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Left in charge...

Happy fathers day... or it would be if Glenn wasn't in France about to do another epic bike ride while I'm here - sad faces on our part.  So while he's away we have had a whirlwind weekend of riding, concerts, friends and sunshine and goodness me its been hot!

The weather for the last couple of weeks has been good and this weekend has been no exception. The temperature today has been plus 30 and we got to a certain point and gave up, dragging the chairs into the shade and collapsing in a heap trying not to touch each other. We hadn't helped ourselves by walking the dogs before it cooled down but needs must.

So the big event of the weekend was seeing Rick Astley at Westonbirt. This had been their choice and I jumped at the chance - while he wasn't my cup of tea the first time around I've really enjoyed his new album and he didn't disappoint. we had planned to meet a friend there but I managed to lose my phone and so we had already written that off as a non-starter only to bump into her within minutes of arriving. We all settled down to picnics before the main event. When the lights came on and the stage came to life, so did Izzy! I do worry slightly - I think she has the potential of being a true festival child... she headed to the front of the crowd ignoring the fact that we weren't right behind her, oblivious to all the people around her. Of course being small and smiley within a few minutes of being taking her off my shoulders someone else had put her on theirs and so it went on. Abi was typically more reserved, enjoying the music in her own way - not needing to dance around with abandon like Izzy but singing along. He did a Ed Sheeran track which was brilliant and then to top it off for both of them he did ACDC's Highway to Hell which they knew all the words to courtesy of Glenn. We had a few moments - when they played 'Wish Away' which is the song Abi's went to after we lost Scooby so she was in floods of tears, and the point where Izzy suddenly decided she was very tired and realised it was a 20 minute walk back to the car... we all survived and agreed it was a great night out even with the very late finish.

The good news about the kids getting that bit older is that after going to bed at midnight, they both slept until 9:30am this morning and in fact only got up because I was conscious we were supposed to be at friends for brunch at 10am. Despite this by this afternoon the combination of the heat and a late night was starting to bite but they both just took themselves off for some quiet time - a definite improvement!

Over the past couple of weeks I've been quite worried about Freya. After her op she got quite stroppy and aggressive towards other dogs. I went looking for someone to help and in doing so read a number of articles which indicated that many dogs are grumpy after being spayed, particularly around the time their season would have been due - i.e. now for her. I found someone who could do some training but they cant do until August so I decided to try and keep at least one of them on a lead when we are out at a time we might meet someone and this seems to be working well. I think its the combination of Bertie bouncing around another dog and her hormones. She reads the signals he gives out poorly and thinks she needs to bark, which then winds him up and its a bit intimidating for anyone involved. If one of them is on a lead though it doesn't escalate to this so I'll stick with that for the time being. I still worry she'd eat a small dog (or cat / pigeon / squirrel / bird) if she had the chance but I guess that's the terrier in her.

So, shoes cleaned, bags packed and uniforms ironed for tomorrow... I will admit that I'm not looking forward to trying to juggle work / dogs / kids for a week while Glenn is away but its only a few days and I've been clear with work that I can't be in and out of London like I normally would. I'd like to think that not commuting will leave me with loads of time to exercise etc. but I know I'm kidding myself - the only exercise I'll be getting this week is running around to stand still!

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