Dogs Trust Charity Ball Weekend

Right, i know it's tuesday but this is the first time i've felt awake and alive enough to do an update from the weekend - i was away in a hotel in Leeds and shock horror i didn't do a real-time blog hehehe.

There were all sorts of complications with the arrangements for us going to Leeds - we were booked in for tea but in the end we realised we'd have to skip the tea at the hotel cos the last complication was that Katie had an appointment in Southport at 6pm so we couldn't leave here till at least 7pm or later.

Katie texted me to say she was on her way to mine at about 6.45 but i had just put my tea on :-o Thankfully my tea only took 20 minutes and Katie's journey here took 45 so i was finished by the time she arrived. When she got here she said she'd left her paper with the route on at the place where she'd been so could we print another. That was fine except i had to actually turn the computer on etc. I also rang Karen while Katie was here and she asked if we could pick them up on the way to the ball on the saturday evening - of course Katie said it was fine so we printed out other routes for the next day.

We left here at about 8pm i think and set off for Leeds. Because we were leaving that late the roads were really easy and there were no hold-ups along the way. Infact we had to do M57-M62 and they have VERY recently opened a new slip road leading from one motorway to the other without having to go down and round the roundabout - we were very impressed LOL

When we got to the hotel Katie went to check us in while i stayed in the car with the stuff. When she came back she said we were on the 2nd floor and there was no lift :-o Not very disabled-friendly then!!! And not only were we on the 2nd floor, getting from reception to the room was a right trek - as you turned left from reception there were about 4 steps down then a bit of corridor then another 4 steps down then another corridor then another 4 steps down. After that it was up a double flight of stairs along quite a long corridor then up another double flight of stairs then along another long corridor before we got to our room :-o

When we finally made it to our room we basically just settled in and watched Children in Need for quite a long time before we eventually went to sleep - or at least tried to. It was after 2am when we stopped talking intending to sleep but when we got up the next day neither of us had slept very well :-S :-(

We went down for breakfast which was standard hotel breakfast - hot and cold buffet. I also remembered to take quite a large bumbag and some food bags so we could take food from breakfast to eat at lunchtime.

After breakfast we collected all the day's newspapers and took them back to our room. We mooched around a bit and Katie found a couple of funny / interesting articles in the paper - The Times i think. One was a full page article about public toilets ;-D ;-D It was saying how there aren't enough of them, and especially there aren't enough female toilets - some professor or something reckons there should be a ratio of 2:1 female to male toilets LOL He reckons men don't go as often as female and also take half the time - this was a proper study which had been carred out hahahaha. The other one was 10 things you should know before becoming celibate LOL I can't remember the details of that!

We did consider trying to use the hotel's wi-fi and doing my tax-return online but when i went on it said it wasn't a secure connection and things could be seen by others - we decided it wasn't a good idea!!

We decided to go down and see what the pool and possibly gym were like but when we got in we discovered the pool is really small - i could swim across the widest part of it in one breath! And it was only 1.2m deep all over! We messed around a bit and then decided to get in what we presumed was the jacuzzi pool although the bubbles weren't turned on :-( That was nice, it was quite warm but only tiny. We'd only been in there about 40 minutes when other people came in - with 3 children who it looked like were there for a swimming lesson!!! We chose that time to get out and go back to our room. When we went back to the changing room there were only 2 showers, they were in cubicles but the one i went in the door didn't lock 8| I had intended to have a proper shower but decided i might as well just do my normal and shower with my swimming costume on. There was only one changing cubicle so i let Katie have that, the rest was communal changing and i'm able to get changed and stay decent haha. Also the cubicla had a chair in it and was a smaller space so everything was more compact for katie.

While i was getting changed another lady came in from the gym for a shower and she took her top off and just wandered round like that :-o The most indecent i was was wearing a bra over the top of my towel hahaha.

Once we were changed we headed back to the room for a while and had something to eat.

