A Very Busy Week

Yes it has been a VERY busy week. Sammie was speyed yesterday :-(. She was feeling VERY sorry for herself last night and this morning. She couldn't manage any dinner last night and then this morning she felt that breakfast was just not possible for a girl that was feeling miserable. I think her thoughts were along these lines. "No, I couldn't possibly manage breakfast. Can't you see how unhappy I am? A girl can't possibly eat........Oh........is that chicken in my breakfast? Well I might just manage some chicken (nom nom nom). A few biscuits won't hurt. (nom nom nom). Oi!!! Where are you going with that bowl? There's still a biscuit in there. (nom)". Needless to say she is feeling much better. :-)

It has been an interesting week with Spyke. He has done some really, really nice work at home. He has even manged a couple of really nice lengthens, which is quite exciting. I took him to adult ride on Wednesday. I was quite hopeful of popping over a couple of cross country jumps. He was really good when we got there. His eyes were on stalks a bit but he did some lovely soft trot work. As the evening went on though he began to get tense and then he just got worse and worse until I decided that discretion is the better part of valour and I exited the saddle, stage left. I put him on the lunge and he impressed everyone with his 'airs above ground'. Little toad. When I got him home we did some serious work (and it was lovely too).

His reaction to club was a bit of a worry as today we had to do a show hunter clinic and I was no longer confident that he would behave. I jumped him at home last night and he was really nice. I only have one jump though and I really need several so that we can do grids etc.

The show hunter today was excellent. We did theory in the morning and then rode two rounds each in the afternoon. I had elected to do one of the 'higher' heights as height doesn't worry me with Spyke, he has plenty of scope.........and he soooo proved that today!!!!!

All the horses before us did really lovely show hunter rounds, calm and kind. Spyke, when I was warming up, was nice and quiet and sensible. He is still very stiff on the left rein and he was also a bit stiff after his efforts at club. He was a MONSTER. He charged every jump, he stopped at one (he NEVER stops????!!!!!) he put in some e-nor-mous jumps and was by far and away the worst behaved horse there. It's very frustrating as I KNOW he can do nice show hunter. I guess this is the down side of trying to bring him into work at this time of year, when there is a lot of spring grass around. Grrrrr for missing that 6 weeks as he was going really well before I had to go to Manila. Dangly front legs.

I learnt a LOT today and Tracy has given me some things to work on that make a big difference and, in fact, I would really like to book some lessons with Tracey but I'm a bit embarrassed to after today's performance.

Lovin' Bein' Home

It's true!! I am just loving being back in NZ. I had a lovely weekend. It started with our work Christmas do on Friday night. It was a really good evening topped off by Opshop playing...good band!!!! On Saturday I spent most of the morning running around trying to find a feather boa for the Hen Night I had been invited to. I couldn't find one anywhere!!!! The really annoying thing is I had one up until a few months ago when I had a clean out and threw it away. I never did find one. The Hen Night started off a Honey's Champagne Bar.....Niiiiiiice!!!! They have a FABULOUS range of cocktails and it was very difficult to choose. I did, of course, end up going for a creamy, chocolatey one. :-) After Honey's we headed to Squid Row for dinner. I had a steak which was just delicious and then we went to one of the girl's places for tiramisu and more cocktails (I was driving though so, apart from the one cocktail, I was on Diet Coke for the evening). It was a really nice evening and it was great to catch up with people and meet some new people.

Sunday was forecast to be wet later on and I had arranged with Kristina to take Oscar for his first truck ride and ride in the forest. So first thing I took the girls up for a walk in the forest. Sammie was really funny, she is usually the sedate one but yesterday she was having a ball. She ran the legs off Brina, rolled, swam, played, ate cow poo and just generally had a marvellous time. It was great to see. Brina is a bit overweight at the moment (her and I are on a diet) so she was not quite as lively as usual. The bad news was that we found out that they are going to log our dog walk. :-( It had to happen eventually but it will be sad to see it all gone. I'll just have to make the most of while we can.

Just as I was about to leave to pick up Spyke, Kristina and Oscar, Stu and Mark (who is currently living in Kuwait and hasn't been back to NZ for 3 years) popped by. Weddings are great!!! You get to catch up with all sorts of people. They stayed for coffee and had a bit of a catchup and a chin wag which was really nice.

I finally left to get the truck at about 2 pm. When I stopped to get Spyke the little toad took one look at the truck and buggered off to the top of the hill. Naturally, sinceI was running late!! GRRRR!!! Then he dragged his feet all the way down the hill and when I waved the rope at him to get him walking faster ha bucked. It was not a auspicious beginning. I threw him on the truck, rug and all and headed up to get Kristina and Oscar.

