Shopping!!!!

Yesterday (Saturday) was shopping at Greenhills Day. :-) Jo and I went down there right after breakfast armed with cash and a list each of orders from people. It was fun. But it was a lot more expensive this time as the exchange rate isn't as good and the prices were a bit higher. It was quite interesting to shop for specific things this time. Fortuntately I was armed with photos and that made it a lot easier although one of the bag orders was quite challenging. What was REALLY funny was that Jo decided early on that she would like a purple bag for winter and by the time we got around to the second lot of bag stalls EVERY stall had a purple bag out the front... HILARIOUS!!!! Word travels fast down there.

Today has been a very quiet day. I had an early breakfast (I have been waking at about 6 and just get up as it will help when I get home), did an hour on the treadmill and had a wander around the 'Shang' and Megamall. Apart from that I have just been loafing around 'home'. This time next week I will be back in NZ. Yay!!!!!!!

Back in Manila

Here I am, back in Manila. I am currently typing this on Word as I can’t get any internet connection at the Wi-Fi points in the hotel and I am not going to pay a king’s ransom to get it in my room!!!!

Today is Thursday and I arrived on Tuesday and the big news…. For the first time EVER….I managed to sleep on a plane. Wohoo!!!!! I give all credit to my ‘Cuddle Buddy’ (Now don’t get all excited and get your minds out of the gutter!!!) It is a super squishy pillow that I bought at the airport and it moulds itself around my neck and supports my head when sleeping in an upright position. It is luverly!!!!!

Hong Kong airport was interesting. I was flying Philippine Air this time and they don’t rate and air bridge so we had to get a bus out to the plane in the middle of the tarmac. We were all given a plastic bag as we got on the bus that contained a raincoat. Sure enough as we loaded onto the bus it started to POUR down. We got off the bus into what seemed like a foot of water and had to dash up the steps to get into the plane. It was a bit of a bunfight to get off the bus and onto the plane first. It was really funny. The food on PA was fabulous!!!! I had forgotten how tasty Filipino food is!!!.

At the airport there was no-one to meet me off the plane like last time which was a bit of a shock so I had to tackle immigration and customs on my own. It also made me wonder if anyone would be there to pick me up. I wasn’t very happy really and wished I had never come. However, when I emerged from customs, there was Mike’s smiling face waving at me from beside the car and everything was all right again.

At the hotel, there are the usual misunderstandings that seem to go hand in hand with dealing with the company that we outsource to and I have still got to sort them out but that will happen in its own time (and when I can get on the internet).

Going to work yesterday was interesting, we had a new driver that never showed up. It turned out that he was trying to pick us up from Nova. He eventually turned up and I made the usual first impression by being 30 minutes late for my first day.

The trainees are, as usual, lovely and I have to admit that it is LOVELY to be back in the Philippines. I feel much more at ease this time, there isn’t NEARLY as much culture shock and I think the fact that I know I am going home in just over a week helps a LOT.

HOY (Horse of the Year)

I am currently in Hong Kong Airport waiting for my flight to Manila. I spent the weekend (plus a couple of extra days) in Hastings at Horse of the year Show.

Tina and I drove down on Wednesday night after work. We were very lucky that my boss let me go a bit early as there was a big crash on the NW motorway and I would have been caught up in the back log traffic if I hadn’t.

We stayed at Maree and Andrew’s place…..veeeeeerrrrrrry nice!!!! J It took Brina a few days to settle as she hasn’t done very much staying away from home in her life. However, by the Saturday she was pretty happy.

On the Thursday Tina and I went to the show and got ourselves acclimatised and found our way around (helped by the fact that Tina is an old hand at HOY) We saw some top level dressage and some huge show jumping and I managed to score a pair of NEW Equine moulded tendon boots for just $40….Wohoo!!!!

Friday was spent much the same way, we wandered around the show and saw a variety of equine disciplines, some beautiful horses, some fabulous performances and some fairly ordinary performances.

On Saturday we watched the Level 6/7 musical freestyle dressage which was just fabulous. We also watched the Amateur Show Hunter of the Year which Tracy Page won….Wohoo again!!!!! I have decided that Spyke is gonna be a show hunter. J Then we headed out to the Equestrian park to watch the Cross Country for the Eventing. The novice and 2 star went pretty smoothly but the three star was CARNAGE!!!! Horses falling all over the place.

