Cheeky little chap isn’t he?

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This is Buddy, he’s a cross between a Poodle and a Schnauzer and he belongs to China’s housemate, the lovely Mel.

Relentless.

Take your pick from a sniping scrum half, a Mumbai traffic jam and all those PPI calls. Or choose all three.

Buddy’s a real character and has been on the go pretty much the whole time I’ve been in Perth. The late Barbara Woodhouse would have her work cut out with this one.
Buddy’s really annoying trait is that despite him getting on your nerves really quickly you can’t help but warm to him.
Whether faultlessly sitting on the third command every time, struggling to understand a Michael Clarke-esque shout of ‘Wait On’ when poised at the crossroads (though, to be fair, not many dogs would get the reference there), biting my toes, shoving his head in my lap (Why can’t I meet women like that?), effortlessly placing wet paws on clean shorts or eating my handkerchief having Houdini-like whipped it from the depths of my pocket beforehand, Buddy boy has been a real handful.

Bless him.

Perth has been a blast. I am hugely obliged to the lovely Mel for her hospitality and for putting up with me and to China for being complicit in all of the silly shenanigans of the last week. His quote earlier, a bleary utterance as the haze settles on a crazy weekend, is possibly one of the lines of the whole tour.

“This week I am going to live like a Prisoner Of War…”

Good ol’ boy. See you back in Blighty for the inaugural Bedford-Salisbury Exchange Programme and the first known game of ‘Wineyhands’ ever to be played on British soil.