The Big Bang

Dear O'H dear and Lovely Tea Jenny,

Murphy and I went down to Earlston to see The Disciple and Eric (his dog).

Eric is a border collie. He is the same age as Murphy and may possibly be the calmest and best trained dog I have ever met. He obeys every command he is given.

By contrast, Murphy was like the kid at the back of the class with ADHD. He was completely overexcited by being in a new house and raced around like a dog possessed. Within the first 5 seconds, he had found Eric’s half full food bowl and proceeded to empty it. He then ran in and out of the kitchen with Eric’s toys and barked at me for attention all the way through lunch!

We got them out for a walk in the woods which was good as Murphy needed to burn off some energy. We threw sticks into the river and Murphy had his first ever proper swim in deep water. I was very excited watching him doing his doggy paddling! I had a really nice afternoon with The Disciple. I had taken him some muffins which he swapped for some very lovely lemon drizzle cake. Cakes and dog walks are a great combination!

The Prince and I went to see the end of festival fireworks tonight. The Prince had been invited as guest of the RICS (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors) to their office in Princes Street which is directly opposite the castle.

There was as much booze as you could drink but I only had a couple. This kind of situation takes me fairly far out of my comfort zone so I was conscious of not doing that nervous drinking too quickly thing.

The fireworks were spectacular. They were synchronised with music played by The Scottish Chamber Orchestra and included an amazing fireworks waterfall down castle rock and then a huge finale which promoted a chorus of ‘oooohs’!

It was a nice evening but when we got home, I was so tired. We’ve been quite busy over the festival and an evening of being ‘polite me’ had obviously tipped me over the edge!

C