Pupdate

The central heating went on a few days into the month, and it was also soon time for the boys to be wearing their coats out.

Interactive Ball Toy

Having learned my lesson about dodgy drop shippers last month I ordered from AliExpress when $wife found a fun looking toy in some Dachshund forum.

It’s basically a robot mouse, a motorised rubber wheel with a semicircle frame attached to a string ‘tail’. Milo seems to be terrified of it, resulting in lots of noise and running away. Max on the other hand is very adept at catching it, then struts off to dismember his prize.

So far it’s been minutes of fun, and I forecast maybe a few more before it’s damaged to a point where it’s unsafe.

Bath

$daughter0 was starring in a university production of Crazy for You, which meant a flying visit to Bath (as we had to be back for a birthday party in London the following day). It’s a city that we always enjoy spending time in. We weren’t there long enough for dinner at Raphael, but we did manage to squeeze in some cocktails at Fidel Rum Bar :)

Mattress

We stayed at the Apex hotel in Bath, which is one of our regular haunts. $wife commented that the bed was very comfortable, contrasting to many complaints about our Tempur mattress at home. A quick search revealed that the mattress is a Simba ‘Apex‘, and after some deliberation we ordered one that was delivered towards the end of the month. Early impressions are very good (in that it might just be worth the somewhat outrageous price).

John Bishop

Another comedian that we would have seen at The Fringe in Edinburgh, if they’d had dates and availability then. Instead we joined some friends for a matinee in Brighton, which was a lot of fun, and maybe worked better for logistics than an evening show.

Barcelona

Between various trade shows at Fira Gran Via, and passing through on the way to Andorra for skiing, BCN has been my most visited airport over the years. But $wife had never joined me there. That put Barcelona at the top of the list for a half term city break.

We stayed at the Occidental Barcelona 1929 as I’d been there before, and Place d’Espanya is somewhere that’s easy to get to. There wasn’t really a plan, though the walk along La Rambla that turned into a wander around the marina, then a cable car over to Montjuic and a meander through the gardens back down to the hotel couldn’t have been better. We then went to see Sagrada Família, and get some tapas.

Wine

Chapel Down

I bought Chapel Down shares a few years back as I really like their wine, and shareholders get a discount. Shareholders also get invited to various events, but often I’m not able to make it along, especially stuff at their Tenterden HQ, which is a 90m drive.

This time was different though, a shareholder dinner and tasting that lined up with $wife being off work. We double dipped by booking a vineyard tour and tasting (another shareholder perk).

For anybody keeping score, that’s a LOT of wine tasting in a single day, not that I have any complaints[1].

The idea was that the menu had been constructed to go with the wines (rather than the usual pairing of wines to suit the food), and it worked really well. It was also good to meet other shareholders (we seemed to have a fun table) and some of the exec team.

Grape & Grain Japanese Lunch

This took the more traditional approach of pairing wine with the food; which worked really well.

On the way home I commented that it was a good job that it had been lunch rather than dinner, as we’d been there for 4.5 hours :0

Solar Diary

The big news for this month is that I’m now on a tariff that pays me 15p/kWh for export, which is almost 3x the previous rate :)

VR Stock

The Real Stock Pro that I ordered at the end of last month made its way over the Atlantic pretty swiftly and I’ve been able to do lots more clays practice with it on Clay Hunt VR.

I feel like I’m making good progress on improving my scores (and consistency) with virtual skeet, trap etc. Unfortunately I’ve not had the chance to see if it makes any difference to my real life shooting as the last few opportunities have collided with other stuff. It’s been a busy month :0

Note

[1] Some good planning also meant that there was only one wine duplicated across the two events :)