Travelled with Anna to Ryton on Dunsmore where I was to judge Papillons, Lowchens and Australian Silky Terriers at the Birmingham Toy Dog Society open show.
We arrived in the area looking for the Mariot hotel, after a few passes up and down the A45 passing the same Holiday Inn on more than one occasion, we gave up and telephoned for directions. Lo and behold!! Directions !!! we didn't need them for when they answered the phone with "Good Afternoon HOLIDAY INN", duh. Though I had booked with the Marriot they had been taken over and just hadn't got round to changing some things like WEBSITES.
Our room was comfortable, it had a huge bath which pleased Anna no end, guess where she was going to spend the evening lounging!! We went out a wee drive to make sure we knew where we were going the following morning, would have hated to have gotten within a couple of miles of the venue and lost our way. LOL loud cheer for Sat Navs.
We had dinner in the hotel bar and of course we had to have a little refreshment as well, and then of course we had to have another to get over the shock of the cost. Och and then we had another just for the sake of it. LOL So off we went back to our room quite happy and well cheered. Having dogs does not a late sleeper make, both Anna and I were up quite early and had a relaxing breakfast before heading to the Sport Connexion for the show.
I had a super entry of 38 Papillons over 6 classes, 0 AST's and 2 Lowchens. Anna thoroughly enjoyed her time at the ringside watching the judging in some of the other breeds, and meeting new people. Like Anna when I completed my judging duties I to enjoyed watching the other breed being judged and after a lovely lunch we waited to watch the Best in Show in which the Papillon was short listed but not placed. The Best Puppy In Show went to the Papillon Puppy I had given best puppy to and the Lowchen puppy took best puppy 3 in show. Well done everyone and thank you to those who braved the weather and came to the show with there dogs I really did appreciate the opportunity to meet them all.
We left the venue about 4pm to head home, our original plan was to drive so far up the M6 and then pull into services to stay overnight, but as we made good time it was straight home to Ayrshire and I was in the house for 11pm.
Next day it was time to get up and go again, picking Anna up en route we travelled through near Ingleston to the Scottish Papillon Club agm. Boy were we glad when Monday arrived and we could go through life at a slower pace for a few hours.