Good news from Ireland, and therefore not so good news...

Before finally accepting my judging appointment in Ireland at the FCI show ( which was the same weekend as our World Team tryouts ) I made sure that this would not be a problem in relation to the tryouts. I was told this would not be a problem so I happily accepted the judging appointment, and was invited to the first tryout weekend :o) So far so good...! BUT... 3 weeks before my trip to Ireland I was told that if I did not attend the second tryout weekend I would not be able to be considered for the World Championships. Does that suck or what???? If I had been told this from the start I could have:

1) Said no to Ireland or
2) Said yes to Ireland and saved the first tryout weekend ( $$$ and the time ).

But because I wasnt told until 3 weeks before I could not back out of my judging appointment - so the decision was made for me :o( :o( :o(

Apart from that I had a wonderful trip to Ireland. We spent a couple of days sightseeing, and 2 days at the show. I was judging Saturday - and watched breed judging Sunday. Sunday it poured with torrential rain - very scarey :o) Especially if I had to judge out in that weather. We only had a bit of rain Saturday.

The hotel we stayed at was absolutely fantastic - the Irish Kennel Club really know how to look after their guests. The dinners were amazing - on the Saturday night the reception was attended by Irelands Prime Minister Bertie Ahern.

On one of the trips into the city I kept bumping into signs with friend's dogs names: Paddy, Unique and Robbie :o)

The neatest thing at the hotel was the hallway down to the reception area. When you looked at the floor it looked like there was a fish pond covered with glass. It was all computer animation, but the amazing thing was that the computer animated fish BEHAVED LIKE REAL FISH :o) Imagine Whizz getting close to those fish....! Thanks to the 2 obedience judges, Margaret and Eileen, who were herding the fish for the camera...