November round up

Frost across the fields

There goes November and all of a sudden we're in December. It's really felt like it over the last couple of days, freezing cold but I can't complain when it looks beautiful outside with frost across the fields.

Work has been fairly quiet but it's starting to get more stressful as we approach Christmas, with lots to do before the break. We've had two new members of staff start in our northern-most office and I've changed the firm of accountants who look after us. We'd been with our previous accountants for sixteen years, but they merged with a firm I used to work for and I simply didn't want to put any money in their pockets. This is why you should always look after your staff!!

Puppy school is going okay, Barney has good days and bad days, but overall I think we're making progress. He's still very excited to see all the other dogs, but will generally do what is asked of him. He's also getting a little calmer at home, not jumping up so much and waiting slightly more patiently. The next Kennel Club Good Citizen gradings are in February, I'm just hoping he may be ready for the bronze level by then. Fingers crossed!  

In other Barney news, we visited the puppy school's dog show in aid of Children in Need, you can read about it here. Barney won waggiest tail and came second in puppy agility, I was very proud!

Staying still for sixty seconds contest

He also went for his first proper haircut and came back looking like a dog rather than a puppy. Luckily after a couple of days of running around, he got his scruffy puppy look back again.

Neat and tidy, even if it wasn't for long

We've been talking about getting a new cooker since we bought the house. One of the rings didn't work, the oven seemed to cook too hot and the temperature scales had long since rubbed off the dials. We eventually had our replacement delivered this month. It has an induction hob which is taking a little getting used to, but overall it's a huge improvement on its predecessor. We can now choose what temperature to cook at, rather than likening the dials to clock faces and cooking things at 7 o'clock! We'd also noticed that out mattress was rather sunken, more than we'd expect as we only bought it last year. We emailed the supplier and had a free replacement delivered without a quibble. Great service from Dreams! We've also been discussing games consoles for ages, and finally bought an Xbox One, so far we've only really played Tomb Raider, but the graphics are amazing and it's keeping our brains busy!

It works!

I met up with a friend in Malmesbury at the start of the month. We ate amazing pizza and had a great evening catching up and putting the world to rights. She's currently working her notice at a firm I used to work for and considering options for afterwards, which is a good place to be. I'm looking forward to seeing her again soon to hear what she's decided upon.

We also repeated our meeting up with another friend at Westonbirt. The weather was a little kinder this time, but I wasn't going to take a chance, fully wrapped up in wellies and padded waterproof! Barney was well behaved off lead, which is always a big relief, although I think it had a lot to do with the sheer quantity of treats that Andrew was putting into him!

Finally, we had my parents and brother over last weekend. It was my parents' birthdays and due to Barney they decided they'd rather come to us, than us go there. We cooked an enormous lasagne and followed that with birthday cake. They commented that it was the best birthday they'd had in a long time, they certainly had no shortage of attention from Barney!

Now onto my progress against my plans for the year...

Read sixteen books
No progress in November, I'm afraid. I think reading ten books over December to hit my target may be a challenge too far!

Find one hundred geocaches
We're still at 534 finds, 46 for the year to date. Whoops.

Meet up with an old friend
I've known the friends I met up with this month for about ten years, we don't meet up often but it's good when we do. 

Blog once a month
I've had a bit of a blogtastic month, as well as my blog about the dog show, I wrote about a couple of our frequent dog walking locations at Lydiard Park and Coate Water, a post about Barney's progression from puppy to adolescent and a Photo an Hour post.  

Watch a new film once a month
With the arrival of the Xbox and probably more due to the start of I'm a Celebrity... (my husband's favourite programme), we've not watched any films this month. They have been a good group on I'm a Celebrity though!

Take six day trips
No progress on this one, I think this may need to wait until next year, but you never know!


December looks as if it will be pretty stressful work-wise and busy out of work. Christmas visiting with Barney will be interesting this year, I'm just hoping it goes better than when we visited my in-laws with him earlier this year, when he pursued their dog and then weed on the rug. Wish me luck!