On Saturday night we went to Pipi with Maree and Andrew. It’s a really quirky little pizza restaurant in Havelock North. We had good pizza, even better wine (who was drunk?? Not me!!! I would never do that. LOL It WAS good wine) and the most FABULOUS tiramisu!!! Yum yum!!!

On Sunday I have to say I was pretty much horsed out so we went to the Farmers Market. Yum!!! Fortunately you could wander from the market straight into the back of the HOY show so we were able to wander in and watch the Clydesdales, some pleasure horse classes and the minis. We pretty much headed home from there. It was very, very difficult to leave my dogs. I know that they will have a FAB time without me but I am going to miss them a LOT, in fact I already do. It was horrible to be at home without my girls. L

Show Hunter 2 (Pics added)

Today I had more show hunter with the WRC at Raider Lodge. Spyke was a very good boy today, he didn't stop at any jumps. We didn't cover ourselves in glory today but he was good.

Our first round was at 60cm which is really a bit small for Spyke and we did a pretty lousy round with a couple of chip-ins. The second round at 70cm was better as I also made myself NOT look into the jump and to jump by feel which worked much better. We got 5th in that round and the judge told me that I need to get him more forward (he WAS very relaxed LOL). So in the 80cm round I rode him heaps more forward. Unfortunately, he was so startled by the change in riding that he took two rails which put us right out. He jumped the last line beautifully though, it felt amazing. I did the 80 cm round a second time after the competition and he did it really, really well. So that was a great note to finish on. We got 7th out of 7 for the 80 cm round but the judge was lovely and said that he was HEAPS better and that if he hadn't dropped the rails he would have been at the other end of the line up.

We were all done by 12, which was great and this afternoon I am planning to mow the lawn and take the dogs down to the botanic gardens for a walk.


Believe it or not they ARE different pics. It shows that he is consistent. LOL

Show Hunter

I took Spyke up to Woodhill Sands for a training show hunter today. We are entered in the WRC Show Hunter tomorrow at Raider Lodge but figured it wouldn't hurt to have a play today. It helped that the show hunter today didn't start until 1 o'clock so I could still get a sleep in. :-). I went up with Steph from my grazing. We were hoping that it wouldn't be too busy as it can take a looooong time for each round if there are lots of people.

Fortunately, there was hardly anyone there!!!! What it did mean though is that the competition was canned as there weren't enough people to have a judge. It meant that we were able to play over the course. My friend Martina's sister Angela was there and she offered to 'judge' for us so that we would be able to get some feedback (Angela is lovely!!!).

The jumps were put right down to start with as Michelle had a baby off the track that had never jumped before. Spyke was a toad!!!!! He spooked at all the jumps. Fortunately, in show hunter you always get a warm up over the actual jumps so we got all the stops out of Spyke's system before we did a round.

Our first round was at 70cm and Spyke did quite a nice round but thought about stopping at the last jump but then he jumped it so it was a really bad jump. The last jump dropped us donw to about last!!! I did the 70 cm round again and it was much better and Angela said that round would have given us second (wohoo). I was going to stop at that but I decided to push myself and do the 80cm round. I am sooooo glad I did as Spyke did it beautifully!!!!! He just felt lovely, he obviously likes the jumps a bit bigger. He won that round!!!!! :-) We stopped at that point. I am really looking forward to tomorrow.

What I loved most about today is having a horse that I know if someone says "Let's go and......." Spyke is a horse that I can throw on the truck and be pretty certain that we will have a fabulous and safe day. Luff that boy!!!!!!

Our First ODE.

Today Spyke and I had our first ODE. It was the Whenuapai ODE at Woodhill Sands. It was the perfect first ODE as it was at Woodhill, where Spyke has always been very relaxed and it had restricted entries which meant (in theory) not a lot of horses hurtling around.

