Summer break

Had an easy couple of weeks, dug a bit of garden, swung in the hammock with Dougal (nee Diesel), took Dougal for walks and met lots of new people and dogs. Al is astounded by the amount of female attention he gets when walking Dougal in town. He is just so cute! Dougal, that is. Well obviously Al is cute too. But not in the way that women run and and squeal and ask me if they can stroke him very often.

Anyway, the pooch and I had a hilarious walk down the Water of Leith where we met a rather boring man with a black lab; a friendly guy with another working cocker called Fergus (again, the dog, not the man); a scary looking, thick-necked but in fact quite friendly woman with a massive, thick-necked, but actually quite friendly rottweiler and a snooty thin woman with a saluki who looked down her nose and hurried past. Maybe it is true what they say about people being like their dogs. Callum and Dougal certainly hit it off. I think five months in dogs age must be about 11 for a human - they had a great weekend playing in the garden, building a den and a swing. Al banned the computer for the weekend though, and by Sunday Cal had had enough of the great outdoors and wanted his computer games back again. He is still a bit of a city boy.

Had a training course near York for three days this week, and it was pretty full on with the gorgeous sunny days spent closeted in a room with closed curtains looking at powerpoint presentations and doing emergency planning exercises. On the last day a BBC manager was invited to speak to us and spent an hour talking about how BBC local radio is the best place to get an emergency message out. When I pointed out that in Scotland we had to work with commercial radio because the BBC treats Scotland as one region and people in Glasgow don't care if Angus is flooded, she just said, 'Well, yes it obviously different in Scotland.'

I feel the Scottish chip on my shoulder growing with each trip to England these days. I like to think I started out prejudice-free and hope my feelings are based on experience rather than me having picked up a general Scottish malaise. I do hate the attitude that blames England for all of Scotland's woes: I think it's inaccurate and excuses apathy. But I've seen Scotland treated as an afterthought at best on all sorts of training courses and the like and it's getting irksome. The BBC has just promised to up its regional content in the news, anyway, so let's see if that helps remind people that it exists.

I'm feeling very relaxed about it all now, since I had the great foresight to book two days off and continue my journey south from York to see the parents in Sussex. Jenny is also here having just started work in Burgess Hill, and I awoke on Thursday morning to hear her snoring five minutes before she had to catch her 7am bus, so had to wake her up. She missed the bus but made the train thanks to a lift from mum...she moves to a room in Brighton tomorrow, which I hope will suit her.

Spent yesterday reading (feel like I haven't had time to read for ages) and shopping. Bought a very bling handbag for Sam, who I'm meeting briefly before my flight tomorrow for a birthday brunch. Also a back dress for myself, but I think I might take it back as it's a bit big. I have an opticians appointment in Edinburgh next week that I can combine with a trip to TK Maxx in Meadowbank. Today I was indulged in a belated birthday present of pedicure and back massage. My first ever pedicure! It was perfectly timed for my post-marathon feet, which the lovely lady did not even wince at, and we picked a dark red polish to cover the black nails!

Went for a run round the rhododendron-infested grounds of the conference centre one night before dinner on my course, and another round Broadbridge Heath and Warnham this morning. Just half an hour each and about three miles, which was just what I needed. It felt a bit sweaty in the humid weather but not particularly hard. Maybe I'll aim for an October half marathon. Or maybe I'll just keep going for shorter runs when I feel like it.