A dog’s diet

The dog is behaving like … well, a young dog. Earlier this week, after I’d dozed off on the sofa, she almost destroyed a slipper. To be fair, after a scolding, she left it alone and didn’t attempt to eat the matching slipper.

Over the past couple of days, again while I dozed on the sofa (due to a virus), she began to use the uneaten slipper as a surrogate me. I guess the other one still mostly smells like dog.

Yes, she sleeps with her face inside the slipper.

While talking about eating, we’d decided in pre-dog days that, from the earliest possible point, our hound would be a vegetarian.

In reality, this took around a week. Since making the switch, he growth has been great and her coat’s gone very shiny.

There’ve only been two differences to our plan. First, she stole a dog biscuit from another dog at work. And, secondly, we found that it’s easier to find vegan puppy food, than vegetarian.

It’s pretty cool that animals don’t need to die to feed our animal.

Pub crawl

Life’s been very busy, so I’m only just mentioning our pub crawl of last Tuesday.

Well, it was more of a dog walk, but pubs were involved. After all, the mutt needs to learn about pubs.

Our walk naturally began at the Schooner, followed by selected bars in Ouseburn.

The dog exceeded our expectations, walking from the Schooner to the Tyne Bar; her first real walk outside.

Apart from one minor attack directed towards a Lurcher, Harriet’s behaviour was great. Well, OK.

Some dog in bar pictures.

Harriet

Meet the new addition to our home. Harriet.

She’s pretty cute and really good natured.

Joe Gideon

Pretty much a week late, but life’s so busy. Around 11 years since I last saw them, I went to a Joe Gideon gig last Thursday. Minus the Shark. It was just the one hour set, but it was non-stop, with no faffing around. Good original music.

In the Shark’s place, Jim Sclavunos was on drums. It was kind of weird talking to him after the gig, since we’ll next see him in the SECC, with the Bad Seeds.

He was a nice guy, as was Gideon.

Sam Baker

After missing his last couple of UK tours, we caught Sam Baker at the Cluny last night.

It was good to get away from the pub, since I seem to be there most days for either work or leisure. Or both.

The gig was good too; hopefully, it’ll not be too long until the next tour.

I also bumped into a couple of people, unexpectedly, at the Cluny. Andrew, the BBC Inside Out producer was a nice surprise; he’s a genuinely good bloke. And an ex-wife too, but that wasn’t so great.

Inside Out

Well, the past couple of days were pretty unusual. The BBC’s Inside Out team were filming in the pub for a programme about how hard it is to run an independent bar.

The team (Chris, Andrew and Phil) we’re great, particularly presenter Chris Jackson who kept on working behind the bar when he was no longer being filmed.

The day was so busy, there was little time to take pictures.

What we’d not expected was that the team would be such a nice bunch of people.

There was obviously a serious theme to their visit; running a pub isn’t easy, particularly one that that wasn’t surviving when we bought in. However, after a few months, there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

The programme will be shown on BBC1, on 10th February.

Castle Eden

I’m currently drinking a (cheap) pint of Guinness in the Castle Eden Inn. In Castle Eden.

I’m here while I wait for my beloved to collect me after a rural development grant workshop. The workshop was fine, as fine as any I’d experienced in my days as a Civil Servant. But I’d already read the material, so didn’t learn a lot. Still, the presentation gave me a couple of things to take away and think about. So that’s a good enough outcome.

My beloved rang a few minutes ago. The mobile signal here is awful, but I ascertained that she was around 20 minutes away.

However, I’m hoping that I misheard that she was 20 minutes away from Castle Dean. Which isn’t anywhere near my location.

Root canal fillings

Don’t. Don’t have a root canal filling. I’ve had two, with the same outcome. Pain.

The trouble is that the tooth is dead after a root canal filling. It becomes brittle and can’t last forever.

Just over a year ago, December ’18, I experienced a failed attempt to remove a root canal filled tooth. It was pretty horrible, with two dentists trying to remove the tooth, which had broken into pieces. This resulted in extreme pain over the next few days; relieved only by a cocktail of pills and alcohol.

Several months later, the remnants of the tooth were removed at the dental hospital. Surgery was involved.

Today, after a peanut break, my second root canal filled tooth was extracted. The experience wasn’t great. But, while there is pain, fewer painkillers have been needed.

Tooth removal on a good day is brutal. I’d describe my recent experiences as nothing short of barbaric.

Pub III

This week and last, I painted a pub. And, you know what, I managed to do a decent job. The place looks like a pub, rather than a pub pretending to be a cafe.
A little more work is needed to get it right, and I neglected to take a picture at the end of last night’s decorating shift, but it’s pretty much there now. Anyway, I’m now in a pub other than our pub. And it’s nice. And I can have a pint without thinking I might need to nip behind the bar if it gets busy. The guy who’s singing here has also played in our pub. He’s ridiculously good.