The new kitchen is now watertight and we can now go in there to get water and wash up…even though that means doing it by hand as the only thing left is one cabinet with the sink over it. Still, at least we do have hot and cold running water.

Lola doesn’t care – she can still play her favourite game (clatterbone) at will on the floor of the old kitchen. The game basically consists of chucking the nylabone in the air so it clatters onto the tiled floor. It is the BEST game ever according to my little girl. She plays it over and over again, preferably roping me in to be the thrower of the bone so she can go skating after it to “tame” it and bring it back. Morning, noon, afternoon or night, there she is: chuck, clatter, clatter, clatter…chuck, clatter, clatter, clatter – repeat ad infinitum. In the morning, after a two player game while I make the tea, I hear her when I get upstairs with two steaming cuppas, migrating to a one player game. If (when in a team bout), I fail to throw the bone to her satisfaction, she looks at me with complete disdain and it’s clear she’s thinking “well that was a bit rubbish, try and do better next time”.

I haven’t told her that the new floor won’t provide anything like such a good game because it will absorb the impact, rather than bounce it off. I think I may be about to become the most unpopular dog mum ever!