Sup under the stars.

Blustery when we head out on the divas pre-dawn 'comfort break'. A month ago it was light when we set off. Now its dark and the sky is speckled with stars. I point out Saturn and Venus to my shaggy companion but she's sprinting ahead along the track towards her favourite puddle. Why drink from a fresh bowl of water inside when you can sup from a puddle lit by distant galaxies ? There may be some poetic canine logic in that.

After breakfast we stop off in the vets to collect Sophie's once a quarter 'tick' tablet. We want to stick with the type she's used to in France rather than the one they have in stock.  Sophie is not entirely enthusiastic about going into the surgery again. We leave quickly.

In town the students are already out and about even though it's an hour before lectures start. They have a habit of riding bikes on the pavement and congregating in large groups on street corners to 'shoot the breeze'. This is ever so slightly irritating. It seems anyone over the age of 30 is completely invisible. A few stop to talk to Sophie but the majority are lost in their own, headphone wearing, world. I reckon 25% of students wear those great big wireless headphones with the 1930's pilot look. Another 25% make do with AirPods. There are scores of bikes parked outside Starbucks and Pret a Manger.

A Christmas store is already open for start of day ornament buyers. I guess we must be getting close to their busy time although they seem to have a stream of customers all through the year. Kilt wearing bears with angel wings are a speciality.

Onto the bookstore to pick up the Haberman book. We also buy a new biography of Harold Wilson. The young German lady behind the counter ignores me but has a long chat with Sophie. You'd think that after a semi reclusive lifetime in a small French village Sophie would view talkative book shop staff with suspicion. Not a bit of it. Sophie lives with an unquenchable belief in the Jaffa Cake dispensing kindness of strangers. This morning she's disappointed on the Jaffa Cake front but does get a small red biscuit in the shape of a bone.

The Haberman book ( or the few pages I've read of it ) seems 'hard hitting '. 

A quick detour for sausages from the butchers. Sophie has to remain in the car. She considers this 'exclusion'  to be cruel and unusual punishment.

This is playing on the radio as we drive home. How many students would know of  Dolly Parton or have heard the song before ? Angus puts the windows down and sings along. Sophie, sitting in the back, enjoys the ear lifting gale. Life for a nearly 10 year old PON lady is wonderful : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUiWrOtAFL8