Christmas 2020

The woof alarm, i.e. Leia, woke us up and I went down to keep her company after taking her out for her walk.  She does not like walking about at night.  Well, in the dark.

Later my wife took great pleasure in waking my daughter.  Revenge for may years of her rushing into our room shouting about how it is Christmas was sweet for her.

I had intended to help with cooking but was not able to do so having not slept that well.  But I was woken for lunch which we all enjoyed.  Later in the day we played a game of scrabble.  My son almost won, but I pipped him at the last.  I am proud of him and would have been pleased deep down if her had beaten me.

The day was very different to our Christmas last year, but we all agreed that having Leia with us made it better.  I think that she felt left out when it came to eating lunch naps well as opening our presents.  But thanks to one of the patients that I have seen, she got to enjoy Christmas as well when she got a present.

Leave a light on

Quick update on the family.  They appear to be enjoying the holiday.  Both occasionally contribute towards global warming than is needed, one leaving the light on in their room, the other forgetting to switch of the television.  I do hope they get to relax as for one reason or another, both have had a few stresses this year.  Saying that, I do wish that they could relax without using up energy which could and should be saved.  

Leia does calm them down though and since she has been at home, while we have still argued, they have been not as often.  One thing though, at work today, I joked that a common denominator when it comes to her leaving a mess on the floor has been when a particular one of the kids has been looking after her.  Today, on getting home, I found the same had happened.  The child concerned had taken her out to do her business in the garden.  She did her wee and then they brought her back in rather than giving her time to open her bowels outside.  So she did it on the kitchen floor when brought in, while my wife was cooking and the kids were both not around.  She was not too pleased.

Arsenal and Stewart Houston

When it comes to Arsenal, we look doomed and for now, are in free fall.  Watching the highlights on Match of the Day, we appeared to give Everton a game, but this view has not been shared by all.  I do remember a terrible run when Stewart Houston was given control of Arsenal after George Graham, an amazing manager for the team, was sacked for corruption.  We managed to pull things around then and given got to the final of the European Cup Winners Cup, before the loss to THAT goal.  A goal that the Spurs fans at my work will remind me about from time to time.  

"It's bleak."

What can Arsenal do to get out of their rut? #bbcfootball pic.twitter.com/Gg3tKjOAYj

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) December 20, 2020

I am not sure if this is just very bad luck or if we need a change in manager.  Ideally, it should be the team that are changed, but I am not sure that the mentality in Arsenal can be changed easily and due to this, Mikel Arteta may need to leave.  He is a great manager in many ways, and I am forever grateful to him for his service as a player and manager, especially when it comes to the team winning the FA cup last season.

At least the women's team are showing the men how to win!

Bill and Oti

Congratulations to Bill and Oti. I loved them and was amazed and the improvement Bill showed throughout the series.  It was nice in that my daughter watched it with us, as did Leia.  My son however has grown out of it.

We had hoped to go for our first walk with Leia, but as my son is in quarantine, this was not possible.  Instead she met the puppy of a friend of my daughter. Leia loved meeting another dog and had to be dragged away especially when the other dog started to growl on occasion.

So it will be Wednesday when we take a family walk with Leia who I am sure will love it more than we will.

Bubbles, my son and COVID

My son was sent home from school today.  One of the children in his bubble at school has been diagnosed with COVID.  My wife went to collect him and only remembered that he cycled in when she got there.

While it is a concern, we just have to cross our fingers that he does not get it.  If he does, being so young, the odds are that he will have no symptoms.  We will probably not be so lucky.

He has no concerns about being trapped at home as this means he has an excuse to play on devices and watch television. If it was not for the official call from his school, one might think that he faked it! 

Arsenal and alien abductions

Mikel Arteta has been great for Arsenal as a player and manager.  Winning the FA cup in his first season in charge was amazing, and as an Arsenal fan, winning it for the 14th time was astounding.  

But things are not good now.  He did well to motivate a team that had lost its drive under Unai Emery, despite his early success.  But that team has lost the motivation and drive that it had last season, and for the early part of this season.  The simple facts are that the team is producing results that could mean relegation.  Teams do not seem to need to fear us any more and I fear for our team in the next game.  Unai Emery has shown that he is a great manager at Villarreal which means that I suspect, the issue is with the team. 

Before Arteta was employed, I had wanted José Mourinho to join us.  I felt that we needed someone to reorganise the team, and like he has done in other teams, he has won titles and trophies, and almost always has left the team in a better position than when started there.  The difference there of course is with Manure but even there, he won the league and Europa cups.  I am grateful to Mikel Arteta for his service as a manager and player, but now in hindsight, it may have been better if we had taken on José Mourinho instead.  A manager like him would have been able to reorganise the team, motivate them and change the mentality that they had.  He would have annoyed them and like in all the other teams he has been in, would have been sacked after losing the dressing room, but I would have taken him for what he could do for our defence.  

But it may not be the fault of Arteta for not being to reinvigorate the team.  It may be that the some of the players have been abducted by aliens.  We have a striker who has only scored in our own goal recently, and Willian who has been great before has now appeared to vanish.  Another explanation, other than alien abduction is that they have identical twins who are playing for them.  Personally, I think that it is the first part of an alien invasion with the players being replaced by alien clones.  

Hopefully I am wrong and the form of Arsenal will pick up.  Starting on Wednesday.     

Pots within pots

Yesterday was my first day back at work.  My wife looked after Leia who had a step backwards in toilet control.  On getting back of all the members of the family who were glad to see me, Leia was the one who was the happiest.  My wife loves it when she licks my face with happiness.  She does not allow this to happen and I am going to have to consider following her lead on this.

I did get to start watching The Mandalorian with him only to find that during it, Leia had done a wee and a poo on the floor before retiring to her crate to get some sleep.  While disappointed that she has relieved herself in the floor, I was so proud to see that she has decided the crate is where she sleeps.  Sadly we did not get to continue the tale of the evil little green man, but I am hoping to watch it with him tomorrow.

Today was flu clinic.  Due to COVID-19, it was as socially distanced as we could manage.  Patients had appointment times and there was a one way system through the surgery.  It went on a lot longer and needless to say, it was exhausting. Ideally l social distancing should limit the spread of influenza as was seen six months ago in the Southern Hemisphere but as seen with the rise in numbers of those affected by COVID, this may not happen.

Leia was happy to see me.  The family took her to have her vaccinations while I was vaccinating others.  When on one of her garden walks with me she had eaten a slug, for which I have been told off.  One way of stopping her eating all in the garden is to get her to carry a flower pot.  She appears so proud to do so.  This evening before putting her to bed on her last toilet walk she decided to put a smaller one in a bigger one.  I was amazed that she was able to comprehend this, though she did get frustrated later when trying to repeat the feat.  I know that Cockapoo’s are smarter than the average dog thanks to their poodle heritage, but I was surprised to see this.  I did not expect to see attempts at problem solving and it will be interesting in the next few days to see if this was a fluke, or something that will continue.