Well the first flurry of snow arrived yesterday morning and my Mistress was immediately on the alert for the precautions that might be needed to get her safely to Switzerland. First and foremost, she is moving her car off the drive and parking down by the duck pond. To have her journey scuppered because it is impossible to get off our driveway seems to be a risk not worth taking. Secondly she is looking at getting an earlier train to London to allow for it being delayed. The bit she can’t do anything about is the London to Paris leg. If that is delayed then events are out of her hands. If she gets to London in time for an earlier train to Paris, she might go and flutter her eyelashes and see if they will switch her to an earlier one, but the fare conditions of her ticket are fixed to the particular train she is booked on. It will depend whether the person at the desk is a ‘jobsworth’ or a human being feeling the spirit of Christmas and goodwill to all men, women and dogs. The fact that Switzerland has snow and simply copes with it, is almost amusing in this situation. We’ve still got a lot to learn! What is certain is that she is planning to travel as light as possible. The thought of dragging a suitcase through the snow to get from place to place is less than appealing.
Yesterday also saw her madly doing some housework. Principally, I should say, clearing up from the mess we had left behind. The end result is that the rope that was our trusty old friend and tug toy has been unceremoniously dumped in the rubbish bin. Shadow and I are in deep mourning. We only have a really tough rope to console us and that one is much harder to get our mouths round.