Stubbylee Blog

My company decided four years ago to change their company car scheme from Ford to Vauxhall so when my beloved Galaxy was due to be replaced I had a difficult decison what to choose. The Zafira seemed the logical choice but looking at onethere is absolutely no comparison between the 2 despite what Vauxhall’s marketing may think. So I decided o take a cheaper alternative and use the money saved to buy our own Galaxy to transport our dogs.

I decided on a Vauxhall Astra and as I drive over 100 miles per day went for the LPG option. This restricted my choice of body style and engine size so I finished up with a 1.4 SXI 5 door hatchback.

BIG MISTAKE

Firstly the 1.4 engine is pathetic it has all the performance of an arthritic tortoise, its embarrassing being beaten away from traffic lights by lorries, buses even people with Zimmer frames seem to move faster. Then there’s the LPG system. It looks a really neat system with a switch on the right of the dashboard to chage between petrol & gas. The single fuel gauge serves both systems showing the fuel reserves for whichever system you are running on. When on LPG there’s a flashing indicator on the fuel switch to let you know when its running on petrol. Due to the superb ergonomics of the car its impossible to see this switch from your normal driving position so a couple of times I’ve actually run out of fuel as I hadn’t realised its switched over to petrol. The conversion itself was pretty poor; firstly the LPG just wouldn’t fill at some pumps so the car spent about a week in the garage before that was fixed. Then it kept knocking itself onto petrol and generally running badly on LPG. It spent over a month in the garage on and off whilst they failed to find the problem. The Vauxhall dealers for all their best efforts had no idea how to deal with LPG having to refer to millbrook for advice. No wonder Vauxhall no longer offer an LPG option

Don’t let me give the impression I don’t like LPG I do. Our Galaxy has been converted and I’d gladly convert our next car - just make sure you choose a decent garage who know what they are doing.

Externally the paintwork is terrible - no other word for it - even after only 50000 miles it had all chips all over, not just on the bonnet but wings, doors even the roof. I’ve never seen as poor a quality finishg on a modern car. Inside the car is cheap and plasticy - they’ve tried to make it look flash but failed abysmally it would have been a lot better if they’d just kept it simple. Pseudo brushed aluminium looks exactly like cheap plastic intended to look like brushed aluminium; the centre console in its stylish silvery grey plastic compliments - well nothing at all really. It would also be nice if the build quality was good but it isn’t. The worst thing though are the seats - the most uncomfortable place to sit I’ve experienced even church pews are better. On a long drive after around 100 miles I have to stop to rest and if I have to drive home from London the next day I’m aching and exhausted. This car is to luxury and comfort what motorway services are to Michelin Star cuisine. 

To be fair to the car it does have its good points, the handling and cornering are very good altough it doesn’t have the get up and go to get into any real difficulties, the panoramic sunroof (fitted as an optional extra) is really good making the car feel nice and airy and the glove box is Tardis like seeming bigger than the rest of the car.

How would I sum up the car? - simply its the worst car I’ve had in the last 20 years - and people who know us will remember some pretty dodgy motors.

Yesterday was the NBA Limited show which means its a hectic weekend getting things ready on the Saturday, printing off paperwork, ensuring all the rosettes & prize cards are ready, sorting out the tea & coffee along with lots of other little tasks. The day started badly I’d driven down as far as Meadowhall shopping centre before realising I’d missed the motorway junction - I’ve only been going to grenoside for over 10 years I can’t be expected to remember everything.

The show had an excellent entry with over 60 dogs - our best Limit show entry for over 10 years - you worry though how many are complimentary entries to support our judge Margaret Manning and how many will turn up on the day. At 10:30 the hall was still pretty empty but then everyone seemed to arive at once, I think a lot of people had been outside exercising their dogs in the Yorkshire sunshine (they don’t get much over there). Absentees turned out to be pretty low with lots of good classes. Throughout the day the atmosphere at the show seemed really good, there were lots of raffle prizes and people were generous in buying tickets - so much so that I ran out before I could part everyone from their money. Still, Don Foran did a  good job selling club fleeces and polo shirts. The kitchen did a steady trade throughout the day with lots of appreciation for Fred’s meat & potato pie.

