kangaroos so here are just a couple. Sorry for the delay.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Sorry for the long wait
I know a few people have been wanting to see a picture of the 
kangaroos so here are just a couple. Sorry for the delay.
kangaroos so here are just a couple. Sorry for the delay.
Why I Hate Flying
Just to keep everyone posted I have safely arrived in South Africa at Peter and Birgit's house in Pretoria. It was pretty weird leaving Australia after 5 months. My stuff was pretty well spread out but I managed to pack everything us while still having a bit of room for the souvenirs that I had collected.
The last couple weeks in Australia were pretty great. I got the opportunity to finally compete at a horse show about 3 hours away. I can now honestly say that I am now an International Competitor. It was really fun and actually quite difficult. I will spare everyone with the boring details but lets just say that I ended up in the middle of the pack on a horse that has never competed in his life so I was pretty happy. I rode ESB Irish Benediction and he behaved himself surprising well so I was pretty happy. The highlight of the weekend, or low point depending on how you look at it, was the infamous pink truck. Since Vanessa's truck was in the shop, a friend of ours let us borrow their truck to take the horses down. There was even two beds and a kitchen, I thought I had landed with my butt in the butter with this one. Ness told em however that the truck was actually pink. I tohught to myself, surely someone wouldnt paint an entire truck pink. It must only be a stripe or something on the side. I have never been more wrong in my life. Not only was the entire truck hot pink but so was everything else in the truck. The sheets were pink, the saddle racks, bridle racks, the cuttlery drawer was even pink. She had a pink pitch fork for goodness sakes. It is probably better to just show a pic rather then discribing it. ENJOY!
As for my travels getting back home...
I originally had planned to fly out of Melbourne at 11am. Or at least that is how I read my flight details. I clearly was not very observant. At 2am Australia time I got a phone call from my mom saying that my flight was actually leaving at 8:30am from Melbourne and 11am from Sydney. OOPS. Thanks momma. This new time meant that we now had to leave the farm at 5am to make my flight. THe only problem is that Ness had planned to wake up at 6am. Now I had to call Ness at 4:45 to wake her up so that we could leave in time. This is why i prefer driving to flying. She was very understanding and we made my flight without any problems. It was tough saying goodbye but I had an amazing time and it was absolutely a trip of a lifetime.
Once on the plane was yet again reminded of how much I hate flying. To start, the 85 year old woman that was sitting in front of me couldnt have been taller than 5 foot nothing but she felt it necessary to recline her seat all the way back for the entire flight. My legs did not appreciate that very much. I managed to watch a few movies and get a couple hours of sleep so I guess that was ok. Once landed however, I was again turned off by another annoying traveler. The person sitting two rows behind me, whcih meant he was at the vary back of the plane, felt that it was necessary to jump out of his seat as soon as the seat belt sign was turned off and try to get 5 rows in front of him to get his bag. First off, I dont understand why people feel it is necessary to jump out of their seat when the light goes off. It is going to take another 30 minutes to get off the plane so whats the rush. As for the aforementioned passenger, why could he not wait till exiting the plane to get his bag. IT IS ON THE WAY OUT. Enough of this pointless rant. I made it safely to South Africa and I look forward to what lies ahead. I will try to keep everyone posted.
The last couple weeks in Australia were pretty great. I got the opportunity to finally compete at a horse show about 3 hours away. I can now honestly say that I am now an International Competitor. It was really fun and actually quite difficult. I will spare everyone with the boring details but lets just say that I ended up in the middle of the pack on a horse that has never competed in his life so I was pretty happy. I rode ESB Irish Benediction and he behaved himself surprising well so I was pretty happy. The highlight of the weekend, or low point depending on how you look at it, was the infamous pink truck. Since Vanessa's truck was in the shop, a friend of ours let us borrow their truck to take the horses down. There was even two beds and a kitchen, I thought I had landed with my butt in the butter with this one. Ness told em however that the truck was actually pink. I tohught to myself, surely someone wouldnt paint an entire truck pink. It must only be a stripe or something on the side. I have never been more wrong in my life. Not only was the entire truck hot pink but so was everything else in the truck. The sheets were pink, the saddle racks, bridle racks, the cuttlery drawer was even pink. She had a pink pitch fork for goodness sakes. It is probably better to just show a pic rather then discribing it. ENJOY!
