Dan Dan

Happy New Year (and all that jazz)

2008-03-14T04:59:00.003-05:00

Wow. So it's been about 4 decades since I last posted anything on here. Sorry to anyone that actually checks this thing. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year etc. Cant actually believe its March 2008. This time last year I only just started to get my body clock back into the swing on things and was experiencing the wonder that is UniSA. (note the sarcasm)

Since August (my last post) I have been back to Club Med and had a wonderful time up there once again despite having a MASSIVE fight with my boss by catching him cheating on his girlfriend (who happens to be a really good friend of mine) and then he got really angry at me because I told her he cheated. Oh well. no great loss for me. Last I heard he was on a flight back home to France so the chances are that i wont ever have to see him again. ever. Anywhos. Not planning on going back anytime soon but maybe consider it for mid year break again. In the words of Pink: "Nobody knows".

Uni is going well this year, well, the entire three weeks of it has gone pretty well. Im doing some interesting subjects this year. This semester im doing Accounting, Qualitative Research in Recreation and Sport, A recreation Practical (aka work experience) and im starting a minor in Psychology which I may choose to turn into a major.... the moral of the story being that I might just be in uni for the rest of my life... and if not then Im most definately going to be paying it off for teh rest of my life. Never mind.

Hmmm, what else... um, Wally (our rescued horse) is going very very well and has finally caught on that not every human being in the world wants to kill him. Ella (the 'baby' - who is now 3 and a half) is going well and Mum is making the moves to break her in... but still havent ridden her yet.

In other news I have a new man in my life! His name is Nick and he is one of the nicest people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. 'nuf said.

So im pretty sure thats about it. My birthday is coming up on the 29th of March and Im not very excited about it at all. Everyone seems to be more excited about it than me though which makes me suspicious. Oh - also the fact that Mum said she has a secret/surprise that I think i have figured out but I cant be too sure so Im going to have to wait and see what/when/how/why/who.

Cool. so thats my life.

Hope everyone is well and that this has cured at least 30seconds of boredom for you all.

toodles.

2007-08-27T00:14:00.000-05:00

So I thought I would post something for those of you who keep checking to see if I have written anything in the last three hundred years. Uni is going boringly well... almost approaching mid way through the second semester (or 'Study Period' as Uni SA likes to refer to it as). Anywho, uni work is ridiculously boring but there seems to be alot of it. Im in the process of organising, planning, programming and running a 6 week carnival for the SANFL to promote girls participation in AFL for one of my subjects, which is fun but it has me busier than a one toothed man in a corn on the cob eating contest becasue im in constant communtication with the SANFL, trying to organise meetings etc. ANYWHO, I got free tickets to the crows vs lions on Saturday night... not just because I am awesome, but because of SANFL and they got us behind the scenes etc whihc was really cool cos we got to go into the changes rooms and warm up rooms and down the races and onto the field at half time which was fricken amazing... and to top it off, we got free food and drinks!

Can someone please tell me what the heck the weather is doing because its a BEAUTIFUL 25C outside but its going to rain in two days... sigh. Stupid weather.

Toodles.

Everywhere I go...

2007-07-25T04:07:00.000-05:00

... I always take the weather... the weather with me...

First of all... apologies to those of you who now have that song stuck in your head... But as sorry as i may be, the weather has indeed caught up with me after almost 10 months of wintery conditions (minus the few weeks of summer i caught a glimpse of when i got back). The first day I arrived on Lindeman Island was the first day of sunshine they had seen in something ridiculous like 42days and it had rained continuously for 33 days until my arrival. The weather stayed above 23C everyday and didnt get much below about 15C at night for the whole 4 weeks i was there so i was happy. The club med village was recovering from a nasty strain of Gastro that had made its way through the entire staff and most of the guests when i arrived so we were going slightly nuts with 'sanitiser' before and after meals and pretty much whenever we touched somehting. After the gastro virus everyone seemed to cheer up a bit whihc was fortunate becasue the village was soon at maximum capacity and we were working like bees 24/7. The work hours were pretty long for some of us... for example I got up at 6:25am everyday and as soon as you step out of your room in your uniform, you start your work day and then the staff are required to stay up socializing with the guests until at least 11:30pm except for when we had a staff meeting whihc generall started at 11pm and you were lucky to get out of the conference rooms by about 12:30am. ANYWAYS.... having said that, I had lots of fun being a tennis coach and then working in the sports centre for the last week when my replacement came to coach instead. Having worked in the sports centre during what seemed like a few endless days, I learned alot about golf.... I still cant hit the ball... but i can tell you wat you need to hit 150m on the driving range and how long their 9 hole golf course takes to complete and how to find balls instead of buying new ones. Anywhos.... I had fun.

Im now back at uni and after havign an interesting tutorial today in my marketing subject im going to be doing that particular course online so i can actually understand whats going on (long story). This also means tha i have some pretty awesome uni hours!

So i should probably cruise... will update this thing as much as possible but im not committing myself to regular updates!

picture is of me on Hamilton island on my day off... still wishing death upon cameras.... i just cant help it...

Hope you are all well and safe... Toodles!

Done and ready...

2007-06-26T06:07:00.000-05:00

Just got back from my last exam for the first semester... it was ridiculously easy... to the point where most of us finished with about an 1hr and a half left to go (it was a two hour exam). Anyways, im now finalising my packing of Club Med stuff and getting ready to get up at 6am or something ridiculous like that. Im very excited but im sad that i miss out on yet another holiday period with the friendlies... but hopefully we will all catch up when i get back in 3 and a half weeks. YAY! looking forward to fun times in a warmer climate... hope everyone is well.
toodles!

One down, Two to go...

2007-06-20T11:07:00.000-05:00

So i had my first exam this afternoon and im sad/glad to say that it wasnt all it was hyped up to be! The stories of cold metal tables scraping on cold cement floors and being cramped in like tins of sardines were quickly rushed out of my mind as i sat in my relatively comfortable chair which glided with ease across the carpet of the Ridley Centre at the Adelaide show ground. I got so wamr in my exam that actually had to take off my scarfe and jacket for fear of becoming a baked potato. Anyways, i should probably get some sleep in since my next exam is in about 7 hours... its all good though because i think i have actually memorised the entire semester's work because... well im a sad, sad individual thats why. Have been checking the weather for my club med fun and unfortunately it looks as though its going to be raining when i get there (stop laughing). Why is it that climates tend to reverse themselves whenever i go to a place? Anywho, i will more than likely post again within the next few days out of puire boredom because my next exam after tomorrow will be next tuesday and there is not a great deal more i can study for that either. coolio.
toodles.

Here We Go...

2007-06-13T06:29:00.000-05:00

Ok so apologies for the months of non blogging to those of you who have been checking this spot in the hope of hearing about my antics. Unfortunately I havent had a very interesting few months. University is going swimmingly if their plan is to kill me with assignment overloads. The reason for the lovely picturesque scene and this fabulous post is because today I got the very exciting news that i am going to be visiting this very place in exactly 2 weeks. It's called Lindeman Island, situated in the Whitsundays, and I have managed to get myself a job at the Club Med resort on the Island. ....Ya, i know, im fricken excited. Anywhos, I leave in a couple of weeks, on the day after my last exam... assuming the exams dont kill me first. I have three exams this semester: one on the 20th, the 21st and the 26th of June and then on the 27th of June, I Leave for Club Med.

Well I hope this has provided some sort of entertainment for at least one person!

Have fun, stay safe and hopefully it wont be months before the next post!

Toodles!

Chanel and the Naked Cowboy

2007-01-29T22:25:00.000-05:00

Well today i had my last day off in a very very cold NYC. I caught the train early this morning with a smile on my face, which must have stuck out amoungst the commuters (who sit which blank expressions, apparently pondering upon the detail on the chairs infront of them for the two hours ride). Once into the city, i caught a path train to 33rd street and walked around Manhattan Mall (mainly cos i couldnt figure out where the exit was.) I was also treated to the rather the amusing sight of a fellow path train rider, who appeared to be nodding in and out of sleep, getting up with his eyes still closed and exiting the train at his stop, which apparently he had done so many times he no longer needed to see where he was going. I then headed to chinatown and had fun with the hundred of chinese people whispering "Chanel, Prada, Gucci Miss?" as i passed them by in the street. after chinatown i went to times square and managed to catch a glimpse of the infamous 'Naked Cowboy' (pictured) which was high entertainment (keeping in mind that it was -2C in the city today) before i rushed off to catch my bus back to the farm.

Just two days til i leave. tres exciting. xoxo

4 Days... fricken EH!

2007-01-27T19:26:00.000-05:00

Wow. ok. so there are 4 days until i leave. According to my calculations (which have been known to be slightly... er... 'off' on occasion) The 4 day countdown over here means that its about one week til i land in Adelaide.

I'm tres excited. its extremely cold at the moment. It seems the northern hemisphere finally caught on that it was suppose to be winter up here and has acted accordingly. (if that makes sense). The temperature hasnt risen above -6C in the last 5 or so days and the nights are getting down to about -20C. I think im actually getting used to the ridiculous temperatures because I recently saw a forcast for -2C and thought to myself "at least its warming up a bit". weird.

um... Im kind of packed but then realised that i needed half the clothes i put at the bottom of my suitcase so im basically doing what i always do and no doubt im still guna be packing at the eleventh hour. Apart from that, there isnt alot to tell. just that im super excited about coming home and cant wait to see you all.

much love xoxo

Short visit eh?

2007-01-22T12:31:00.000-05:00

Marieke, Liz and Brennan arrived on Friday night at approximately 12:40am. Marieke and I stayed up until we crashed at about three after raiding the kitchen and me walking straight into a wall for no apparent reason other than the fact that im retarded. On Saturday, none of us got up until very late so Arno didnt get to make us bacon and eggs but we went shopping via Dunkin Donuts instead. On Saturday night, Arno made us dinner after we finished about four blenders full of Arno's Margaritas (ouch), we drank with the meal and then we had Mediera after the meal so needless to say we were all quite.... um, 'jolly'. Sunday, Marieke and I went down to the barn but it was much much to cold to ride (the ground was too hard for the horses) and so we fed them and i took and early lunch and Arno made us the promised bacon and eggs and then we all went into town for some random items. By Sunday afternoon, i was in the barn on my own once again, after a teary goodbye. It felt like such a short visit but we had heaps of fun anyways.

hmmmm, below are photos of the weekend. Marieke has a whole heap more which she is going to send me so i shall put them up as soon as i get them. k, well there are 9 days left til i leave YAAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. xoxo

'snow fun...

2007-01-19T19:37:00.000-05:00

Hola! Well with 12 days until i jump on the plane to make my way home, i couldnt have asked for a 'cooler' day (pardon the pun... i cant help myself). The day started off with excitement simply because of the 12 day countdown. The excitement doubled when i drew my curtains and saw that the ground was covered in.... SNOW! yay. i had a small fit of joy and realised that i was almost late for work because i had actually been staring at out of my window for about 15 mins just watching the snow fall. I whipped out the camera and made my way down to the barn with a hot tea in hand.

I fed and watered the horses and set out to take numerous ridiculous pictures (see below). After i took a zillion photos and built a tiny (retarded) snow man, to my disappointment, the snow began to melt but i was quickly distracted by Arno telling me that Liz and Marieke are due to arrive for a weekend long visit tonight (yay) AND that i get the day off tomorrow so that i can bum around with them (double yay). He also informed me that he will be making us Bacon and Eggs for breakfast tomorrow (triple yay).

Just when i thought my day couldnt get much better... Arno pulled up in his truck at the barn at about 11:30am and told me to jump in cos we were going on an adventure. We then went to the dump... which is HUGE fun with Arno because he speculates the possibilites of having all the machines at his farm and what he would do with them... Anywhos, after much coffufle with the men wanting to know if anything was in the tank we were about to deposit, we went to a near by farm and got Arno's friend Tommy to make a big hole in it while we looked at his 'racing tractor' (yes they do exist) - it simply looked like three large raw engines on wheels to me but he assured me it was a 'tractor'. We went back to the dump and we had fun tipping the huge water tank (now with giant holes) out of the dump trailer and much to Arno's delight, the man gave him a large wad of cash for it. lol. Then we went back to Tommy the hay man and laughed at his little bob cat thing which almost tipped over while he was putting the enormous hay bales into the dump trailer and on the back of the truck. When we left Tommy's farm, we went to a town called Pine Bush and went to a vegetarian/chinese restaurant which is actually really good. we had a huge lunch and arrived back at the farm with the exact amount of time it took me to muck the stalls and feed and water the ponies and make sure everything was in order before closing up the barn.

Anyways, despite the mundane activities of the day, it was alot of fun. Im now waiting for Marieke and Liz (and probably Brennan - Liz's fiance) to show up but i dont think they are due until like 1am or something. Fun times to be had and many a photo to be taken.

So that was my fun day for you. I can only hope that tomorrow will be filled with just as much luck and a tiny bit more snow (mainly because i have intentions of waking Marieke tomorrow with a snow ball... te he he he... what?!). love to y'all. xoxo

Its (below) freezing...

2007-01-16T20:27:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note to tell you all that im really cold. It's -20C outside and not much warmer in here, albeit out of the wind. YAY. xoxo

15 Days...

2007-01-16T18:37:00.000-05:00

I have recently been asked a number of times in the last few days whether or not im cold... As a result, i came up with a number of ways in which you could perhaps pass the time with, to experience just how cold it is.

The Hands:
open freezer.
Place both hands inside the freezer for approximately 4 hours....
If 4 hours isnt going to fit into your schedule... either re-schedule or try this fun alternative:
Place hands in freezer for a ten minute session and the clap two or three times. Repeat until you feel as though the blood in your hands may actaully be frozen. For added effect, why not slam the freezer door on your hands a few times?

The Body:
Take a cold shower.
Not luke warm - COLD. If you are feeling adventurous, you can also put on your very warmest clothes on, to make it more realistic. After drenching yourself fullly clothed, be sure to step straight out of the shower and into a bucket of ice... that should cover the feet as well.

You may also want to submerge you face into iced water.... keeping dunking until you cant feel your nose.

Whilst still in your cold, wet clothes and standing in the ice bucket, a fan, situated no more than a metre away on full blast should give you an idea of what the wind is like.

For that final effect, why not get a friend to pelt ice cubes at your face, failing that, try your hand at accupunture but only on your face... its more fun that way.

If you want the true, ‘barn experience’ add these onto the end of each process...

Drop a heavy steel object on your foot. Dont pick it up right away. Shout "G ET OFF stupid, get off!"

Leap outof a moving vehicle and practice "relaxing into the fall". Roll lithely into a ball, and spring to your feet!

Jog long distances holding out a carrot and head collar. Occasional trip on the lead rope or drop the carrot.

Attach a pair of reins to a moving frieght train and practice pulling it to a halt. Smile as if you are really having fun.

Lie face down in the mud in your most expensive riding clothes and repeat to yourself "This is a learning experience, this is a learning experience..."

lol so... ya... im cold. te he he. I actually wrote that on scrap bits of paper thorughout the day when i kept saying to myself "argh i cant feel my hands, it feels like they are in a freezer" and things of that nature. i finally got fed up with myself and began to write it down. lol.

also... as you may have guessed i was in quite an unusual mood this morning when i took pictures. My only excuse is that im very very excited about coming home. IN 15 DAYS! yaaaaaay.

xoxo

2007-01-15T22:44:00.000-05:00

Its still raining.

Thinking of building an ark.

Got a new horsey today named Cat. She is big and black and has white socks and is a real sweetheart. My devil pony has recently made the discovery that im not actually a big scary monster and seems to have grasped some sort of concept of not attempting to murder me when i walk into her stall. its a nice feeling. lol.

um... i have 16 days til i leave. and im very excited. so excited infact, that i bounced around excitedly for a good ten minutes in the barn this morning when i changed the calendar countdown.... i mean... um... i quitely resumed work. lol. k im off cos im freezing xoxo

21 Days...

2007-01-10T18:36:00.000-05:00

Who would have thought that the Devil's reincarnate would be a small, fluffy, chestnut pony with crispy white socks? No one. Thats why he did it.

