Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.





A €5 and €20 note retrieved from the compost heap.Washed, ironed and dried. The shredded notes taken to the bank and after much discussion and form filing, replaced. The highly officious bank manager clearly not a 'dog' person. He is concerned that his black crimplene suit will be stained by the small pile of  saliva sodden serial numbers piled  on the desk in front of him.  Two €20 notes missing. What's left of them may make a passing appearance later this morning. Lesson to PON owners : Remove chair in front of hall table.

Late morning: a bang then the sound of cascading tiles. Over the village pond a plume of smoke. The old farmer,the farmer with the red bulbous nose and an 'expert' in black vest and blue track suit trousers have fired up the 16th century pottery kiln. The heat from the chimney has again blown the tiles off the covering roof . When we get there the worst of the damage has been cleared up. This time they've left an opening for the gases to escape.  

" 1600 degrees today M'Ongoose. We'll get her up to 1800 on Thursday " says the old farmer proudly. He then repeats himself to make sure I've understood. Angus wonders why they hadn't taken off the roof tiles before firing up the furnace. Laziness or good old fashioned bloody mindedness ? He keeps this thought to himself. Bob and Sophie look at the smoke jetting out of fractures in the brickwork and decide it's time to head off home.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

People that don't like dogs are So EASY to spot!!!

The Life of Riley said...

One hundred and one uses for PONs (or PON owners) #33 - money laundering!

Jean said...

Marvellous!
Except that the laundering bit is probably a slight exaggeration........

WFT Nobby said...

It seems Bob and Sophie have good self-protective instincts when it comes to sticking around smoke-releasing 16th century kilns.

VirginiaC said...

I can assure you that when I worked in the banking world, I would have welcomed a dog story regarding shredded currency. Folks always forgot money in pockets before laundering, and I loved hearing their stories when they turned up at my desk to obtain replacements.
One guy even told me once that he had hid his work pay from his wife in his dirty pants pocket from the week before, and forgot when he dumped everything into the washing machine. "She spends too much money!" he cried, "and she takes too long to do the laundry!"
"What's left of them may make a passing appearance later this morning"....Laughing like crazy over here. Should we refer to the event as "passing the buck?"
Thanks for making my day every day.

VirginiaC said...

I can assure you that when I worked in the banking world, I would have welcomed a dog story regarding shredded currency. Folks always forgot money in pockets before laundering, and I loved hearing their stories when they turned up at my desk to obtain replacements.
One guy even told me once that he had hid his work pay from his wife in his dirty pants pocket from the week before, and forgot when he dumped everything into the washing machine. "She spends too much money!" he cried, "and she takes too long to do the laundry!"
"What's left of them may make a passing appearance later this morning"....Laughing like crazy over here. Should we refer to the event as "passing the buck?"
Thanks for making my day every day.

Unknown said...

We are not only chuckling over the bank story but at Mr. black vest and blue track suit trousers and his kiln. LOL that is the French for you. Have a wonderful Wednesday.
Best wishes Molly

~Kim at Golden Pines~ said...

I've learned after years of having dogs, that "it all comes out in the end." :-)

Angus said...

This is €40 we won't go hunting for !

Anonymous said...

The close up shots of "the kids" are just wonderful. Love the innocent faces! We all know that just is not true, but they do provide some interesting stories. You are a brave couple to take on two puppies. Glad the money situation has been resolved, just how high was that chair they climbed up on by the way!
Karen & Kelly Rathje
(storming in Iowa again)

Angus said...

Standard hall chair. Probably two feet off the ground. The trick is focing it back out from under the desk so that you can climb on it.

Julie said...

Don't you sometimes wish you had cctv so you could see just how they managed their mischief? Or how long it actually took. And was it really Sophie? I'm always told that Mia sleeps in her bed all the while we are out but I'm not so sure .............

tammy j said...

sitting here in 95 degree heat before 10 in the morning. it's to be 100 here today. and i'm wondering why on earth somebody would want to fire up a furnace ~ ancient or not ~ to 1800 degrees in the middle of summer!!!
good grief charlie brown.
the close ups of my favorite puppies . . . WONDERFUL!
i think you should take the 40 euros in puppy poop back into that guy. just to see the expression!

Whispering Walls said...

Heraclitus remarked that asses eat gold...

MrsDuncanMahogany said...

Just like with small children - everything at least 4 feet off the ground! That's okay, we will have the odd wander down the island in the kitchen due to a love seat on the other side being far too accomodating!

Louise said...

Passing appearance! Big smile.

Well I never, I learned something today (that I have a nasty nigling feeling that EVERYONE ELSE has always known) I had no idea that you could take damaged money back to the bank.

Maybe blowing up kilns is just plain old entertainment in a rural village?

Kittypup said...

Expensive tastes!

PONs and Kiln both having a blast.

Have fun x

houndstooth said...

I'm with Bob and Sophie! I guess it's a good thing Miss Sophie is cute today. *snicker*

Robin Larkspur said...

What a story, Angus! This is funny, the passing appearance!! LOL!! I would stay far away from that kiln when they try to up the temperature!!

Bella Roxy & Macdui said...

Could be the 'maybe this time it'll work' syndrome. We thought they'd rectified that after the last fiasco.

Love the money story....puppies!

XXXOOO Daisy, Bella & Roxy

Kari said...

You know, the notes will not digest. I suppose you must check if they come out in the...ahem...end. We wouldnt want the culprit to suffer any intestinal problems, would we?