his tail wagging furiously, it's only a tin again I'm afraid, but he doesn't seem to mind. After dinner we walk to Carr Lane and he does his duty, and then we walk into the village and call at the village pub, The New Inn. It's a gastro pub run by a lesbian couple and has a strong reputation for good locally produced food. I run my line past them about allowing blind dogs in, and then tell them Norman has cataracts. It works, and I am told he can stay, as long as he sits on my knee and behaves himself, as they serve meals in this bar. We sit on a stool by the door and down a couple of pints of real ale, while chatting to some of the locals. Norman behaves impeccably, and we leave after an hour. Friday evening is one of their busiest periods for food and a few of the people I was chatting to, we're called to their tables in the restaurant. Perhaps I will pop in again, but it may be politic not to take Normy. Which would be a shame because he enjoyed all the attention, particularly from the ladies. To bed for ten.