I took some pictures of the Maple as i said i would today. Then she tried to kill me when i rode her. I guess she thought it was a fair trade off. Unfortunately the snow blew away before i could whip the camera out but there was a thin layer of it covering the ground this morning. Instead, i took random pictures of things like my calendar which, by tomorrow will tell me that there are no more than 20 days left here. I also decided to take pics of the poles i have been painting and just some of the bridles that i am destined to clean when i finish the last saddle tomorrow.

see you soon xoxo

Everything is cool.

2007-01-09T18:33:00.000-05:00

So i was going to go to NYC today, but i never got my butt into gear to go, so i figure i can go next week sometime.... probably for the last time. hmmmm. just relaxed today, packed as much as i could into my suitcase and sorted out the stuff i need to have shipped home due to the serious amount of CRAP i have collected whilst being here. I also read "The catcher in the rye" which i have been intending to do for quite some time. not as great as i had hoped/expected but it killed a few hours so whatever.

22 days til im on my way home and im SOOOOO excited. i keep getting really excited about going and then really depressed that im not guna be here anymore (as you may or may not have figured from my last post) im hopeless.... end of that story! ha ha ha. so im sitting in the staffroom right now (due to the fact that my broken laptop is still um... broken.) and i just checked the temperature and it said its -6C but im pretty sure its more like -4000C cos my fingers are threatening to snap off. It DID snow today but not enough to even last on the ground again. Pathetic. Im guna take my camera down to the barn tomorrow and take some pics of Maple and hopefully get some shots of the snow that is SUPPOSE to fall.

hmmm thats about it from me cos i really do think that my fingers are going to snap off! ha ha ha ha. see you all soon. xoxo

Getting ready...

2007-01-06T17:43:00.000-05:00

Ok, so not having the best week but thats ok. Yesterday (or the day before i cant remember now/dont actually care) my laptop officially died. to the point where it is now wraopped up in bubble wrap ready to be sent back to Aust with the rest of my stuff. I dont think i have lost any information on it but im not going to play with it anymore for fear of making the situation worse.

Other things that have happened include my riding boots breaking and getting a boot full of mud after dismounting Maple, Lucinda ATE one of my head phones because, well, im not actually sure why she ate it, but it gave me an electric shock and now i only have one headphone until i next go shopping. um, there isnt any snow yet and i dont think there is going to be because it was 15C today and even in Canada it was 12C so no one knows what the frick is going on. hmmm i dont know lots of other small things have been going bad this week too, but im convincing myself that it can only get better from here.

There are officially 25 days til i jump on the plane destined for home via three million other places. Ok, its two other places but whatever. Cant wait til i get home now, im actually wishing the days away here, which probably isnt the smartest thing since i wont be back here for a while but im just so excited about coming home.

Marieke and Liz are planning to come down from Canada for one final visit before i leave, on the 27th of Jan or there abouts. Its going to be sad saying goodbye to this place and the friends i have made here but i know i will see them again so its ok... plus there is the fact that as i have already said, i cant wait to get home.

I am making progress with Toby and Maple. Toby seems to just do whatever i tell him to but not retain ANYTHING... but at elast he tries. Maple is getting better but is still scared of me. I have resorted to using carrots as bribery and they appear to be working. i still have 25 or so days left to work on her so that equates to approximately 25 more rides... but probably less, given that i intend to take a day off this coming week and that by tomoro it will only be 24 days. Anyways, i have been spending the last few days taking advantage of the warmish weather and finishing some of the painting on the jump poles and cleaning lots and lots of saddles. I think i managaed to clean thirteen saddles in the past two days which isnt a bad effort... if the weather holds up i shall start on the 50 something bridles... but im going to have to be pretty desperate to start on the bridles cos i HATE them.

um, yea so thats my life at the moment. just enjoying my last month with the ponies. Im going to miss them all and unfortunately i can't say that i will see them again because by the time i make it back here, in reality, half of them will have passed on or be sold to other farms. never mind.

ok, well thats about it from me. Looking forward to coming home (as ive said about 400 times in this post already.) and cant wait to see you all. much love... xoxoxoxoxoxo

2007 is here...

2007-01-01T19:05:00.000-05:00

Is it seriously 2007 already? BAH.

Hope you all had fun on NYE. Mine was quite fun... i think. te he he just kidding. i had a great time with Arno, Olga, Natalia (Olga's sister), Benny (Arno's friend) and Benny's dog Mateo.

We started the celebrations at about nine with champagne and cheese and crackers and by 10:30pm we were ready to eat a feast of traditional Russian NYE salads and crepes along with some duck. At t end of our dinner, we filled u our champagne glasses and watched the official countdown at Times Square (which im now glad i didnt go to) and celebrated when the ball dropped with a rather loud toast and then went down stairs and Arno set off fireworks. Then we cranked up the tunes and had a lil dance party whihc was encouraged more and more by the excessive amounts of alcohol consumed.

hmm ya, so we wrapped it up at about 3am and i didnt get up this mornign til about 11am whihc is a first since ive been here. cool yo?

hmmm ok well thats about it from me. love to all. xoxo

31 days on the 31st...

2006-12-31T18:37:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!

I hope that 2007 brings everyone joy and that all of your dreams and wishes come true in the coming months.

My New Years resolutions?

Im going to start by getting home first of all... IN 31 DAYS!

Good luck to everyone else with your ACTUAL resolutions.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

What day is it?

2006-12-29T20:16:00.000-05:00

Above is the question i have repeatedly found myself asking this week. Time has absolutely FLOWN by for me. Christmas seems like it was about 2000 years ago (ha ha get it?... sorry) and its extremely hard to comprehend that 2007 is just around the corner. Like MONDAY! bah!

All this information means that as of tomoro, there are 32 days until i leave the US and make my ridiculously long, 3 day journey home via LA and Melbourne... ok so its not really 3 days but by the calendar im going to be travelling for three days lol. Unfortunately i miss out on the 2nd of February. So sorry if anyone has any particular attatchment to that date... you will just have to celebrate it doubly for me! te he he.

hmmm so this week i have been painting jump poles. i had a ripper of an idea for a pattern so i set to work straight away and they do look pretty fricken awesome so when they are all dry and perfeted im going to set them up and jump em and take pictures of them so you can all see.... which brings me to my next news that Marieke and Liz may or may not be coming down from Canada for a final visit before i go... so hopefully we can jump the poles and take pics together! yay.

Speaking of riding and such, I have been riding Maple and Cajun in an effort to convince them both that im not secretly hiding a running chainsaw behind my back when i approach them. This afternoon i spent an hour simply atmepting to get on Maple after she knocked me flat on my bum by rearing when i pulled the stirrup down to get on. she also struck out several times whilst rearing and caught my helmet a couple times as well so im really glad i was wearing it. anyways, i caught her and we went into the round pen, where i lunged her for a good half an hour to an hour and then we decided that my face really wasnt that frightening and that we didnt actually need to rearrange it with our hooves. phew. so then i rode her i a round pen (which is a first for me i have to say) and we were all hapy after that (thanks for the lunge tip Mumita). SO she is now sitting in a stall with fresh water and hay which has alfalfa in it (ya... i actually kinda want to eat it myself) and BRAND SPANKING NEW shavings so she should be a happy little pony when i see her tomorrow adn attempt to get on her again. (dont worry horsey people: im going straight to the round pen to lunge first)

Contrary to all of this.... I got on Cajun after my ordeal with Maple and prepared myself for a rodeo ride, and after she established that i wasnt coming off with the vertical bucks, she decided to canter beautifully and after half an hour of work we even managed to get a few flying changes going. whihc made me happy.

Also, i rode Mouse the yesterday which was simply TOO much fun. we galloped around the big ring for ages and then he willingly followed me around the ring as i set up a jump and we jumped about 2ft6, whihc is no easy task after months of sitting in a paddock. I love Mouse.

k well thats all my boring horse news or you all. lol. um, yea. i dont exactly have any non horse related news to tell so i shall leave it there.

Im tremendously excited about coming home. YAY. xoxoxoxxo

Pics are of me with snow (and i have several excuses for my for my frowny face in that one... minus degree weather, 7:30am, sun shining in my eyes, did i metion the miuns degree weather and that it was 7:30 IN THE MORNING?! lol. which may or may not answer one of your questions: i still dont 'do' mornings.). The other one is of Jewel and Cajun (or as Mum like to call her 'Something Spicy') lol Cajun is the one at the back. Jewel has the blaze for those interested.

And so that was Christmas...

2006-12-26T18:44:00.000-05:00

... And what did i do?

25th Dec 06

Snow settled on the ground outside, presents unwrapped and exhausted on the floor and around the room, and a turkey feast with a loving family.

Unfortunately, the family isn’t my own but this Christmas has surpassed my expectations and I have had an amazing experience.

This morning I attempted to speak to my family in the last few hours of Australian Christmas. It was great to see everyone via a webcam, however the connection was slightly sketchy and dropped out a number of times before disconnecting all together.

After sitting around for half an hour in the hope that my family might come back
online… I came to the realisation that they were probably already on their way to tuck themselves into bed for the night, so I headed down to the barn. As I opened my bedroom door to the outside, a rush of cold air swept passed me and into my room and I looked across the farm to find no snow, but a white, frosty layer across the ground.

I crunched my way down to the icy barn and gave the ponies a kiss on the muzzle and wished them each a Merry Christmas before I threw flakes of hay at them and began working on the frozen hose. Once the ‘in ponies’ were fed and watered I went back up to the house and had a shower and tried to make myself resemble a human being before I entered the main part of the house to greet Arno’s family.

We then spent hours around the breakfast table talking and enjoying each others company and exchanging gifts and generally have a good time.
After breakfast (which went into the afternoon) we all relaxed and did our own thing until about 5pm, when I helped set the dinner table and Arno’s Aunt Lottie (who is like 80 years old) and I folded napkins until the food came out.
After dinner we all sat down to watch a movie in the living room and by the time the movie was over, so was Christmas.

So that was my Christmas. It turned out to be white after all!

Hope everyone had a great day. xoxo

*Pic is of my new "Anti-Polo" hat and my Polo jumper... just cos i thought i was funny to wear the two at the same time.

Let It snow, Let it snow, Let it snow.

2006-12-25T17:57:00.000-05:00

Its Chirstmas evening and its snowing. enough said. Playtime now... writing time later! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

T'was the night before Christmas

2006-12-23T22:17:00.000-05:00

'Tis Christmas eve in Australia and the night before christmas eve here.

Hope everyone has a safe and fun filled day, spent with those most important.

Love to everyone, am missing you all.

Merry Christmas.

40 Days to go...

2006-12-22T18:26:00.000-05:00

Me in the basement with Saturday night fever...

Sair and I in the basement

Ok so we got a little bit... um... happy with the staining fumes. (Izze is "soda pop')

Maybe i need another new camera. I appear to be wishing death on this one quite a bit as of late.

Staining the wood. Just thought y'all might be missing my butt... so here it is. Would also like to know what happened to my head... lol... must have lost it with my mind few weeks ago

Me outside the Outback steakhouse, with some random about to walk into the shot.

Im apparantly trying to gain a perspective of what its like to be Hay. The horses were willing to go along with the experiment.

Sydney and I sharing a moment.

Polly and I discussed politics for a good hour and finally agreed to disagree. I gave her a kiss to show there were no hard feelings.

I thanked Cubano for his concern over my loose shoelace.

The last week has been quite the hectic pour moi. On Saturday night I visited NYC once again but this time to say goodbye to Anna who left for the UK (via Paris to drop of her dog - its well travelled) today. So hopefully she has a safe flight/flights home to see her family and friends for christmas (yes im jealous). Saturday night was lots of fun, running around NYC with a whole heap of really cool people. It was sad to see Anna for the last time but we are definately going to catch up sometime in the future... eventually.

Sunday was spent recovering from Saturday night (a tres late one) and headed back to the farm Sunday night. The next two days were spent mucking out stalls and riding Iris and Josie before Arno and i took them and 4 other ponies to NJ for a barn to try out. The barn took the two mares along with "Bat Pony" and "Rebel". Wednesday night, Sair arrived and went spent hours upon hours catching up on the last two months... mainly the last two months of her life because the last two months of my life are descirbed as follows: Sleep, eat, muck stalls, eat, ride, eat, sleep, eat, muck stalls, eat, make chocolates, eat, sleep. Rinse. Repeat and do not tumble dry (for fear of shrinking... I dont think i could deal with being shorter.)

Thursday (yesterday) Sair and I tackled the stalls together then rode (she rode Toby and I rode Jewel - when she wasnt trying to kill me). In the arvo, we went shopping at Woodbury Commons (the Harbour town-like mall) and spent forever in the Polo Ralph Lauren store... cruisd around to other shops and then Sair took me to the Outback Steakhouse (america's attempt at "aussie cuisine". ) - which really is a MUST for any Australian tourist... just for the stomach pain from laughing too much. But it was SOOOO much fun.

This morning Sair and I bummed around in the barn and painted/stained some wood Arno asked me to do and then Sair had to leave because she had a 9hr car drive home to Canada. So im back on my own in the barn once again and still having fun. Also: im trying to work a solution to my luggage dilemma. It seems im not going to have much room for my actual clothes, once i fit the 7 polo ponies in my suitcases... hmmm.

Anyways, it seems i have written a lengthy essay on my weekly happenings so i hope no one actualy had something worthwhile to do in the 400 years took to read this... my bad.

ok. toodles. xoxoxoxo

oh ya - FYI... no snow due for christmas day which bites furry butt. nevertheless they are stil promising me snow beofre i leave.... the sky has 40 days to come up wit the goods... otherwise im going up there personally to have a stern word with the clouds Re: the lack of snow here and the lack of rain in Adelaide. catch! xoxo

For The Cricket Fans...

2006-12-19T21:13:00.000-05:00

Thought i would share this email i recently recieved. I actually almost fell off of my bed laughing when i read it...

Q. What do Geraint Jones and Michael Jackson have in common?
A. They both wear gloves for no apparent reason

Q. What is the height of optimism?
A. An English batsman applying sunscreen.

Q. What does Ashley Giles put in his hands to make sure the next ball almost always takes a wicket?
A. A bat.

Q. What would Glen McGrath be if he was an Englishman?
A. An allrounder.

Q. What advantage do Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Strauss and Geraint Jones have over the rest of their team-mates?
A. At least they can say they're not really English.

Q. What is the English version of a hat-trick?
A. Three runs in three balls.

Q. What do you call an Englishman with 100 runs against his name?
A. A bowler.

Q. What is the most proficient form of footwork displayed by English batsmen?
A. The walk back to the pavilion.

Q. Who has the easiest job in the English squad?
A. The guy who removes the red ball marks from the bats.

Q. Why is Andrew Flintoff the unluckiest English player?
A. Because he was born in England.

Q. What does "Ashes" stand for?
A. Another Sad Horrific English Series.

Q. What's the English version of LBW?
A. Lost, Beaten, Walloped.

Q. Who spends the most time on the crease of anyone in the English team?
A. The person who ironed the cricket whites.

2006-12-14T23:07:00.000-05:00

At Rockerfeller Centre. Apparently (by the look on my face) im wishing death upon the camera.

The Rockerfeller Centre GE building and the tip of the tree. Also i thought everyone would like to see what was up my nostrils at the time.

Me with my Conan ticket and wristband

Sitting, Waiting, Wishing...

2006-12-14T00:16:00.000-05:00

"Live from NBC Studios in New York.... its Late Night, with Conan O'Brien"

YAY! i finally got to go and see a live taping of Late night with Conan O'Brien and it was everything i thought it would be and more! yay. I have literally just jumped off of the bus and went straight to my room to tell you all that i went to see the show. he he he. Last nigth i randomly went and stayed with Anna in the city so i took my opportunity to go and line up for tickets to the show early this morning and managed to recieve some stand by tickets after about an hour and a half of standing outside Rockerfeller centre on the street. lol the things i do eh?!

Anywhos, throughout the day i helped Anna with her moving stuff (she is moving back to the UK) and finding flights for her new found puppy friend. success! (trust me its harder than it sounds.)

At 3:30pm I trekked my way across town, back to Rockerfeller centre, where i waited a further hour (this time i could come and go as i pleased) to see if they needed any of the stand bys to fill in. Fortunately for me they did so we were then escorted through the building and through some major security and then into the Late Night studio.

