Henry the Match-maker?

I could do a blip every day of our promenade along the, well- promenade! The people we meet, the dogs we see, the chats we have. It's taking longer each morning. I even got a date this morning!

We met people and dogs we know already (Ted and Ruby) and made new friends (Patricia, Lola, and the girls at their hut) and got the offer of coffee from Duro- er, 'maybe another time' I assured him and rushed off, confident that I could outrun him any day.

We got to sit inside Patricia's hut, and my blip today is Henry surveying the scene like he owns the hut, and the girls painting pebbles (an activity that should keep them busy for a while). I liked all the bright colours of the girls' shoes and socks, and I pimped it up a bit, but one wee girl now looks a bit unwell and I couldn't make her better again.

In the hut you're out of the wind and get a lovely view of every man and his dog passing by. With a cuppa brewing up every half hour or so, and a few pastries - what could be better? I could list all the breeds of dogs I see on my walk, like the blippers who list birds and flowers they see.

It seems that the fine weather I had on order in Edinburgh for this week hasn't happened. I must have got the dates wrong - and that wouldn't be the first time. I feel rather bad about the continuing fine weather here - while the house swap, Trisha, is in sleet and snow. However, to make me feel better, I see black clouds looming this afternoon.

I must say, we're Very Impressed with the quality and variety of cafes in the neighbourhood. AND the quality of buskers! And we haven't even ventured in to Brighton. Amazing. Great cakes, quirky wee places with a few tables, always good coffee. I could get used to this. In fact, JR, when not browsing blips, is to be found browsing Hove Real Estate and exclaiming every so often, "This is the one!" And when not doing that, can be found browsing the schnauzer puppies for sale websites. Watch this space.

Mind you, wherever we go we always love it and look at real estate. We nearly bought a house in a wee French village once, and we DID buy a house in Mexico on another house swapping trip. It's a dangerous business. But 'puppies for sale' websites is a new one.

Henry is such a good boy, we had no idea dogs could be so sensible - it never happened to us. We've had a couple of dogs in NZ. The first one, Jethro, was a gorgeous big daft golden labrador/retriever who took to jumping over the gates and frolicking with sheep (we lived in the sticks), usually when I was about to go to work. The only way I could catch him was to drive near him and open the door, and he always - always - jumped in, thinking he was going somewhere nice. As I said - daft!

We only went to a beach with him once. He ran around, ignoring my increasingly shrill and pleading calls to come back, causing havoc. He burst a child's beach ball, not on purpose, of course, just fetching it. But when he piddled on someone's chilly bin of food, we tied him to the van, and tried to continue with our picnic. He howled and howled like he was being tortured and we got such accusing looks from all and sundry, that we had to leave. Eventually, we gave him away to a good home in another town. It was years before we felt strong enough to try again with a dog.

Haven't seen Katy Price OR Jordan. Will give up celebrity spotting.

Tomorrow we're off to London to see the Hockney exhibition. I'm all a-quiver with excitement! A bit like Henry when getting ready for walkies!