As for my travels getting back home...
I originally had planned to fly out of Melbourne at 11am. Or at least that is how I read my flight details. I clearly was not very observant. At 2am Australia time I got a phone call from my mom saying that my flight was actually leaving at 8:30am from Melbourne and 11am from Sydney. OOPS. Thanks momma. This new time meant that we now had to leave the farm at 5am to make my flight. THe only problem is that Ness had planned to wake up at 6am. Now I had to call Ness at 4:45 to wake her up so that we could leave in time. This is why i prefer driving to flying. She was very understanding and we made my flight without any problems. It was tough saying goodbye but I had an amazing time and it was absolutely a trip of a lifetime.
Once on the plane was yet again reminded of how much I hate flying. To start, the 85 year old woman that was sitting in front of me couldnt have been taller than 5 foot nothing but she felt it necessary to recline her seat all the way back for the entire flight. My legs did not appreciate that very much. I managed to watch a few movies and get a couple hours of sleep so I guess that was ok. Once landed however, I was again turned off by another annoying traveler. The person sitting two rows behind me, whcih meant he was at the vary back of the plane, felt that it was necessary to jump out of his seat as soon as the seat belt sign was turned off and try to get 5 rows in front of him to get his bag. First off, I dont understand why people feel it is necessary to jump out of their seat when the light goes off. It is going to take another 30 minutes to get off the plane so whats the rush. As for the aforementioned passenger, why could he not wait till exiting the plane to get his bag. IT IS ON THE WAY OUT. Enough of this pointless rant. I made it safely to South Africa and I look forward to what lies ahead. I will try to keep everyone posted.
Friday, March 12, 2010
The Doghouse
So last night Vanessa decided to make a really nice stroganoff with steak and lots of different vegetables. She spent tons of time cutting up the steak and marinating it. She stepped into the office for a second and upon returning she found the dog Ellie on the counter eating all the steak. She finished the entire plate before anyone noticed. Needless to say, Ness was not a very happy person. Ellie was quickly thrown out the house and things seemed to get worse from there. Since the surgery, one of Vanessa's legs has been 2 cm's longer then the other so she has had a special orthotic placed into her work boots as compensation. While outside, Ellie decided to chew up that orthotic as well and dstroy it. Ellie has clearly been in the literal and figurative dog house all of today with no hope of getting out any time soon.
As for the other four legged animals on the property, all is well. Got a good number worked today and we have some people coming from Canberra tomorrow to try some horses. Also showing some on mondayso keep your fingers crossed. Hope everyone is enjoying spring back home. The weather here has been sunny and around 70. Not too shabby. Miss you all and cant wait to share in my travels when I get home.
As for the other four legged animals on the property, all is well. Got a good number worked today and we have some people coming from Canberra tomorrow to try some horses. Also showing some on mondayso keep your fingers crossed. Hope everyone is enjoying spring back home. The weather here has been sunny and around 70. Not too shabby. Miss you all and cant wait to share in my travels when I get home.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
My Apologies
So I know I said that things were going to change as of my last post but this whole blogging thing is really hard. Things have been going well out here. Jeff and I had an awesome trip to New Zealand. We went black water rafting with the glow worms, rock climbing and abseiling through the waterfalls in the caves and ended the trip by jumping out of a plane at 12,000 feet! Over the week, we drove over 3700 kilometer, 2300 miles for you "Americans", over the week in a 2 person camper van. When I say two person camper van, I mean a car the size of the old dodge caravan that I grew up with. Only this one had a "bed" or more of a bench in the back and a "kitchen", also known as a bench top, sink and two gas burners that could only be used if the back was open. They were nice enough to provide us with bedding as well as towels and a cooler. All in all the van worked out great despite the close quarters and horrible gas milage. The highlight of the trip absolutely came when Jeff and I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane at 12,000 feet. It was the most thrilling experience of my life and needless to say, I didnt have a voice by the time I reached the ground again. I can safely claim that New Zealand was the most beautiful country I have ever been to and I am glad that Jeff and I got to experience it. I have lots of pictures to show when I get home but here is a quick shot of our camper van.