We sat and watched some clips from the show while the set and cameras were adjusted and then the warm up guy came out and began talking to the crowd. He asked if anyone was from 'far away' so myself, and anotehr person (from the Phillipines) put our hands up willingly in response. He then asked me where i was from to which i responded of course "Australia". One person actually gasped at this point so i was a little worried, but continued to listen to the warm up guy and prepared myself for some sort of funny/"witty" insult to end the conversation, as he had done with the others he spoke to in the crowd. He inquired as to why i was in New York and i told him that i was "working" and then after further questioning i revealed that i was "working with horses". each time i answered the crowd seemed to get more and more intrigued so by this time i was getting a bit nervous. Anyways, the 'warm up guy' then asked if we had horses in Australia. I quickly responded with "I think we had 8 at one stage, but im pretty sure two of them just died" (to whihc the crowd laughed and clapped at.) It seems the only response the warm up guy had to my comment was one of his funny/witty insult lines to end our little talk so he (very quickly i might add) added "I bet you've used that line in the bars more than once 'Oh ya we have six horses let go back to your room'..."(his impression of a drunken me). I know at this point everyone was spose to laugh (which they did) and move on, but i may or may not have added "Well it worked on you last week" to whihc everyone laughed and then clapped at and even the guy clapped but then mumbled something about not understanding me and my accent as he moved on to explaining 'the rules' of the taping. ANYWAYS, at the end of his little speech about not having 'cell' phones on etc he asked the crowd to practice cheering (to warm us up) and asked everyone to put their hands together for the 'Australian horse girl' and i got a little cheer all to myself.. so yay or that. anywho thats was my lil claim to fame for the day.

well i guess im guna end this here cos there aint a lot more to tell you about my day other than it was FREAKIN AWESOME. also its kinda late.

Oh yea... for those of you with Foxtel: if i remember correctly the show i went to will air tonight (Thurs night) in Aust on the comedy channel (somewhere around 11:30pm) and i believe they also have a re run on the friday morning... assuming the comedy channel still shows Late Night and still dus it twice a day etc etc. Its the one with Jeremy Irons and Aimee Man (singer). ok bed time.

spreadin' the love xoxoxo

(pics up soon)

Less Mortified...

2006-12-11T22:28:00.000-05:00

Okay... so heres the deal. the laptop screen is utterly stuffed. however the laptop itself is going as it was before so i now have a giant ass screen in my room to facilitate my screen needs. The good news is i still have all my photos and music (as long as i have a screen handy). The bad news is that it looks like i will be going laptop shopping when i get back to aust. or have a look at prices here. but it could be fun... so im going to turn this whole thing around and wrap it up and put it under the "positive" tree (oh how nice of me)... Yay for me, im going laptop shopping lol... are they even called laptops anymore? meh! who cares. ok. well im going to bed because this whole ordeal has worn me out.

catch xoxo

Words cannot express...

2006-12-11T21:57:00.000-05:00

Ok, so about ten minutes ago my laptop officially died. due to a tangulation in cables, the screen now has a smashed theme desktop and im very very very upset. :( it has all of my pics and pretty much everything on it so im hoping that i can conncet another screen to the laptop and fix the propblem. im now in the freezing cold computer room attempting to disconnet one of the computer screens to take it back with me. wish me luck. hope im back online by tomoro. will keep you updated. *sniffs*

Back at the farm...

2006-12-11T18:01:00.000-05:00

So im back from CT. It was an interesting experience to say the least. just did the usual chocolate show stuff but had a five min drive to the hotel rather than the usual 2 hour drive home. The people at the show seemed a little more strange than usual but never the less all characters of their own. One guy tried to sell me a "didgeridoo" made out of bamboo with some weird ass pattern he had burnt into the wood. actually im pretty sure it was just some piping from and old septic system that he had cut up and painted to make them look real. Also there was a candle man from Texas who decided to tell me about how he makes his candles and was... um... kind enough (?) to offer me a job in his booth selling candles... I politely declined (whilst slowly backing away) and walked speedily back to the chocolate booth. Also the man in the booth next to me gave me some goat milk soap at the end of the first day and then a mug at the end of the show. Oh and Olga and I got free CDs from this random piano man. lol unfortunately we didnt sell as many chocs as usual but it was fun all the same.

anywhos, today i got back into the routine of things down in the barn and cleaned up after the mess that was created in the three days that i was absent. Once all that was done i had some lunch and went back down and painted some poles while it was sunny and above freezing and then rode Peach Pie and then Josie.

yea, so that was my weekend. um... oh ya -Sair (friend from Canada) is coming down possibly with Marieke on the 20th December. so that will be tres cool. ok. thats it from me. catch! xoxoxo
(*the pic is the view from our hotel room in Hartford, Connecticut)

Por qué es escrito esto en español?

2006-12-07T20:04:00.000-05:00

Hola hola. Tuve un día libre impresionante en Nueva York. On arrival by train in the city, i caught the "path train" to the WTC and went and saw Ground Zero. For those of you interested its a huge hole in the ground with construction workers and trucks everywhere. I guess you really had to know what it was like with the towers there to appreciate the absence of them now but it was an experience just to see it and see the hundreds of people outside who still put flowers and flags and stuff up on the wire outside. Aaaanyways. Walked from ground zero to the Staten Island ferry and caught the ferry to Staten Island (surprise surprise) and back to Manhattan in order to take pictures of the Statue of Liberty. Once I finished my (below freezing) ferry experience i caught the subway (my new found talent) to Chinatown and spent hour upon hour wandering the streets and being hassled by Asian people muttering "Gucci" and "Prada" and "Channel" under their breaths as I passed by, but it was SO much fun. I then caught the Subway to braodway and walked a couple blocks to Anna's house, where i stayed the night after we had a few drinks at the local club and bummed around a bit. I slept in a bit on Wed morning and Anna and I had brunch at 11am and then walked around Manhattan and went to see the rockerfeller tree and visited 'Staples' (equialent of Officeworks) because Anna needed some work supplies. lol. OOO - i have to add this bit here - Whilst on our walk we ran into Max Weinberg (from Late Night with Conan O'Brien... BIG DEAL in the Dani book lol. he is also known as the drummer from Bruce Springstien's band)... wasnt quick enough to get the camera out but it was still awesome. lol im pathetic anyways - We got back to her apartment and took her puppy for a walk to the Dog run. By this time it was mid afternoon and i ended up hvaing to almost run back to Broadway to where the bus station is. I caught the bus and it was a pleasant ride back. lol

Tomorrow I am going to a chocolate show in Conneticut, but because its a while away, we are going to stay in a hotel there for the w/end. cool yo?! well it should be interesting anyway.

Wow im tired so im guna cruise. Mcuh love. Will post again in like three days when im back from the show. xoxo

Relax...

2006-12-04T19:18:00.000-05:00

Alrighty, Its now officially my day off for the next 24+ hours.

After i signed off last time I actually checked the temp outside before going to the barn, and discovered that it wasnt actually -1C... it was -8C. yay for that. This Arvo i rode Peach Pie around and then Iris and then the afternoon was over! It gets dark at about 4:30pm here and mightily cold after the sun goes down.

Going to New York City tomorrow and Arno says that he has an itinerary for me to follow for a 'fun packed' day. Apparently im going to see the Statue of Liberty (finally, after 6 months), the famous Rockerfeller Centre Christmas Tree, and Chinatown and something else which i cant remember. Anyways thats what i think he said. Time will tell.

Well im going to get some sleep before my "fun packed" day tomorrow! lol... hopefully i will have some pics to show and a story to tell at least.

Ps. The pic is of myself (obviously being a dick - something new) and Peach Pie

For the love of everything wintery and cold: PLEASE SNOW...

2006-12-04T13:14:00.000-05:00

This morning there was what is known as a 'flurry' of snow during which, Arno came down toe barn on his tractor geared in his snow suit and accused me of doing "The Dani Dance" (dont ask) to make it snow! (No one actually likes snow here lol) Once again, nothing landed and stayed as snow for much more than about 10 minutes. infact im on my lunch break right now and there is perfect sunshine outside... however it is -1C.

The pilgrim salt and pepper shakers have been replaced with snowman shakers and mysteriously overnight, all the coffee/tea mugs in the house turned christmas themed... BAH... so now, rather than my usual favourite 'Dali' mug, to sit at the computer with, i have evil/scary looking snowmen on my cup.. i might actually take a picture of this particular mug because despite its labelled 'seasons greetings', its quite frightening...

Anywhos. it seems i have run out of time because i have to go back down to the barn now, so maybe i will post again tonight after work.

lol - does anyone actually read this thing anymore!? MEH... i can pretend they do.

much love xoxo

C.H.O.C in the U.S.A...

2006-11-25T12:17:00.000-05:00

Does anyone else have that song in their heads now? Or for that matter know what im talking about?

So i have resorted to turning the volume on my mp3 player to maximum at dawn and dusk, as Deer Hunting season has officially started. The once quiet and peaceful mornings are now filled with blood-curdling echos of distant gun shots. However it gives me a little peace of mind to know that Arno doesnt hunt, and no one is allowed to hunt on his property. Just hope the deer know that too.

Thanksgiving was and interesting one.... still, no one has told me what we were giving thanks for, nor why we had a dinner to celebrate it, nor why i there were four little pilgim salt and pepper shakers staring at me while i ate my turkey covered in cranberry sauce. I think i managed to put the pieces of the puzzle together though. Alls i know is that there is a butt-load of turkey, ham and cranberry sauce in the fridge.

I have once again managed to put my back out by riding so much so it looks like a trip to the chiro is in order at some stage and a couple days rest form riding. On the other hand, the horses are doing really well. Arno is actually picking up two more ponies today from a farm and bringing them here for me to ride and get into shape before he sends them off to a family who came to camp during mother-daughter week. They are both gorgeous ponies, one of them is Jackson (the little grey pony in some of the pics) and the other is Sir Frederick James Reginald III (aka 'Peach Pie')... lol he is quite the looker of a pony and someone dubbed the poor thing Peach Pie, so we gave him a name that we thought gave him a little slice (sorry couldnt help myself with a 'pie' pun) of his dignity back. Anywhos, im excited for their return.

Am helping Olga with the making of her chocolate and have become a chocolatier... sorry, dont get your hopes up guys, i think this is a profession im going to leave in the US... as much fun as it sounds, its actually really tedious work. But yes i do get to try the chocolate. For anyone who is interested, what im making is handmade gourmet Belgian Chocolates.

K, well im off to actually go make choc right now. joy joy joy. Much love to all. xoxo

Stating the Obvious...

2006-11-23T14:47:00.000-05:00

So I thought i would state the absolute obvious and let everyone know that I have changed the appearance of my Blog. It may change again, depending on how bored I get with it... but yea. Im Bored, can you tell?! Hmmm, well, comments would be 'A'-to-the-'preciated'. have fun. xoxo

Surprised...

2006-11-22T19:17:00.000-05:00

Well its been quite a big week for me in the land of growing frosty...ness. I have now resorted to wearing special 'mountain horse' boots (as opposed to my beloved, paint covered wellingtons) in fear of the fact that if i continue to wear the wellies, i might just end up freezing my toes off... literally. Anyways... for those of you who arent aware these riding boots are "special" according to everyone here becasue they insulate your feet... im not complaining cos my feet are toasty warm inside them. Enough about feet.

On the weekend, i was helping Olga with her Chocolate business, aware of the fact that on Saturday night, Liz and her fiance Brennan were coming down from Canada for a few days to visit. So Saturday night rolled around and i went into my room to put my jacket and bag down and went into my bathroom to find Marieke standing in there in a desperate attempt to hide herself lol. it was awesome. Apparently Arno had set the whole thing up just so Marieke could come down and surprise me. Liz and Brennan came too... just so you know! So Saturday night we spent hours on end around the dinner table drinking, eating and being merry. Sunday, i had to go to the chocolate show with Olga again and Sunday night, Arno's friedn Chuck came around for dinner and brought some ducks that he had shot (its hunting season :( *sniff*) for dinner. The girls and i were kinda grossed out by the ducks for dinner but we had a great night. Marieke was also freaked out by 'winning' the contest to find the most gun shot pellets in their duck... the poor thing. Hmm so Monday, Liz and Brennan went out and Marieke and I hung out in the barn and went for a ride and just bummed about. On Tuesday, we dragged Anna up from NYC for the morning and met her new (disabled) puppy. LOL, she rescued it from Argentina, its 5 months old and has a mended broken paw, which looks really painful but actually doesnt bother her at all. Anyways, by Tuesday arvo everyone left and I was once again on my own with the horses but enjoying the peace a bit.

So today I'm back into the routine of things. I rode Iris this morning and had lots and lots of fun

cantering around the big ring doing flying changes across three huge circles... (i made pretty circly patterns in the sand of the ring) well it was fun for me anyways. Then this arvo i stained some boards for the carpenter and then hopped on Josie for a quick burn before it got dark.

Its Thanksgiving tomorrow and i have been invited to 'Thanksgiving Dinner'... would be really nice if i knew what i was 'giving thanks' for... something about Indians, pilgrims and turkeys... I will just smile and nod and eat my turkey when prompted. yay.

Well i think thats about it for now. Im excited for Thanksgiving, and to see some snow very soon. They are all freaking out over here because there is no actual snow yet and normally this place is under more than a foot of snow by now. Im thinkning its the same sort of reaction to the non existant rainfall in Adelaide this winter?? Hmmm, oh yea, some time in the near future im going to NYC for a few days to stay with Anna so that should be exciting too. ok, adios. xoxo

Pictures...

2006-11-15T13:19:00.000-05:00

Well this morning i took some pictures that Marieke had originally asked me to take of some of the horses and then i kinda got carried away with being an idiot (which i know is totally unlike me) and i ended up with some of these pics... amoung some normal looking ones... but who wants to see 'normal' photos?! te he he. still having fun (as you can see) and getting excited about coming home. A little over two months left - or 7o something days. well, have fun and stay safe. xoxo

Still going...

2006-11-09T13:15:00.000-05:00

Well I don’t really have A LOT to write about at the moment. Not much has changed, but I thought I would post something to make sure you all new that I haven’t fallen off of the face of the earth! Arno and Olga have returned from their honeymoon in CA, which means that I no longer have to drive the big tractor up the scary, muddy hill to feed the horses each morning and Im still helping “Mr carpenter” (think his name is Rosan, but not entirely sure) stain wood for the house, which is extremely messy but fun all the same. Have been riding alot still. Have succeeded in getting Josie and Toby to work very nicely (Josie esp. on the hunt course) and have now started new projects on Cajun and Maple (the one who doesn’t like turning left) Cajun is getting much better but just needs to be ridden everyday to make sure she remembers things (otherwise she becomes a rodeo horse) and Maple, well, she will get there! Hmm what else. Oh – I think Brenna (one of the girls I worked with this summer) might be coming down from Canada this weekend to visit me so that should be fun t catch up with her and have some company around the barn for a few days. Anna is back from Argentina on the 14th of Nov and sent me an email saying that we are sure to catch up when she gets back… and Marieke and Liz are planning to come down for thanksgiving weekend… (which is the weekend somewheres around if not on the 25th Nov.) YAY. Well that’s all the news from me I guess. Looking forward to coming home but enjoying the last few months here. Love to all xoxo

BRRRRRrrrrrrrr...

2006-11-03T18:58:00.000-05:00

So today im not big on writing... mainly cos my hands hurt from being frozen (-7C in the barn this morning)... and then burning my finger on the heater in an attempt to warm them. Fortunately i took quite a few photos today and i rekon i can pretty much sum my day up with them so here goes....

Cooookkkke on the waaater... bow bow bow....

My day written out so i dont forget stuff (lol... like lunch?)
And part of my tres messy desk

I went and annoyed Lotus (and cleaned her leg)

Then i thought All Star would be jealous of Lotus getting the attention, so i went in and gave him a pat... but he stole my beanie. te he he he.

Then i went back and annoyed Lotus some more.

Then i went and checked up on the polo ponies: from left: Tomate (taking a chunk of hay), Cubano and Nene (in front)

After Lunch and helping the carpenter, i rode Josie. The End.

Yay, and that was my day... exciting huh!? lol. ok so maybe i did a little more than that! Te he he he.... hope everyone is having fun. xoxo

Im Amazing...

2006-11-02T21:10:00.000-05:00

Well i just thought you should all get your daily fact... nothing much more to say... the title says it all.