When we were on the way to the hotel we'd seen a sign for Christmas World so we decided to go and have a look round that. Thankfully, once we'd turned right off the roundabout by our hotel it was just a straight route and it was signposted all along, the only problem was the last sign was basically "turn NOW" Luckily there was no-one behind Katie when we saw it so she was able to brake a bit sharper than she would've liked.

Christmas Worl was basically a large garden centre with a considerable section dedicated to christmas paraphenalia. We had a good look round although we didn't buy anything cos it was all over-priced, stuff we saw for £3 or £4 we reckon we could probably get at home in somewhere like Poundland.

We got back to the hotel at about 3.30pm i think and just lazed around for a while, because neither of us had slept well we were both really sleepy and i know i wasn't really fit for anything. Graham rang me at about 4ish to arrange picking up them and also Karen's boss from Dogs' Trust allong the way. Grajam is great at giving directions, he seems to know all the roads round Leeds and gives you direction with Road nu,bers rather than names which is really useful cos it's numbers you get on the signs :-)

Anyway Katie and I started getting ready around 5ish and we both had to help each other into our dresses hahaha Katie needed help with her zip and altohugh i can actually get into mine without help it was easier if she helped.

When we were both ready we set off on our trek through the hotel - literally dressed up to the nines - and we got quite a few comments from other residents as we went down :-$

When we got to Karen and Graham's house Katie said she was staying in the car rather than fighting with her dress again haha. I went in to the huse - and the door was actually open :-o I went in and called hello, Graham said they were upstairs but i said i wasn't going up - didn't want to fight with my large dress up the stairs, especially with the dog gate at the bottom LOL. When they were ready to come down their dog came down first and obviously wanted to play :-o Had i not been in a ballgown i'd have been happy to play but i was trying to get him calm - what a joke!!

Once everyone was ready we set off and had to pick up John from the actual Dogs Trust place but luckily it was on the way, although we did have to sit in the driveway and wait a while for him 8|

When we got to the hotel where the ball was we got the best parking speck ever - literally right outside the door!! It was a disabled space and as Katie's got the crutches and the blue badhe she might as well use them!!

Just inside the door people were milling around and there were 2 photographers there, the official portrait photographers and also a lady from Yorkshire Life magazine. The press lady got 6 of us lined up for a photo and took our names so you never know i might be in the magazine hehe. THe porttrait man also took our photos - one of each of us seperate and one of Katie and I together, he also took a photo of karen and graham. We all decoded to buy our photos although Katie and i didn't bother with the one of us together, just the separate ones.

We all had tables allocated to us and the tables weren't numbered, they were named after one of the dogs at the centre. As luck would have it we were on Toppa's table - the dog i looked after at Open Day :-D :-D And Karen said he'd got a home just 2 days before :-D :-D :-D

On each place setting there was an envelope for a donation and also you put your name on and it became your raffle ticket for the draw later in the evening. When the draw was done both Katie and I won a prize but i didn't keep mine - it was a day pass for 2 at a Harrogate health Spa, there's not much point me keeping that as Harrogate is a bit far to travel just for that - i gave my prize to Karen, she can enjoy it with someone :-) Katie kept her prize cos it was a bottle of whisky - although she doesn't drink she said she might use it as a christmas present.

While we had dinner there was a jazz band playing and we weren't very impressed with that! We also weren't very impressed that one of the guests at the BALL was wearing JEANS :-o :-o :-o >:-(

Dinner was ok altough it (and the rest of the evening combined) wasn't worth the £45 we paid for it!! Starter was carrot and orange soup which was nicer than i expected actually; mains was chicken with potatoes and veg; and dessert was profiteroles flavoured with Baileys. Originally i was forgotten about for dessert, i was sitting there for ages with no pudding and when it eventually came i think i got normal profieroles rather than Baileys ones cos everyone seemed to be pulling faces and saying they were really strong - i couldn't taste anything like that :-S I wasn't in the least bit bothered though cos i think i got the better end of the deal :-D

After dinner they did the charity auction but that wasn't very successful. Most of the items were signed celebrity items and the starting bids were around the £200-£300+ mark, very few people were bidding at those prices and at least 4 or 5 items he couldn't sell at the prices that were being offered!!

The tables all had helium balloons on and instead of the normal weight wrapped in shiny paper or something, the weight for these ballons was a cuddly dog - awwww. After we'd had dinner and we werwe sitting chatting i pulled the dog to me and was sitting cuddling and stroking it LOL Apparently there had been cuddly dogs to buy but by the time we thought about it they'd all gone so Graham told me to just take our table dog home :-) :-)

The last part of the night was the disco. The first few songs were a bit naff then when the first decent song came om Karen and I got up to dance and we requested all the cheesy disco favourites - YMCA, timewarp, macarena, locomotion, S Club 7, Steps Abba - etc etc. Well we thought we were on to a winner cos we gpt YMCA almost straight away but then the rest of the night he spent filling and emptying the floor 8| Most of his song choices were rubbish then on occasions he'd get it right and ourt on a great somg that filled the floor, usually the very next one was dire!! And instead of finishing the night with a good rousing song like New York New York he put on slow, miserable 'slit-your'wrists' music (i can't remember exactly what it was) - what a way to finish the night!!!

Once the disco had been turned off we were getting ready to go home but we had to wait for John to finish his drink 8| He had a glass of cider then discovered he also had a full bottle as well! :-o Thankfully he decided to take the bottle with him so we just had to wait until he'd finished the glass. In the end Katie and I went out to the car, Karen and Graham followed shortly after and then we were waiting for John (again!).

When John eventually appeared we headed off to Dogs Trust but i was sooo tired i actually sat with my eyes closed half asleep. When we got John home he had to climb over the gate to get in and he was well-sozzled, we all thought it would be hilarious to watch him get over the gate but he actually did it really easily :-o :-( LOL

We dropped Karen and Graham back at their house then made our way back to our hotel - it was actually pretty much a straight run from theirs to our hotel so that was good (although Graham had given me directions earlier in the evening)

When we got back there were no disabled bays left but we got a space as close as we could and headed off to bed. I had to ask Katie to help me out of the dress again, i can do it on my own but it's really awkward. I put my dress back in the wardrobe before getting in to bed and thankfully i actually slept pretty well :-)

We were planning on leaving the hotel at 10am so i set my alarm for about 8am ready to go to breakfast at 9ish but it didn't go off 8| Luckily i woke up at 8.15 anyway and was ready by 8.45 so it didn't matter. I sat and watched the telly for a bit before I woke Katie at 8.55 - she literally only needs about 5 minutes to be ready :-o :-o

Once we'd had breakfast we came back up to the room to get ready to leave. Lucky we were watching out for each other and each other's stuff cos Katie had left her glasses by the tea and coffee so nearly forgot them she also left her books on the bedside table but she spotted them herself; I nearly left my phone charger and Katie spotted that when she was sorting her own stuff on the other table.

We got ourselves sorted and were checked out and on the road by about 10am as planned. Because it was sunday morning the roads were pretty clear so we had a nice easy run :-) When the M60 turned back into the M62 i texted my mum to say we were about an hour away and i was bring a dog home with me hehe I told her he was house trained and he sits and stays on command hehehe. Her return text went along the lines of "WHAT!!! i hope it's a toy" She knows me too well ;-D ;-D

We got back to mine at about 11.45 so i got my stuff out of the car and came in. Once i'd been in about 15 minutes i realised i'd left my dress in Katie's car 8| It had been on the back seat in her mini portable warddrobe with her dress so it hadn't been really obvious which is how i missed it 8| She'll bring it back when she's next in this area.

I then spent the rest of the day actually being quite productive :-o I did some piano practice (not that you know it from how i performed in my lesson lkast night!!!!), i made my bed and i'm sure there was more but i can't remember now - that's how great it was LOL

Anyway, that's it for this entry! Well done if you've got this far!! LOL