As far as we know it was Oscar's first ever trip on a truck. I was pretty confident that we would be able to load him as he is a very obliging little fellow. Sure enough he walked straight up the ramp, swung his butt around and parked perfectly.

At the forest after we had tacked up Oscar was so 'wound up' that he stood with his nose resting on the hitching rail and his eyes shut. I swear he would have been snoring if he could.

Little Oscar never put a foot wrong on the entire forest ride. He strode along with his ears pricked having a fabulous time. My horse however, decided that the forest was just full of boogey monsters and was a bit of a pillock. It was a bit embarrassing to have the the baby horse on his first forest outing take the lead past the scary things. LOL Silly Spyke. It's just as well I luff him.

It was a lovely weekend......busy........ but lovely. And, at the risk of repeating myself, I just LOVE being back home!!!!!

Home At Last!!!!

I am SOOOOO happy to be home!!!!! The air smells amazing, the birds sound beautiful and the weather is luverly!!!!

I got home at lunch time on Saturday and got a huge welcome from the dogs. Sammie 'yipped' for five minutes straight and Brina became my shadow. I have missed them so much. My friend Gill came over with her lovely dalmation Storm and we took the dogs to the forest for a walk. We had an ice cream on the way up from the forest and then headed to the paddock. The horses look GREAT and I actually think they were pleased to see me!!!!

We tacked the boys up and I went to lunge Tai but he was a bit lame (his feet were quite long) so he got the day off. Spyke was lunged for a few minutes and then I jumped on. He was lovely!!! Really, really lovely (even though he had 3 loose and 1 missing shoe). Gill had a wee ride too and he went beautifully for her too. I was very proud of him. That evening a few friends came over and we had takeaways. It was the perfect homecoming (except Tina was MIA LOL).

On Sunday I rode Jessie a fabulous coloured horse that is baby sitting Java. She was fabulous!!! A real ATV of the horse world. We rode for about and hour and a half in the forest. However, I need to have a chat to Martina about the saddle as my butt HURT a LOT after that ride!!! In the evening Kristina and Sarah came down to the paddock with their boys and we all rode. Spyke was STUNNING!!! He was soft and was listening and carrying himself. I think Gill should ride him more often!!

Today I have had a hair cut, had a hair colour (at a different place), bought a rug to replace the one Spyke trashed, had the boys' feet done and lunged Spyke on the flat and over a jump. Another great day!!!!

Tomorrow it's back to work.

I am so happy to be home.

Leaving!!!!

I have never been so pleased to be home!!!! Gettin out of Manila proved to be trickier than I thought. To start with my 8am pickup time was apparently 9am. I saw Mike, the driver, at 8am and he told me I was going to be picked up at 9. He still had to do a run out to site. I wondered how he was going to manage Nova and back in one hour as it usually took us half an hour at 3:30am when there is NO traffic but at peak hour on a Friday I figured it would take at least an hour each way but then Mike does the route every single day so he would know better than I.

Sure enough though, 9am came and went. As did 9:10am, and 9:20am (my flight was at 12:30 and it can take up to an hour and a half to get to the airport) at 9:30 I got a call from Mike to say that he was held up in traffic (BIG surprise) and that Si was 10 minutes away.

Si got there at about 9:40 and was a bit worried when he heard what time my flight was. Poor Si had been working since he had picked us up at 3:30am on THURSDAY morning!!!!!!! Anyway, good old Si managed to get me to the airport at about 10:30 (we were lucky with the traffic) and I got checked in and breathed a huge sigh of relief. BUT when I went to immigration it turned out that my visa had run out 2 weeks before and I was now an 'overstayer' (blinkin' work had said I didn't have to extend my visa even when I asked them about several times). Fortunately, all I had to do was pay 2520 pesos. Unfortunately, they don't take credit card and I had no cash as I had made sure I had none left before leaving the country. The immigration lady was really, really rude (bit of a shock from a Filipino) and didn't give a rats. She sent me back to the airline counter who had no idea why she sent me there and what they could to. Fortunatley, they found me the only ATM in the airport. Unfortunately, it said 'We are unable to process your request at this time'. The airline person started talking about changing my flights and I had a melt down. I was so tired and sooooo wanted to get home, so I cried. The poor airline man didn't know what to do. I stopped him from changing my flights and said I would have one more go at the ATM. Well, I managed to get my PIN wrong, didn't I???? Idiot!!! One more try and out popped some cash. The airline guy was jumping up and down cheering (bless him) and I managed to pay the waiver.

THEN I got my bag searched on my way through the final security gate. I think my favourite Manila Moment was the moment the plane's wheels left the runway.

Last Day

This time tomorrow I will be on my way home. Yay!!!!!!

