Skeinspotting

A Couple of Book Reviews For You

I finally abondoned my attempt to finish Teacher Man by Frank Mccourt. I lost interest because the anecdotes seemed insipid, insincere, reflected not a maverick but a failure to conform where rules and regulations must give some sort of structure to young peoples lives. I also lost interest as well because this was the US style of teaching in the 1950's and 1960's so felt very remote from the experiences I had when I worked in education in Britain. Perhaps I will try it again but I suppose really I want my books to be fiction and create a rich world to escape from this one.

As a quick read, I read Janet Street-Porter's biography Baggage and you can call her a cynic but I can exactly see where she is coming from with the experiences she had as a teenager and the escape she had from her suburban monotony into the world of art, music, philosophy, architecture and the media. I could go on to explain other reasons why I found her biography so entertaining but it would reveal too much about my own personal background and that is not what this blog is for!

Now I have started a most surreal tale bought for me as a Christmas present called Edward Trencom's Nose and I am sure this is going to be in the same category as The Vesuvius Club and Misfortune, both of which I enjoyed so I will let you know what this was like when I finish.



Which dog?????

We are still grieving the loss of our sable/white border collie who was with us for 17 years. We were not ready to be dog owners quite yet but now have a dilemma. A friend of a friend has a 2yr old male Doberman dog that he is hoping to re home because his wife is pregnant and doesn't feel happy about having a dog with a newborn baby to look after.

However, at the very same time, our beloved Jem's relatives have two puppies, both boys who are up for adoption. They are 6mths old, one is sable and white like Jem and the other is tricolour and they were both born in the same month that Jem passed away.

The dilemma?
Do we adopt a dog now even though we weren't expecting to? We could miss the chance of all of the above options if we don't adopt now and the more we think about it the more it appeals to do so.

Do we take in the Doberman, knowing that of all 3 dogs this would be the hardest to re home? One of the things putting me off is that this breed doesn't live that long so in about 6-8yrs we would be going through the same bereavement heartache. However, an adult dog can be easier as they are toilet trained etc. But at the same time, I am not familiar with this breed.

Do we take in one of Jem's nephews? As you will see from the two collies above from Jem's family, there is such a strong family likeness between dogs it could be heartbreaking to see the same characteristics. however, it might bring us closer to the cycle of life and give us joy to see Fan's (Jem's mum) genes carrying on. Border collies are my first love as far as dogs are concerned. they are hairy though?

Could we take on two dogs? Perhaps we could have a collie puppy and the Doberman, or we could have two collie puppies. Dogs do love each other's company and sometimes 2 dogs are not much more hassle than one.

The other problem of course is that being disabled and unwell myself, I would heavily rely on my partner to be the dog walker as well as having a full time job. Is that really fair.

What do we do? any advice? We hear that this is the last of the line re Fan's border collie descendants as the breeder is too ill for dogs.

Just look at the similarity between these two related collies though, one is Jem and the other is Teal.