To Belfast and back--an anniversary post!

It's exactly a year since I started blogging (and virtually stopped doing much housework or watching television!).

On Saturday night we boarded our "dog" bus to take us to the championship show in Belfast. I tried to get as much sleep as possible on the journey as lack of it makes the show a bit of an endurance test, especially for the older woman! I don't remember much after the first few miles from the Forth Road Bridge, the starting point, until the jolting of the slowing coach awoke me at the ferry port in Stranraer. We were at least a couple of hours too early for our crossing to Ireland but that soon passed as I again managed to sleep until we were aboard the vessel and had to leave the coach and go up to the passenger deck where most of us again stretched out on the seating and closed our eyes for the 2 hour passage.

It didn't really matter that the weather turned out fine after a chilly start as were were judged inside. One judge took his time going over the 2 breeds scheduled before us in our ring before our papillon judge whizzed through our dogs so fast we hardly had time to think or write down the results. We had time for a run for the dogs in a convenient enclosure, a quick look around the stalls, back to load our gear into the coach and we hurtled back to the ferry port in case we missed the gate for our booking, as goodness knows when we would have been able to board another ferry that night due to the huge number of vehicles heading back to Scotland.

This time we ordered a meal for the crossing and the time flew past. Back on the bus it was again lights out and everyone fell asleep till we reached the first dropping off point on the outskirts of Glasgow. That was when I remembered I hadn't phoned Chic to tell him the estimated time of our arrival back at the Forth Bridge to pick me up. Horror of horrors, when I switched on my phone, (it's always off during the show) there were 21 unanswered calls, 13 from Chic and 8 from Carole's husband as she too hadn't switched on her phone. Luckily he had worked out it wouldn't be before 10pm. In fact he had to wait for an hour. "I'm for it," I thought, but he was remarkably calm. I did say that if the boat had gone down with all hands it would have made the TV news!

All in all it was an enjoyable day as I had managed a fair bit of sleep and we came back, Carole and I, with a 2nd, a 3rd and a 4th placing, so none of our exhibits had been "thrown out"!

....must book a seat for next year's show.