As for the farm life, I finally got some much needed help from Adelaide. Fiona Guthrie came over from South Australia with her two horses. She is heling me work the 22 horses we have in work and we are hoping that she will take over once I leave. Things have been goign well and we finally got the much needed rain. Almost 4 inches over the weekend! Jeff and I are pretty excited about St. Patricks day this weekend and I am getting the horses ready to go to Wandin horse show next weekend. Getting retty busy but I will try to stay true to my blogamation.
As for the farm life, I finally got some much needed help from Adelaide. Fiona Guthrie came over from South Australia with her two horses. She is heling me work the 22 horses we have in work and we are hoping that she will take over once I leave. Things have been goign well and we finally got the much needed rain. Almost 4 inches over the weekend! Jeff and I are pretty excited about St. Patricks day this weekend and I am getting the horses ready to go to Wandin horse show next weekend. Getting retty busy but I will try to stay true to my blogamation.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
My Blogamation
I need to start this blog by first explaining the title. After hearing a few disappointments regarding my previous blogging habits I have decided to make them shorter and more frequent. When possible I will try to catch everyone up on my previous travels but from now on my blog will be more about my day to day activities and the small things that make me laugh each day. Therefore, my blog is undergoing a transformation, some might call it a blogamation. (I would like to credit this AWESOME play on words to my father and his incredible wit).
Yesterday Jeff, Lorena and I got the opportunity to tour around the gold mine that borders Vanessa's property. The mine is called Northgate Goldmine and you might say that the relationship between Vanessa and them is a bit of an emotional roller coaster. They were nice enough however to take us on a tour both of the mill and the underground mining. Brad took us on a driving tour of the grounds and then we traveled into the portal and down into the mine. We traveled about 500 meters underground and were shown the entire process to extract the gold. For thos eof you that also read Jeff's blog, dont believe him. He fell asleep in the car so he doesnt actually know how far down we went. It was all very interesting but I wouldnt recommend it to a clostraphobic person. To top off the entire experience, we also were able to wear the sweet gear shown in the picture below. Needless to say we all got pretty hot but it was worth it. I asked if I could borrow the head lamp and vest to go out Friday night but they didnt seem very receptive.
Following the tour I figured we might be given a couple gold bars as a present but no such luck. When the company made over 110 million dollars last year I figured they could spare some but some people in this world are just plain rude and greedy.
Later that day we had a girl and her mother here from New Zealand to look at the property. She bought one of Vanessa's horses about a year ago and wanted to see where her horse came from. All I am going to say is that I hope that the other New Zealanders I meet in a couple weeks are nicer than these two were.
And finally to the exciting part of the day. Vanessa and I drove my friend Lorena back down to the airport that night, left the farm around 5:30. After dropping her off, Vanessa and I drove into McDonalds for a healthy dinner and a petrol refill. These crazy Australians dont even call it gasoline over here. Anyways, we got the food, got the gas and suddenly the car wouldnt move. I pushed the clutch down but it wouldnt release from the floor board. Thus the beginning of our adventure. Paul was nice enough to drive the hour and a hlaf down from the farm to the airport becuase he was able to drive the car without the clutch. When he arrived he took one look at the car and discovered that he in fact would not be able to drive it. This left us with our final option to tow it back home. Paul had a thick rope that he tied inbetween the two cars and off we went. I was in the drivers seat of the broken car with the engine running but the car in neutral. All I had were brakes and the radio. We decided to go back on the back roads to avoid traffic. This meant we had to go up and down mountains and through roads that would rival 21 curves. If you dont get that reference be glad. It is a horrible road to drive on. To top it all off, IT WAS RAINING. Lets just say that by the time I got home my nerves were a little fragile after the 7 hour trip to the airport. It normally takes four hours. I quickly went to bed and slept very well after an extremely long day. All just to wake up again the next morning at 7:30 to feed the horses. Mark that down as things not to do while in Australia.
This picture was just an added perk of the day.
