On tour, and just 18 hours in the UK
Date: 
Monday, 22 July, 2013
From Mike Dakin:

It was a handicap game, played overnight. I started with a 2-0 advantage and, although there are two dogs - Maisie and Chewy - I believed I could stay ahead. Then, somehow, one of them slipped past my guard, as if I were asleep. Perhaps I was.

QuIck as a flash, one of my handicap points was taken from me and given to the dogs: Mike 1 - Dogs 1. And that's where the game ended. I doubt there will be a rematch. Bad enough that I've lost one hearing aid, I'm not about to risk the other one.

Luckily, no dog was hurt in the making of this story. The toxic battery was found in the dogs' bedding, along with twenty or so fragments of my hearing aid.

Now, where are the tweezers and superglue?