Chanel and the Naked Cowboy

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!

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?

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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.

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...

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...

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