OUT IN THE COUNTRY

WEDNESDAY 1st DECEMBER

  I told Steve not to worry about but to carry on with his business, I was quite happy to chill out.  The period coming up to Christmas is the busiest time of year for Steve's business, which in essence is erecting fencing.  Swimming pools have to be fenced off by law and of course everybody wants their pool functional for Christmas.  Steve travels around 2000Km a week and goes as far as 400/500Km to carry out his work.  I remained in charge of Scruffy the guard dog.

  Recently purchased for his son and 11 year old daughter Taylor who stay the weekends with him, Scruffy was so delighted to have company during the week that he literally followed me everywhere.  I nearly tripped over him a couple of times and once accidentally trod on him.  I had to close the toilet door fairly smartly to prevent him following me in there!  I was delighted to be able to have a relaxing bath at long last and thoroughly enjoyed my soak.

  Adjoing the entrance drive to Steve's house is an observatory that does a lot of work fror NASA.  It is a bit of an odd spot to find one, but I guess the clear air and lack of any pollutants make it an ideal spot.

A couple of thunderstorms during the day deposited some 20mm of rain, but in between it remained pretty warm.  In the evening Steve drove me down to one of his local pubs several miles away, called the Tirlee Hotel, where we quaffed a few beers and had dinner.  I had the seafood platter in garlic on rice which went down a treat, and we listened to the local farmers bemoaning the effect of the rain on their crops. Then we drove back home to watch the film Dumb & Dumber, before calling it a night.