I heard a funny story at my German class the other night. The teacher, who is German, has an English friend who delights in writing to her in her Mother tongue.  The trouble is, he composes sentences in English and then puts them through Google Translate, then cuts and pastes the result into an email.  The finished letters are a comedy turn for anyone who undrestands the language because they bear no resemblance to the intended message..  This is why a good translation service is still essential for business if you are dealing with clients in other countries.  Otherwise your attempts to communicate could have extremely embarrassing outcomes.  Imagine if you inadvertently included suggestive wording or oaths, or addressed your target audience in the familiar person instead of using a more formal tone.  That could be the end of your huge overseas deal!  A translation agency can advise you on much more than the right words to use – the ‘mot juste’.  They can also tell you which media would be suited to your requirements, end even when to time your approach.  Other countries will not share the same religious holidays and translation agencies are experts on avoiding offence by making an overture at a sensitive time in the calendar.

Vintage Fever is a big thing, certainly in the area where we live.  Furniture and ephemera from the fifties and sixties is in big demand with kitchen ware that I remember from my youth fetching high prices.  When I first set up home, a  spice rack was on everybody’s wedding list.  These 1970s spice racks were mostly made of pine, with space for six matching containers, usually prefilled and labelled.  The first example that I ever owned was a wall spice rack and the great thing about this was that it had room for twelve individual bottles.  The word was rather a misnomer at the time, since most people’s taste buds did not tolerate spicy food and the kitchen spice racks sold in the shops were generally filled with herbs such as parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme to coin a phrase from a famous song!  Even oregano was considered rather outre.  Now, of course, most of us reach for coriander or cumin without a second thought.

Whenever we visit the vet’s I notice that the staff follow the same hygiene procedures for pet care as for human care – and rightly so. Cross infections are just as dangerous for dogs as for people, so it is reassuring to see that the veterinary nurses wear scrub uniform although some pets freak out at the sight – or maybe the smell. The uniform is quite memorable for a dog, so a good or bad experience with someone wearing a green lab coat will remind them of the colour forever afterwards.

A friend of ours was in hospital in London and he split his time between his bed on the medical ward and the pub in the street below, where he could be found proudly wearing his scrubs top. It obviously made him feel important. In fact he managed to take it home and even bought another from http://www.blueskyscrubs.com. It takes all sorts, I guess.

Four months since she arrived here, Lula has settled in very well.  Every morning she leaves her crate and runs upstairs to jump on to the bed and rub noses with me, then she lies on the bed for just a few minutes. Next she scampers downstairs into the back garden to wake all the other dogs in the neighbourhood – and the humans. After this she waits patiently in an armchair for me to get ready and at 8.30 we go for her first – and best – walk of the day, where she plays with other dogs. Near our house is an open space, reasonably secure, which is a magnet for local dogs and their owners. We all arrive at the same time, so that the dogs can play together and get some good exercise. Up to fifteen different dogs usually show up, of various breeds and sizes. They are well socialised and not aggressive – this is a godsend, and I know we are very lucky.

Sometimes Lula likes to play ball, and she retrieves it very well.  But she is often outrun by a smaller dog like the Jack Russell shown in the picture.  The short-legged dogs just seem to run faster for some strange reason!  There is a well-used footpath running through the field and lots of passers-by enjoy the sight of dogs playing.  the best times are when a group of dogs plays chase and they run huge circuits around the open space, accompanied by excited barking from Lula!

After half an hour of sniffing, rolling in foxes’ smells and chasing each other, the dogs have had plenty of exercise and their Mums and Dads need to go to work.  We all go our separate ways to feed our four-legged friends and prepare for the day ahead. The dogs go home to sleep and recharge their batteries ready for their next walk.

We own a number of domains – at least a dozen. So for many years we have been customers for good quality web hosting. Like many other areas of business, there can be pitfalls in the setting up of domain names and websites.The choice of domain name registrar is crucial – offers of ‘free’ domain names are not worth considering.  Make sure you own your domain, not some registration company.  Suppose your domain became the next facebook: how upset would you be if it was not registered in your name?  Enough said!

Another aspect of the service that makes a difference is making sure you have scope to host multiple domains with your web hosting service.  One of our SEO clients was paying much more than our host charges, but she was only permitted to put one domain on her account.  That is a very poor deal, and not recommended.  Unless you have mega traffic you should be able to host unlimited domains through your web host for less than $30 per month.

In my last article I explained how we found a two year old Welsh Terrier for sale online. This really was an answer to my prayers: after a discussion on the practicalities of collecting her from Manchester we rang back and asked them to reserve Lula (that’s the name she already had) to rehome with us.  The owners were distraught at parting with their Welsh Terrier but they both worked demanding shift patterns and could not give sufficent time to caring for Lula.  To show that I was serious about adopting the dog I sent a deposit and emailed some references that they could check.  This was important – they did not offer her to a rescue organisation as they wanted to know who adopted Lula, to reassure themselves that she was going to a loving home.

One week later my husband travelled north to bring Lula back, and after a sad parting from her original family Lula sat quietly in the car for the five hour journey and she behaved perfectly.  She had her own crate, food and treats with her so that we could give her continuity.  When they arrived I greeted her with a big kiss (of course), and she explored her new surroundings curiously.  We made sure we fed her soon after arriving, and then took her to the local pub for a drink.  Lula took all this in her stride, and was introduced to plenty of new people and dogs. Her capacity to cope with such a big change has a lot to do with the sturdy and dependable qualities for which Welsh Terriers are renowned.  Incredibly, at the end of her first evening, she had already shown us one of her favourite games – ‘Tug’.  Here is a nice photo of the first of many games of tug – we get plenty of exercise, too. that is one of the reasons I ahve not posted many articles about Lula yet: I am so occupied playing with her, taking her for walks and – best of all – cuddling her.