Miss Manning seemed to enjoy the judging, congratulations go to Lorraine Harvey on winning BIS and to everyone else who won but also to all those exhibitors who made the day so enjoyable. Thanks also to all the Committee for their efforts throughout the day whether it was working in the kitchen,acting as outside steward or any of the 101 jobs that need to be done at a show.

We decided for the show to schedule 2 Junior Handling classes to try and encourage some of the younger people to attend shows. It was a pleasure to see the youngsters handling their Borzoi so well - congratulations to them all. When so much is said about the attitude of  the youth of today it was great to see how much effort they put into the day helping to set up the ring, filling the bases for the ring posts with water, helping in the kitchen and lots of other little tasks. Although it’s a bit unfair to mention anyone in particular Jess Markowski was a little gem always willing and eager to help.

We took three dogs to the show Rush, Diva and Star; this time though it was Star who outshone her brother & sister. Andrew handled her (the first time he’s handled for a few years) winning Novice bitch and then going on to take Reserve Best Bitch not bad for only her 3rd show.

The best memory of the day though was Pat McGee Heys complaining to the steward that she’d been given a 2nd place prize card for Junior handling. I’m not sure if she was complaining about having the card for the wrong class or that she hadn’t won the Junior Handling

The two babies have now overflowed their whelping box and are enjoying life in a larger puppy pen. What they really enjoy best is when we let them out into the room to play, explore or just terrorise us.

On Friday Kirsty & Iain Sanderson came over with their son Zak to see the babies. They had an abolutely lovely time playing out. They would gallop around the room climbing over feet, exploring shoes with their teeth and just playing with each other. Magic has developed a way of teasing her brother; as he’s running around she will chase after him and grab his tail. Spirit took a real liking to one of the big dog’s basket, clambering over people’s legs to climb into the basket and then lie in the middle of the bed looking very smug with himself - little puppy big bed. The funniest bit though was when Zack was cuddling Spirit, they’d spent 5 minutes happily nuzzling each other when suddenly from Zack - who’s normally nice polite & quiet - come “Ow you bugger” in a Lancashire accent - Spirit had nibbled his ear. We all just fell about laughing - even Zack was smiling.

It really does benefit the puppies though not only do they get to play out in a large room building up muscles but its an important part of their socialisation.

The babies are now happily tucking into solid foods, they have a variety of foods such as mince and rice but their favourite seems to be meat and pasta. Pasta shells are a real delight to them especially for Spirit who’s work out that the dog mince collects in the shell. So he picks up a shell and takes it off to bed being careful nut to spill any of its meaty cargo he can then eat the meat at his leisure before tucking into the shell. Once thats finished its back off to the food bowl for more, stopping off at their bowl of milk for a bit of refreshment.

It reall is a hard life being a puppy

It snowed overnight, not much just 2 or 3 inches but its the first snow that Luka’s puppies have seen. So Star, Zorro, Diva and Rush went out with Luka and had an absolutley lovely time.  They charged round the run, weaving around the trees and cornering at full speed throwing up plumes of snow as their feet dug in. Leaping and jumping around each then burrowing their noses in the snow it was great just spending time watching them.

Its such a pity we don’t have as much snow nowadays as the dogs seem to really enjoy it. William used to love lying in the snow watching the world go by before coming in with balls of snow hanging from his coat. Jazz is just the same lying out while the snow falls around him - it seems his children are taking after him.

Do other people’s borzoi behave the same - perhaps its an inherited memory of Russia or maybe all dogs behave the same?

With the terrible weather over the winter parts of the dog’s run has almost turned into a quagmire so it was time to get more bark chipping to cover it. We use bark as the dogs love it and its kind on their feet and has more spring than solid sufaces such as concrete.

After having to wait a couple of weeks util our supplier could get his wagon on the field the first truck load arrived, dumped in the middle of the drive. Fortunately Andrew was home for the week so he was able combine moving it with building up his fitness. The second load was freshly cut conifers, they can’t be used around plants as they burn the plants as they decay but its fine for the dogs run.

We finish up with a great Christmas treey pine smell and the dogs love playing and rolling in it. The one problem is bits of conifer leaf inevitably get caught in their coat, after the first day Jazz looked like he’d been trained by the army in the art of camoflague - a big black & white dog with bits of green sticking out at all angles. When I arrived home tonight Luka was there with a piece of greenery on a small twig hanging from one of her ear tufts, like a sort of ethnic earring for dogs - she looked totally offended when it was removed.