More poppadoms (and other stuff) for Pippa

I have a new idea.

While I am waiting for the movie project to come to fruition, I am going to become a restaurant critic.

Pippa the Restaurant Reviewer. Pippa the food crit. Pippa picks places for poppadoms, pasta, pizza and pie.

We have had a splurge of dining out this week.

Although mistress claims to like cooking, master can not be bothered to wait for the inordinate amount of time it takes for her to dish up the slop nice food, so he has insisted that we all go out to dinner instead.

Do I mind? Of course not. I get a nice walk down to the marina, I sit in the sun, people admire me, sometimes I get tasties from M&M and the morning after, I get delicious extras for my breakfast.







And because some of my friends were asking about poppadoms, I have included a picture of them. Well, what's left of them.



Here are the nice pickles that we put on our poppadums. Then what's left of the pickles goes on our curry and rice.



We decided to try out one of the posh restaurants.



I say we, but for some reason that escapes me, I did not get to go. However when mistress got her main course, there was enough food for four dogs. I kid you not. So they came home with enough food for me for two breakfasts and there was so much vegetable tatin that mistress managed to make another meal for them in the evening out of it. It made what seemed like an expensive meal very good value.

Then they decided they would go to an Italian. I lay on my sofa and glared at master.

"I think we will take Pippa," said master hastily. I smiled again.

So off we all went to the Italian restaurant. This was situated on a nice promenade, up above the old naval dockyards and looking out to sea. This was another fine place and lots of dogs walked past so it was very interesting.

The Greedy Ones had an excellent starter (which they don't usually have) of mozzarella and tomato with some pesto dressing and salad. This was a top idea because when they got their pizza and pasta it meant that they left some for my breakfast. And I had a little bit of pizza at the restaurant. The fine man brought me a bowl of water too without even asking. This restaurant definitely gets the paws up from Pippa.



On a restaurant roll, master suggested we go out again last night. I immediately glared at him.

"Of course we can take Pippa wherever we go so there is no point leaving him," master said.

Mistress added helpfully, "Yes, there are no cats down at the marina, only people and dogs, so Pippa doesn't cause any disturbance."

I wasn't sure I liked the last part of that comment. I don't consider chasing cats to be a disturbance. It is part of my role in life, like eating and sleeping. Silly mistress.

They decided to try a different restaurant again. Another posh-looking one.



We sat by the rails at the marina and master tied my lead to them. The waiter came out and mistress asked which options were vegetarian. There was only a starter, a salad and a main course. So mistress promptly ordered them.

Well, mistress, I think it would have been a good idea to have ordered two of something and not just shared it between you both. It is no good you both smacking your lips and saying how delicious it is, and then finishing it all off.

How am I supposed to embark on my new career as food crit if you eat it all and don't leave any for my breakfast?

Anyway, here is a quick round-up of some comments on my last foodie post.

Firstly thanks to Marv for giving me the title for this one, and to JB for suggesting they should in fact be called Pippadoms. I think that is very good and I will suggest it next time we go to the Indian restaurant.

Randi wanted to know if I had ever eaten donuts. Well, no is the answer to that as there are no sweeties in this household. Apart from me of course. And as to what we eat when Randi and I get to go on our dinner date together, I don't think I will notice what I am eating (so long as there is lots of it).

Jackson, Narra and Tuchuck wanted to know if they would all be allowed at the Indian restaurant. Well, I think so because I don't see any signs limiting the number of dogs.

Ruby only gets to go to Starbucks. I don't think I would be allowed there. It is probably on one of mistress's boycott lists.

And Jazz and Dixie want to know what Poppadoms, I mean Pippadoms, taste like. I haven't really thought about that as I eat them very quickly. But they are crispy and crunchy like TOAST, so therefore they are a Good Thing.

Next up, I really must post about the movie.

Pippa goes out to dinner

Last night mistress was going to cook pasta and tomato sauce.

I like that, I get all the leftover sauce and some pasta too for my breakfast. But master pulled a face.

I'm not sure whether he didn't want pasta and tomato sauce or whether he didn't want to wait for Misery to faff around and cook it. Sometimes she takes a long time to make sauces.

So master proposed we went to the Indian restaurant at the marina.



