Normal service has been restored (if there is anything normal about granddad then I'm a Chinese man!) and we're back to Monday playtime after a long hot summertime. Poor old nanna has had to go back to school but me, granddad and the other dog are a formidable team again.

The excitement got the better of me this morning and I gently drifted off to the land of nod for a little while soon after getting there. When I wakeyed up I heard a strange noise coming from granddad in the bathroom. As I opened up the door, granddad was standing there with this long thing in his hand. It was about 6" long (granddad said more like 7") and about 3" around the middle (granddad said more like 4"). I've never seen one like that before but I couldn't take my eyes off it. Its certainly not the same as I use but granddad sat me down and carried on with what he was doing. I have no idea what possessed him to do it as he doesn't have much anyway but he carried on cutting his hair with the long, black lectrik clipper thing. It must take him all of 5 minutes to complete (nanna says more like 4 minutes) and to be totally honest, it doesn't look much different when its cut anyway.

Once he looked remarkably like he did before he cut his hair, granddad took me downstairs and we read books and played games just like in the olden times before the summer. We went into the garden and waddled around a bit but it started to rain so I made some funny 'yuk' noises and we went. Daddy's auntie popped in to say hello and to bring some great bits around and a birthday card for granddad because he's 137 years old on Tuesday. She brought a big freezing box with lots of yummy fruit in and it gave me a cold bum when I sat on the box. She lives a thousand miles away in a place called Gloucester and they had lots of talky time whilst very professionally keeping an eye on me and Millie. Daddy's nanny, who is very cleverly granddads mummy also came over. She makes me laugh even when she's not trying to. She talks in a 'coochy-coo' voice which I think is a bit childish but I humour her all the same.

Oh, must tell you this - as you know, granddad calls me Ronaldo sometimes because I fall over for no reason when nobody is near me but everyone is watching. He showed me how to do it properly last week whilst walking around the lake. He said the secret is to do it near somebody so they get the blame and while he was holding my hand and walking with Millie too, granddad fell like a sack of cack to the ground. He narrowly (quite a feat with his bulk) missed squashing Millie beyond all recognition and also dragged me with him as though I was water skiing behind him!!! I bumped my chin and granddad said some funny words that I assume were Polish and he rolled around like a beached whale. Now that's how to do it I thought!! He's so good I'm going to call him Klinsmann.

Back to yesterday; Uncle Ryan popped in to see us all and was caught unawares by the congregation that greeted him. I like Uncle Ryan - nanna says we're like to poddy peas. After older nanny and granddads auntie had left, granddad said he was taking me and Millie out for a walk. This is where I'm beginning to find things a little unfair. You see, Millie decided that she wasn't going for a walk because it was raining so she hid behind the settee. When I try this, I keep banging my head!! So it was just me and granddad who ventured into town for one of our frequent visits but today we had a few jobs to do. Ryan gave granddad some paper money stuff and asked him to put it in his bank because he wanted to stay home and play games - why can't I do that?!?! We parked up and I got in my buggy where granddad, rather expertly and as though he knew what he was doing, put on my plastic rain cover (on my buggy not his head, although.....). We went into the new bank on the corner and granddad made his way to the counter. "Excuse me sir, how are you today?" asked some spotty-faced geek. Granddad said we were well and said he was going to the counter. "This way sir" said the walking pizza and he escorted us 5 feet to the counter as if he were protecting us from some alien monster. The lady behind the counter was quite pretty but equally as dumb as the geek. She asked granddad how he was today, how his weekend was, what he got up to, what he was going to get up to, how nice his hair looked (actually I made that bit up), etc. If only she worked at UK Border Control we would have people in town speaking more English than 'European'!! She took the money and put it in Uncle Ryan's account and then said "Enjoy the rest of your day", which was by now virtually over due to the extended interrogation that we had endured.

We left the new bank and then went on to granddads bank in town. Here he put some money into a  little book and handed it over to the girl as if passing her a secret bribe not to ask him any questions about his weekend. He then gave her some bags of pennies that looked like he'd won at the pokie machines in the arcade. All this was done in a split second and then we were on our way. Outside it was raining and this made me laugh like a little schoolgirl. I was nice and dry and granddad was all soaky wet. I kept popping my hand out of the plastic to tease him and we both laughed lots.

Back home and there was an hour or so of fun and games and then Millie ran to the back door, I followed and was surprised to see it was daddy. He was way too early but it was great to see him. I gave him a big cuddle and Millie gave him her ball. Daddy and granddad chatted a bit and then me and daddy went to Tesco although we never went in as I fell asleep.

I'm back at Jenny's this week to see all my other mates and I think I'm looking forward to it although its a job to tell...........

See you later
DOGG