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

31 days on the 31st...

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?

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...

... 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.

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

T'was the night before Christmas

'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...

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...

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.

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...

"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...

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...

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...

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?

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...

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...

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