Of course one of the most important reasons for going there - apart from providing me with breakfast for the morning after - is that I can lie outside at the table with them. And eat poppadoms.



Off master and I went leaving Misery to jump in the shower and wash her greasy hair and catch us up.

And we had a very nice time. There were a few dogs walked past and I had a good sniff.

I can smell a dog.



Do I know that dog?



But mostly I lay down.

Chilled Pippa.



Hiding from Misery under master's chair.

You can't see me.



Here I am.



But I think next time they need to order more food so there is an adequate supply of leftovers for my breakfast. They ate most of the food yesterday. And I think mistress's title is a bit inaccurate. They went out to dinner. I accompanied them and got a few bits of poppadom. Hardly Pippa goes out to dinner in my opinion.

Waiting.



For poppadoms.



Thank you to everyone who left messages of sympathy for Vicky about my pal Harry. I know she appreciates it.

And I was preparing a mega update to the film project - JB was asking about it - but I wanted to write about my evening out before I forgot.

My pal Harry

He has gone to the Bridge. Pooh.

Harry was so brave and tough when he fought his poorlinesses 18 months ago.

He leaves his sissy Sally (also a rescued Collie) and his very sad mum Vicky.

I am sure they would welcome any condolences on their blog here.

My holiday weekend

I have been a busy Pippadog.

At the holiday weekend we went back to Spain. It is a holiday here in Gibraltar although not for the same reason as in America. It is the late Spring Bank Holiday and was originally linked with Whitsuntide. Whatever that is.

So off we went in my Landy.



When we got to the Guardia Civil customs post to go into Spain, master slowed down and mistress held out our passports.

They didn't look at our passports, but they obviously thought I was such an interesting dog that they wanted to have a poke around my Landy.

I should explain that cigarettes and spirits are much cheaper in Gibraltar than they are in Spain, but you can only take 200 cigarettes and one litre of spirits per person across the border (I think). Us dogs don't get an allowance. Anyway as master and mistress don't smoke and they drink beer and wine - which are cheaper in Spain - they never take anything across.

The Guardia Civil officers have stopped to sticky-beak through the windows before but we have never been pulled over and had to open the doors and things so I was very excited. Mistress wasn't. She was very nervous.

The nice man came over and asked if I bite. Of course I don't. So he stuck his hand through the window and ruffled my fur nicely. See, I knew it was all just a ploy to make friends with me. He looked on the floors at the front and then lifted the lid on master's little box between the seats, but there was nothing of interest in there.

He asked master to open the back door and show him what was inside. Meanwhile mistress was holding onto me and I was trying to do boundaround. He told master to open a box and asked what was inside. Master said "Una máquina para comer," in his basic Spanish. The officer looked a bit surprised as master had just told him it was a machine to eat. I was so laughing. I think master meant to say "Una máquina para preparar comida."



Then he asked to look in master's tool boxes. Master has lots of tools in case my Landy breaks down and we need to fix it. Well master would need to fix it while mistress and I supervised. He was impressed with master's tools and asked if he was a mechanic. Master said no, but he needed to be able to repair my Landy, and that actually he was a painter.

I have to say I think at this point that the officer decided master was a crazy Englishman who ate machines and had more tools than a mobile mechanic. So he told us we could go.

An hour later mistress stopped shaking. Master and I thought she was stupid, master because he wasn't carrying anything he shouldn't have been, and me because I know it was all an excuse to spend some time admiring ME, Pippadog.

Then a bit later on we stopped for a break. At a nice bar. Here is a pic of me and master.



One of just me.



And then we arrived home at our finca. And I went back to my favourite spot at the gate.



And I lay on my sofa too.



I have lots of other things to write about (yummy cheese toasties today for example) and some tags that I am sooooo late with. But mistress tells me I am almost out of space.

So I want to finish with this. I have something nice to say about mistress. Earlier this year when Tasha and Eva sent me some yummy treats for my Gotcha Day, they sent me a photo of each of them. And now mistress has scanned them in so that I can put them on my blog.

I would have put the pic of Tasha on my last post but I wrote it from Spain and I don't have a scanner there.

Here is Eva. In the last few days she has changed her behaviour, and you can read about it here on their blog - Tasha will be proud of you, Eva.



