MR2

The car I just got used to drving when mine was off the road ... and now its failed its mot and is about to bite the dust .
That patch on the road isnt an oil leak either, it's water after a heavy fall of rain .

Pug Puppy

N is desperate to have a pug puppy . A few of her friends have dogs now , all acquired in the last year or so , and she describes how they all take them out religiously every morning before school and the only reason N herself stays in bed right up till the last possible minute and beyond is because there is nothing to get up for . Of course , with that puppy in place everything would be different . I point out that we rarely see her these days , she is always hanging around with her friends who knows quite where , but apparently most of the friends ( two of them at least ) take their dogs with them and they sleep with them , train them feed them brush them!
As the days pass , the pug puppy begins to turn into the panacea for all ills and would improve all aspects of her functioning , her homework would get done , she would do this and that blah blah .

I resist all discussions for days . We cant have one . We have four cats . The cats are used to a queit life . The cats would hate them . I dont want another dog . After Jasmin I was determined we would have no more .
Finally , proud of my resolve , I call upon Google and sneak a look at a page of pug pupppies , then quickly look at some breeders sites .... £ 1200 .... Surely not ! My Birman kittens went for £350 or thereabouts and are Far Superior in every way . But then again ..... I find myself logging on again and reading about the breed personality ,and before I know it pug puppy has become Pug Puppy in my mind and I hear myself mentioning the fact that N would like one when we meet my mother for coffee at Kirkharle courtyard , a favourite Saturday morning haunt . " Mm " she says noncommittally , trying to carry on the pretence that its nothing , just a passing fancy .( She could not imagine life without her dogs . )

Later in the day N brings my purse to me to give her some money to buy some new school trousers as her old ones "have stretched " , a thing mine never seem to do , and oh poop , she catches me looking at Pug Puppy pictures , little grumpy faces from all angles

Mum , she yells , I KNOW you want one ! And I HEARD you telling Grandma about them too .
Why do teenagers shout everything out loud so the whole world knows your secrets .

Mm indeed .