HA HA HA HA just kidding! Ive had an awesome week. After hurting my nose, i got on Maple the next day and did some ground work with her and jumped on her and she turned left so i was happy. My nose and face are fine by the way - just had some minor bruises under the eye but nothing worth taking a picture of. The nose is still a little tender but the pain is disappearing as the days progress.

On Tuesday (which was Halloween) I had a day off and got to go to New York City for the day. I ended up wandering around Times Square for most of it, but had lots of fun nevertheless. OH yea! and i got to see the band KISS on the street in Times Sq. so that was fun, but very crowded. Was interesting to watch people walk around the city in halloween costumes and just carry on with their day to day life. not to mention the interesting KISS crowd who were randomly spotted walking around the city after the band made the appearance... It made the day fun. On the way home I got to see the trick or treaters runnning from house to house with their little baskets and bags of candy.

Hmmm, lets see what else is happening in the the world of Dani... nothing new to tell i dont think. Other than Arno and Olga are on their honeymoon which is, umm... nice. And im here doing my day to day barnly routine. OH YEA! IRIS (my fav horsey) came back on Tues, much to my surprise... I guess the barn she went to didnt like her. But thats fine by me! So i have been riding her alot. Oh and we have a carpenter here who i am helping paint/staining wood for Arno's house cos its getting quite cold and the house is nakie, so the carpenter has to work quickly. Getting down to -3C tonight. fun fun fun with the frozen barn in the morning... mmm, numb hands... lol its all part of the wintery fun i guess.

Anywhos. Im guna leave it here. SOrry abotu my random last post... i really was bored. More photos soon... catch! xoxo

I was bored...

2006-11-01T20:00:00.000-05:00

*Odd Facts about ME*
DO YOU SNORE?:	Sometimes
LOVER OR A FIGHTER?:	depends on my mood...
WHAT'S YOUR WORST FEAR?:	Not succeeding
AS A KID, WERE YOU A LEGO BUILDER?:	OH YEA
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF "REALITY TV"?:	I cringe at it... but shit happens right?
DO YOU CHEW ON YOUR STRAWS?:	If im excited / nervous
WERE YOU A CUTE BABY?:	Probably not
HOW IS THE SINGLE LIFE FOR YOU?:	A-OK
WHAT COLOR IS YOUR KEYBOARD?:	Hypothetically? probably black and white.
DO YOU SING IN THE SHOWER?:	In my head
HAVE YOU EVER BUNGEE JUMPED?:	Nope
ANY SECRET TALENTS?:	Well If i told you, they wouldnt be secret.
WHAT'S YOUR IDEAL VACATION SPOT?:	Whitsundays
HAVE YOU EATEN SUSHI?:	Yep
HAVE YOU SEEN THE MOVIE "DONNIE DARKO"?:	Yep
DO YOU GIVE A DARN ABOUT THE OZONE?:	Probably should
HOW MANY LICKS DOES IT TAKE TO GET TO THE CENTER OF A TOOTSIE POP?:	See, before i would have asked what the bleep a tootsie pop was... but now i understand... and the answer... will come to me next time i eat one.
CAN YOU SING THE ALPHABET BACKWARDS?:	I can write it backwards...
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ON AN AIRPLANE?:	AH.... .yep, think so
ARE SPEEDO'S HOT?:	Gotta love budgee smuglers
WHAT'S YOUR STAND ON HUNTING?:	THEY KILLED A DEER THIS AFTERNOON :( its sad.
IS MARRIAGE IN YOUR FUTURE?:	Probably
DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?:	Oh gawd no.
WHAT ARE YOU ALLERGIC TO?:	EVERYTHING
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU SAID, "I LOVE YOU":	The last time i spoke to someone
IS TUPAC STILL ALIVE?:	Nope
DO YOU CRY AT WEDDINGS?:	BAH!!!! no.... should i?
HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR EGGS?:	cooked preferably... then sunny side up
ARE BLONDES DUMB?:	huh?
WHERE DOES THE OTHER SOCK END UP?:	In Sockland
WHAT TIME IS IT?:	11:20am at home... 7:50pm here
DO YOU HAVE A NICKNAME?:	Yep.... oh sorry, did you want to know what it is?
IS MCDONALD'S DISGUSTING?:	OMG YES
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU WERE IN A CAR?:	um... yesterday
DO YOU PREFER BATHS OR SHOWERS?:	Showers
IS SANTA CLAUSE REAL?:	Yes. Except his name is Father Christmas
ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK?:	Nope
WHAT ARE YOU ADDICTED TO?:	Coke
CRUNCHY OR CREAMY PEANUT BUTTER?:	Creamy
HAVE YOU EVER RIDDEN IN AN AMBULANCE?:	Yep
HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU BRUSHED YOUR TEETH TODAY?:	2
IS DRUG FREE THE WAY TO BE?:	Depends what the drugs are for!
ARE YOU WEARING SOCKS?:	Yes as a matter of fact i am thanks for asking
HAVE YOU EVER HITCH HIKED?:	Nope
WHAT COLOR ARE YOUR EYES?:	Blue
WHEN'S THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?:	On Maple, 3 days ago.
DO YOU LIKE YOUR LIFE?:	Yes
WHOSE LIFE IS BETTER?:	I have NO idea.
ARE YOU PSYCHIC?:	I knew you were going to ask that.
HAVE YOU READ "CATCHER IN THE RYE"?:	Actually im about to...
DO YOU PLAY ANY INSTRUMENTS?:	very very badly
CAN YOU SKATEBOARD?:	yes.
DO YOU LIKE CAMPING?:	yes.
DO U SNORT WHEN U LAUGH?:	HA HA HA HA NO... although i have one it once or twice
DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC?:	"In a young girls heart..." now thats in my head... dammit
IS A DOG A MAN'S BEST FRIEND?:	Sure
YOU BELIEVE IN DIVORCE?:	It happens
CAN YOU DO THE MOONWALK?:	Yes
DOES YOUR MOM KNOW YOU HAVE A MYSPACE?:	HA HA HA Not that i know of.
WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE?:	Bacon
DO YOU WEAR NAILPOLISH?:	Nope
DO YOU LIKE SOMEONE RIGHT NOW?:	Not right at this particular second in time, no.
WHAT'S THE MOST ANNOYING TV COMMERCIAL?:	I havent watched TV in 5 months... dont talk to me about TV
DO YOU SHOP AT AMERICAN EAGLE?:	Yes
FAVORITE BAND AT THE MOMENT?:	OOO OOO um... i cant remember their name... maybe i will remember after i post this.
Take this survey Find more surveys Bzoink - The Original Survey Site

Chilled...

2006-10-29T18:10:00.000-05:00

So if we missed the point of my last blog, it was that im actually on a tropical island off of the coast of QLD... te he he he... ok, maybe not... i may or may not have been very very excited cos it snowed! te he he he. hmmm. FYI... i counted and it snowed 4 times today... but none of it was enough to stay snow for more than 3 seconds on the ground, so unfortunately no piccies of it. hmmm. I rode Josie this morning and she went really really well so im happy that at least some of the riding im killing myself with is paying off just a litte.

On the other hand, I rode Maple this arvo and that was 2 and a half hours of fun... wait... it think the 'fun' word in this case is actually pronounced "TORTURE"... after spending half an hour chasing her around the Hunt course, I finally caught her and brought her in and tacked her up and got out into the 'big ring'. I then discovered that Maple doesnt like to turn in circles to her left... it results in her rearing and bucking and bunny hopping and just generally trying to get whoever is on her at the time, off (in this case being me)... this afternoon, the bucking and rearing gave me one unschelduled dismount, a bruised bum form the uncschelduled dismount, one bruised face (possibly broken nose) from the rearing, and one bruised ego form the whole situation. So once after it took me another half an hour to catch her again... i jumped back on her and got very frustrated with my serious lack of riding ability. - its here that i should point out to my fellow riders that it turns out, that sitting on the horse and crying doesnt solve anythign either! - Anyways i finally calmed the horse (and myself) down and then laughed at myself for crying like a big baby and then carried on trying to make the horse turn left. The end result was one happy me and one unhappy Maple... we shall see what she has planned for me over night when i get on her tomorrow!

Hmm so that was my day... i ended up being cold and bruised but slightly satisfied with my efforts for the day. just waiting for the awesome bruises to come out underneath my eyes now... if they show themsleves i will be sure to take pictures so you can all laugh at me! Currently i just look retarded with one swollen eye... te he he... aaahhhh horses... gotta love em.

Well i hope everyone is having fun at home and are slightly warmer and slightly less bruised! xoxoxo

YAHOOooooooooo.....

2006-10-29T13:37:00.000-05:00

It snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed it snowed. But then it stopped :(

5 Months down...

2006-10-25T19:32:00.000-05:00

Wow... its officially been 5 months since I arrived here at White Fence Farm... Its strange to think that i have been away from home for that long! Can't wait to see what the next 5 months holds for me!

Today was quite a good day... Arno asked me to ride Toby (who i have renamed Rupert), Cajun and Josie. So this morning, i rode Cajun, who tried to buck me off, and then Josie, who subtly tried to buck me off! Then after lunch, i got to drive the big tractor around the top ring for a few hours and after that, i jumped on Rupert and hooned around the hunt course on him! and that was pretty much my day... it was fun. Also today i found out that my friend Anna will now be in New york until christmas time, (as opposed to leaving today for Argentina for two weeks and heading straight back to the UK) so that means i will get to see her and hopefully go and party in NYC a lil bit!

hmm good times. ok, well im going to head off, but i thought i would let everyone know that im still kicking on over here and having fun! hope evryone is doing the same back home. xoxo

Excitement...

2006-10-22T21:25:00.000-05:00

So today i got up at 6:30am and stumbled my way down to the barn and did my barnly chores and then caught two polo ponies, brushed the copious amounts of mud off of them, hosed their feet off and loaded them into the trailer with Normandy (who is a school horse). Arno, the Korean guy (aka "C.S") and myself all hopped into the truck and made our way to Arno's Arena Polo(which is really indoor polo). We arrived there at approx. 9:30am and i took CS out for a lesson (on Normandy) before the polo match and then we went to watch Arno play his match at 10:30am. It is quite a fast little game i have to say... the 'field' is a small dirt indoor ring with the garage doors a each end use as goals! After Arno played his first 'chukker' (the polo equivalent to a footy quarter. kind of...) he called me over and told me to get on his horse because i was going to help out in the next chukker!... (you should all be informed that I have NO idea how to play polo!) Anyways, with that, he jumped off of horse, shortened the stirrups and began to walk toward the exit (to get his other horse) and yelled out "have fun kid" as he disappeared down the barn way. So I got to help out by picking up the balls for few chukkers, which is ALOT harder and lot more scary than it sounds, but it was SOOOOOO much fun cos i got to gallop around on the polo ponies and get to be in the action without the pressure of actually playing! lol anywhos, im now known as "arno's kid" in the (arena) polo world. As you can tell by the way i have rambled about it, i had alot of fun! te he he he. Yea, so after the games finished Arno swapped my ball 'picker-uperer' (thats what i like to call it anyways) for his polo mallet and let me 'stick and ball' for ten mins and gave me a mini polo lesson! Well anyway, i really hope that he plays more arena polo this winter (he was 'filling in' to show the beginners what its like out on the actual pro fields!) because i thoroughly enoyed it today!

In other news i have 4, maybe 5 horses leaving the farm tomorrow. Normandy, lil Porkchop, Donald, Hopscotch and possibly Iris (sniff sniffz). Also the Korean man leaves early tomorrow aswell. So that leaves me and Friday (the cat) in the barn (hence the pic)... oh, and a few horses of course. Te he he he. K, well i should really go and get some sleep... because i have to be in the barn in 9 hours.... BAH! HA! love to y'all... have fun, be safe....xoxo

Letting everyone know....

2006-10-20T11:46:00.000-05:00

Wow, so mum just left the farm to head to the airport to begin her journey home. The last two weeks have absolutely FLOWN by! Its actaully really weird to think that i won't be seeing her for another 4 months. And i have to say that it is as equally weird to think that when i get home i won't have seen you all for 9 months... its a scary thought but an exciting one all the same. Anywhos, so im once again alone in the barn (te he he) and have many-a-thing to do... Im currently working on a pony called Hopscotch, because he is going to another kiddie farm and he has some personality problems that need sorting out. Also about to start riding Toby, who is a mustang that Mum convinced Arno to keep... so now i have to ride him pretty much everyday! I other horsey news... Lotus aka "Lolita" (my very injured lil polo pony) is doing very well and it looks as if she will make a full recovery over the next 6 months or so.... yay for that. Well I hope mum is enjoying her trip to NYC and has a safe return home... thats about it for now. Have fun. xoxo

2006-10-19T11:34:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday mum and I caught a lift with Arno to spend the afternoon in New York City! Braving the wet and cold weather, we started out at Zabaars (famous deli in NY) and then headed to the (recommended by Arno) American Museum of Natural History... which was a lot more fun than i had anticipated i must say! Mum and I wandered around the museum for a few hours and admired the large dinosaur collection... which blew the pants off of Adelaide Museum's little dinosaur section! (te he he) Anywhos, I decided that there was only a certain amount of walking around and looking at dead things i could take, so we headed out on the streets for an (unscheduled) visit to Central park before we jumped into a cab and headed to Times Square! Mum and I spent ages wandering up and down broadway and 42nd St. and in and out of stores, taking in all of the lights and sounds that Times Square had to offer. We then had dinner in a small Italian restaurant and headed to the Hard Rock cafe for dessert... where we also had our picture taken infront of the wall of guitars! After filling ourselves up with too much food, we jumped on the bus for the three hour journey home which was also a welcome nap! well, thats about it for now me thinks... its Mum's last night tonight so we are having a party with Arno and Olga and some Korean dude that is here for the B&B... fun times. ok, have fun and stay cool. xoxo

Cold weather and Riding pics...

2006-10-15T21:09:00.000-05:00

Another cold one last night, getting down to -2C... when i got down to the barn this morning, some of the hay was frozen... rather than just gaining a layer of frost overnight. Mum and I did quite a bit of riding today. This morning Mum rode Normandy and I rode (my new fave) Iris and took them out on the hunt course for some jumping excitement. After lunch i jumped on problem pony 'Jewel' and mum gave me a lesson in schooling her, as she tried to buck me off in protest of the rather large whip i was using! unfortunately for her, she was unable to buck me off so she had to put up with me on her back for about an hour! - fun times.

hope everyone is having fun and being cool. love y'all. xoxoxo

Me riding Jewel

Iris - on the hunt course

Mum and Normandy on the Hunt Course

Iris and I on the same jump

Iris and I warming up on the log jump

Mum warming Normandy up in the ring

The frosty.... nay, FROZEN hay this morning

One more picture... grr

2006-10-14T21:22:00.000-05:00

well im being stubborn.. the puter had a lil spit at me before and wouldnt let me post this pic of Falcon in the paddock this morning (for unknown reasons) so im posting it in a separate lil thingy all to its self... ha ha ha ha... beat that mr computer! (guys... ive actaully lost the plot!... dont worry, i'll find it again soon)
hope everyone is safe and doing well...
xoxoxo

Pics of Ma and I...

2006-10-14T20:08:00.000-05:00

As promised: more pics of this morning!...

Mum riding Josie (not a pic from this morning but oh well)

Mum this morning with the frosty tyres

me pointing (with enthusiasm) at the frosty tyres

Porkchop (eating his breakfast happily) before mum and I started pestering him

Mum with Porkchop

Me on Porkchop

Melting ice from the top of the water trough

Me and Falcon (one of my injured polo ponies)

Me kissing Falcon (he doesnt have a mane incase you are wondering)

Mum kissing Falcon (everyone loves Falcon! te he he)

Fun with Mum...

2006-10-14T12:30:00.000-05:00

Well today and yesterday have been the coldest days of my 'American experience' so far! last night it got down to about -1C and during the day it gets a little warmer.. getting up to 11C and then plummeting back down as soon as the sun disappears! Well given these temps, we have had frost (much to my excitement) on the ground and everywhere else for that matter, in the mornings. I set out this morning with my camera on our hunt course and around the barn yard and took various pictures of frozen things... it kept me entertained for a while at least! ha ha ha.

Mum and I were feeling slightly energetic this morning and decided to go and pester Porkchop the pony, so we took some pictures of that as well.