And here is lovely Tasha. Watching over all of us, especially Eva.

Tasha

Tasha.

My sweet and lovely Tasha has gone to the Rainbow Bridge.

I didn't know whether to post a serious picture of me or a fun one, so I decided on one of each. After all, we did share lots of virtual fun together.

When I go out tonight, I will look for you in the sky.

Miss you Tasha. Lots. And sending lots of love your way, Eva, because you must be so missing her right now.

Pippa

Thanks - and brunch

Oh look. Mistress has finally remembered I have a blog. And responsibilities to keep up to it and visit my friends.

Naturally she has a rubbish excuse. The latest one is that she has lost a contact lens and doesn't have any spares in the flat.

Well that might sound like a reasonable excuse, but she happens to be short-sighted so there is nothing to stop her writing my blog. The computer screen is one of the few things she can see as it is just in front of her nose.

But she says she feels generally disorientated, and has been seen to do very little since she lost it apart from crawl around on the floor. Moaning about the amount of dog fur and dirt.

I have obviously told her she could clean it up if she doesn't like it but she is still deluding herself that she will find the missing lens. Anyway, she is going to the optician's today, that's if she can successfully negotiate her way there without bumping into things.

Now, first of all a big thank you to everypup who left nice comments about my friend on the last post who is now at the Bridge.



At the weekend we all went for a walk to my favourite marina - even Mistress-Who-Can-Hardly-See - and sat there in the afternoon sun looking at the boats. Well, master and I looked at the boats. Mistress looked at some blurry image and tried to focus on not knocking her drink over by mis-judging the position of her glass.

Misery had to go and get the drunks - edited to add I meant drinks - because master was holding onto me. Naturally she couldn't see behind the bar so she had to ask the barwoman what drinks there were (Misery is picky about what she drinks as you can imagine). Barwoman obviously thought Misery was pretty stupid - although didn't say so - as the drinks were clearly visible. But not to mistress of course.

Then she lurches back out into the sunshine with a drink for her and a beer for master - pausing at the step - which of course she can't see properly, as she tries to gauge the depth of it and avoid going headlong with two drinks.

Suddenly master spotted Ian, and called him over. Mistress agreed to stagger back home and collect some pages from my blog that she had printed out for them with the pictures of their dog. And she also printed out all your comments too. Later on Penny turned up and was very pleased to read them all - so thanks for all your sympathy and kind thoughts.

Just before I go, I should say that I am training mistress to do tasty brunch. As I have my breakfast and then share master's, it seemed a bit silly for mistress to have one shortly afterwards, so we are currently eating brunch mid-morning to lunchtime. We have nice (veggie) sausages or burgers or rashers. Sometimes we have potatoes and tomatoes and sometimes we have salad. I have also made it clear that I want bread or toast too.

What I do not want to do, is eat the miserable crumbs that unseeing mistress knocks on the floor. Am I a vacuum cleaner? No. Well not for crumbs anyway. If they were large pieces of buttered toast or bread that would be different. But a big paws down to boring old crumbs.

I was at my most pathetic today. I looked so starving, hungry, deprived, and just so sad and pathetic. Well, I thought I did. It was a pawsome act. I licked my lips and tried to include some of the nearby bits of food. The plate got moved further away. Then I chomped my teeth together in the hopes I could catch something while it was on the way to her mouth. Perhaps she couldn't see what I was doing?

A poor haul today. Any tips welcome. Off to visit some pals now.

Beds and boats

Mistress says she has been busy.

I don't know what that means except she has not done Pippadogblog.

Master and mistress have swapped sides of the bed ie the floor that they sleep on because mistress still hasn't bothered to buy a bed.

Hardworking-master found it hard to walk over mistress in the morning to get to the door.

Myself, I didn't find it a problem. Hey, if mistress is in the way I just walk on her legs, or whack her on the chest, or just do a few bows to master generally on top of her.

But master decided he wanted to move sides.

So now, I am very careful because naturally I don't want to walk on master. I tippy toe round the side to do my good morning bow down greetings.

Mistress of course has lost the picture to go with this. Perhaps it is on my other computer. But she has found some others that she had forgotten about.

