I’m having something of a ‘mare’ at work at the moment but I really try hard not to allow my gloominess from the office spill over into my home life so my journey home is a mantra – ‘I am a normal human being, not superwoman, just ordinary me’. I repeat this ad nauseum all the way home with an occasional lapse into gnashing of teeth and wailing. Today has been one of my worst days for some considerable time and I got home still feeling pretty blue.

Mike R was here and so I wasn’t forced into being as bright as a button straight away, when he and David are poring over the PC or some techie thing, I have the opportunity to pop my head round the door and say ‘hi’ then disappear off to my PC. That wasn’t good for me today because my mantra had worn off before I was able to rescue good humour.

The dogs have been following me around like shadows since I got in and I can only assume this is because they’ve picked up the vibes of my misery. Archie in particular is so sensitive, he can’t bear it when I’m not my usual ebullient self. He is a pace in front of me at all moments and as soon as I come to a halt he prostrates himself in front of me for a tickle. He’s so sweet and nice you can’t help but smile when he does this – it’s really good for the soul.

DM and Mike popped into my office for a quick look at a demo of Neat Image and asked me what my pic would be today. I said ‘I’ve no clue – I’m on a complete blank’. David suggested some things to me but I like to make this real and about my life so I didn’t want an ‘aliens footprint in the butter’ shot. He asked me what my story was to be so he could help with some suggestions for illustrating my story. I said my day was such pants I didn’t want to write about it I wanted to write about something nice instead and he suggested a pic of the dogs.

I had been mulling over a shot of Archie with the raggy that Ian gave to them when he was down in May for some weeks and decided, yes, the good stuff in my life today is being back at home with the people and things around me that I love and care about so a dog shot would be just right.

I explained my idea to DM who obligingly played with Archie while I fired off enough shots to get the one I wanted and here it is. Archie with Ian’s raggy and DM on the other end of it. If only there was a Rosie connection too then all of my family would have been part of the shot. Ah well, not to worry, perhaps a tennis ball shot with Rosie coming up soon.

My day has been horrid from the moment I set foot over my boundary this morning and it only got better when I got back inside my own borders tonight. So now, I've got two border collies looking after our borders and keeping the world at bay.