Oh goodness, it has been ages since I wrote a blog. I’m sorry if you have missed me dear reader. I looked back and my last blog was about my birthday. Since that was back in August, and I have aged several dog years since then, I really have been very remiss!
So what have I been up to? Well of course I finished off my tour around Holland. My trip from Ackersloot (scene of last blog) took us through the outskirts of Amsterdam to Spaarndam. Those of you who followed our Facebook pages will know that Spaarndam is famous for (well famous might be stretching it a bit– known for might be more appropriate) its connection to the boy who put his finger in the dyke to save Holland from flooding. Sadly, as I read on Wikipedia, that’s actually an American fairy tale. However not wishing a good fairy tale to go to waste Spaarndam adopted the story and have claimed it as their own. Hence in their very little town there is a statue to said boy and here it is
I felt this was a skill I should acquire because, in the case of a flood, I would want to be of assistance. So I practiced my ‘Poot in Dijk’ manoeuvre…
Impressive eh!
It wasn’t needed that particular day but I have stored it away just in case…So from Spaarndam we went to
Haarlem – very nice restaurant where I was a hit
Katwijk aan Zee – very wet
Delft – very ‘potty’
Leiden – very nice Uitsmijter (apparently)
Uithoorn – very noisy party!
The Braassemermeer – very odd ‘welcome to the mooring’ gift – a jar of pickled gherkins which even I wasn’t tempted by!
Aalsmeer – very familiar! (as was the Rottie who was still there and still barked at me every time we went past and mum still barked back at him and he still didn’t look scared!)
That’s a brief run through the rest of our trip on Juneau back to base, but we had lots of fun along the way.
Sadly the day came when we had to come home and so it was another long sit for me! When we got to Calais I had to queue up with lost of other dogs to get scanned and my passport specially checked to make sure I wasn’t taking any Dutch worms with me (why I would want to take worms with me I can’t imagine, I don’t really like worms!). As with most queues there are usually one or two odd members. In this case there were a couple of canines who had no hair, except on their ears! Seemed a bit daft to me because it wasn’t very warm so they had to wear jumpers! A fur coat is a much easier approach I feel, no jumpers for me! Anyway they didn’t spot any worms on me (surprise, surprise) and I passed the check. Most odd!
We made it home and our trip seems a long time ago now. It is nice to be home, I have a bit more space to spread out than I did on the boat. Actually that’s not true, I spread out as much as I liked, it was mum and dad who seemed to lack space! Of course the added benefit is that I have full access to my toy box and I made a bee-line for my old friends – picking out, of course my oldest and bestest friend of all, monkey J. He was deemed to old to travel so I was very pleased to see him when I got home.
I also had to introduce my new toys squiggle (last seen on my birthday) and Robin.
Robin came from Albert Heijn (that’s a supermarket – Albert isn’t a personal friend) and he is a Hamstereeen – that would take a lot of explaining so just take my word for it J.
Life has returned to normal since we got home. We’ve had a nice autumn. Normally we’d have spent the time on the river enjoying the peaceful autumn days but Juneau is about to be tucked up in her Dutch winter shed so we have no water transport. Well there is the can-oo I suppose but no one seems too keen to break that out. Least of all me, it brings a whole new meaning to doggy paddle!
So that sums things up for the moment. I’m preparing for winter by doing a full on moult. It is at times like this that mum mutters comments about having a hairless dog that wears a jumper isn’t such a bad idea after all! But I am hoping that the coat I am working on will be toasty and warm, and most importantly ready by winter! I had another good brushing today as mum wanted to do an autumn photoshoot of me so I will leave you with a couple of pictures of me in the leaves!
Lots of love
Tex
Tex's Blog 