So first here is a picture of my friend who went to the Rainbow Bridge a few weeks ago. He was a GSD and he lived with Penny and Ian. Master told Penny and Ian that we would put a piccy up to remember him.



You can see what a friendly dog he was and he was quite old too, I think he was 15.



When Penny and Ian went away for a little holiday, he became poorly, so they cancelled their holiday and went straight back home to look after him, but it must have been time for him to go to the bridge.



Pooh. Sad Pippadog.



Mistress also found a couple of cruise ships.

Here is one.



And here is another.



I think I would like some close-ups please mistress to decide whether or not they would be suitable for my film project.

I have also had lots of ace suggestions from you all so I will put those up next time, so that everypup can see how things are developing.

While on the subjects of ships and boats, master and I went for a nice long walk down to the marina without Misery.

Master got himself a beer and we sat outside in the sunshine for ages. Lots of people came to talk to me. All the people I had met before remembered my name and walked over to speak to me.

"Look, there's Pippa," said one group and dashed across. Master couldn't for the life of him remember seeing them before. Silly master. Of course we had seen them before because they knew me.

It just goes to show how important us dogs are when people remember our names and want to speak to us.

Here is a shot of the marina. You can't see me on this but it is a nice picture so I will allow mistress to put it up and it shows where we sit on the opposite side where the buildings are.



And here I am sniffing the flower beds and looking.







Making sure Misery isn't sneaking up.

Pippa goes cruising....? and picnicking

Without further ado I will post the current state of the film project.

Although I was going to use PippaLoveBoat as my working title I really can't call it that. Even in jest. So it has morphed into Pippa Goes Cruising. Oh dear. Perhaps that is not very good either.

Suggestions for a working title would be helpful.


Cast

Sofa King and Toast Hero - Pippa
Heroines 1 & 2 - Sophie and Ethel
Love rival - BenTheRotti
Goofy golden retriever sidekick - Charlie
After-dinner crooner Boxer - Chef

Official Ship's C.A.T. - JB
(the only one we don't chase - although we could perhaps have one tiny little chase scene?)


Side plots
1) the entertainment crew led by Chef
2) detour to Melbourne involving mystery and intrigue - Bella
3) trip to UK for Simba's walk-on part


Production

Producer/director - Pippa (for now)
Pippa's agent and PR director - Randi
Ethel's agent - Wally
Tester of the all-you-can-eat buffet - Wally
Sophie's agent - Sophie, I mean Sophie's agent

Screenplay - Me, Pippa, oh and well, Misery


Now I need to be clear about a couple of things. In no particular order.

Randi wants me to accompany her to all official premieres. I think that is an admirable wish, but given that we haven't got too far with this project, I don't think that is a major worry for now. And I thought film stars were meant to go with their leading ladies. So perhaps you need to be in the film too Randi?

And as I have four paws, I could go to the premiere with at least four girlfriends. Because I don't want Bandana Ben stealing all the glory. Now that is the other thing I need to be clear about. Love rival means exactly that. You do not end up with my girlfriends. Unlikely, I would have thought, seeing as you have taken to wearing bandanas, but there is no accounting for taste.

Now my initial ideas for the plot are that the girlfriends fly out to Gibraltar to join a cruise ship which will take us all across the Atlantic. It has to be said that going to the UK for Simba is a bit of a detour, and going to Melbourne for mystery and intrigue with Bella is even more out of the route.

I reckon we could just about go to the UK and perhaps Simba could get Fat Fat Daddy to pilot him out to the cruise ship for an overnight stay? And maybe that is when Bandana Ben joins the ship? Meanwhile, I have already met Sophie and Ethel and then this Rotti upstart upsets my relationships.

During the cruise there is obviously much chasing of cats, ESPECIALLY ginger ones. Sophie and I are determined to catch as many ginger cats as possible. Ethel is often to be seen playing with tennis balls. Sophie also picks up the odd tennis ball too.

I haven't thought about what Charlie is going to do yet, but I like the idea of having a goofy side-kick. It means I don't have to be on screen all the time (and neither does Ben). Chef has got lots of ideas about:

"the role of the after-dinner crooner's Boxer who has to compete with the piano player's Collie mix for the love of the magician's pretty poodle assistant who recently left the tap dancer's Lab and took all his chewies. I have just the poodle for you. Cute girl named Tiffany (apricot, long curly hair)....."

so I don't have to worry about that plot.