The day didn't start particularly well at all with a flat tyre on the truck. We didn't discover it until I was up at Kristina's to pick up Sarah and Bert. I called Saint Tina and she leapt in her little truck and raced down from Helensville to pick us up. Unfortunately, we couldn't get Bert to load as it is a side loader, Bert is a big, long boy and didn't think he could fit, so we had to leave him behind. Poor Sarah. :-(

It turned out that we had plenty of time when we got to the event, I was pretty worried that we would miss our dressage. Spyke warmed up beautifully although worringly shied at a Pre-Intro cross country jumped in the warm up area. He felt very relaxed but very responsive and light. His test was OK. It was quite windy in the arena and he wasn't listening quite as well as he was 'all by himself'. He was also gutted that there wasn't a free walk in the test. When we did our change of rein in walk he kept trying to take the reins down and was a bit miffed when I wouldn't let him, LOL. I also made the stupid mistake of not noticing that we were in a 40m arena, not a 60m so our circles were ovals. Grrrrrrr what a STOOPID thing to do.

We had to wait what seemed like aaaaaaages for our show jumping but Spyke warmed up again beautifully. He was relaxed and popped the practice jumps like a pro. I was really quite nervous for the show jumping but he jumped beautifully. He was rhythmic and forward and he really seemed to be enjoying it. However, at jump number 6 he threw in a stop!!! It was a bit out of the blue as he was pulling into the jump and really felt like he was going to jump but he didn't!!! He threw in a really 'good' stop, little toad. Of course, when I pointed him at it the second time, he flew it.

The cross country was a mixture of 'yahoo' and 'bugger'. The amazing thing is that while I was nervous I wasn't horribly nervous. It was really interesting as he was not nappy at all. He bowled out of the start gate like a pro. Popped the first, scrambled over the second, did some HUGE spooks then flew the third. The little bugger stopped at the 4th which was chair next to a hedge. Of course he popped it the second time without any argument. The fifth was in the treeline and I had to push him over, then there was the bank, he wobbled into that but jumped it. Then it was my favourite the roll top, he flew that. Then it was out onto the sand a double. He slammed on the brakes for that one and then popped it the second time. Next was the water and he slammed on the brakes, dropped a shoulder and spun about 10 metres from it. Grrrrr. I tried to push him in but he wasn't having a bar of it. I had to abandon the water and take the option but apparently it was too late and we were eliminated. *Sigh*. He flew the last three beautifully. According to my friends that were watching we did the whole thing at a snail's pace (it didn't feel like it LOL). The reason for the snail's pace would have been the DEATH GRIP on the reins. I will have to work on that.

So what I have learnt:
1) ride EVERY jump.
2) More speed on cross country
3) Try spurs for cross country
4) (and most importantly) Spyke is a lovely, lovely horse!!!!!

The prize giving wasn't until 6 but we did win a cap and an umbrella for 4th in the dressage. Once the event was over I had to run around and drop Martina's truck to the tyre place, pick up the dogs and feed the boys. It was a long, long day and I am very,very tired.

Pictures courtesy of my friend Gill.

Cyclones and Sunburn (Sorry long)

The weekend just gone was the ‘infamous’ Bernese Mountain Dog Garden Party in Midhirst, Taranaki. I had the afternoon off work to travel down to the ‘Naki. I had booked in to get my final jabs from the Manila trip before going as I don’t often get to Westgate during the day.

Friday was really, really wet as the tail end of Cyclone Innis lurked overhead. Driving out to Westgate was HORRENDOUS!!!! The traffic was down to about 50 kph on the motorway going over the causeway the rain was so heavy. I ended up being slightly late for my appointment as I had to drive very carefully.

The nurse I had to give me my jab was NOT a gentle soul!!!! She said “Are you needle phobic?” And before I could answer stabbed me with the needle and plunged the plunger. It HURT!!!!!! The other jabs I have had did not hurt. In fact the upper part of my left arm is sporting a nice big purple bruise. Grrrrrr.

Post-jab I headed home to pack and grab the dogs. I had decided to feed the horses on the way so with the girls on board we headed up to feed the boys. When I got up to the paddock poor Tai was one big tremble. The poor boy!!!! He is not so good at regulating his body temperature any more. I threw an extra rug on him, gave him a huge pile of hay, texted my long suffering buddy Kristina to check on him and then worried about him for the rest of the afternoon. While I was feeding and rugging the boys I managed to stay nice and clean (wet, but clean) but when I got in the car and took my gumboots and coat off I somehow managed to get covered in mud. So back home I went, to change. As you can see things were NOT conspiring to get me safely down the road at this stage.