I also decided to paint some poles this morning, however i think the mixture of cold and blonde hair is getting to me, because i painted poles last night and came to them this morning to put the second coat on, thinking they would be dry.... of course forgetting that they were FROZEN last night... hmmm i know... im shaking my head too!

Anyways, thats about it for now.... thought i would add a couple pics for everyone to see... will be sure to add some more within the next 24hrs... enjoy!

The Frosty Grass

The hunt course

The Log jump on the Hunt course

Another hunt course pic!

Mum and I being losers

Mum with Porkchop

Me on Porkchop... pointing at him as if i had something funny/useful to say! (te he he)

A Wormy situation...

2006-10-11T20:02:00.000-05:00

So the last couple of days has been perfect sunshine all day, but today it looks like the weather had a change of heart and it has literally been raining all day. Arno and his (polo) friend Chuck have been trying to convince Mum and I that it is going to snow on Friday.... I myself am slightly skeptical of this suggestion but it IS forcast for a low of 0 Degrees.... so who knows!

Mum and I passed the time away in the barn today by worming some horses and ponies and then cleaning tack. I think maybe the horses and ponies drew the short straw (pardon the barn related pun) with Mum worming them today because it actaully ment that they had someone who knew what the heck they were doing so they were all taken back by the fact that they couldn't actually spit the paste out, nor rear out of the way... pretty sure some of them were saying "This wasn't in the brochure" as mum made her way through the 20 horses on property... although we did have a little excercise running around to catch one of the horses aptly named Mouse to break up the routine of successful 'wormings'... we finally cornered him and enticed him by telling him that it was 'Apple' flavoured... i think thats what really sealed the deal personally. te he he he.

When the sun is out, i have been dragging mum out into the rings with me to ride... yay for that... In other news, for those of you wondering, i have moved out of the Dormitory (yay) and moved into the Main House, into one of the guest rooms, which is fun.

hmm. thats about it. i think so anyways... Well, until next time my fun friends from down under... Be safe, stay cool and have WAY too much fun.

Catch!
xoxo

YAY for mum

2006-10-08T12:15:00.000-05:00

Mum arrived safely on Friday night in the big apple and made her way to meet and greet us by catching Subway and hailing a taxi... she ses she did her best sex in the city impression for that! So all is well, happy to have mumsicles around and having lots of fun in the barn and sure to have lots of fun out and about over the next two weeks!

In other news... as promised, i thought i woud tell you how my day finished out on friday... managed to live through calming the horse down and ended up with minimal paint coverage... so all was well. we then left the farm and went to pick up mum and then went out to dinner in NYC to a japanese restaurant and had sushi... which i keep discovering is deceptively filling. anyways.

Mum and i are going for a ride this arvo so im going to get ready for that! yay.... catch!

A late post...

2006-10-08T12:06:00.000-05:00

Friday 6th October 06
1:36pm

Hmm, so interesting happenings on the farm… first and foremost, mum arrives here in NYC in approximately 4 hours… which means she is somewhere in the west in the USA at the mo. Exciting stuff.

Anyways, a change around the farm will see no workers (except me of course) around the property, two of the other workers (that were doing ‘maintenance’ work) are headed to the south of North America (probably Florida) and the other one is headed to Europe as he was only actually on holidays in the US, visiting the other two. It’s kind of strange but probably no different to being a month down the track, when Arno was going to “let them off” anyways… I think it simply means to Arno that he has to finish chopping his winter firewood himself… lol diddums. Ha ha ha

Anyways, this morning we went to pick up seven of our horses that were grazing in a paddock far, far away (ok, only a half hour drive). One of them is a baby, well actually they are all babies, but one of them in particular hasn’t quite learnt to deal with life yet and totally freaked out about getting on the trailer, almost killing Arno and I in the process… scary stuff. Same problem occurred getting her off of the trailer, cept this time we were prepared and took some safety precautions in getting her unloaded… so my project for this afternoon is getting her to calm the bleep down and try and get her to eat something and be a normal horse, rather than a psycho kicking and bucking machine… wish me luck! Ha ha ha well by the time I post this I will have already done it/not done it so maybe I will add a little note at the end telling you of my success or lack there of.

Also going to attempt to paint some poles and we all know by now of my trouble with paint cans so I will also let you know how that goes.

I cant wait to see mum tonight…. We are having dinner in NYC…hopefully she will have saved room from all that er, plane “food” for a decent meal…

Ok, well I am off to go and try to not kill myself in the barn before we go to NYC tonight! Te he he he he…

Later!

Zufälligere Fotos

2006-10-04T21:52:00.000-05:00

Ok, so i was in the mood for posting photos, so here are some very random pics taken throughout the summer! Enjoy...

For those of you wondering... this is what I look like, at 6:05am at camp.

This is Marieke, Brenna, myself and Livvy, the night that the staff went out for dinner.

Me in the barn being a knob (nothing new)

Pillow Polo team... FYI: yes, im the one in the middle!

After Pillow Polo...the gloves come off! (from left: Liz, Anna, Me, Brenna)

Me at 'Shop Rite' (like Coles)

Jackson the pony taking me for a ride in the stall!

Im a Hippopotamus and I've got Noodles on my Back...

2006-10-04T21:22:00.000-05:00

Ok, so today's title is a little strange... but there is a method in my maddness!... to your right is an all brand spanking new list of things to look at, under "Dan's Fun Stuff". I highly recommend that you take a look at the Noodley Hippo link... its going to be stuck in my head for the rest of my life... kind of reminds me of a certain ring tone i once had... Ring any banan.. er, bells? HA!

wow, ok well today the weather warmed up a bit slightly which was good to, um, feel... i also managed to tame the paint cans this afternoon, which was fortunate because im still picking sparkly purple bits off from yesterday despite my showers in between... YAY for me.

There is one whole day until Mum arrives and i am absolutely beside myself with excitement... also excited today because the food shopping arrived and there is lots of bacon in the fridge... mmmmm bacon..... speaking of which, i might go and make some... whilst sinnig about a hippo with noodles on his back.... anywhos

catch y'all soon!
xoxo

Escaping horses and paint...

2006-10-03T19:17:00.000-05:00

Two days until mum visits! YAHOO! anyways, wow, Im so excited its not even funny.

The mother and daughter left with big smiles and Arno watched them with a big smile on his face knowing that he had just gained another camper for mother/daughter week at camp next year... which kind of made me smile.

Today, two of my horses (despite BOTH being injured) decided that the grass was greener on the other side of he road, literally! They somehow opened the gate latch, opened the gate (which swings inwards), strolled up the middle of the road side by side and into the driveway of the main property and began munching on the grass outside the dorms... highly entertaining! Also today, i had another fight with a paint can or two, again letting them get the better of me... however i DID end up a nice purple colour, which im now discovering has little sparkly bits in it!

Fun times are being had by all.

catch! xoxo

Just like camp...but colder!

2006-09-30T12:02:00.000-05:00

This weekend at the farm we have a mother/daughter combo staying with us as a part of the bed and breakfast business that Arno runs in the autumn and spring. The mother is really nice and the kid is 10 (just - they came up here to celebrate the 10th bday)and constantly wants to be down at the barn "helping me" with barn work... in other words watches me doing my daily chores and then quizzes me on why i do each thing... highly entertaining for me, although i dont think she quite gets sarcasm just yet... oh well!

Im very excited that my calendary/board type thing in the barn tells me that there are just six days before my mum arrives in the big apple! i think Arno is etting quite excited about having mum here too... i think he is looking forward to having a 'horsey' person around to share horsey tales with!

anyways im still having fun although the other day i didnt end up having any muffins because Tom the Farrier said he was running late... Arno was also very sad about this because he also likes the muffins, so the very next day he came down to the barn and gave me box of cookies! te he he. SO the weather is getting quite chilly at this time of year, last night it got down to about 33F which is almost 0.5C in our terms. anywhos, fun times.

k, im guna cruise but hope you are all having funsicles, be safe and be happy! xoxoxox

Retratos...

2006-09-28T18:38:00.000-05:00

Ok so here go some of the photos of the last couple of weeks... i will quite possibly post some more really random photos v.soon but heres the 'photo fix' for now. xoxoxoxoxo

Me having fun on the jet ski... not that you can really see that... i just think its a cool pic

Liz, Marieke and Me at the Matt Mays and El Torpedo/Brian Byrne concert

Marieke and I trying to climb onto the stage before the concert.

Niagara Falls

American Falls (which is about 50m from Niagara Falls... but on the American side of the Niagara.)

Me pondering life on Levi

Iryna and I at the Hen night in NYC

Iana and I at the Hen night

Just a lil' bit moody... te he he

2006-09-27T21:07:00.000-05:00

Ok, well i wrote this about an hour and a half ago and since then the internet has redeemed itself and come back to life... needless to say im in a much better mood after the discovery! ...

Wednesday 27th September 06
8:03pm
Well just as my laptop problems are solved, the internet breaks down… FABULOUS. (excuse the sarcasm)… other technology problems happening this week also include a broken microwave, my mp3 player having a hissy anytime I touch it and also this laptop occasionally deciding to shutdown at random intervals and also choosing not to respond to keys being pressed whilst typing so I am pretty much slamming every key as I type to ensure that whole words come out rather than just random letters… so im having fun. (sorry im in a sarcastic mood… as if you didn’t notice already). Today was a pretty average day for me down at the barn, to give you some idea of what an ‘average’ day is for me, it involves rolling out of bed at 7:55am and being in the barn by 8am, haying the horses, haying paddocks, conjuring up an abundance of medicated grain for the breakfast of four sickly horses we have in the barn (all with leg injuries), graining the other ’normal’ horses and throwing several of them out into various paddocks. Then I muck out stalls and clean up the barn area and do random odd jobs like cleaning troughs or buckets or cleaning tack…. Today however, I gave Olga’s mother a riding lesson (she had never been on a horse before) and then headed up to the house for lunch. After lunch I drove the big tractor (which is HUGE fun) around our ‘top ring’ and picked up random stuff like standards (things that hold jumps up) and poops and anything else in the ring, so that Arno can drag it “tomorrow” (which actually means next week sometime.) Anywhos after that had some fun and painted jump poles. After several fights with many paint cans, I eventually came up with two decently painted red and white jump poles and one decently painted, multi coloured, me! I then brought all of the horses in from the paddocks and put them in their clean stalls so that they could spend the night making them disgusting again, and hayed and grained the appropriate horses. I then put on a trusty pair of surgical gloves and began ‘playing vet’ and tended to the leg injuries of my four legged friends, by scrubbing and cleaning sores, inserting my hand into a rather large wound on one particular ‘patient’ (no further details are necessary) and giving injections etc etc… all that fun and disgusting stuff. I then headed up to the house for dinner and burnt my finger with some rather hot oil, discovered that there was no internet, swore and cursed at the computer a little and finally came to my room to write about my day due to the serious lack of other things to do. Wow…. Im in a good mood! K, well I think its about time I went and did something productive and put myself in a better frame of mind… Tom the farrier comes tomorrow (which means yummy, yummy muffins for Dani… no im serious, he brings the most delicious ‘corn muffins’ – which are just frickn normal muffins as far as I can tell - with him every time he visits!) so im hoping I will have happier stories tell of tomorrow… like muffins… mmmmm muffins. Anyways I will stop rambling on about random food items and let you all get back to your normal lives…. Adios! xoxoxo

Im back (online)... and i have news!

2006-09-25T19:06:00.000-05:00

Well what amazing couple of weeks i have had. Many of you have been emailing and threatening to do nasty things to me unless i updated the blog so here goes... (hope you are up for some reading!) So i last left you with about a week left o camp. The last wekof camp dragged on like was never going to end but it did... (surprisingly enough) and by the saturday afternoon, the property lookd like a ghost town... the dorms were finally (earily) empty and there were counsellors wandering around aimlessly, looking like lost little souls. so Saturday night after all the campers had gone, Marika had a party at her house which was also a going away party for her departure to Germany for one year. After Sunday most of the counsellors left the property for home which pretty much just left me and the kitchen staff from the specific group of summer camp staff.

I guess here is a good a time as any to mention the news that i promised from the last blog! Some of you have already heard the news, but I will be in the US for a further 4 months until late January or early February. I'm quite excited about the extended stay however i will be missing all of you at home but i can assure you that i think of you all everyday and i will definately be coming home after the 4 months is up!! This means that i will be missing out on chrissy at home and stuff like that but imquite excited for a white christmas and New Years Eve in New York City!

Anyways, so n the last couple of weeks, camp has officially closed down for the year, Arno (my boss) got married, which ment i got to spend a night in New York City and partied HARD for Olga's hen night. that was lots and lots of fun!

Ive also been on a one week trip to Canada and stayed with Marieke in a town called Guelph... its a really cool little town built soley around the University of Guelph. Whilst there, we got up to all sorts of shiznat. We went to a concert for a band called "Matts Mays & El Torpedo" and opening for them, was another Canadian ripper, Brian Byrne. Over the summer i have grown to love these two bands and i was so unbelievably lucky to be able to see both of them perform on the same night, one after the other! Anyways, so after the concert we were invited back stage and the bands bought us free rounds of drinks and we were all invited back to the after party which was huge fun and very entertaining to say the least! I also got to go to Niagara Falls and do all the tourist-y things available there. Unfortunately the week came to a halt rather quickly and i had to jump on a coach and make my way back to New York via Toronto, Buffalo, Syracuse and onto NYC (just incase anyone cares! lol).

So for about a week i have been working down in barn on my own and doing my horsely duties each day. I know ome of you would shudder at the thought of being alone for starters, and on top of that, double shudders for BARN WORK (which, yes, does involve shovelling shit for a portion of my day, each day)... but its actually lots of fun! im having some of my friends from NYC and Canada come and visit me periodically so i dont go any more insane whihc will be welcome break im sure. One last piece of news: MY MUM IS COMING TO VISIT ME! YAY! yes its true, my mum is coming to stay with me at the farm for two weeks starting in early October! we are sure to have lots and lots of fun!

oki think thats about it from me for the moment... i will be posting regularly now that my blogging dilema is solved (my laptop broke... MAJORLY and now its healthy again!). Sorry for the big gap in posts but i can assure you that i wont take that long in between blogs again... assuming everything goes to plan! photos ar sure to be up within the next few days!

ok, missing you all like crazy... keep the emails coming, i love hearing about everything from everyone! hope everyone is safe and having fun.

xoxoxoxoxoxo

What a week! (or two)...

2006-08-17T21:30:00.000-05:00

So much happening in so little time. ok.... So.... in the last two weeks, we have lost little Marika to Spain for two weeks and gained another legendary Brit, Anna, who is 26 and an awesome polo player who now lives in the heart of New York City... little marika is coming back but will be leaving two days after, to go and live in Germany for about a year. I was also fortunate enough in the last two weeks to get to go to the last South Hampton trip for three days, the last New York trip and the last water park trip..... VERY lucky. i have also been for a few rides and been water skiing in between... thought i would share a few pics with everyone, of my last couple of weeks. There are only something like 8 days left of camp which is sad but more than welcome at this point in the summer... i have some exciting news for everyone but its going to have to wait until the next post so it is confirmed when i tell you all! ... sory for the tease! ok, hope you are all safe and well. speak to you all very soon...

Me on the jet ski in South Hampton

Me water skiing at White Lake

It speaks for itself pretty much... its in Montauk if anyone is interested...

Me in Central park kissing Jackson with Peri (camper) sitting ontop wondering what on earth im doing to the pony

The pic i stole from tavern on the green the second time around.

Peri (the same camper) outside Tavern on the Green, seeing things eye to eye with the carriage horse named Jefferson.

More photos later guys!
luv you all

New York, New York!

2006-08-03T22:10:00.000-05:00

So today i woke up at 4:45am to go down to the barn by 5am, to have the kids up by 5:15am, to have breakfst at 5:30am and leave for our day trip to New York City by 6am on the dot.... i made it!