When we get to America, I need to work out how to get down the Great Lakes because Tasha and Eva have offered to meet me in Duluth and then go back to their house for treats and toast.

So although we could have a detour to Aus, I could also consider the Aus plot for a sequel and we could go via Singapore and Malaysia to visit all our friends there.

Any views on that one?

Now. I sent mistress out to get a picture of a potential cruise ship seeing as we have plenty of them here in Gib.

What does she take?

Does this look like a cruise ship?



No, mistress. This is a British Royal Naval frigate. Type 23 for anyone who is interested in that sort of detail. I don't think it is appropriate for my film. We would have to wear uniforms and obey orders and things. My girlfriends and I like to go au naturale. Wait. I could be Commander Pippa. "Pippa goes to see" I mean "to sea". I will think about that one.

That is enough about the film project. Any ideas and comments will be very welcome.

Here are a few piccies of me at my favourite petrol station picnic stop this weekend. We had tortilla sandwiches and chips. Yum!

Tips and toast

Apologies to everyone if we haven't got round and commented on your blogs. Misery is battling a cold somewhat feebly and is verging on the delirious. She can't remember which blogs we have visited and which we haven't. We will have another go soon. I know that some of you have pawly mistresses too and for all your sakes I hope they are better soon. I know what a nuisance it is to have a pawly mistress.

Tough master on the other hand is going to work every day despite being ill. Now he said to mistress only yesterday, "Of course it is difficult for you, I have to concentrate on going to work, but because you are at home it is difficult to forget you are poorly."

Excuse me master. Mistress has ME to concentrate on. If she spent more time talking nicely (but not too much ie not when I want to go to sleep), feeding me treats, and giving me a few little caresses now and again, she wouldn't have time to feel pawly. And another thing, I don't want her to pull my fur out mind - I can do that nicely myself. Oh, and she needs to straighten my throws too. And change them more often. And write my screenplay. And share her food with me more equitably.





Which reminds me I have a Pippa Top Tip to share. I don't think I have shared this one before but I forgot to tell you about it at the time. It is the salad tip. Now, I don't like boring old lettuce but I do like some of the tastier greens. Rocket for example, or frisee, and escarole - the sort of things with a nice sharp taste to them.

As you all know, mistress is very greedy. So when she piles a load of greens onto her plate to go with OUR (vege) burger, it often hangs over the edge. When taking up position incredibly near to mistress, ie near enough to eat all the food at one go, but not so doing, thereby displaying total restraint and wonderful decorum, one can use one's snose to best ability.

A quick nonchalant flick, and a pile of leaves are on the floor. Of course, there may be some you don't want, but overall it is a good dead-cert method to at least get some scrummy greens. Just go through the ones on the floor and let mistress put the rest in the bin. She won't eat any of them naturally (they will probably be full of Pippafur as she hasn't swept up), but she is too tight to throw them all out, so I get to choose what I want. If I am very clever with the snoseflick there may be a few pieces of tomato too.

I am telling you about this good trick because sadly today I did not get the opportunity to practise it. In spite of being the pawliest mistress under the sun, she wasn't stupid enough to let the greens hang over the edge, or to leave her plate unguarded for even a second. In fact she kept trying to move it further and further away from me. And I was sitting so nicely too. The only good thing to say is that I ended up with most of the bread and butter because she doesn't really like it that much anyway.

That reminds me. How could I forget? NO TOAST. Stupid master nearly choked the other day so mistress has banned him from eating toast. Why did he nearly choke? Because he was busy talking to me and telling me I couldn't have all of his toast.

I think there are a few lessons there master.
1) Give me your toast when I tell you
2) Don't speak with your mouth full
3) Make more toast and then there is an equal share.

It is all to no avail though. Mistress made herself quite ill panicking about him choking and sometimes there is no arguing with her. So there is a toast ban in the Pippahousehold. For now. I need to work on getting it rescinded though.

I said I was going to post about the film project but I thought the toast news and the salad tip were more important. I will try and do it next time. Anyway I am going to have a bit of a nap and catch a few cats in my dreams.