Yesterday Jeff, Lorena and I got the opportunity to tour around the gold mine that borders Vanessa's property. The mine is called Northgate Goldmine and you might say that the relationship between Vanessa and them is a bit of an emotional roller coaster. They were nice enough however to take us on a tour both of the mill and the underground mining. Brad took us on a driving tour of the grounds and then we traveled into the portal and down into the mine. We traveled about 500 meters underground and were shown the entire process to extract the gold. For thos eof you that also read Jeff's blog, dont believe him. He fell asleep in the car so he doesnt actually know how far down we went. It was all very interesting but I wouldnt recommend it to a clostraphobic person. To top off the entire experience, we also were able to wear the sweet gear shown in the picture below. Needless to say we all got pretty hot but it was worth it. I asked if I could borrow the head lamp and vest to go out Friday night but they didnt seem very receptive.
Following the tour I figured we might be given a couple gold bars as a present but no such luck. When the company made over 110 million dollars last year I figured they could spare some but some people in this world are just plain rude and greedy.
Later that day we had a girl and her mother here from New Zealand to look at the property. She bought one of Vanessa's horses about a year ago and wanted to see where her horse came from. All I am going to say is that I hope that the other New Zealanders I meet in a couple weeks are nicer than these two were.
And finally to the exciting part of the day. Vanessa and I drove my friend Lorena back down to the airport that night, left the farm around 5:30. After dropping her off, Vanessa and I drove into McDonalds for a healthy dinner and a petrol refill. These crazy Australians dont even call it gasoline over here. Anyways, we got the food, got the gas and suddenly the car wouldnt move. I pushed the clutch down but it wouldnt release from the floor board. Thus the beginning of our adventure. Paul was nice enough to drive the hour and a hlaf down from the farm to the airport becuase he was able to drive the car without the clutch. When he arrived he took one look at the car and discovered that he in fact would not be able to drive it. This left us with our final option to tow it back home. Paul had a thick rope that he tied inbetween the two cars and off we went. I was in the drivers seat of the broken car with the engine running but the car in neutral. All I had were brakes and the radio. We decided to go back on the back roads to avoid traffic. This meant we had to go up and down mountains and through roads that would rival 21 curves. If you dont get that reference be glad. It is a horrible road to drive on. To top it all off, IT WAS RAINING. Lets just say that by the time I got home my nerves were a little fragile after the 7 hour trip to the airport. It normally takes four hours. I quickly went to bed and slept very well after an extremely long day. All just to wake up again the next morning at 7:30 to feed the horses. Mark that down as things not to do while in Australia.
This picture was just an added perk of the day.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Learning to Drive
So I am thinking that I am at least improving a bit. It has only been 9 days since my last blog. Moving on the right track. I believe that I am now up to my travels to Adelaide for the International Four Star. For those of you know dont know, a four star is the highest level of competition that you can achieve in my sport and it is a pretty big deal to compete in one. I have never been able to see a four star before so I was pretty excited.
That excitement quickly faded when I realized that I had a 9 hour bus trip across about a quarter of Australia. As I loaded the bus in Bendigo, I had sudden flashbacks to Young Life ski trips. That thought didn't make the trip any more exciting. I sucked it up and pushed off on my way to Adelaide.
Nine and a half hours later I arrived at the central bus station located in the city centre of Adelaide. Yea I know they spell CENTRE wrong over here but I thought, When in Rome. Unfortunately, I arrived in Adelaide at 8PM and every single car company closed at 5PM. I guess I should explain this a bit. Vanessa was nice enough to set me up with good friends that live in Adelaide and were nice enough to put me up. the Cook's unfortunately live about 30 minutes outside of Adelaide so I needed to find someway to get there. From the bus I took a taxi to the airport where I rented the one and only HYUNDAI GETZ. I know I joke occasionally about how I could probably fit a car into the bed of my truck. At long last I have found that car. The Getzy and I made our way out of Adelaide up into the hills to meet up with the Cooks.
My first attempt at driving on the left side of the road brought all new adventures for me. First of all, it seems to be alot harder to stay in your lane when driving on the other side of the car. Dont know why but that was an extremely stressful 30 minutes. Not to mention every time I tried to change the lane, I turned on the windshield wipers instead. Dad, you know how I feel.
Well I am in the middle of making dinner so theres a small start into Adelaide for you. I will catch you up more tomorrow.