So once we reached New York City, we walked to the corner of 92nd and Madison Ave (from the corner of 92nd and 5th Ave) to Cafe Yura, for a bite to eat and then went back to the trailer and unloaded the 7 horses, tacked up and the 12 campers went in groups of six, with Arno on a trail ride through Central Park. Once they finished the trail rides, we untacked the horses and loaded them back on to the trailer, and headed off to "Tavern on the Green" which is basically and over priced excuse to eat in a 'fancy' restaurant in Central Park... (they say its expensive and classy, i say it was expensive and tacky... 70's style fairy garden painting on the wall, different coloured chandeliers everywhere, etc etc), so the 14 of us racked up a $700 bill (including the tip) and headed out with a full stomach and a handful of balloons in exchange. We then went to the carousel in Central park and spent an hour there before we all clambered into white stretch limos and went to FAO Schwartz which is an awesome toy store, similar to the entertainment and size of IKEA but more so, as its a toy store... we spent 15 mins there and then jumped back into the waiting limos and went to the Manhattan Saddlery and spent half an hour walking around admiring the $2000 upwards price tags on the saddles. We then were dropped back off at central park and got back into our big silver van and came home via Maccas. Im pooped now, so i will maybe post more later about my day off yesterday etc when im concious.

ciao for now.

Park Ave sign

Broadway sign

Central Park trail ride

View of city-ish buildings from central park

The pic that they wanted me to pay $25 for at 'Tavern on the Green' ('Expensive McCrapperson's' as i like to call it).. so i took a pic of the pic over my salad (hence the lettuce in the way)... ps... i look like a giant whale in this pic... ive put on LOTS of weight (just incase you couldnt all use your eyes to see that!)... mmm FATTY American foooooooood......

Me entertaining the kids while waiting for the limo in central park

NYC... Park Ave from the limo to be specific

Some funny looking 'Girths' in Manhattan Saddlery... FYI a girth is the thick brown thing on the far right... not the loopy things underneath the 'Girths' sign.. they are Martingales

More Pictures...

2006-07-29T18:09:00.000-05:00

Here are the pics i was going to post before... the storm passed and then internet works once again! WOO HOO

Sophie and I being knobs

Sophie and I still being knobs

Marika and I on the way to the water park

Me riding KC last night

KC going THROUGH the jump (look at the back feet sliding!)

Challenges...

2006-07-29T17:24:00.000-05:00

OK: SO....Today was my day off again so im sitting here and its even daylight outuside (which is a rarity for me) AND the internet is working which is also a big bonus. I started my day at 5:30am and got up to go to the recognised horse show in Old Salem. I figured that it was my chance to go to Old Salem (which is an AWESOME barn... eg the actual barn looks nicer than a house.) and to see Marika and one of my campers Sophie (an 11 year old superstar) compete, and because Marika was nervous so i wanted to support her and take pics etc etc... anyways, enough with the excuses, the point was that i got up early to go to the damn thing. So anywho, we got here and bummed around and Arno gave me some money for lunch which was awesome and i wandered around the gigantic facility and parked myself by the jumper ring for the day to watch everyone compete... unfortunately Marika never got to compete in the some 8 classes originally thought because her horse Apollo hit his already sore leg in warm up and became lame and her other horse KC (who is actually her dressage horse) wasnt able to compete because there weren't enough people at the high level she competes, at to go in the class! Sophie however (who by the way is really cool) competed and did really well competing against men and women of all ages and placing reserve champion. I pretty much took pictures all day with Soph's and Marika's cameras and a few with mine which hopefully i will get up on here later on.

My week has been an interesting one to say the least, I went to the water park as a lifeguard again on wednesday which was huge fun... however this session's campers seem to have a common theme running amoungst them... that they all have some sort of learing or social disorder... i have 4 children i am currently working with teaching them the basics of horse riding, all with some sort of learning problem... its a challenge but (this will sound corny) rewarding when you finally get them to do something correctly... i actually prefer it to teaching 'normal' children.... anyways, besides my lesson i have also been teaching water skiing in the afternoon which is also really fun. Ok, im going to go now and post this because in the last ten minutes it has grown dark and there is a big storm looming overhead which may interfere with the internet... so i will leave you with this single picture of me riding KC (marikas horse that i mentioned before) last night, when she was teaching me to jump properly... hope you are all safe and sound... would love to hear from you all.
Catch you soon...

Day Off!

2006-07-17T22:44:00.000-05:00

Today was my day off, I started it, with a sleep in until 7:30am and got up at 8am, to be at breakfast by 8:30am (today was a late breakfast due to it being "100 degrees" and being the horses day off cos everyone freaked out about the weather being 'unbearable')... so, i had breakfast and bummed around doing laundry and such until about midday, when we all (being Liz, Marieke, Brenna, Marika and the nurse, Karen) decided to go swimming. We ended up at Minnowaska... or something along those lines, which is a lake, ontop of a mountain.... we pretty much spent the day there and then went to a really nice restaurant for dinner and had a big steak each which was awesome. when i got back, i found out that one of my campers (also named Danielle) broke her arm while roller skating today and has to go home tomorrow, which is kinda sad, cos she is a cool kid. Anyways, im having heaps of fun... yet another counsellor quit... Livvy left the other day in a huff, when it was announced that Brenna and I got to go to South Hampton with the campers and not her. ps. South Hampton was friggin AWESOME... South Hampton is a town, which is about twenty times the wealth of anyone in Adelaide.. for EVERYONE. All of the houses in the Hamptons are perfect and they all have straight perfect hedges around their property and the shopping there is only for those with money with such stores as Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Ellie Tahari, Coach, Tiffany & Co. etc etc. Oh and one of my campers spent just over $800 on shopping alone over the two and a half day trip... yes you read that sentence correctly... there was and eight with two zeros behind it and the word 'over' in front of it! so anywho, Livvy left, and today, Pip left aswell (however she has the intention to come back)because she has pretty much broken her back and has to have 4 weeks off.... so we are under staffed at the moment, but still having fun nevertheless! I have been struggling to contact people over the past couple of weeks, i have no phone at the moment and the internet hasnt been working properly... dont ask how but msn seems to work but NOTHING else on the computer internet wise like hotmail or this site. The internet stuffs up at the drop of a hat here, because we are so far out in the sticks so apologies to those who i need to email back and still havent. Hope everyone is doing great back home, please keep the emails coming, although im not reading them at the moment, i would love to hear about everyone's adventures when i finally get some normal internet service! have fun and stay safe!

Me playing my barn guitar

From Left: Marika, Liz, Marieke, Me, Brenna

Marieke and I at the lake

Brenna and I in South Hampton

Arno playing polo

South Hampton hotel, which was really in Montauk

Fun Didely Fun...

2006-07-05T21:14:00.000-05:00

So incase you are wondering "what happened to Liz's horse" (re: the comments in my last post)... Movado had to be put down after a 12 hour struggle and unfortunately Liz was in Canada at the time, which left me in charge of the barn and her colicking horse. The Vet eventually came at 10:30 in the morning and put Movado down, and Liz asked me over the phone to go with Mov to put him down and say goodbye to him for her... so Saturday was a VERY emotional and tiring day, especially as I had to keep a brave face for the campers for the rest of the day... details are missed but you get the main idea. The last couple of days have been a struggle but i have made it through with a smile on my face and managed to spread it to the others around me. Today i had a break from the barn and was sent to the Water Park as a 'lifeguard' (because the 3 milion lifeguards at the water park werent enough) and had fun with the kids going on all of the rides and tomorrow im plaing lifeguard again at the lake all day and teaching people to water ski which shall be fun. I also got to teach tennis the other day so im happy. Camp is really really fun. All of the girls are realy swet and yes, they are really rich... infact one of the girls was telling me the other day that her dad bought her an $8000 antique rocking horse because she wanted it! But despite their wealth and some of their mannerisms/ignorance (eg. one of the girls didnt know how to catch/tack up/groom a horse because she has people do it for her and others dont say please or thank you) they are all realy cool, and willing to learn. I'm really learning alot here as well. The last three days have been birthdays here at camp, Marika, aka "little Marika" (not Marieke aka "Big Marieke") Had her birthday on the 3rd of July, Independance Day on the 4th (whihc we caled America's bday) and today was Brenna's birthday, so we have had alot of 'happy birthday singing going on.

Clockwise: Livvy (with real glasses), Claire (who was fired), Pip (who was not fired), Me and Nicola (who left/was fired-ish)

Campers (for second session) and some of the counsellors (labelled)

Wednesday...

2006-07-02T21:59:00.000-05:00

Wednesday 27th June 06 10:52pm

Feeling a bit tired and run down today, but spirits are still high. Had a big, big day in the barn. Every Wednesday is ‘the horses day off’ so the campers are taken off the property to bowling or the movies etc and we do barn work such as gutting and airing stalls and washing saddle pads etc etc. So this morning started out just great… we got to sleep in til 8am, had breakfast at 8:30am and headed down to the barn at 9:00am. Because the horses are not being used, Liz and Marieke take every Wednesday off too and of course today had to be one of the days that other barn staff had off as well… with that background information in hand, I can continue my story: Anyways, so I headed down to the barn at 9am and began our morning routine and got things going and I got to play Barn Manager for the day… The farrier came and began his work on the ponies. We had 6 staff working in the morning and I was aware of the fact that one was leaving after lunch to go roller skating with the campers which would leave us with five workers after lunch… four working and one holding horses for the farrier. So lunchtime came around and everybody went up to lunch, except for me who stayed and held horses for the farrier. After lunch, TWO workers came down and told me that the other two were in a meeting with Arno and would be down afterwards. About an hour later, the two girls returned in casual clothes (not the usually dirty barn clothes) along with another counsellor and stated that they were leaving camp immediately. So that left us with two people (and one holding horses) running a barn with 50 horses and ponies! So that is probably why I’m a little exhausted, but it’s ok because I have a day off tomorrow so I can sleep in a little, although, now due to the fact that THREE counsellors quit this afternoon, I’m looking after three dorms of campers because we are still short staffed from the two that were fired last week, which is actually ridiculous. So maybe I will have to get up and work in the morning to help get everybody up for breakfast and then go back to sleep. I also have to move rooms tomorrow because I’m looking after the three dorms (one of them is my original dorm and one only has two girls in it) I need to be in a more central position so that they can all access me if they need. Anyways, I have no Idea what the time is but I’m going to bed. There is no internet access at the moment so im hoping that situation will change by tomorrow when I actually have time to check my emails etc. Ok, bedtime…

Ponies and Rain...

2006-06-27T21:41:00.000-05:00

Monday June 26th 06 10:40pm

Ok, so first of all, ive been exceptionally busy lately and haven’t had the chance to go on the internet at all. The Campers have arrive and they are all really cool. Last week (which was the first week of camp) was Mother Daughter week and I taught two of the mothers who weren’t particularly bothered about what they learnt or what they didn’t… so we had fun all week just getting to know each other and I took them on trail rides etc to keep them occupied for the three hours of riding we had to do everyday! Last week I was able to go to “the lake” to learn how to drive the jet ski (which is really a sea doo) so that I can take the kids out when we go. Unfortunately ue to the fact that I was teaching three hours a day last week, I still haven’t played tennis or taught any water skiing but im having fun doing al of the horsey things. I really like three of the ponies/horses here and im thinking of different way of fitting all three into my suitcase to bring home with me… I will take some pics of them eventually to show you all but the three are ‘Miami’ who is a really sweet mare who really reminds me of Ella, ‘Boo’ who is the most gorgeous 3 year old pony who just wants to be friends with everyone (including the horses that kick him because he invades their personal space) and follows absolutely anything around that MIGHT pay him some attention and Mikey who is a girl pony standing an incredible 10 to maybe 11 hands high (for those of you who don’t follow… its slightly bigger than my dog) and she is a skewbald but has on blue eye and white mane tail and forelock. ANYWAYS… So quite a bit has happened since I last posted, I think maybe three counsellors have left. One of them was Katie, who decided that she liked the YMCA camp that we went to lifesaving at, so she transferred, and the other two were fired just yesterday, one for being extremely rude to one of the senior staff here and one for inappropriate conduct around the camp (basically nobody got along with her and she was rude and didn’t do any work). As I said before, im pretty busy… Liz and Marieke have started teaching lessons as well and have put me in charge of the barn when they aren’t there so I get to look really cool and wear a walkie-talkie on my bum! …its lots of fun.

In the last two days it has rained more than I have ever seen it rain before. Yesterday, all the stalls in the barn flooded and so we spent the afternoon gutting stalls and sweeping water out and banking the aisles of the barn etc. Anyways, because of all of the rain, HUGE puddles have formed, to the point where we have a pond at the back of the barn (where there is normally grass), which the frog and toad population of New York State have decided to reside and breed in. Today, at the end of the day, Marieke and I were so unbelievably soaked through, that we both took our rain jackets off and dove into one of the ‘puddles’ like a swimming pool and rolled and splashed around like idiot with our clothes still on. So by the time we were done ‘swimming’ in the ‘puddle’, it was dinner time, and we went up to the food tent soaking wet and acted as if nothing had happened. But then we had to shower REALLY quickly because it was our day to do ‘evening activities’ because Gina (Arno’s sister/the person who ACTUALLY runs the camp) has decided that Marieke and I are good at being loud and should therefore run the evening activities of the first day of each session (so basically whenever we get new campers)… which is kind of painful, but fun all the same. I have campers in my dorm this session so I have them or two weeks as of last Sunday and they are all really cool, two of the are from Florida and one is from California and one of the girls form Florida is a teen model and she is in “Teen Vogue” magazine. Anyways, they are all cool and they are all 14 years old but really mature for their age.
Im really tired so im going to head off back to the dorm because im in the staff room and hit the sack… 6:20am start everyday day now, so needs my sleeps! K, adios.

Certified, Qualified, Dandified Lifeguard!

2006-06-12T12:51:00.000-05:00

Ok, so last night i got back to camp after spendiong 3 days and two nights at Lifeguarding camp, where i got up and swam for a minimum of 6 hours everday until they told me i was a lifeguard... ok it wasnt that simple, but it was something like that. We went to a place called 'Camp Mason' which was a YMCA in New Jersey and experienced what 'real' camp life was all about, we had a camp fire and toasted marshmellows and learnt campfire songs and watched campfire skits... it was quite the experience however i am now glad to be back in 'civilisation' at my camp, which i may or may not have forgotten to mention is infact the richest camp in the US! Apparently one of the girls who comes here every year has a house which is used on the set of the OC... i thought that was pretty cool. anyways, On friday morning we got up at 5:30am and Arno drove us to New Jersey and left us in a dining hall with about 200 kids running around and basically said Have fun, see you on Sunday! We then ate breakfast and headed to the pool, where we had to swim non stop for something stupid like 20 laps of a pool and if you failed that, you werent llowed to complete the course! All i could think of while doing the test was "Arno has already left" so i wasnt allowed to fail! - in al fairness the test really wasnt that hard, it was just made worse by the fact that we werent allowed to fail it! AAAaaaaanyways, we experienced the whole camp thing, and we were also taken to Walmart because we said that we hadn't been. Katie and I were so excited about the whole thing that we took pics (see one of them below) and we were there until 1am! Anyways, the point to this post is to basically tell everyone that I survived the course and I'm now a lifeguard, so - there you go... hope everyone is doing well to the max, please email me and let me know what you are all up to because i love hearing from you all!

The unbelieveable Oreo selection in Walmart (and Katie and I being idiots)

Pictures!

2006-06-08T07:21:00.000-05:00

Ok, so many of you have asked for some pictures so, its my day off today so i thought would sit down and take the time to upload some... The first one is our walk from the barn to the dorms (which you can see in the distance to the right), the second and third is me (clearly being a dick) with Marieke's horse after work, the 4th one is Marieke being 'serious' and Liz Smiling, The next one is the dorms that we are staying in, And finally, the girls from left to right: Marieke, Brenna, Livvy and Katie, i will try to put more up as i go.. today is a special day because the internet is letting me put the pics up! i might put more up later on... I missing you all already! Catch!

Journal continued...

