Oh ok. One more.

Just had to relate this story from last night, as it had us in stitches.

We were sat outside enjoying our dinner with a glass of wine, whilst watching the sunset over the estuary.

Also staying at the farm is a German family with three young children. The eldest (about 5) was playing fetch with Cocoa (please throw my stick) the border collie. This went on for quite a long time and after a while we started to wonder who would tire first... The obsessive collie who always wants to plan fetch, or the 5 year old, who never gets bored of doing the same thing.

The only losers here were going to be the lawn, which was getting worn away, and the yucca plant, which was a popular target for the stick.

Eventually, after we'd finished our meal and most of the wine (bear in mind that the game had been going on all the time we were cooking too), Cocoa decided that she was too tired to chase the stick any more.

This caused much consternation and shouting from the 5yo German (which was in itself very funny), as he commanded Cocoa to fetch the stick. If only he'd realised that she didn't speak german.

To be fair, Cocoa wasn't helping because whenever Hans (as we will call him) picked up the stick, she got all excited as though she was going to chase it, then ignored it when it was thrown.

This went on for a while, and then things got even better. Hans decided that the game was over, and the sticks should be put away (Hans being a very well behaved child). So he started collecting the sticks and putting them on a small table. However, every time he went off to get another stick, Cocoa would nip round him, get a stick off the table and put it on the ground by Hans' feet and beg for it to be thrown. This made Hans very angry indeed as the stick now had to be put back on the table.

The game now turned into some hybrid of 'fetch' and 'capture the flag', that had Hannah and I practically rolling off the deck with laughing so much.

The longer it went on, the more angry and frustrated Hans got, because the only way to finish the game was to put all of the sticks on the table, and Cocoa was having none of it.

At this point, it was getting cold, so we left them to it...