Why the Queen's Cross

Do you recognise this lady on the plinth?

Yes, ten out of ten, clever readers, it is indeed Queen Victoria.

She stands in the middle of a roundabout in the West End of Aberdeen, at a busy road junction known as Queen's Cross.

It is an odd feature of life here in Aberdeen, that all our roundabouts in the city are sponsored by oil and gas companies.

I'm am wondering whether Queen Victoria would have approved of having to share her space with adverts for First Oil plc…..

PS from Gail: Bertie and I  are off down to England for the next ten days, visiting Human Granny and meeting up friends. Blogging activities may be reduced. 

A brief encounter

"I know my place" said the man as he stepped on to the road, allowing Gail and I to continue home on a narrow stretch of pavement. Then he glanced fondly back at me, smiled and added "he's lovely".

What a nice chap.


The scenario is illustrated below with a different and less attentive man, for whom road safety is clearly not a priority…

Local Hero in waiting?

So I was expecting to spend the weekend in intensive training at the agility field, commencing the mammoth task of bringing Gail up to scratch in time for the big team relay event in late August.

It was not to be.

On Friday afternoon my dear owner pointed the car northwards and said, as if without a care in the world, come on Bertie, hey ho, we're invited to a party at Molly's in Macduff.

Do you suppose Novak Djokovic or Roger Federer prepared for Wimbledon by swanning off to the Moray Firth to visit old university friends for a summer barbecue? Would Lionel Messi improve his dribbling skills by staying out late emptying bottles of rosé and scoffing sausage rolls, burgers and strawberry gateau?

I'm telling you, with Gail's attitude to training, Chris Froome would struggle to pedal up Holme Moss, much less La Planche des Belles Filles or the Tourmalet.

What is a pup to do?

Well OK, we had a nice enough time at the party, even if torrential rain forced the barbecue indoors. And I did get a chance to practice both being admired (by the other partygoers) and being tolerant of uppity dogs - yes I mean you, Maisie the Lurcher with your glossy black coat and your Suarez-like teeth baring tendencies.

You will already have guessed we did not rush back to Aberdeen that night so as to be up bright and early rehearsing baton changes.

But even I was surprised when next morning Gail insisted on taking me to visit a phone box…

Yes, you read that right. We drove east a few miles along the coast from Macduff and ended up in the village of Pennan…

…all so Gail could take a photograph of me in front of a traditional red telephone box.

As if Apple and Samsung had never existed.

I'll grant you that Pennan is a cute wee place, really just a row of cottages sandwiched between sea and cliff,  with the only landward access via a narrow and precipitous road.

And whilst I was wholly unimpressed by the phone box (after all, there are plenty still around in the UK), Gail assures me that fans of the 1983 film 'Local Hero' will understand  why this particular one is so special.

A Good Team Player…or the Weakest Link?

I had a peek at Gail's email yesterday - fellow pups, don't pretend you never do the same - and was most excited to see this from one of our of the trainers at Deeside Dog Agility Club.

Hi Gail

Since you are not on Facebook, I thought I'd email you to ask whether you would be interested in being part of the Deeside team aiming to qualify for Crufts?

The format is a team of 4 dogs/handlers (+ up to 2 reserves) running an agility course in relay with the winners of the qualifying heat progressing to Crufts 2015. The qualifying heat is on Saturday 23rd of August at the Scottish Kennel Club Show in Ingliston, Edinburgh. Crufts is early March 2015 at the NEC in Birmingham. If you were wanting to be part of the team, you would be committing to attend the SKC show and, hopefully, Crufts should you qualify.

At present, the Medium team consists of Jeri + Burns, Alison + Maddie and Yvonne + Phoebe. We hope to add Denise + Scally (yet tbc) and yourself to make up the team + 1 reserve.

It should be noted that a relay is not simply about speed, with consistency and an ability to not get eliminated being important components of a good team.

Let me know what you think. I'll be at training tomorrow night so give me a shout if you want to chat it through. The closing date for entry is ~15/7.

Thanks and regards.

….

Oh my goodness I am so flattered. Imagine me at Crufts! I am going to be a star. What could possibly stop me?

You can trust my human to pour cold water on a pup's dreams of glory.

Gail is pointing out that there are rather few medium sized dogs in our club, in fact probably only five, so making the team is nothing to bark about. Also, rather nastily I thought, she mentions the minor detail that I have yet to be promoted from Grade 1, the lowest level of agility, so may not exactly be considered an asset to a team otherwise comprised of high achievers.

Still, she agreed we could take part.

Neither Gail nor I are sure of the rules for an agility relay. I will admit that at least two of the dogs in the team are, to put it diplomatically, not my best friends, and, on mature consideration, I don't think I would be prepared to engage with them in mouth-to-mouth baton passing.

Can anyone enlighten me as to how it all works?