JUST ME AND THE PUPPIES THIS WEEK

Charles is off to Ford Castle for the annual jolly with the kids from school. (Seriously for anyone who has NOT done a residential visit, it is VERY HARD WORK and not jolly at all in the middle of the night when the little cherubs won't settle!)
That means that it's just me and the pups at home until Friday. I'm not sure how I feel about that to be honest, because we do look forward to Charles coming home from work. Not that I even have to talk to him any more, because when he says, 'What sort of day have you had today?' I just reply, 'You can read all about it on the blog.' Which he does, even when he's actually AT school, so he's only really asking out of habit, or to humour me.
Nevertheless, it is nice to be able to hand over responsibility of the puppies to him for a few minutes, just to have a bit of a break. James has said he will come up during the week to keep me company and he will come to the puppy party on Thursday as well, although, apart from the party bit, that won't be very different from usual because he normally calls round at least twice a week.
The puppies have given in to tiredness again and are flat out in their crate. It makes me laugh to think that I've gone to great lengths to give them lovely soft blankets - and they invariably choose to lie on the bare floor of the cage. Their latest game is to tear the newspaper that is in there to shreds and see how many tiny pieces they can make. Coupled with their tendency to step into, fall over and generally splash about in their water bowl, we end up with a rather soggy mass of papier mache type grey gunk littering the crate. Lovely!!
I've just glanced up at the clock, to discover that it is almost midday - and we were supposed to be going out for lunch about now. I have a feeling that this is NOT going to happen, a) because Charles and Richard have gone down to the field to watch the footie and haven't returned yet and, anyway, James is still there, presumably warming the bench, although he may have had a bit of a game, in which case he'll need a shower when he gets in. So there's no one in to go out, if you see what I mean and b) The puppies are going to wake up in a minute and want their lunch , then they'll need a poop and a play, before eventually settling down again and by the time all this happens, they will probably have finished serving lunch at the pub and I'll have missed out on my little treat!
In fact, what it probably means is that I'm going to have to rack my brains and raid the store cupboard for the makings of a light lunch. Oh ******! Anyone for beans on toast!!