The social whirl of Garrenaud

Although the summer may just be considering going into retirement, the hectic social whirl that is life in the south of France continues unabated.

This time it was the visiting neigbours, Steve and Debbie Kemp together with my two mates Josh and Sam otherwise known as the Kemplings! They all came round for a swim and, needless to say, some of that bottle stuff.















Now I always have great fun with Josh and Sam even though I do not go in the pool, and this time I made them put on their "frog outfits" so that we could be three frogs together. Get it? Frog dog plus two frogs - gosh why am I so clever?


As if this was not fun enough, then my old mate Paul arrived with his Auntie Liz and Uncle Olaf. Me and Paul - seen here as the "pratt in two hats"- get on like a house on fire and I usually finish up getting far too excited by him playing games with me. I had not met his Aunt and Uncle before but they turned out to be really nice dog people so we all got along fine.





Even more bottle stuff was wheeled out together with what seemed like two tons of crisps and nibbles, all of which vanished in a very short space of time. For once I had nothing to do with this, although I can't say the same for my mates Josh and Sam.

Then, the very next evening, my bestest friends Uncle Stu and Auntie Jo, came round to dinner. I was so over the moon about this that I forgot to take any photos (sorry!) but I thoroughly enjoyed myself and, if truth be known, was a bit naughty in an over exuberant sort of way. Well, you have to let your hair down sometimes.

Finally, as regular readers will be aware, I am rather partial to a bit of a kip, so when the opportunity arose the other day to sneak into one of the bedrooms, I could not resist trying out the bed for size. The good news - it fits!

Meet the Fockers…er Brigdales

After a day and a half of serious bed therapy I am just about ready to tell you all about the really hectic week I have just had. It was the time of year for the annual invasion of the Brigdales, this time with friends!

The first I knew about it was when two cars pulled up in the drive and disgorged what seemed like loads of people. On closer inspection it turned out to be my old mates Becky and Grant together with their mum and dad plus two nice people I had never met B4 (sorry about that…after a week with four teenagers I am beginning to speak text!). It appears that earlier this year it was Grant’s 18th birthday (sorry I forgot the card Grant) and this trip was a sort of present from us.




First to appear were Auntie Kath and Uncle Clive who I met on my visit to the UK last Christmas. They are long time mates of mum and dad and apparently have been here B4 (oops! there I go again) although that was before ( got it right then ) my time.



Now you regular readers will remember Becky and Grant, godchildren of mum and dad, from their visit here last July when we all had great fun together. They have been here loads of times so there was no time wasted in getting back to our old tricks together.






Becky had brought her friend Emma with her and although she was at first a little apprehensive about me, once she got to know me properly and we had had a good cuddle, all was fine.














Grant brought his mate Liam along too. Now Liam is a real dog person as he has one of his own and also wants to become a police dog handler so we got on like a house on fire from the very beginning.





A lot of the social activity happened around the pool, even into the late evening, so bang went my usual afternoon kip and evening lap cuddles. Instead I was busy being a good host whilst all the usual eating and bottle stuff went on around me.



Amongst all of this jovial activity there was the odd “incident” like Uncle Clive falling into the pool fully clothed, and, more seriously, Grant running into me and sending me flying into the pool. Now you know how much I hate water so you can imagine that total immersion did not exactly delight me - in fact I was scared stiff (and cold) for ages afterwards.




Don’t ask me why Becky has got a fleece on in the middle of August. All I can say is that, whilst most of the time she has a reasonable fashion sense, there are the odd moments when it goes totally wrong as you can see below.



Towards the end of their visit I took them all up to Bouisse where I was born and they all had a picnic whilst I had a nap in the car. Uncle Clive tried running up a grassy slope and finished up tearing a muscle in his calf, so naturally that evening I had to sit with him and give him comfort.









All to soon it was time for them to pack their bags and go home. I could not even go to the airport to say goodbye as there was no room in either of the two cars so we had big cuddles and I watched them drive off. It was a great, if at times a little crazy, week but I had a fab time and I think they did too. Certainly, judging by the three crates of bottles and wine boxes that went out to recycling on Monday, the senior members enjoyed themselves. Can’t wait for their next visit, but I do need a few days rest first. Not much chance of that, though, as we are of to see Auntie Mary, Uncle Tim, and my mate Fig, on Friday. More news of that later.

Hurrah! 1000 hits reached today

This is a day for great celebration both in Frogland - it is Bastille day - and in Frog Dog Land where I have just received the wonderful news that today my blog reached a total of 1000 hits. As you can see below, I am ecstatically pleased about this.



Not at all bad for an obscure blog written by a French Pyrennean Pointer about his day to day exploits in the South of France. And all of this has been achieved in just over 16 months since I was a mere pup in arms. I have had hits from over 50 countries from all corners of the world with some of the more unusual ones being Belarus, Vietnam, Bulgaria, and Brazil. The top three are much as expected with France at number 1 (well I am French), United Kingdom at number 2, and the good old USA at number 3.

I have a lovely collection of regular readers including Lise in Provence, Bilo in Morocco,and the Russian Institute of Molecular Biology! And furthermore, there are lots of people who visit me via Auntie Vanilla's wonderful blog of gossip from a small French town, Tilling-sur-Aude (http://tilling-sur-aude.blogspot.com/).

