Photies!
The hotel we stayed in - The Rose and Crown Hotel in Lickey Hills
Me and The Mothership
Me and The Wife
Happy collie!
Beautiful Sheltie (Shetland sheepdog)
Keeshond. Look at that face!!
One day I will own one of these. Or several! Irish Wolfhound's are my ultimate dog!
Red panda at Birmingham Nature Centre
Gorgeous garter snakes. Love the colours!
Mum and the ducks at Stafford services
And a rather handsome Mr Duck at the services. Cheeky too
Quick "what we did"
The drive to the NEC was pretty good - even if I say so myself. Not much traffic or anything, even where there were roadworks. Timed it well missing rush hour I reckon.
We stopped at services after getting past Manchester and I got my coffee and porridge
Once we got to the NEC and parked we had a short walk to the halls. Then it was DOGGIES!! Oh my I spent a lot of money lol. But it was really great! We got round three halls before we stopped for lunch - I made us all quick butties in the morning and Mum brought a big bag of snacks. Then we finished off Discover Dogs and the last two halls. We grabbed a coffee and cake from Starbucks and then headed to the arena. Timed it perfectly to see some agility finals and then a heelwork to music performance - one that had won this morning. Gutted we missed the Flyball, because it's my favourite event, but it's not like I haven't seen it before
Hopefully next year! Agility is always fun and I know a lot of people think the heelwork to music is silly, but from a training perspective it's quite a feat to work with your dog like that!
I do like spending time in the arena, but better if you go over two days so you can plan the time a bit better.
We did another walk round and picked up the shopping we'd left till later. If you have an expensive item you want it's best to tour the halls and stands first and then go back - check the prices!! The bowl I got for Ellie was £3 cheaper at the stall I bought it from
For Ellie I got 3 things from the doggy bakery (strawberry heart scone, chicken dinner muffin, and venison twist) This place (Daisy's Dog Deli) is amazing and we also buy stuff. Usually because we forgot Ellie's birthday and promise her a cake - surprisingly enough this happened this year too. Lucky her birthday is always the week of Crufts
I also got her a bowl that will stop her from gulping her food, it has moulded bits in it that she has to eat around! She's been struggling with keeping food down as she's been getting older and the problem is that she gulps her food and takes in a lot of air, this should stop that from happening. She really could do with a food bowl stand but our kitchen is so small
Got both doggies lots of treats and we got a bouncy Kong and a rope toy for them to share. Ellie's not that bothered with toys now, but will have a go occasionally.
I got Dave a new harness (one recommended by the Tellington Touch people) and Mum bought him a coat. It's a 2-in-1 so you can take the fleece inner layer out in the summer and just leave the waterproof bit on
I bought myself the two hoodies and also a hare keyring from Joules too.
After we'd exhausted ourselves we drove to the hotel. Bit of a nightmare drive as I missed the exit at the big roundabout coming out of the NEC and the sat nav had to redirect us. We ended up at the most confusing roundabout I have ever been on (I suck at big roundabouts anyway!) and took a couple of detours and ended up going round it at least 3 times
We did eventually get to the hotel and it was gorgeous! Definitely a bargain find and we had such a lovely stay! We missed the local pubs for food and the Chinese restaurant was odd. It was a buffet, but not one you got up to, but order what you want off the menu. They weren't impressed at me being veggie and there wasn't much choice and no official veggie options, so we decided to leave. I felt SO embarassed!
We had a quick drive round but couldn't find anywhere - and at this point we'd realised one of my headlights was out, so I really didn't want to drive too far in the dark and risk being pulled over by the police. So we went to the chippy and pizza place lol! We smuggled pizza's and chippy stuff back to the hotel and chilled out in Michelle's room coz she got the biggest one. I got the smallest and I booked it
Lol!
But you couldn't complain about any of the rooms, they really were lovely!
Late night watching tv, chatting, and Michelle going over my exams with me.
I got up for breakfast with Mum but Michelle didn't make it lol. I just had scrambled eggs, sausages, and toast. Didn't feel like anything else! Bit too full from the pizza
When we checked out we had a quick walk round a bit of the park and found the ducks
Then we went to Halfords to sort my light and wipers.
And then we picked to go to Birmingham Nature Centre, which is basically a little zoo just a few mins away from the city centre! It was so good! Cost us £5.50 each to get in, but it was really nice. I was so impressed with the variety of animals, their enclosures, the layout, everything. Was a nice little find and we spent at least 3hrs there! I put my walking app on but forgot to turn it off when we left, so it tracked me driving lol! Shame coz it would have been fun to see how far we walked. Never mind. Didn't realise but had to drive right through and under the city centre to get to the motorway - I HATE driving in city centres!
Traffic was crap coming back and loads of roadworks and delays. We stopped at Stafford on the way back for over an hour for coffee and a snack.
We carried on and stopped at the Ikea which is close to home. We had a wander round and then had our tea. Think we eventually got home about 9:30, after dropping Michelle off. I was absolutely exhausted! Well, we all were to be fair! But we had such a good couple of days. Felt like longer tho!! Paying for it now, but at least we had fun
Film's about to finish so I'll be heading to bed soon.
Cheerio for now.xx