Having a REALLY bad last day, hopefully it will improve.

This is me.....signing off ........from Manila.

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......as you were. :-)

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Yay, only 4 days till I am home!!!

Had a really pleasant weekend. We all had a very quiet Saturday morning and then headed to the 1st birthday party. It was a really big affair. It was held a restaurant and there was a huge cake and decorations. There were about 50 guests that were all fed at the buffet. The kids were all in costume and there was a clown that entertained them the whole time. The little guest of honour was looking gorgeous and was looked after by her ya-ya. We felt really quite privileged to be invited.

We were supposed to go bowling afterwards but when we got to the bowling alley there was a tournament on so we weren't able to. I was quite disappointed really. We are now going to go on Thursday instead at the bowling alley across the road from work so that everyone can come and it an be my final fling before I COME HOME!!!!!!!

Yesterday afternoon Anthony and I went to the movies to see Quantum of Solace. It is seriously cheap to go to the movies here.

This evening after dinner we all shot up to level 41 to get some piikkies of the sunset and surrounding area. And here they are:

They aren't brilliant pikkies, my camera is a bit overworked and the windows were not very clean. :-)

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I survived the clubbing. I even enjoyed it for the first couple of hours and then my batteries went flat! We went to a club called the Embassy Club at The Fort which is apparently 'the' place to go. All the celebs etc go there. It was pretty amazing. We had to go through three lots of security and had to have our names on the guest list in order to get in. The place was beautifully decorated with huge crystal chandeliers and gilt. It was quite empty when we got there (at 10:30 pm) but was REALLY heaving by midnight. I ran out of steam at about 1am so I headed out to the top of the stairs to people watch which was FASCINATING!!! We went there with Emile and Mike from work and some of Emile's friends. SUCH lovely people!!!!! I just can't say enough about how lovely the Filipinos are. We got home at about 2:30 am (23 hours after we left for work) and I think I was asleep by 2:32am.

Bowling this afternoon but first......more sleep!!!!

This time next week I'll be at home!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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This time next week I will be on a plane on the way home. Yay!!!

Tonight we are going clubbing. It is now 8:45 and I have been up since 3am and I am KNACKERED!!! The clubbing was organised just for me ('cos I am obviously such a 'clubby' type of person *snort*) so I really have to go but I would have to say it is the LAST thing I feel like. On the flipside I really, really appreciate the trouble one of the guys has gone to.

Tomorrow we are going to a first brithday for the daughter of one of the trainees, then we are going bowling and ice skating. None of it starts until 2:30pm ....yay!!!! I am quite looking forward to it. And on Sunday we have no plans at this stage, for which I am truly grateful. LOL

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Not that I'm counting!!!

By the way, I'm a cousin/auntie to little teeny tiny twin girls!!! Welcome to the world little munchkins!!!! Big hugs to Cuzzy Lorna and Chris!!!!

9 Days to Go!!

I heard from a friend this morning that her maiden mare has had her foal. Yay!!! A lovely little filly apparently, just as she had ordered. Hanging out for pikkies now.

11 Days to Go

And look!!!! More animal pics!!! My bud Kristina lunged a somewhat 'chipper' Spyke today. Apparently it was not boring!!! But doesn't he look FABULOUS!!!! Look at the dapples!!!

12 Days to Go!!!!

Yay!!!! Animal pics, received today!!!!

Spot da doggy!!!!!

Handsome boys and a Sammie that CAN do stay (unlike the 'missing one').

As you can see from the size of the grins, the girls are REALLY missing me........NOT!!!!!

2nd to Last Saturday

Today we had our big trip to the Mall of Asia, the third largest mall in the world. It was actually disappointingly small. There is a big hypermarket which if you live locally must be just great as it seems to sell everything and there is a big SM department store (we have one across the road at Mega Mall) so the actual mall itself is very ordinary in size.

However, we did have a ball as we got to see the sea!!! Yay!!! After 4 weeks the Bay of Manila looked fabulous and the sea breeze was very welcome. We had a bit of a wander around the mall and then debated about whether we would stay on for the fireworks at 7 (it was about 4pm). We decided to have an early dinner and watch the sunset (which is supposed to be lovely from MOA) and then head home. By the time we had wandered to Italiannis and had dinner (the sunset WAS lovely - my pics don't do it justice) it was about 5:45 so we decided that by the time we had been back to the stand where Anthony wanted to buy a watch and then wandered back to the waterfront we might as well stay for the fireworks. We did and it was GREAT!!! It was only abotu 5 minutes but the fireworks were fab and ther were thousands of people down on the waterfront to see them. It was a good day!!!!






Vid of fireworks can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fAnZELG-hQ