Caught in the Act!

Maggie and me nipped out for a little game of "dare in The square" yesterday and thought we had got away with it, without getting caught by the dog napper or spotted by James. All was quiet and we were preparing to go to bed when there was a knock at the door, and it was not 1 but 2 policemen. We both hid in the bedroom but breathed a sigh of relief when we heard them asking Julie & James about a stolen car. However, we realised we had jumped the gun a bit when we heard the policemen say that they wanted to watch camera six so they could look for the car, but of course camera six also covers our dare spot... No stolen car but a great video of me making Maggie run back and for across the road! Needless to say we are both in a little trouble at the moment.

He's clearly as good as me...

Jon did just as well as me in his competition with a fantastic 2nd place. I think he may have had to work a little harder than me though. James, Julie, Jon, Rob, Debs & Fiona all went to the competition and they all told me that they had a great day, and Julie even managed to bring back loads of freebie chocolates off the nice Nestle lady.

They clearly don't give rosettes to Chefs as Jon just had a big lump of glass and a piece of paper called a "certy" something or another.

Debs always checks up on me and maggie too...


I think she may have been giving the judges one of her "don't mess with me" looks here...


Jon shouldn't have let Debs take the credit...


Congratulations to our Great Chef!


Pan fried Sea Bass, served on a bed of Mushroom & Tarragon Risotto with a Mussel and Spinach Cream


Roast Loin of Welsh Lamb served with Sautéed Kidneys, Glazed Mint Chicken Mousse and Drizzled with a Claret & Butter Jus


Poached Pear in Port served with a Lemon Bavoir & Mixed Fruit Compote


Debs clearly thought the papparrazzi had arrived...


Roll on next year!

p.s. It was a good job that Fiona went along and took some pictures for me - Thank You Fiona x

Good Luck Jon!

Jon, Debs and Fiona are just preparing to set off for the Chefs competition and having a last minute cup of tea to calm their nerves before they go. Julie, James & Rob are following on a little later once they have taken care of me and Maggie and given us our instructions for the day. I think that Chino & Karen are coming in later on to help us look after the pub so we may be in for a fun day!

New Food....

Jon, the Chef has been very busy practicing for his competition next week (with just a tiny bit of help from Debs). His new menu was supposed to be top secret, but my human friends in the bar all got to taste the new dishes yesterday after the practice session (the "builders thursday" crowd usually get a few bowls of chips so they must have thought we were trying to sophisticate them - as if!) . He has been receiving cards and emails wishing him luck, and if he wins he is going to cook it all again when he comes home for some "very special humans"!

As well as the competition he has been planning our new christmas menu, which Julie says is even better than last year, but as long as it means we will have an endless supply of Turkey leftovers, I don't really care what else is on there... Who needs melon balls and parsnips!

Julie & James started up the Scottish Country dancing last night. Maggie went and joined in, but I stayed well out of the way. I think they need some more humans next week, so if you need to get yourself in shape come along at 7.30pm on Thursday. James was puffing after just 1 dance!

CJ is also back next week, with the new quiz. I love seeing humans get told off so I can't wait for Wednesday and am secretly hoping that someone is silly enough to take their mobile phone out during the quiz!

Our boat Trip

With all the excitement of our win at the Usk show, I forgot to tell you all about our boat trip last week. Julie's Mum & Dad (Jack & Beryl) hired a canal boat for the day, which we all got on at a place called Goytre Wharf. Jack & Beryl just wanted to sit, eat, drink and look at the scenery, so James and our friend David were put in charge of driving the boat. It was very wobbly on the boat and it took me quite a while to get my balance, especially when someone spotted a duck on one side of the boat and all the silly humans rushed to one side causing the boat to almost capsize. When the boat slowed down at the tunnels and bridges James threw me and Maggie off the boat so that we could have a walk and a sniff along the paths.

Jon and Rob had hepled Julie prepare an enormous picnic and a special little picnic for me and Maggie. When we got back to the boat yard I decided that I could manage getting off myself (which I clearly couldn't) and fell in between the boat and the mooring. Needless to say I had a bit of a scare!


James got bored with driving after a while!

Showing Off

Maggie and I had a photo shoot today so that we could show off our rosettes. You will see from the picture of Maggie that she is still a little miffed that I beat her and wouldn't even smile for James to take a picture..

Will Jon the Chef do as well as me?

My little bit of success today has also put some pressure on our chef, Jon. He recently qualified to compete in the finals of a cooking competition. His is not just in Usk though like mine but, for the whole of Wales, and he is down to the final 5 chefs!

He always makes a great job of cooking my chicken so I think he may stand a chance of winning!

More Rosettes on the Bar!

We all went off to the Usk show today, which was a great day and we even got treated to a hot sausage roll from the Cornish Pastie lorry - "heaven"....

There were lots of other dogs and animals to see and smell so Maggie and I were really excited.

When we got there Julie got out our brush and tried to make me look all poncy and then after watching Maggie parade (get dragged) around the ring and come out with nothing, we were both taken in and made to compete against each other... I was mentally packing my bags and trying to decide if Chino & Karen would let me go and live with them, because if Maggie beat me there was absolutely no way I was coming home and putting up with her getting one over on me!

James and I went on the opposite side of the ring to Maggie and Julie, and pretended that we didn't know them. Maggie got called first, put on the table and given the once over and was then told to trot around the ring, which she surprisingly managed and which then put even more pressure on me. When my turn came, I gave the judge my handsomest smile, and even kept smiling whilst he groped me, so I thought at that point I had the edge on Maggie.....

