The Return of Mr Yoda

As many of you will know Guy and his girlfriend separated at Christmas after over 6 years togetther. They were both devastated that they could no longer properly look after their beloved dog Yoda. As we wanted him to have a settled life we offered to look after him and agreed to go to Manchester to collect him.  By luck Jean -Jacque and Nadine were coming down this week so they were able to look after the cats.

So we set off in the pouring rain last Thursday. In fact it rained all the way to Calais. We hadn't intended to drive so far but we were "up for it" and just kept on going. I was delighted because I did a couple of spells of driving on the French motorways which has boosted my confidence for driving  no end. Friday morning we went through the tunnel much earlier than we had anticipated so we took advantage and spent the day shopping for things we cannot buy in France and that we cannot take on Ryanair. We stayed at our elderly friend Betty's overnight before setting off for Manchester on Saturday morning. We collected Yoda from Guy's house and it was obviously difficult for Guy to see him go. Everyone who knows Yoda will understand that he is a very special dog. We returned to Betty's that night and as you will see he soon made himself at home.

Sunday was a much needed day of rest but we did go into Hemel Hempstead for some food. Although we were brought up there John detests the place. Off again on Monday morning  to the Channel Tunnel. Unfortunately just as we arrived all the computers went down so there was a delay whilst manual checking in was resurrected.

We decided that we would return via Rouen to avoid the Paris rush hour traffic.  Unfortunately just outside Rouen a light began to flash on the dashboard indicating that the car was only running on three cylinders. I know that John becomes very stressed when anything goes wrong with the car so I kept very quiet and he nursed it to Orlean where we stayed overnight. After a nice meal and half a litre of wine our problems didn't seem so bad. We planned to leave the next morning at about 8.30 so that we could rendezvous with Guy who was flying into Limoge just after 11am. Unfortunately John forgot to change the alarm clock from English time to French time so we didn't wake up until just before 8 o'clock. Having scraped the ice off the car we set off just after 9am only to receive a text from Guy to say that his flight had been delayed by freezing fog and that he woud  not arrive until 1.15pm. Hey ho it was a gloriously warm day so who cares.

Having collected Guy the next hurdle was to see how the cats would react when we arrived home with the dog. Within half an hour the pecking  order had been established and John said that Yoda was just above him. Meanwhile Diana had commandeered Yoda's basket so we presume there will be no problems.

 It was quite an adventure ( all 2740km of it) but I guess it is the start of many more.

John's version :- this blog should have started

The Return of the Jedi Knight

The Force has returned to Mas de Bouye!!!!