Curate's egg

Well, what a strange event that was; it was both better and worse than I’d been anticipating. For one thing we were in little compartments in the middle of an arena, with no shade or shelter from whatever weather came our way. There are about 120 Kennel Club recognised breeds, and all ‘parent’ breed clubs had been contacted and asked if they would participate. The sum total of attendees was 4 Shelties, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel, a Border terrier, a Hamiltonstovare and three dalmatians (of whom one was still (just) in season and Harry thought it was his birthday and Christmas rolled into one). So the ‘Parade of Breeds’ was a very sparse affair. Probably because it was the morning of the first day of the show, there seemed to be very few public about as well. When we’ve been there in previous years it’s been busy, busy, busy, but not today. Even the Guinness bar, which is usually bursting at the seams with customers, was rattling. It meant that, in the three hours we were sat there trying to look welcoming rather than lost we had almost a dozen people come up to talk to us. Bor-ring.

And I don’t quite know how it happened, but I find I’ve volunteered for Discover Dogs at Crufts next March ...

Apart from that Ned managed to buy 3 ammo cases for a fiver, Harry had a professional photo taken (cracking!) and we tried, for the first time, some yummy-looking barbecued tiger prawns. They aren’t really very nice, are they?