2006-06-07T12:32:00.000-05:00

Sunday, 4 Jun. 06 2:14pm NY

Ok, so a while since I sat and wrote something, but I am working really hard which is a good thing. Last week seemed to drag on but this week has flown by. In the last couple of days we have gained 7 new staff. On Thursday, we had 2 German girls, 2 Ukrainians and one English girl arrive all at once. They are all really nice, Livvy especially… who is from Wales and has the coolest accent ever! Also, Martin (pronounced Mar-teen), the polo groom has arrived so we no longer need to groom or ride the polo ponies or have anything to do with them except sometimes randomly catch them when they get loose because Martin can’t control all six at once, but insists that he can. FYI: Martin is from Argentina and speaks very little English. Ok, I have to get back to work but I will continue this after work and after I have figured out how to get my laundry out of the washing machine!! 2:25pm NY

Monday, 5 Jun. 06 7:40pm NY

I worked out how to get my washing out of washing machine and then struggled to work the dryer until I got Marieke to come and help me out and realised that all I had to do was press a button… anyways, I didn’t get to finish what I was saying yesterday about the new people so I will pick up where I left off… or there abouts… anyways, so there are the six people that came on Thursday and then on Saturday we had a new girl, Katie from Kingston in England who is well cool. Despite gaining 7 new people, we have lost 1 person, Patty, who I mentioned in previous posts. Patty had ‘differences’ with bosses here and decided that she wanted to run the place and the bosses weren’t too happy about the situation or her attitude towards the situation and hence fired her. AAAAaaaanyways, I have been working very hard as I said earlier and I have been riding at least two horses everyday, and trying my best to get them fit for the summer. Yesterday, we had an adult guest arrive (which is unusual) at the farm and she is here until Sunday, so from now until then we are teaching her to ride for two sessions a day, which includes teaching her to tack up, and how to groom the horses properly. Some of you will be pleased to know that because we now have a lot of staff here, we are being cooked for and therefore I am eating properly now with three square meals a day and the occasional round or triangle meal thrown in for fun. I don’t particularly have any really exciting news to tell because I’m pretty much doing the same thing day in, day out. Oh, I have a day off on Thursday with Livvy, so that is something to look forward to I guess… I just finished a meal of salad, Ukrainian meatball dumplings, mashed potato and bread so I’m really full. I’m also sitting on the couch in the staff room laughing at the two boys (the only two guys on the property!) on the other computers because they are playing gams and shooting each other and the swearing (neither of them speak English very well) at each other very loudly whenever one loses. Martin is also getting very frustrated with his computer because it keeps stuffing up and freezing… this is why I’m glad I have my laptop with me and am also glad that the wireless functions on it work! Well, that’s me for now, I believe I’m about to head back to the dorms to watch a dvd because a few of the girls went to Ellenville to find a dvd rental place, but the problem is that NONE of our staff at the moment have American citizenship, so we aren’t sure if we can rent dvd’s here, oh well, only time will tell.

Hopefully now that I have got you all up to speed on my happenings I can be more pro active and keep it that way. Thanks for all the emails guys, I really do appreciate them, however with my limited Internet time I sometimes get halfway through replying to them and the net drops out or something ridiculous like that, so I’m trying my best to reply to all of them when I can and hopefully I will get up to speed on that as well over the next few days. Thanks, Catch!

The week so far...

2006-06-01T12:52:00.000-05:00

24th May 9:08am ADELAIDE time

I have officially arrived in Melbourne and been Travelling for approximately 3 hours. I have about 2 hours until my flight leaves for Los Angeles so I’m taking the time to relax… My trip so far has been interesting to say the least. After leaving Adelaide teary eyed, I flew to Melbourne (where I am right now) and I went to collect my baggage. After going the wrong way twice (I’m slowly learning that the “follow the crowd” theory doesn’t work 100% of the time), I was re-united with my beloved blue suitcase and made my way to the International departures section of the airport. As I was waiting in line to ‘check in’ I was pulled aside by a security lady who announced that I had been “randomly selected”…. As in, I was at the end of the line for a security check, so I was taken out of the line and the lady kindly undid the hour of work it took to get everything into the suitcase by going through everything and turning things upside down. Once she had discovered that no, I wasn’t a terrorist and no, I wasn’t the next Corby or Leslie, she dumped everything back into the suitcase and zipped it up and put me at the front of the line to check in. Whilst checking in, discovered that my suitcase zips weren’t shut properly so I had to buy a small padlock which is sure to be cut off and also that my suitcase was 6.something kilograms over the limit so I had to ay a fee of $35. If that wasn’t enough, as I went through customs, I had a lovely chat with the immigration officer who seemed to think that my passport was “held in Adelaide” despite the fact that I had handed it to her and that she was holding it. A phone call soon sorted the problem out that some dipshit in Adelaide didn’t change the status of my passport when it was lost from my Europe trip. Any whos, that my story so far, I’m currently sitting in front of Gate 6 in the international Terminal of Melbourne Airport and its 955am AEST and 925am in Adelaide. Hopefully a smoother run for me in America but I’m looking forward to what ever comes my way.

11:14am Adelaide Time Thursday 25th May 06
9:45pm Washington Dulles Wednesday 24th May 06

Well it’s been an interesting experience to say the least. The plane from Melbourne to Sydney was nice enough, getting off of the plane from Sydney to change planes to LA I was once again “randomly selected” to get my hand luggage checked for explosives… WOO HOO…. I really must look like a terrorist! The flight from Sydney to LA was delayed and we arrived in LA at 10:30am Local time and I discovered that my plane for NY left at 11:30 and boarded at 11am. Needless to say, I missed the flight to NY, hence me sitting in the Washington Dulles Airport. Anyways, straight out of customs, they handed me a different boarding pass t get to Washington and I jumped straight on the plane at 1145am and the plane left LA at 1235pm. LA was weird… the first thing I noticed was that there was minimal tree-age and it REALLY flat and dessert like, but in the distance there are these huge hills…the second thing I noticed was the SMOG! There is this thin layer of smog across the sky’s of America… its really gross to be honest. Anyways the flight from LA to Washington was a pain on the buttocks to be honest… the guy sitting next to me was this creepy old dude who insisted on telling me about his life experiences and “risqué” jokes as he put it… basically they were just gross jokes which no sane person would tell an 18 year old girl from the other side of the world. Anywhos, I spent the 5 hour flight leaning against the window with my sunglasses on, avoiding all possibilities of engaging in conversation with the man and as a result, my back hurts. Once I had arrived in Wash, I caught a shuttle to gate A5, which is where I am now, awaiting my delayed plane to NY… I rang Arno (camp director) and he seemed to find it pretty amusing that his ‘driver’ had to wait another 3-4hours or something ridiculous to drive me back to the farm which will be an extra 3 hours. Gee-Whiz. I also rang home and left a message and then rang mum at work and left a message there so now I cant contact Australia anymore because my free minutes have been used up and I don’t know how to get more on the phone card! Everything is so stereotypical here, I just had a Twix bar and I’m drinking a coke as I type. As I look around, there are many-a fat person sitting down… there is a pizza place about 50m from where I am sitting who sell ‘slices’ of pizza for about $2.60 American dollars, but the slice is literally quarter of a large pizza… I was going to get some but when I saw the size of the pieces… I didn’t bother. I also bought some starburst, which I was disappointed with because they don’t taste any different. Nor did the coke. But my point I was going to make about the starburst was that it was less than $1 American! Ok, so I’ve been travelling for more than 24 hours, I think I’m going insane, to the point where I’m finding the price of starburst exciting. I cant wait to reach a bed tonight… but hat wont be til about 1am… never mind, anyways, I think they are about to tell s something about boarding the delayed plane so I’m guna put this laptop away so I’m all good to go when the time comes. I’m impressed with the laptop business, its very much the convenient, and not hard at all and I seem to fit in with the majority of people here! Ok, its 11:33am Adelaide time and about 10pm here, I’m guna cruise.

Ok, its approximately 6:30pm on Thursday the 25th of May… NEW YORK!

Finally made it to New York City (after the big kafuffle) and managed to find the ‘driver’ Constantine, who picked me up outside of the airport. I’m not sure how, but my bags beat me to NY, I’m not asking questions, I’m just thanking my lucky stars that my suitcase made it here. We got to the camp at about 3am after the long drive home and I fluffed around a bit until about 4am and then went to sleep for a few hours and got up at 6:30am, when I suddenly realised that I had no idea what to do once I was up. So I bummed around the room for an hour or so and got stressed and freshened up a bit and then as I was putting on my shoes a girl walked into the room and was quite shocked to see me awake! I was then invited to the “food trailer” which is a caravan loaded with staple foods like bread ad milk etc and about 20 boxes of cereal. Apparently, that’s what we live on until camp starts and then all the food is cooked for us. Yay… well, at leas ti will lose some weight! After breakfast today, I went down to the barn and helped bring the polo ponies into the stables and stood around a lot and then I got to ride a horse called Polly. We then spent the day washing and grooming most of the horses and at the end of the day, we put the polo ponies back out… FYI, there are 6 polo ponies, all almost identical to one another. At the moment, I have just finished “dinner” of a banana, 2 cookies and a tub of yoghurt…. Ok, guna cruise, time for a shower!

Saturday 27 May 2006 12:15 AM NY

Just got to bed. The last two days have been so unbelieveably hectic. Have befriended all if the girls, they are all really cool. Friday morning I got to learn to ride the polo ponies, so I rode a horse called Primero, he is really relaxed. Also, whilst doing our daily routines around the barn, Arno ‘popped in’ to give us all donuts from dunkin donuts. All the food in the US is ten times as fatty as any of the food in Aust and it has ten times the sugar, I think even the sugar has ten times he sweetness here. They have a tub of peanut butter the size of a… well you cant really compare it to anything in Aust but its massive… maybe the equivalent of a 2L ice cream tub?? I don’t know, I will check tomoro. Anywhos, later that night, I was on my way back to the bedrooms with my banana and peanut butter bagel and ended up having to walk all the way over the other side of the farm with Marieke and Liz because they are scared of the dark and Liz lives on the other side of the farm, so I had to walk Marieke back, which was cool. Today, I rode Primero again in the morning and then I rode a horse called All Star, he is a bit of a skitz, but nice enough. Also, Patty, one of the girls has fallen really ill, she has a migraine so has gone home, hopefully back by tomoro. She is cool. Today we also completely re-mucked the stalls, it was a tough job but it needed to be done. After work, at 6pm, Brenna and I went to have dinner at a diner. It was really cool, it had Tips and everything and it felt like we had gone back to the TV show happy days! After that we went to an ice cream place and I had a frozen strawberry yoghurt in a cone… yuk! Oh well. In the diner, they have drinks, which you pay for but they do free refills so you only pay for one drink!! Its great! – kinda like a hungry jacks but diner style! There is a maccas here in Ellenville… must go to that soon. I’m starting to pick up wording and accents already… not a good sign, they say I have a really cool accent so im going to try and stay different. Apparently I’m the only Aussie going to be here all summer long… I think that there is going to be a NZ’er coming as well though, so it will be cool, I also understand that there are two more German chicks coming in a couple of weeks. So anyway, life on the farm is cool, my body is getting used to it, although I’m not quite sure if im over the jet lag thing yet I don’t seem to be slowing down. Ok it must be about 12:30am so I better get to sleep.. have to be up by 7am… it gets worse when camp starts! Ok, ciao for now.12:30am.

Sunday, 28 May 2006 10:45pm NY

Ok, today was a very non-productive day. In the morning, I rode two polo ponies and lead one whilst riding the first. It’s quite the workout, you have to work each horse for 40 minutes non stop. Once that was finished plus some of the regular muck out stuff, we went to lunch and then after lunch, I busted my arse puling hay bails off of a trailer and cleaned up the barn for the people who came for a pony ride! Basically the children are too young to attend the camp this summer, so the parents come and inspect the premises whist t he children sit on a pony and go around he barn a couple tomes each. We got a $10 tip each, which was really cool because that paid for our Chinese buffet dinner which we had at a place called “’sun’ china buffet” it was $9.99 each for the buffet plus whatever drink you wanted. Any Ways, that was our day. When we got back from dinner, we went to Lizzie’s place and checked our emails and then the internet crashed so we came back to the dorm and then watched an episode of season one ER and then went to bed. Ok, that’s it for now. I found out tonight that I get Wednesday off… NO idea what to do with that one but im sure opportunities will present themselves! 10:52 pm NY

Tuesday, 30th May 06 10:30pm NY

Just got into bed. Yesterday I rode the polo ponies and then spent the afternoon cleaning jumping cups and scrubbing them whilst talking to Brenna about Australian animals in comparison to America and Canada. As I was putting two of the horses out to the field, I buried my feet in mud and ended up walking out of my shoe and therefore got all of my shoe COVERED in sloshy mud and then my socks muddy as well due to the forward momentum out f my shoes… they are still drying today. After work we went to the 209 Diner for diner and I had a “pizzaburger’ which is basically a burger with melted cheese and pizza sauce on it. We then went to an ice-cream place and I had “panda paws” ice cream in a cup. It was really hot yesterday and I ended up sleeping in the other room (I have a room to myself at the moment). Today we worked the polo ponies, and then after lunch, I cleaned out the Tack room and moved a fridge with Brenna That pretty much took up my day. Dinner today was ‘vegetable beef’ soup out of a can followed by dry cereal (no milk) and a peanut butter and cereal sandwich. After an episode of ER, Marieke and I went to the food trailer for some tea and came up with the idea to walk to Liz’s house and scare her, but we made so much noise going into the house that she heard us giggling and wasn’t even surprised to see us! The weather had been really erratic as of late, this morning before lunch it got up to at least 36 degs Celsius but after lunch it was stormy and we have had thunder and lightning since then. I’m quite burnt at the moment as a result of not wearing sunscreen a couple of days ago, today I managed to get rid of the ridiculous glove tan I have sported over the last couple of days, by not putting any sunscreen on my wrists! Tomoro is my day off but because Patty has been sick for the last couple of days, Mareike’s day off has been pushed back to tomoro as well so we are heading into town together to look for things to do. Ok, I should go and get some sleep; I get a sleep-in in the morning! YAHHHHhhhhhooooooooo… 10:47pm NY.

Wednesday, 1 Jun. 06 10:15pm NY

Today was my day off, Marieke and I decided to sleep in til 9:30am, watched episodes of ER and then headed to the office to see if any of the senior staff were driving into town to see if we could get a lift. To our surprise and extreme luck, Gina, the main reception/shopping/everything lady drove us into the MAIN town, which is 45 mins away, and we spent the afternoon shopping. We then came back and the other girls had made spag bol so we ate that and then Marieke did a fashion parade with her new clothes that she bought. Then we decided to come up to the house to see if the Internet worked and clearly it does! So I’m not sitting on a couch, enjoying the fact that the blue tooth on my laptop works with the wireless Internet up here and about to go to bed… Today was a good day! Am missing home, but I’m having heaps of fun here. Anyways, time for me to cruise. Ciao! 10:20pm NY

Here and Loving it

2006-05-31T20:20:00.000-05:00

Ok, so first of all, thank you for all the emails everyone has sent and thanks for being awesome. I have been at camp for about a week and I had quite a time getting here but its all good now. Being at camp means that i dont have alot of time to contact you all individually because im working from 8am til 6pm down at the barn which is ages away from where the internet is and the internet access is very limitied as we are n the middle of nowhere and it sometime drops out randomly. also, i dont YET have a mobile service because there is some sort of prob but i will let you know when its all good the best way now to contact me is by email but i only get random chances to read them so sorry if it takes a while.

Even though I havent had internet access for a while, i have been typing things whenever i can into a word document so i can post them when presented with the oppotunity, so the next post will be whatever i have typed for the last week! also i will try to add photos within the next day or so of my fellow barn staff and the farm itself... FYI.. there are no campers on the farm until at least June 18th so from now til then, i do barn work (feeding, riding and groming horses and general barn duties) and on the weekend of June 9th, i go to a life guarding camp which will allow me to supervise nyone around water because apparently i have to have american certification... dont ask... just smile and nod.

loving you all but having a ball, see ya soon!

Bye Bye...

2006-05-23T07:39:00.000-05:00

Well it's past 10pm on Tuesday night, and I really should be in bed, but i thought i would put up one last post before i leave for America. Today I said goodbye to Pip, went for a ride with mum, went shopping and then I saw Jaz and Barratt for the last time tonight... T'was all a bit sad to say goodbye, but Im so excited about getting on that plane tomorrow morning at 6am! Anyways, here are the pics from today... not very exciting, but they kept me entertained for a while. Hope everyone is having fun and being good... I guess my next post will be in america!... how exciting! See you all in 5 months!