So can I finally post (sic!) a big thank you to you all for being interested and I hope I can continue to inform and amuse for years to come.

DIY with Safety First

Now regular readers will be fully aware that I just love a bit of DIY or Bricolage as they call it here in France, so when Uncle Martin came round to ask dad for a bit of help with some DIY, it was only natural that I should offer to help.



All was going well, but then it was necessary to bring out some fairly serious power tools, so dad said I could only stick around if I wore the appropriate safety equipment. Well never let it be said that I was not an enthusiastic supporter of 'elf and Safety, so I immedately donned the required equipment and continued in my supporting role. In fact, I have to say I think they quite suit me!



The added benefit of Uncle Martin's visit was that he brought the lovely Lily with him, so once my duties were complete, we both had a mad half hour around the garden.

I'm not sure if it is the heat or the fact that I am not as young as I used to be, but I find myself this evening one well pooped pup. That calls for a good kip. Speak to you all again soon.

Medical emergencies, holidays, and parties.

OK - I'm sorry! I know it has been a while since we last chatted, but to be quite honest there has been so much going on in the last few weeks that I simply have not had the time (or the energy) to sit down and update my blog. But here I am again, so lets get started.

I must start with some very sad news. My lovely Uncle Taff who was due to come and visit us for ten days this month, died suddenly whilst on a visit to friends in Scotland. He was a super man who loved dogs and he and I always had a great time together.



Then there was my rather dramatic medical emergency just a couple of weeks ago. There I was, on a sunny Saturday afternoon, rolling around on the lawn as I do, when something must have bitten me on the lower lip. I don't know what - it could have been a wasp or a bee or something more exotic - but within the space of a few minutes my whole face had swollen up in a series of lumps and bumps so that I looked like a Shar Pei. It irritated like mad and was causing me a lot of grief. Being Saturday afternoon my normal vets was closed so we had to rush off to Limoux to the emergency vet. He took one look at me, rushed me to the head of the queue, and pumped me full of some drug or other. It made me throw up but apparently that was good as it meant it was working. Well, after about five minutes I started to deflate and by that evening all was well again, but apparently it could have been quite serious if I had been bitten nearer my throat.

Fortunately, a couple of days later we set of on holiday to the French Alps, so it was an ideal chance for some recuperation. Sadly it rained a lot when we were there but we did have one great walk around the stunning mountainsides. I even found a bit of snow left over from the winter. Because of the rain we all came home early so it turned out to be only a short break rather than the weeks holiday it should have been.







No sooner were we back than we had to start getting ready for our annual summer party. Like all such events, it requires a great deal of preparation and I did my fair share to try and help with this. Mind you, my contributions were, for some reason, not always appreciated. However, the event itself was great fun. Uncle Martin was there and he and I had a good old chat.





My mate Boudie came with his mum and dad and later on my girlfriend Lily turned up. I was a bit disturbed to find a load of people with their feet in my giant drinking bowl but I forgave them.



It went on until 11pm by which time I was totally shattered. The next day was spent mainly asleep in my dads chair. By all accounts, Boudie was in the same state too!



A bit like War and Peace I know but here ends the latest blog. Speak to you all again soon - promise!

Bottle stuff and consequences

I often mention in my ramblings that the people are off doing that bottle stuff. Now only being a young man (a teenager in people years) I have abstemiously stayed away from the stuff myself, but I felt that, for my readers sake at least, I should really know what I was talking about. So when the opportunity arose the other afternoon, I gritted my teeth, wrapped my tongue around the neck of a bottle of fine rosé, and sampled the contents within.


OK, I admit it - pleasantly surprised was not the reaction I was expecting, but I am slowly beginning to see why these people spend so much time with it. Not that you will find me partaking on a regular basis, unlike some I could mention. No, the occassional sip or slurp will do me just fine.

There is one disadvantage, so I am told, in that it tends to make one feel a bit sleepy after consumption. In light of this, although unaffected immediately, I felt the need to find a suitable place to relax just in case I came over all dozey. Mum and dad's bed seemed like the ideal place!

Of pools and plongeurs

This weekend has been really interesting and great fun too. First of all it was time to formally open up the pool for swimming. Now this involved quite a lot of hard work on both dad's and my part as it needed a really good clean, filter, and top up. My role was to regularly taste the water to see that it complied with European standards as we are very hot on that kind of thing here in France!

No sooner than it was open but who should arrive - Auntie Mary and Uncle Tim together with my great mate Fig. Well, as you regular readers can imagine, the people got straight down to that bottle stuff whilst Fig and I got in some serious chasing and wrestling. Then, to everyone's surprise, Uncle Tim declared that he was going for a swim.


The water was at 21 degrees so it was not too bad, and he complied fully with the reulation for the Premier Plongeur 2010 competition by diving in. Normally this competition is open to allcomers but I am afraid Uncle Tim beat them all to it this year and was duly presented with the bottle of fizzy stuff by mum and I.



Then it was back to socialising with dad and Uncle Tim trying out the newly completed BBQ area for size but without any glasses in their hands!



After several hours of us tearing about in the sunshine, Fig and I decided a bit of R&R was called for so we joined the adults who were also taking it easy. I must say by the time Fig and his mum and dad left, I was completely shattered and not much was heard from me that evening (or the next day come to that).