NOVEMBER 2013

BERTS BLOG:  I have been fairly well behaved lately apart from two unfortunate water based incidents.  During a recent rare jaunt out with the Mrs and her walking friends I was accused of taking a man down which was, of course, a gross exaggeration of my ability to be so heroic and anyway it was a genuine accident and the guy was as innocent as me.  To my joy our walk was next to water, however disappointingly I was given no encouragement to take the plunge.  We were walking and chatting on a long canal path when we heard sudden fast footsteps approaching from behind.  In my rush to attend the Mrs a vision in blue Lycra unfortunately took the same avoiding tactics as I did and after a small contretemps he ended up tumbling over me into the undergrowth and was only just restrained from rolling into the canal by the Mrs grabbing his arm and yanking him to his feet.  Apologies were exchanged and he jogged off in a flash of blue and I escaped with nothing more than a look and a pat.  On the return journey I spotted him again but was given the command to sit and stay 100 yards before he ran past us with a wave and a smile, so no harm done, but disaster struck again when I mistook a raised arm during a lively conversation and the random simultaneous splash of an acorn dropping into the water as a retrieve command to take a dip!  This second incident meant I received more than just a look but also a tongue lashing with no pats and was not allowed to accompany the group for lunch but had to sit, wet but happy, in the car, in disgrace. I love a good swim!