Robin Hood

2006-05-15T03:55:00.000-05:00

Ok, so this Friday (19th), im planning to get together with everyone to say goodbye before i leave next wednesday. For anyone who wants to come along for a bit of a get together, we are going to make it 10pm-ish on Friday at the Robin Hood and have a few drinks. Im going to be sad to say goodbye to everyone but im so excited to be leaving for America. Hopefully i will see some of you at the Hood on Friday, and if not, maybe see you before i leave next week. Have a good one guys.

16 Days...

2006-05-08T05:59:00.000-05:00

Well, for those of you who care or are wondering why i havent answered phone calls or messages... I Have been in Ceduna for the past week on a business trip with a twist. The twist-ee bit was the fact that it was in Ceduna because for those of you who have not discovered the little town at the start of the Great Australian Bite... there is literally nothing there... except for a mouse plague. Nevertheless, my co-workers Astra, Jun, Sam (aka 'Taity') and myself all made the 8 hour journey by car to the crappy little cabin in the crappy little caravan park, did some work and bored ourselves stupid for a week or so and made the 8 hour trip home again.

Anyways, enough about work. I officially have about 16 days until i leave the country to the USA for 5 months... and i have to say im a bit indifferent about the whole situation. I am so very very very excited to be going, but sad at the same time to say goodbye to all my beautiful friends here in Adelaide for so long. My flights have all been confirmed and i leave Adelaide on the 24th of May at 6am on the dot to fly to melbourne and then onto LA to reach my destination of New York. I cant remember if i went through all of this in a previous post but im wrtiting it all again just incase. My camp is about 5 Miles (correct me if im wrong but its about 8km) from the closest town of Ellenville and I have one day off per week, on which i will probably source some sort of internet access and update this blog and email people.

Well, thats my news for the day, i will keep updating as i get more information about america or whatever. Feel free to ask any questions if you have any... not because i will have the answers but simply because I will feel loved with comments! - ha ha ha just kidding... i think. Im also think of having a 'going away' get together for anyone who wants to come, on the weekend before i leave so i can say goodbye to people... possibly on the Sunday (21st May) or there abouts, so please let me know whether you have a better idea or just any general thoughts on what we could do etc... mainly so i dont have to think of something! ok. im guna cruise it, but have fun and I will surely catch up with you all very soon.

Luv y'all xoxo

I've Learned...

2006-04-16T07:03:00.000-05:00

I’ve Learned

That you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved. The rest is up to them.

That no matter how much I care, some people just don't care back.

That it takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to destroy it.

That it's not what you have in your life, but who you have in your life that counts.

That you can get by on charm for about fifteen minutes. After that, you'd better know something

That you shouldn't compare yourself to the best others can do but to the best you can do.

That it's not what happens to people that's important. It's what they do about it.

That you can do something in an instant that will give you heartache for life.

That no matter how thin you slice it, there are always two sides.

That it's taking me a long time to become the person I want to be.

That it's a lot easier to react than it is to think.

That you should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.

That you can keep going long after you think you can't.

That we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.

That either you control your attitude or it controls you.

That regardless of how hot and steamy a relationship is at first, the passion fades and there had better be something else to take its place.

That heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.

That learning to forgive takes practice.

That there are people who love you dearly, but just don't know how to show it.

That money is a lousy way of keeping score.

That my best friend and I can do anything or nothing and have the best time.

That sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you're down will be the ones to help you get back up.

That sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.

That true friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. Same goes for true love.

That just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.

That maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had and what you've learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated.

That your family won't always be there for you. It may seem funny, but people you aren't related to can take care of you and love you and teach you to trust people again. Families aren't biological.

That no matter how good a friend is, they're going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.

That it isn't always enough to be forgiven by others. Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.

That no matter how bad your heart is broken the world doesn't stop for your grief.

That our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.

That just because two people argue, it doesn't mean they don't love each other and just because they don't argue, it doesn't mean they do.

That sometimes you have to put the individual ahead of their actions.

That we don't have to change friends if we understand that friends change.

That you shouldn't be so eager to find out a secret. It could change your life forever.

That two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.

That no matter the consequences, those who are honest with themselves get farther in life.

That your life can be changed in a matter of hours by people who don't even know you.

That even when you think you have no more to give, when a friend cries out to you, you will find the strength to help.

That the people you care most about in life are taken from you too soon.

That although the word "love" can have many different meanings, it loses value when overly used.

That it's hard to determine where to draw the line between being nice and not hurting people's feelings and standing up for what you believe.

Survey Thingy...

2006-04-14T04:45:00.000-05:00

Ok, well I figure that no one particularly likes being sent these silly survey things, but im bored so i thought i would post it and whoever want to read it, can! Here goes...
1. Are you happy today? As happy as a pickle in a jar
2. What is your occupation? Independant Contractor (marketing)
3. What are you listening to right now? Family guy (Its on TV)
4. What was the last thing you ate? Im eating some cheese and 'crackers' right now.
5. Do you wish on stars? Yep!
6. If you were a crayon, what color would you Be? Probably a blue one...
7. How is the weather right now? Cold-ish
8. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Astra
9. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Yea, Golat is a legend.
10. How old are you today? 18
11. Favorite drink? If i said anything other than coke one of you would be calling the psych ward... so, um, Coke
12. Favorite sport to watch? Diving... dont know why
13. Have you ever dyed your hair? Unfortunately yes.
14. Do you wear contacts? nope... my eye sight is as clear as mud.
15. Pets? 2 Dogs, a cat and a horse.
16. fav month? Well this year, its going to be May... USA here i come!
17. Favorite food? the edible kind... im not fussy when it comes to matters f the stomach.
18. What was the last movie you watched? Raising Helen... i fell asleep... literally
19. Favorite day of the year? Everyday!!
20. What do you do to vent anger? use my punching bag.. which ironically i lost and am angry about.
21. What was your favorite toy as a child? Lego! - love it
22. Fall or spring? Spring... not just cos its fun to say... end of sentence.
23. Hugs or kisses? Both!
24. Cherry or Blueberry? Blueberries!
25. Do you want your friends to email you back? well since this is on a blog... nope.
26. Who is most likely to respond? refer to answer 26.
27. Who is least likely to respond? refer to answers 26 and 27
28. When was the last time you cried? um... can't remember.. i'll think about it for a while.
30. Who is the friend you have had the longest nonstop? Kiran and Manel
31. What did you do last night? Worked til 9:30pm then went to the Casino and the Hyatt and ended up having a slumber party which just turned out to be slumber.
32. Favorite smell? Ralph Lauren 'Cool'
33. What inspires you? Fun and positive people and the desire to succeed.
34. What are you most afraid of? Failure and being unhappy
35. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? I love burgers.... lets go with the lot.
36. Favorite car? 'Z3' BMW or a little audi TT
37. Favorite dog breed? No particular breed... just like big dogs
38. Number of keys on your key ring? 3... two cars and a house.
39. Favorite time of the day? Night time!
40. Favorite musical artist, band or group? dunno, im listening to alot of Jack Johnson atm, but im not a HUGE fan.
41 Do you now or have you ever had braces? yes, yes i did

Melbourne...

2006-04-06T09:03:00.000-05:00

Ah the delights of delayed flights! I got into Adelaide at 10:20pm tonight, after being delayed for an hour and a half at Melbourne Airport because of a storm in Sydney... go figure. So anyways, im a happy little chappy despite my hour and a half of boredom at the end of the day. Mum and I began our day at 5am this morning and made our way to the airport in the dark. Once we arrived into Melbourne, we hit Bourke St Mall and shopped around for a bit, had a coffee at Starbucks and did some more shopping! at around 12:30pm, we headed to the America Embassy where i sat around for an hour to talk to two people who checked my ID and gave me some forms. After my mini 'interviews' Mum and I headed back into the city and finished off the day on Bridge road exploring the many factor outlet stores. That was my whole day pretty much... to sum it up: Flying, shopping, interview, shopping, waiting, flying... But i had heaps of fun! Hope everyone is fine and dandy... Catch!

Excitement...

2006-04-05T01:49:00.000-05:00

Well tomorrow I head off to Melbourne for the day, to go for a Visa interview at the American Embassy. Im not particlarly excited about the whole interview thing, and less excited about getting up early to catch a plane, but the interview will only go for about an hour, which will leave the rest of the day for my mum and I to go SHOPPING! Im very excited about America now, according to my countdown, i have 50 days until I leave! Today I got a package in the mail from Camp America which included some travel tag thingies to put on my luggage which sparked my sudden enthusiasm about the trip (hence this post). Anyways, im guna go and vent some of this energy by going for a run or something, that's if this rain holds off for an hour or so... its pretty gloomy outside. Anywho, I will let you know how my interview goes etc and how much debt im in after the shopping spree tomorrow night hopefully. Catch!

Hip Hip Hooray! (thanks Raq)

2006-04-02T02:26:00.000-05:00

On Friday at 8pm, my family and friends gathered to celebrate my 18th birthday and my going away to the USA. We started off quite casually for the first few hours and listened to speeches made by my dad, Jaz, Ebony and then Pip, Raquel and Scott, all of which were very sweet and meaningful. The cake was cut and the party began, with some old favourite songs helping us "groove the night away" as my mother would put it. After hours of embarrassing myself on the dance floor, we were kicked out of the place at 12am and a group of us decided to head into town and continue the party elsewhere. We spent a couple of hours in town, and called it a night after a healthy meal of cheeseburgers, chips and coke from good old HJ's on Rundle St. Anyways, thanks to everyone for making my night so special, i had a great time and enjoyed every moment of it. See you all soon!

2006-04-02T02:24:00.000-05:00

Raquel, Pip and Scott doing speech

2006-04-02T02:23:00.001-05:00

Ebs doing Speech

2006-04-02T02:23:00.000-05:00

Jaz doing Speech

2006-04-02T02:22:00.001-05:00

Dad doing speech

2006-04-02T02:22:00.000-05:00

Fraser, Dan, Pip, Scott (drinking) and Charlotte

2006-04-02T02:21:00.000-05:00

Ellen, Donna and Dan

2006-04-02T02:20:00.002-05:00

Jaz, Dan, Raq and Pip

2006-04-02T02:20:00.001-05:00

Dan and Pip

2006-04-02T02:20:00.000-05:00

Liz and Dan

2006-04-02T02:19:00.000-05:00

Jaz and Dan

Im legal and I have 56 days to Go...

2006-03-29T21:53:00.000-05:00

Well yesterday (29th March) was indeed my 18th Birthday and I had a really awesome day! I was woken up at 7:45am by Mum, Dad, Pip, Raquel (and Jag the dog) bursting into my room, singing Happy Birthday and topping it off with some party poppers and balloons (just incase i didnt wake up from the singing, or the dog chasing his tail on the bed while i was still in it!). Anyways, after my explosive start to the day, Pip and Raquel were nice enough to make me pancakes for breakfast with a selection of cream, chocolate sauce, golden syrup, lemon and sugar. We then made our way down to the Kensington Hotel to finalise plans for Friday. After our hotel visit, i said goodbye to Raq and Pip and went inside to recieve a call from Charlotte. I then spoke to Charlotte for a while until my grandparents arrived to take me out to Lunch. We then went to Buongiorno's for lunch, meeting my Aunt there. Once home, and Grandparents gone, Jaz came over and took me out for coffee and gave me a beautiful pair of earrings! I then went home to vege for a while and went to Lido's in Holdfast shores for dinner with ma, pa, raq, pip and scott, who all gave me some really realy nice jewellery. Finally, Pip, Raq and Scott all took me to the Hyatt for a drink before we headed home for the night! ... so that was my day!

Anyways, in other news... I have officially booked my flights to America... I leave Adelaide on the red eye flight to Melbourne on the 24th of May this year. I am very excited, despite having to get up so early to leave! Apparently I leave Melbourne at 11:15am and Arrive in LA at 10:07am on the same day (for those of you re-reading that sentence, yes, i do go back in time). I then have a flight from LA at 11:30am (once again on the 24th May) and land in New York at 7:53pm the same day. So the 24th of May for me, will be two days long! (YAY) I have no idea when im coming back to Australia because it all depends on my Visa, for which i am going to an interview at the American Embassy in Melbourne next Thursday. Anyways, thats all the news i have t share at the moment. catch you all very soon im sure!

The Week in Review...

2006-03-21T05:11:00.000-05:00

Ok, so i havent posted in a while, but really i couldnt think of anything to post. I will start with Monday the 13th of March, the day Raquel, Pip, Scott and I went to see the fantastic "Cooking show" starring Bob Franklin and the one and only Jimoein. The show was hilarious and whilst the pair didn't actually cook anything, they served up quite a treat! (apologies for the poor play on words there). On Wednesday, I made my way down to the doctor's surgery to have a flu injection which i needed to have to go to Camp America. Some of you may not be aware of my injection history, but i have a slight tendancy to pass out about a minute after i am given an injection. After i was given the jab, i was told to lie down (given my fainting tendancy) and the doctor left the room. I was on the bed for about 30 seconds and i felt quite sparky and thought that maybe i was going to be fine this time around and made my way out to the front desk to pay the bill. It turned out, that i wasnt fine and once i made it to the front desk, i began to feel a bit light headed. Recognising these symptoms all too well, i made my way back to the room with the bed and lay down! Is all good now - Anyways, St Patricks Day held some merry times... Jaz, Lachie, Raquel and I made our way down to the Uni bar in the early evening and kicked the night off with a couple of beers. After that, we made our way to Hungry Jacks for a bite to eat and then to Mansions until Ebony and Ellen found their way into town and we headed to the Persian Garden. We didnt end up going into the garden but sat on the grass outside and made the decision to head to the Robin Hood. Ellen, Ebony, Raquel and I caught the bus to the Hood and met back up with Jaz and Lachie a couple of hours later. I then walked half way home with Jaz and Lachie and then we hailed a taxi together for the rest of the journey home. Well i think thas about it for me, im just counting now, and it appears that i have 8 days until my birthday and 65 days until i go to America... how exciting! Ok, i guess i will catch you all very soon!

This made me laugh...

2006-03-12T07:59:00.000-05:00

The boss of a big company needed to call one of his employees about an urgent problem with one of the main computers, so he dialled the employee's home phone number and was greeted with a child's whisper.

"Hello."

"is your daddy home?" he asked.

'Yes," whispered the small voice.

"May I talk with him?"

The child whispered, "No"

Surprised, and wanting to talk with an adult, the boss asked, "Is your Mummy there?"

"Yes"

"May I talk with her?"

Again the small voice whispered, "No"

Hoping there was somebody with whom he could leave a message, the boss asked, "Is anybody else there?"

"Yes," whispered the child, "a policeman."

Wondering what a cop would be doing at his employee's home, the boss asked, "May I speak with the policeman?"

"No, he's busy." whispered the child.

"Busy doing what?"

"Talking to Daddy and Mummy and the fireman," came the whispered reply.

Growing concerned and even more worried as he heard what sounded like a helicopter through the earpiece of the phone the boss asked, "What is that noise?'

"A hello copper" answered the whispering voice.

"What is going on there?" asked the boss, now truly alarmed.

In an awed whispering voice the child answered, "The search team just landed the hello copper".

Alarmed, concerned, and even more than just a little frustrated the boss asked, "What are they searching for?"

Still whispering, the young voice replied along with a muffled giggle:

"ME"

Burger Discombobulation

2006-03-06T01:15:00.000-05:00

Where Did this Burger come from?

This burger was purchased at the McDonalds Restaurant in Frewville. Yes you did read that last sentence correctly, it came from Good Ol' Maccadees. I couldnt believe it, so i took a picture so it would last longer. If anyone wants to know, it's a 'Lean Beef' burger. It was OK... if you like burger and bun with your mayonaise. Catch!

Bye Libby!

2006-03-05T02:07:00.000-05:00

A group of us gathered at Libby's house to say farewell to our dear friend who is jetting overseas to America! Unfortunately the photos have pink in the backgrounds, due to an error in the camera, which i am yet to detect. Anyways, I wish Libby all the best for her trip and am hoping to catch up with her when i go over there as well. Bon Voyage Lib! We will all miss you but I hope you have lots and lots of fun!

2006-03-05T02:06:00.000-05:00

Hannah and Jaz

2006-03-05T02:05:00.000-05:00

Jaz and I

2006-03-05T02:03:00.000-05:00

Group

2006-03-05T02:02:00.000-05:00

Kendyl Andre and Libby