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
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Retratos...
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
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
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Just a lil' bit moody... te he he
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
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
Monday, September 25, 2006
Im back (online)... and i have news!
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
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
Thursday, August 17, 2006
What a week! (or two)...
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
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
Thursday, August 03, 2006
New York, New York!
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
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
Saturday, July 29, 2006
More Pictures...
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!)
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...
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...
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...
Monday, July 17, 2006
Day Off!
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
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
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Fun Didely Fun...
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)
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)
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Wednesday...
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…
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…
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Ponies and Rain...
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.
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.
Monday, June 12, 2006
Certified, Qualified, Dandified Lifeguard!
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)
The unbelieveable Oreo selection in Walmart (and Katie and I being idiots)
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Pictures!
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!
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Journal continued...
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!
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!
Thursday, June 01, 2006
The week so far...
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
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
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Here and Loving it
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!
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Bye Bye...
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! 
Monday, May 15, 2006
Robin Hood
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.
Monday, May 08, 2006
16 Days...
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
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
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