The trip down was fairly eventful. I had to stop at Dressmart in Onehunga on the way down and thought that would make it much easier to get on the Southern Motorway (it was backed up for miles on the NW when I was heading to the doctor’s) but noooooooo!!! They had changed the onramp at Manukau and this was causing huge confusion and hold ups. Then there was the road works at Meremere, I spent about 25 minutes there. Then there was the serious crash at Ngaruawahia, the “Road works next 10 km” after Te Kuiti (spent 15 minutes sitting at a red light) and the mazda that could only manage 60kph through the ENTIRE Awakino Gorge).

I finally made it to NP at about 7:30. The club had booked dinner in the Kiosk in the middle of Pukekura Park (I love Pukekura Park!!!) but it turns out that the restaurant had designed a lovely menu but had forgotten to get in the food????!!!! WTF????!!!! ‘Fortunately’ there was enough cabinet food to feed us (yes, that had been sitting in the cabinet all day). I had the ‘chicken and apricot quiche’. I have put that in inverted commas as there was no apricot and two teeny tiny pieces of chicken in a great, big, tasteless bit of…..something. The chips were nice but that is all I can say. I certainly would not be rushing to eat there again!!!!

Saturday morning dawned wet and windy, it was REAL Taranaki weather (ie horizontal rain). Barbera, Steve and I headed down to the grounds and started setting up some gazebos. We had to give up completely on one as it was going to end up being blown to Hawera. The first one we set up had a ‘wall’ that we put up and it blocked the wind and horizontal rain……….. for about 30 seconds before the tabs that attached it to the gazebo were ripped off by the wind.

Everyone turned up at around 10 o’clock and we waited for a bit of a break in the weather before we started the ribbon parade. Our judge was a local vet and he took his job very seriously and really looked at the dogs (which is so nice compared to some of the international judges that look at other rings while you are running your dog). After the breed classes we started the ‘stakes’ classes. By this time the weather had started to clear and it was getting sunny.

In the stakes Brina managed to get ‘Fluffiest Pants’, Sammie and Brina won ‘Brace’, Meggie got ‘Waggiest Tail and the Estcarp, Ashgrove team won ‘Family Group’.

Lunch was delicious, there were savouries and some yummy club sandwiches that were big enough to use as an airplane chock. After lunch was the AGM (which can’t help but be a bit of a yawn).

After lunch we had games that were a good laugh. There was egg-throwing, a blind folded obstacle course, apple bobbing etc. Then we did some carting through an obstacle course. It was about 5:30 by this time and we were all (dog and human) knackered, it was a really big day (but really good fun).

We moved indoors at this point and drew the raffle. I got a few nice prizes out of that and then it was the mystery auction. The way it works is that people wrap ’things’ up and then they are raffled. You have no idea what you are bidding for and it is a real laugh. I scored a $50 hairdryer for $15.

Dinner was most welcome by this stage and there was tons of food. Steve did a fantastic job on the barbie and there was lots left over.

We got ‘home’ at about 9:30 only to discover that we had all managed to get quite sunburnt!!!! My two girls were so tired they took themselves off to bed the minute we got home. LOL I was not far behind them.

Sunday dawned fine and still. We didn’t need to be at the grounds until 10 so we had a nice slow moving morning. We headed down to the grounds and people gradually rolled in. Sunday was very relaxed in comparison to Saturday. We had a little play with the carts at the grounds so that those who had not carted before got to practise and then we packed everything into the cars and trailers and headed to King Edward Park in Stratford where we had a mass cart/walk. It was lovely and the dogs really seemed to enjoy it too.

After the cart we attempted (and failed) to make a dent in the left over food and then I headed home. It was a very uneventful and pleasant drive home. Sammie’s head rose only once on the trip home. She was a very tired girl. Brina kept me company though.

It was a fabulous weekend and it was great to catch up with some of Sammie’s puppies and the rest of the club.