Why did I get lumbered with James?

He took me off the table and just as I was preparing for my little trot, his size 9 boot came crashing down on my toes causing me to squeal, but I soldiered on with my trot - but not for long.... He then decided that he wanted to show off and started to run!. There's only so fast a Westie can trot, so I ended up almost galloping to keep up. Luckily for me the judge wasn't afraid of James and he shouted at him to slow down to give me a chance to show my stature, and luckily for James I didn't lose my cool.

There were about 25 of us in the class and we were all Terriers. Maggie was in amongst the Staffies (best place for her!) and I was with all the good looking terriers, and there were lots of noisy Jack Russells, but we were all up against each other and waiting for the judge to make up his mind...

The judge called out the winner (which may have been me if the nice little girl looking after that dog had been helping me, instead of james) and then the judge looked at me, then Maggie, then me, then Maggie, but who did he call next?

Me of course!

and then Maggie came 3rd.... hee, hee, hee...

Identifying Cruella !

It seems all the humans in Magor are trying just a bit too hard to identify Cruella and speculation is rife. Just Keep your eyes open! I personally don't think she's been spotted yet ! All I'm prepared to say is that there is more than one human that comes into the Square wearing lipstick.

It also appears that my blog is being read in some surprising places...! Welcome to all my new readers at Home and Abroad.

Thanks for your comments Lola, but shame on you for thinking James is 'pretending to be a dog'. He doesn't need to pretend !

Meanwhile, I'll get back to my usual fun musing and James can continue to welcome the customers.

There's been a development.... !

A few days ago I told you that cowardly Cruella deVille had reported us to the Dog Warden and Environmental Health officers... James & Julie were sad and angry that this happened and I felt that I had to do something, so I sneaked into the Pub office after they had gone to bed and created a poster. The poster some-how managed to find its way into the Post Office and onto the Community Notice board in the square. It was a nice poster with a picture of Maggie & Me. I apologised for having upset our neighbours and told everyone to let James & Julie know if we inadvertently did something "anti-social" or if Maggie escaped ... rather than call in the heavy-handed dog catchers again.

Well, The notice has caused quite a stir. The one that was posted on the notice board in the Post Office was actually STOLEN within 24 hours of it having been put up!!!! Can you believe it? It could only have been Cruella that stole it...No-one else would want to steal it - Would they ?) I sent James over with another copy this time and it's still there and Nic is keeping an eye on it this time to see if someone steals it again.

And here's the good bit... Someone else who says they are "Friends of Maggie & Hamish" have posted a notice of support beside my notice on the community notice board. I'm so pleased. It tells Cruella to get a life and worry about real problems in the village rather than picking on little dogs and the humans trying to run a community pub... Who-ever you are... Thank you for your support.

It's been a funny week at the Golden Lion

It's now a week since our brave Tug-of-War teams were slaughtered by the expert tuggers at the Rose Inn in Redwick and everyone is still feeling a bit bruised, sore and embarrassed about it all (except Snelly) who just didn't seem to take it seriously enough, so James says he'll have to work very hard to be in the re-match team next May.

Deb has gone off the Gretna Green for the week-end, but I'm very pleased to report that she hasn't eloped to get married. She's gone to witness her brother's Wedding which is taking place in Gretna tomorrow (Monday 7th September). I heard her telling Julie and the other human girls that she was going home to get "Sun-Tanned"... I've no idea what she was talking about because I thought you need the sun to get sun-tanned. You humans seem to have some funny ideas. Anyway, I'm a bit jealous that she's off to the land of my ancestors and I'm stuck here in Wales.

Everyone at the Golden Lion has asked me to wish Dave & Laura Perkins all the best for there special day.

There was another very busy day in the function room at the Golden Lion on Tuesday last week. Four Human men turned up with funny accents and proceeded to make a whole crowd of people laugh and clap their hands. I get very tense when all the humans in a room start clapping their hands together and James has to try and calm me down and make me sit still. (I don't bark, but I do like to run around when people clap. It helps me relieve tension.)

The funny men were providing the entertainment on James & Julie's Comedy Club night and by all accounts, they were very funny. (I don't get it - but then again, I never laugh. I just wag my tail when I'm happy and I can't clap either.)



The little guy who made all the introductions was called "Steve" (Porter) and he got everyone warmed up. I later heard James say that he'd like to get Steve back to do a whole "act". Two other humans called Luke & Richard told short funny stories and the humans all seem to be having a good laugh. The last funny man (I heard Julie call them all "stand up comics" - and they do stand up) was called Mark and he was very funny and stood up for a long time making the crowd laugh. After all the other other people left, Mark came to the lounge and stood up again near the bar until after One in the morning talking with James. I thought I'd never get to bed....



Julie said to someone yesterday that there's another "stand-up" comedy night at the Golden Lion on Tuesday the 6th October and tickets are available now. I just thought I'd do my bit to plug it.

NOT such a good fan...

Maggie and Me had a bit of a nasty shock today, which was a reminiscent of those poor pups in 101 Dalmatians.
The dog catcher came to check us out, because some wicked "Cruella" has telephoned and complained that Maggie and I are no less than vagabonds, roaming the streets of Magor, fouling wherever we go and that Julie & James just don't care!

If you see Me or Maggie being bundled into the dog wagon please come and save us, but more importantly if you see the evil "Cruella" (the lipstick should give you a clue) please come and warn us so that we can both hide.