Tidy man cave

Our new dog borrower, Camila, visited last night, and managed to leave her purse when she went home, so I rang her to say we'd drop it off in the morning. Poor girl, she didn't realise our weekend 'morning' is actually nearly the afternoon...

No worries, she was studying. International Relations - where do you begin with that? She doesn't have many lectures, so has plenty of 'free' time. Anyway, she has a schnauzer at home and misses it, so wants to have Archie for a day every week. And she'll pick him up in the morning. Her morning. She has a lovely wee flat on her own.

We popped in to my newly discovered dog friendly cafe - really nice music this time, great flat white, delicious Danish pastry, but there was a picture of that big hairy thing from Star Wars on the wall opposite me, which reminded me about that awful film.

Talking of films, we watched 'Force Majeure' last night. Excellent. Makes you think what you would do in a catastrophe (theirs was an avalanche) - you'd like to think you'd do the right thing, but people panic and do the wrong, often inhuman, things.

We walked back through the Meadows, with a wee detour to my favourite graffiti wall. Today, for the first time, some of the garages were open. We got chatting to Ken, who has several motor bikes in his wee garage man cave - some he's doing up. I was nosey - I love sheds, and Ken was happy for me to have a look, and even posed for me with Archie. Apparently these old garages (originally for horses and carriages) are being bought up, demolished and turned into student accommodation by the university, which doesn't have the same planning/building rules as the general public.

Two days ago, Archie growled at a dog who sniffed him - completely out of the blue. He has never done that before - ever. And yesterday, he growled at a couple of dogs who came too near him his rear end. Most unlike him! I have a theory that it's because of his tartan coat - he hates it, and maybe other dogs make fun of him - who knows? I didn't put it on him today - no growls. He had a great game of chasey with Cleo, a wee rescue Foxy. He grabbed her ball and charged round and round with it, with Cleo unable to catch him. Cleo's owners were happy to see her having fun, as they were told when they took her that she wasn't socialised.

I will monitor this theory. Do dogs feel embarrassed? I do hope so, because it can be easily remedied, whereas an aggressive, unpredictable dog is much more of a problem.

The (M&S) duck à l'orange et port last night was delicious. And I get to pretend I can cook! Win win.