delay, roadworks, traffic cones ... 500 miles round trip!

I had a mad weekend!

I have entered Wimslow, Ribble and Newton Heath and only to realise they were far away to travel for one day show! SO, please do not ask me for directions advice. I have once read the map upside down while Colin was driving! This is why you never see Colin driving anymore!!!

Anyway, back to my MAD weekend. I got to cancel Wimslow and Ribble in time and forgot about Newton Heath. When the running order arrived last week, I chuck it aside, never thought I will go that distance to compete.

As you all know, I was busy with two Skyes staying, they really kept me on my toes. Baby Skye went home with her mummy on Friday afternoon ... I really miss that lunatic. She is a joy to own, such fun and always running around when she is awake and I do miss the crazy tuggy game!

After she has gone, I felt so empty and quiet! I rang Colin at work at 4pm asking him if he thinks I am crazy to go all the way to Preston? Well, the answer is YES but he said to me: I bet you want to go and let's go! Ha, you really have to love this man. He is very supportive eventhough he doesn't understand why I enjoy agility so much. He keeps telling me he wants to find me a cheaper hobby!

I picked him up at 6:30pm from the Station and drove straight up to Preston. According to my sat nav, we should be there by 10:30pm but it took us 1.5 hours to get through Central London, then we got caught in the roadworks on M1. At many areas, we were merging into ONE lane and speed limit was down to 40/50 mph! After one quick toilet stop, we got to Preston at midnight. We stayed in ibis. It is very nice and clean and have a good area for the dogs to run around. The boys settled in very well especially Sizzle. He almost went straight to his bed after we settled down. This is only his second time away staying in the hotel.

Luckily, Myerscough College is only 12 minutes from ibis so we got a bit of lie-in on Saturday morning. This is our first time at this venue so it took us a while to find the place. The indoor arena was brilliant, the surface was very good to run. They have 4 rings running, I thought we will finish before mid-day but I was wrong! We were actually the last ring and my last run with Sing was at 3pm!

We got there slightly passed 8:30am, Sizzle's Graded 1-4 Agility run is after the Medium dogs. I got to watch some Medium dogs ran, the course has some tricky bits and I have seen so many dogs making mistakes. It wasn't long before they put the jumps down for small dogs. We only have a short time to walk the course. I knew I have to work hard on the jump-tunnel-jump-jump-tunnel-jump- DW (after the A Frame). I have seen most dogs did jump-tunnel-jump, then straight up the DW. I have to say the jump before the DW was very close together, so I was very worried Sizzle will go straight up to the DW and I was very proud that he was very responsive and I think we did that part very well.

By the time I went to the car and got Sizzle in for the run, the queue was long! We have a long wait and watched some small dogs go around. Some fast small dogs also make a mistake in the jump-jump-jump(right around)-jump-weave (after the see-saw), what they all did was ... jump-jump-jump-tunnel! I never thought of that!! Sizzle almost went into the tunnel but he was very good to come back to me when I called his name. That was the only detour that cost him time but I was glad that he still win the class by a big margin! Also, there were some small dogs found it hard to tip the see-saw. I remembered seeing a tiny breed stood there ages waiting for it to tip! Sizzle is only 4kg and we sometimes have that problem too!

Our second run was Sizzle's Graded 1-4 jumping. I was very disappointed there is no weave in the course. Again, Sizzle surprised me by winning that with a good margin too! This is his first jumping win! WooHoo! I am so happy!

500 miles, 27 hours away from home, TLC (Time Lock in Car) spent most time stuck in the traffic and roadworks, all over within a minute! That's worth it though as my little Sizz man gone Grade 5! I am over the moon!

To top that up, Sizzle's playmate Zev won the Agility and Jumping in the Medium with two superb rounds! Mega Congratulations to Christine and the handsome Zev!

Thanks to Marc (Zev's daddy) for this wonderful photo of the boys and their winning

Sing and Saturn's first run was at mid-day. Unfortunately the medium boys got eliminated! I was very glad with Sing, this is his first run since October. He seems happy to jump medium height again. We started training two weeks ago but he was jumping small height. I was worry that he may not cope with the medium height but he was happy. I don't care him making mistake as bringing him back to run again is a big achievement but I have learned that never takes your eyes off the dog eventhough he is one experienced dog! My Saturn plan went wrong, I wanted to do a front cross before the long jump, I guess I forgot so I was way behind him when he shot through the cloth tunnel, I knew there is no way I can turn him then, so I lost him and he went off course! Hahaha ...

After the jumping, we had a long wait for the agility. Saturn is still not allow to do agility so I was wondering is it worth waiting for that? I decided to stay as we came all this way and I want to run Sing to see how he is coping. We took the dogs for a good long walk and Sing found the stream and went for a quick swim! I think he is fit now, I haven't seen any stiffness in him but I know he is a little over weight at the moment but he is lively.

We got eliminated in the Agility! Again, I forgot to do the front cross which I plan, so he went in the wrong end of the tunnel but his running DW was beautiful and I am very pleased with him.

We didn't hang around after the last run. We knew it would be another awful long journey home. Luckily we set off quite early as I have heard they have some heavy snow that night! Phew! Lucky escape! We got home 10pm on Saturday night.

Funny, I wasn't tired, I was still hyper! I guess I am going crazy, agility addict is my new name! I didn't get to bed till midnight. I was playing with the other dogs as they were left with my nephew and Ling while we were away.

We have to wake up early on Sunday as we have the Sheltie Club Working Section AGM. I am a committee so I have to be there. So, off we went early in the morning, stuck in the roadworks and traffic cones again! I think Britain is being converted into one giant roadworks site, the traffic cones stretch from London to Preston!!

We left all the dogs behind this time, the boys were very tired and fed up travelling in the car!! I think it is fair to give them a good rest at home.

The AGM went well, Brax (Saturn's pair partner) won all the trophies!!! And so do Brodie! Congratulations to Matthew & Bracken and Rhoda & Brodie!

here is our runs, the music might not be right but I just loved this song, it was on the radio most of the time when we stuck in the traffic this weekend: