April round up

April has really flown by and it was a great month. Things are getting busier at work, so the days are passing more quickly and weekends have been fairly full. It's so nice that the weather is getting warmer and drier, it means I've been keener to venture outside, away from the fire. We had the roof fixed on the outbuilding too, so we're watertight again, and don't need to worry about any rainy weather forecasts.

Andrew's wanted a dog since I met him (and long before), eleven years on and I think it's about time. As such, we're hoping to get a dog over the summer. As Andrew works from home, it's probably the only time that we'll be in the right situation with time and energy to get a puppy, so that's the plan. We've heard so many horror stories about puppy farms that we're doing our research and getting out and meeting breeders before we make any decisions. We met one breeder in South Gloucestershire at the start of the month, one in Monmouthshire a couple of weeks later, and one in Merseyside yesterday. We've read a lot and learned a lot more by speaking to the breeders, so much so that we've decided where we'll get our puppy from. Eek! We're now just waiting to hear back from the breeder about availability so that we have a date to work towards. I've never had a dog before, so I'm terrified and excited in fairly equal quantities. Yesterday's visit really helped, as we got to meet a variety of dogs, from three week old puppies up to sires and dams. It's still a bit hard to get my head around the commitment of taking on a puppy, but I'm sure everything will fall into place when we get him home. 

We did a detour on our way to the South Gloucestershire breeder to see a friend who's recently had a baby (well, not that recently, time flies!) It was lovely to see them, they're a really happy little family. We headed to Zizzi in Cheltenham after meeting the breeder for food. The restaurant is based in a former church, they've made such good use of the space whilst retaining as many original features as they could. Beautifully done!

We also met up with a friend for lunch the following Saturday, it was just after Andrew had had his eyes tested for the first time since his surgery. He passed with flying colours, I can't tell you how nice it is not to have to drive everywhere anymore!

More recently, we've just come back from a week on the Isle of Wight, it was lovely. Really relaxing but with plenty to keep us occupied. I'll do a separate post about that once I've had a chance to get all of my photos off my camera memory card. It was Andrew's birthday whilst we were away, so I tried to come up with a day of Andrew-type things to do. We went on the Steam Railway in the morning and then took a trip to a windmill in the afternoon, followed by dinner out in the evening. I think the girl did good, phew!

Now onto how I'm doing against my plans for the year...

Read sixteen books
I read 'The Girl on the Train' by Paula Hawkins whilst we were on holiday. It tells the story of Rachel and the seemingly perfect couple that she sees from the train on her journey into London every day. It was pretty good, but equally not that memorable. I've also got an audio book on my phone which I'm listening too every time I go to the gym. It's a long one though (over twenty hours!) so I don't think I'll reach the end too soon.

Find one hundred geocaches
We're up to 36/100 after a much better month, helped a lot by doing twenty in the Isle of Wight. We did a really nice series of nine near Mottistone which took us through fields of bluebells, followed by a Church Micro at the village church, which was where Benedict Cumberbatch got married. Who knew?!

Maintain Vitality gold status
Well, I did, but they gave us such a poor renewal quote that I've actually moved our work private medical cover to a different insurer. One to remove from the list!

Try three gym classes
Still not made any progress on this one. I've been blaming my ankle and had made an appointment with a physio to have it looked at, but after changing insurer, I'm back to the drawing board. That said, it put up with a lot of walking on holiday, so maybe it's no longer a good excuse!

Meet up with an old friend
I've not had much of a chance this month, with dog breeders and holidays taking up so much of my time. Hopefully things will change over the forthcoming months.

Blog once a month
I'm almost taking this a bit too literally and blogging only once a month, I'm sure that will change when I've got hundreds of puppy photos that I want to share with the world!

Watch a new film once a month
There were a selection of DVDs next to the television in the cottage we stayed in last week. We watched one, Miss Potter, which is about Beatrix Potter. I was vaguely interested as her cottage in the Lake District is in the village that Andrew's aunt lives in, we visited it a couple of years ago. My only issue with the film was that Renee Zellweger plays every English character in the same way, she was just a bit too Bridget Jones-y for me. It was a perfectly pleasant film though.

Take two holidays
First one in the bag! I'm not sure the second will happen, it all depends upon puppy timing. My second holiday may just be puppy maternity leave, but so be it!

Take six day trips
We took lots of day trips whilst on holiday, but I don't think I should really count those. I'm sure there will be plenty more over the forthcoming months.


I'm not really sure what May will hold, watch this space... Work will no doubt be hectic, thank God for weekends!