Tour of Britain

Yesterday I had a girlie day out with my friend, Pauline Wise. Pauline is a dog trainer/behaviourist and to start the day we visited another friend who needed help with her dog. As we were in Honiton we decided to have lunch there. I was also looking for a "Victorian" painting for our sitting room, so it was a good excuse to tour the antique shops for which Honiton is famous. The bad news is that they were all too expensive and the good news is that I did not find one that I liked anyway.

Then we went on the all important hunt for a good lunch. We found a delightful wine bar and partook of an excellent lunch (with wine of course) and spent a happy hour or so catching up on our news. The wine was very good so Pauline asked the waitress what it was and she told us as well as pointing us in the direction of the wine shop two doors away who supplied it. It was a no brainer to pop in and buy half a dozen bottles each.

I took Romie (the bitch we are hoping to breed from) to the vet for blood samples for DNA testing to be taken this morning. As usual the cat hopped into the van as I was getting ready to go. I knew I could spend ages chasing her around to get her to get out and stay out, so I grabbed her and put her in one of the dog cages. She squealed all the way to the vet and all the way back!! When I got home I packaged up the blood samples and took them round to the post office but there were police no waiting signs everywhere in advance of the cycle race coming through, so I went home and will take the samples round this afternoon.

The wine came in very handy today as the Tour of Britain cycle race was due to pass the farm at about 1 p.m. and I gave my friend, Pam a ring. She came round and we sat at the farm gates on our BNP deck chairs (that's what we call the white ones with the big red cross on them) and tested the new wine whilst waiting for the cyclists to come by.

I am not a follower of cycle racing but it was very exciting. There were loads of motor cycle police who went ahead to clear the way - obviously loving the opportunity to sweep along the empty roads - then came the cyclists who were past in just a couple of minutes - followed by an entourage of back up cars with spare bikes on the rooves and presumably other kit inside. A motor bike parked just where we were and as the cyclists came into view they rode off with camera at the ready. We are thinking they must have been TV or newspaper photographers.

Pam and I had a pleasant chat and obviously enjoyed our wine whilst we were waiting to see the boys go by, but the actual even was over very quickly.