2nd/3rd February.

Friday. Happy birthday to me?

Awake at 5am. A good night's sleep after the worrying reoccurrence last night of sleeping too early and being quite awake around 9pm. But Ruby didn't bark once at all after I let her out at 7pm for toilet, etc, there were some phantom barks in my mind... So I sank into somnolence. 
 

Breakfast at 7am. Baked beans. Homemade. Enough for another day. Rehydrating some black turtle beans for later if Glenn stays here or at my mum's?

Running a bath and will do a wash shortly. Trying to slow down so Lola and Ruby can have a day light hour plus down the river as it's not rained in a few days...

... Another breakdown in our love hate relationship. Mother! Oh what a lovely day...

Saturday*

Glenn's asleep on the sofa. Ruby, after toilet and breakfast, is asleep on the sofa. I am sat on the sofa. Two sofa's obviously. I belong to the one with Ruby on it. Just gone 6. Slept well for a birthday evening. Didn't drink too much and nothing strong. Glenn drank the majority of the red wine as we ate a cold supper of left overs.

Thank you Chris Cox! He's fantastic. Looking at my foot. Explaining my anatomy. Tailor's bunion and wide feet. Cut off all the excess tissue on the underside of my feet. Taped up the second and third toes and told me the insoles I own are the correct ones for a Morton's Neuroma or the fracture he thinks I might've had... Metatarsal padding. Quiet day today. Final full day with Ruby, who made no noise at all last night - exhausted from the afternoon/early evening.

Not so sure when we reached Chestnut Avenue, but it wasn't late? 7 I guess.

Jason was in a slightly argumentative mood. Saying all Portuguese wine is bad because he had one bottle from Douro he didn't like and you can't buy Portuguese wine in supermarkets... It's brilliant wine. But he doesn't like wine. He likes Shiraz... Funny. Like Glenn who doesn't like beer - he likes lager. He didn't like Bosun's brewery, and neither did I - average beer with jazzy labelling... Head to foot tattooed hipster running the show. It's not real? It's not the truth? The weather was fine and Ruby had a lovely afternoon on The Ings before I met up with Ian and Merlin for two pints of Theakston's XB. Something I drank a lot of in The Lonsdale in West Jesmond from 1992 until 1995. I've been drinking real ale and good wine since university. Before that I knew no different?

Returned another pair of shoes: Skechers as they started wearing through on the heel: in little over a month! Wow. That shite. They were only £47, but it's useful getting the money back for Monday and Portugal. It's all positive?!?

Even the conflict with mother yesterday. Her and the TV. There is another way of looking at the world? A learning device... I could see peace instead of this...

Coming back from Portugal on Monday week or the following Monday will be around 50€. I guess that's not too bad?

12 years since London for my 40th. Last year Cartagena and Ronda the previous year ... Chestnut Avenue this year. Dog sitting. And falling out with mother... 

Been for a walk down on the Ings. Around both banks. Chips and mushy peas from The Wetherby Whaler. Feeling lonely. Picked up Ruby for her second walk. Got a beef chew once more. Tomato juice - bloody Mary without the vodka. Busy in Wetherby. Rugby and Horse Racing. Keep away. 

Ruby is by my side enjoying the large buffalo hide chew I bought from The Barking Lot, because they didn't have any beef tendons left, and I've just eaten the black and pinto beans with the final can of Pulpa tomatoes and the white corn tortillas that Glenn couldn't eat this morning: he wanted bacon... A cup of lemon tea then bed. Tomorrow morning will be fun for Ruby and I as she gets a good run up around Wetherby along Spofforth Hill, down from King Barrow and perhaps to Kirk Deighton church. I cleaned the Altberg Nordkapp in the River Wharfe around lunch so will wear the Haix work boots...