DogFest 2016

This weekend Richard and I packed Oscar and all his stuff into the car, picked up Jo and her new puppy Bella and headed off for a weekend at Dogfest.

We had heard from the day before there had been some issues with traffic so we set off nice and early and arrived about half an hour before opening, with Bella only being a little car sick (bless her). We weren't queuing long before the gates opened. There were dogs everywhere! Stupid statement I know but seriously, dogs of every shape, size and breed.

We had a good walk round, spoke to some lovely people and spent a little too much money! 

One of the first stands we went to was the RNLI stand. Oscar wasn't a fan of the dried fish they were offering but we stayed for a chat anyway! They were there asking people to #respectthewater and educating people on what to do if their dog was in trouble in the water. Primarily, please dont go In after your dog. Generally dogs are much better swimmers than us, if they are in a river then head down stream and call them over, if they're at sea, call 999 and ask for the RNLI to come out. They will launch a boat and rescue your dog for you. It was a serious message to get across and they did it really well, they also had a very cute dog made from wellies. 

Oscar then showed us up at the hay bale race by ignoring the bales completely and running in the other direction! Cue two mortified owners! We then decided it was probably best we didn't enter him into anything else, he did really well all day but with so many other dogs he was a little distracted! Which is a shame really, I'd have quite liked to entered him into dog diving, it looked pretty fun, although I'm sure he would have wussed out and not dived off the end! 

We watched several demonstrations, from flyball to agility and even dancing dogs! It was all very entertaining and I wish Oscar was half and well behaved and some of those dogs! (We are working on it!) 

Another highlight was visiting the Mancheter and Cheshire dogs home stand which is where we got Oscar from! So it was good to give them all an update on his progress and say hello, we even helped their cause by purchasing what felt like everything on their stand! But it's a good cause so it's fine! We invested in a good rubber bone for Oscar to chew at and hopefully not distroy and a lot of chewy treats from their pick and mix. We also got ourselves a new lead, some pigs ears and a seatbelt clip for his harness among lots of other things! He was a very spoilt dog!

After such an exciting day it's safe to say both dogs and owners were very tired! Just to make sure they would really sleep we visited Tatton Park on the way home and saw some deer! 

Keep it Scrimpy,

Laura. 

Life lately.

I think this has been the longest time I've gone without blogging. I'd apologise but I've just not felt like it and I really don't see the point in forcing myself to blog and just producing crap for you guys. I'd rather take a good break, get my life sorted and start again. So that's what I've done. I'll start by telling you what's been going on lately. Then I'll fill you in on the starting again bit!

So we got back from Czech way back in February! We had a few weeks relaxing and adjusting to life back in the UK, then it was time to start job hunting! Richard was quite lucky and someone contacted him and offered him a job (lucky thing!). I started looking around locally and applied for a few different jobs, I'm still a little sad I didn't get a job in Waterstones. I ended up having an interview at a local hotel to join the receptionist team and got the job. I spent about a month training and now I'm a proper receptionist! I love the team, everyone is really helpful and generally quite kind when I cock things up which is nice! 

The other big change in our lives has been four legged and fluffy! Yes, we adopted a dog. For those of you who have been following this blog for a while you may know that Lucky passed away in January 2015. 

It's been a long time coming but as soon as I had a stable place to live and a full time job I knew it would only be a matter of time before we got another dog. We spent a good few weeks trawling round rescue centres looking for the right dog. 

Finally we found Oscar and it was just meant to be, as soon as I saw him I just knew. We saw him on the Monday and we picked him up on the Wednesday. I was so glad nobody adopted him on the Tuesday! Thank you to the staff at Cheshire dogs home who were so helpful and guided us through the process. Please if you are looking for a dog to join your family, consider a rescue dog. 

As you can see, life has changed a lot over the past few months and if I'm honest I feel I've outgrown the typical student lifestyle. Living and working in Czech I felt quite disconnected from student life and since coming home I've begun to work full time, and again I'm feeling like I'm moving on from student life so as a result I think it's about time I moved this blog forwards. I want to keep my old content, I hope some of it might be useful to someone, so over the next few weeks I'll be rebranding the blog, there will be a new name, new logos, new banners and email addresses. I hope you'll all stick with me in this new adventure!

Keep it Scrimpy,

Laura.