Border Collies rock!

I braved the pouring rain yesterday to go to Discover Dogs 2008.

Every year hundreds of different dog breeds go on display at the Earls Court exhibition centre in London.

The highlight for me is the main ring where they have agility and flyball competitions mixed with heelwork to music (aka Doggie Dancing). Whilst all the dogs in the breed stalls look bored with the whole affair, the dogs in the ring look like they are having the time of their life.

I was a little disappointed this year though. I particularly went along to see the agility because it is usually dominated by Border Collies or their close relatives. However this year the organizers
obviously thought that the owners of other breeds of dog might want to see their dogs compete, so the All Breeds Competition had been renamed to the Anything But Collies comp! Oh well - it just goes to show that Border Collies really are the Best Dogs Ever.

That is my fair and completely unbiased opinion ;)

Let's see them do the Guide Dogs Exhibit without Labs or Retrievers next year!!

Buddy, the musical

Yesterday I caught up with a group of friends from my old work for a girls day out.

We spent an hour in the National Portrait Gallery, which I now thoroughly recommend. My favourite portraits were a close up of a face which I could have sworn was a photograph and an exhibition of black and white nude photos of elite athletes taken to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS. The photos absolutely captured the perfection and power of these god-like people. Very impressive!

For our afternoon entertainment we bought tickets to Buddy the musical from the half price ticket stall in Leicester Square. The show tells the tale of Buddy Holly's rise to fame. There was no band, just the actors playing the instruments and they were phenomenally talented. I've never seen anyone do balancing acts with a double bass and the lead guy who played Buddy was mesmerizing not only for his voice, but also for his outstanding guitar solos. The saxophonists, the drummer, the pianists, and all the others were amazing. If you like a show where you can clap along to some old favourites, then this is for you. It's also for you if you are inspired by musical genius. Two thumbs up!

Warwick Castle

A delayed continuation of our weekend away...

First stop on Sunday was the bacon, eggs and pancakes with maple syrup in the B&B breakfast room. I love staying in B&Bs - they are generally cheaper than the hotels, you always get a fabulous breakfast and you are welcomed like old friends but still with your own space.

Travellers tip: These days we give the tourist information office of the area we are visiting a ring around midday and for a couple of pounds they will book you accommodation for the evening in your budget. They also know the best places to stay if you are looking for "close to the cathedral" or "farm stay" or "rustic". You should ring a couple of days earlier during the busy periods.

We decided we couldn't leave Stratford Upon Avon without doing at least one thing "Shakespeare", so we stopped off for at Mary Arden's farm. Mary was Shakespeare's mother and they try to run the farm as it would have been in her days. The people working the farm are dressed in costumes and they are happy to chat to you about their work as they go about their chores. Phil and I particularly enjoyed talking to the lady feeding the ferrets. Phil even got to hold one, although he quickly put it down as they are slippery little suckers and he didn't want to drop it.

My main reason for visiting the area was to see Warwick Castle - an 11th century castle associated with such famous characters as William the Conqueror and Capability Brown. As we expected it very much a tourist attraction these days, but I had a great time exploring the castle from the top of its towers down into the depths of its dungeons. We were a little disappointed that the demonstration firing of the huge trebouchet didn't include using a small child as ammunition but apparently that is against health and safety laws these days :(

The four of us are a little out of tourist-ing practice, so we made a quick stop at the ruins of Kenilworth Castle to get some value out of our English Heritage membership, then we hit the motorways for the trip back to London. Our final stop was to drop Hel & Trent off at their place in Pimlico - it made us thankful that we don't live in central London as the traffic was horrendous!

Phil & I haven't had many weekends away this year as normal life has set in again, but getting out of the city has reignited my hunger to do some more weekend trips next year. I'll keep you posted...

Birds, butterflies and jokes

A delayed continuation of our weekend away...

After a fantastic full English breakfast on Saturday we rocked up to the Welbourne Airfield market to peruse the stalls for a memorable trinket. Phil was tempted by a halberd or a crossbow (they really were available!), but we rather tamely ended up with a money box for Trent's spare change and a £1 joke book that I used to entertain (/torture) the troops for the rest of the weekend!

The comment of the morning was overheard spoken by a stall holder attempting to sell perfume to a young woman dressed in tracksuit and uggboots (and not in the fashionista way). He asked her in all sincerity "Do you know Chanel, love?".

After having our fill of dog toys, cleaning products, boot-legged CDs and crude t-shirts we decided our next stop would be the flying display at the birds of prey centre. It was fantastic - the show went for over an hour. It was a little cold for the birds to show us their true flying skills - very few thermals to gain height on, but the presenter made up for it with his humorous banter. Phil and I are real birds of prey fanatics and we're thinking about going up there again to one of the owl evenings.

We finished off the afternoon with a meander through the Stratford Upon Avon Butterfly Farm and a short boat tour on the Avon river, during which the guide recommended Mary Arden's farm as the highlight of the Shakespeare-related tourist attractions in town. We put this on the list for Sunday.

All the country air made us famished, so we took an early dinner at the Bell Inn not far out of Stratford. The food was so tasty (and not just because we were hungry!) and the restaurant had a smart, but warm and cosy atmosphere. Trent's selection of the succulent chicken for main course followed by the divine sticky toffee pudding for dessert was voted the meal of the night.