GONE BORING !!

Chris & Denise's Christmas Encyclical

     All the latest from the Dodge 'family'

 

Sadly, the words from last year's treatise - "it is sad to reflect that we probably have less than 1000 more nights in which to enjoy Barkley snoring and farting under the bed" - were to prove all too prophetic.  As many of you will already know, Barkley was put to sleep, at home, on 11th November.  Thankfully, her final illness was a short one - she was well enough to go for a short walk only two days before.

Now that she is gone, we are seeing interesting changes in the behaviour of the other animals.  Both cats are more visible round the house - there is no silly spaniel to chase them now, and Bonzo only does so sporadically.  After a brief period of being rather clingy, Bonzo now seems to relish being the only dog, with all the extra attention and cuddles that this entails.  The humans too are finding that having only the one small dog does indeed have it's advantages, and despite having been a two-dog household ever since BatEars joined Weeze in 1987, there are no plans for any further additions.

Denise had her first-ever boating accident at the beginning of July, when she slipped and fractured her fibula whilst boating in France.  This resulted in eight weeks off of work.  Predictions that a full recovery would take six months after the plaster came off appear to be pretty accurate.  She will be leaving the Lucas Surgery at the end of January, and begins work for Hassan Salamian at his surgery in Bath after we return from Tenerife at the beginning of February.

For Chris, it's a Tuf life no more.  The company relocated to Swansea at the end of October, and, being of the opinion that Swansea is somewhere that you relocate from, not to, Chris took redundancy.  The redundancy package included training for a Class 1 HGV licence (that's the one you need to drive artics, or indeed anything that bends in the middle) and he duly passed his test on 10th November.  Now the major challenge is finding companies that will put their biggest tonka toys in the hands of an newly qualified Class 1 driver !  In the meantime he is waiting to hear the outcome of two separate interviews with Network Rail for positions at Cardiff or Swindon.

Have a great Xmas 2006 and a happy and prosperous 2007

Chris & Denise