Taking The Dog For A Walk

Given that in the last two days we've been bringing our walking stick around, it did spark a bit of curiousity amongst them who sees us with it. After all, we harp on about going BodyJam lah, going BodyCombat lah, and here we are using a walking stick.

Well in our rush to get to Combat class in time on Tuesday we did bump our right knee while scampering up the stairs in FF Manulife...but that was a small matter. That we could still attend the class without feeling any twinges, we guess we'd be fine.

So anyways, what's up with them walking sticks? And we have two: a walking stick with the handle in the shape of a terrier's head, and a shepherd's crook.

We'd bought both of 'em while we were in Edinburgh during the Fringe Festival '02. While our batchmates were all planning a single day trip that would end with the Military Tattoo before heading back to Glasgow, we ended up heading to Edinburgh twice - the day before and the day itself with the rest of the gang. Why?

Because we wanted to catch some plays. Namely, any Discworld plays we could fit into our timetable and any others along the way. Oh wait, we've mentioned it before already. Wait a freakin' minute. Did we end up going to Edinburgh three times in three days now? Argh we need to check! When did we do the Book Fair and met the man himself, Terry Pratchett? Shall dig through our UK box of memorabilia later.

Our first trip to Edinburgh, we went alone. It was a fun trip really, walking about Old Town Edinburgh along the Royal Mile trying to find our venues and such. Now, here's the interesting bit. Somewhere along the way we came across this shop selling walking sticks. Now while we definitely eyed the shepherd's crook, we also looked for a normal walking stick at the same time. Not because of our normal gait, but because our family keeps dogs.

When we used to stay in Klang we reared strays. There used to be this stray dog that climbed into our garden box at the side of our house (the advantages of living in a corner house at a cul-de-sac) and gave birth to puppies, which the family would then adopt one and slowly find families for the others.

In general the dogs were confined to the porch, mum wouldn't allow them in the house. The dogs got their evening walks, where they would yank and choke themselves on the chain as we took them around the neighbourhood block. This job fell to us, but when we were in UK dad took over the dog-walking. So during one of the weekly email correspondence with family members we heard that dad walks the dog and brings this unsuitable piece of wood that mum uses to beat the carpet when she's airing it.

So yes, we thought we would buy a walking stick for dad to bring along during them walk-the-dog sessions. We ended up going about the Royal Mile with two sticks for half the day, until we got back to Glasgow. And if that wasn't enough, we brought it along with us again the next day for the Military Tattoo.

Why, oh why in the world did tell Jessops to print our photos in 5R?

Oh yes. We did worry for a bit checking in both sticks when we were making our way back from UK to Malaysia (heck we were carrying way to much already) but happily there weren't any incidents. In fact the walking sticks help make identifying and collecting our luggage far easier as they didn't go through the conveyor belt. :D

OKAY. All that yarping about the origins of the walking sticks and no closer to the why we bring them about.

As it is, the family now keeps toy dog breeds (current member of the family is the Wee Wog), they stay indoors nearly all the time and don't go for walkies. So our walking stick are left idle. Which is why we have to take the sticks for walks sometimes. And not just the terrier-headed one, but the shepherd's crook too.

Take me for a walk!

And so when people ask, we tell them, "We're taking the dog for a walk."