Tesco in Sudbury was selling off doormats. Good, tough coir mats, just perfect for wiping your boots on after a walk in the rain. As an added attraction they had a border of dog footprints surrounding the obvious but twee message... wipe your paws.
They can see us dog lovers coming and know we are suckers for anything like that. So we bought one, took it home, and put it down by the back door. And then we read the label. Keep away from pets it said...

Feeling that blogs are purely self-indulgent - am I writing for me or for the world out there? - I decided to suspend activities here and get on with my life. Or should that be get a life? However, after months of shouting at the radio, television, newspapers and other on-line columns I felt I should indulge myself again.

I have always believed - until them last year or so - that the Times was a guardian, a veritable bastion, of the English language. Spelling, punctuation etc - you could trust the Times to get them right. Sadly not so.

Recently an article on President Putin and Russia' continued threat to the West, had him 'bearing his teeth'. Presumably carrying a spare set... And on the sports pages one match report had an opponent 'baring down'. Naked on the field of play? Surely not.

The sports pages of one of our local papers had defenders 'back-peddling' in the face of an onslaught of attacks. Selling things as they retreated?

And the BBC is up there with the villains. An early morning farming programme on Radio 4 - yes I do need to get a life - had the presenter saying his family had given some pigs to a rare breed centre some years earlier, and he was paying a visit 'to see some of their ancestors'.

And finally. The bete noir at present is all the references in print and on screen to 2009 being the last year of the first decade of the 21st century. It's not. The century started on January 1, 2001. The first decade still has around 11 months to go. 

Some of you may know my dog Hamish. Lovely devoted boy, now aged 14 and slowing down. Hearing not as acute as it was, and eyesight not so good despite a cataract operation two years ago. But his nose is still functioning efficiently, and if anyone passes by the house he picks up the scent and lets us (and them) know.
But now he has been slowed down a little more. I thought he got something in his paw when he started limping. A visit to the vet a couple of days later revealed cruciate ligament problems - something I associate with sportsmen and women rather than dogs.
Hamish has never kicked a ball in his life. He's certainly chewed a few. But for the past few weeks, having finished his course of tablets, he's been on enforced rest with just a gentle stroll around the garden. You try explaining that to a terrier...

Came home the other day and got soaked... on a beautiful, sunny, hot afternoon. I was greeted by both dogs who, only moments before my arrival, had decided to have a drink of water as they were a bit warm in the conservatory.
The dogs are both 14 and, as a result of the odd missing tooth, now have drippy chins. Shirt, trousers, tie all soaked after I squatted down to enjoy the welcome. But you can't beat being loved by a dog (or two)...

Now I've retired my sins are catching up with me. As I have a little more time to catch up on all those things that work conveniently kept putting off - and there's a long list - I decided on a couple of priorities... go to the library more regularly, and sort out an untidy garage. I tackled the easy one first.
In preparation for visits to Sudbury library I thought it would be a good idea to renew my library card. I'd had a Scilsnet card for some years, and knew they had been replaced by more up-to-date ones. Fairly recently I thought.
But when the enquiries desk called up my details, and asked me if I still lived in Acton, I was more than a little horrified. We moved from there almost ten years ago. Is it that long since I used the library?
However, I plan to make amends now that I am a free man, and am visiting the library far more frequently, although I haven't yet been seduced by the offer that allows me to borrow up to 20 books at any one time, much as I enjoy reading.
And it's amazing what you find when you finally have time to give the garage a good going over. I have cleared it several times over the last few years, but my previous efforts have obviously not been thorough enough. Pretty dreadful if I'm honest. Just a few days ago I unearthed a Halford's brochure from 1999...