That excitement quickly faded when I realized that I had a 9 hour bus trip across about a quarter of Australia. As I loaded the bus in Bendigo, I had sudden flashbacks to Young Life ski trips. That thought didn't make the trip any more exciting. I sucked it up and pushed off on my way to Adelaide.
Nine and a half hours later I arrived at the central bus station located in the city centre of Adelaide. Yea I know they spell CENTRE wrong over here but I thought, When in Rome. Unfortunately, I arrived in Adelaide at 8PM and every single car company closed at 5PM. I guess I should explain this a bit. Vanessa was nice enough to set me up with good friends that live in Adelaide and were nice enough to put me up. the Cook's unfortunately live about 30 minutes outside of Adelaide so I needed to find someway to get there. From the bus I took a taxi to the airport where I rented the one and only HYUNDAI GETZ. I know I joke occasionally about how I could probably fit a car into the bed of my truck. At long last I have found that car. The Getzy and I made our way out of Adelaide up into the hills to meet up with the Cooks.
My first attempt at driving on the left side of the road brought all new adventures for me. First of all, it seems to be alot harder to stay in your lane when driving on the other side of the car. Dont know why but that was an extremely stressful 30 minutes. Not to mention every time I tried to change the lane, I turned on the windshield wipers instead. Dad, you know how I feel.
Well I am in the middle of making dinner so theres a small start into Adelaide for you. I will catch you up more tomorrow.
Monday, December 28, 2009
A Vegemite Sandwich?
I am currently sitting in the Alice Springs Airport waiting to fly to Cairns with my family but that blog will have to come a bit later. There is still about a month of activities that need ot be recounted first. Sorry in advance for the delay.
After settling into Vanessa's for a couple days, I started to get cracking on my riding and training. At the start, we had 90 horses on the property and around 20 in work. Clearly I am not able to work every horse every day but I was managing to get to about 10 horses a day. Probably why I haven't had much time to blog and keep you all posted. The horses in work right now range from young ones just brought in from pasture to older horses with a few competitions under their girth. Sorry for the bad pun. If you really want to hear what my day to day life is like on the farm send me an email and I will try to fill you in but in the interest of time I will just hit the major highlights. The day to day stuff can get really repetitive. The first weekend I was here, Vanessa had a school reunion down on the Mornington Peninsula. The peninsula, as we locals call it, is the area just south of Melbourne. It is known for its surf beaches as well as its camping sites along the beach. Pretty nice area. I told Vanessa that she should go and I would be happy to stick around and run the farm but she insisted that I come down with her and Paul to look around while she was at the party. Paul is a really nice guy that helps out alot around the farm and he volunteered to take us down there and show me around.
After dropping off Vanessa, Paul and I continued down the peninsula and first things first, we got lunch. This was my first time ordering food in Australia and man did I screw it up. Paul went first and I tried to listen in. He said something about two potatoes and chips. That was the first point that I got confused. I thought that you ordered a certain number of potatoes to be cut up into french fries. Clearly I was wrong. By the time I got my food, I ended up ordering an extremely large burger, chips, and two potato cakes. That was a ton of food. Not to mention that food over here is way too expensive and that meal cost me about 15 dollars. For those of you who dont know, chips are french fries and french fries are potato chips shaped like french fries. Dont worry I'm still confused about that.
After lunch, we continued driving down the coast visiting random surf beaches along the way. Below are a few pictured from Gunnamatta Beach. Unfortunately the weather was a little overcast but you get the idea.
After Gunnamatta, we continued back up the coast and stopped next at Arthur's Seat. This is a "mountain" as they call it right on the coast that you are able to drive up. Judging by the size of their "mountains" they clearly have never been to the rockies. From the top you can see all the way back up to Melbourne as well as all the way down to Portsea, the bottom of the peninsula. Again, the weather was pretty bad but the pictures give you an idea of the views from up there.
Following our afternoon tour of the Mornington Peninsula, Paul and I went back to pick up Vanessa and ended up staying there for about an hour before heading back up to the farm. We got home around 1 AM and I was off to bed to get some sleep before waking up again at 7:30 to start my day at work.
After settling into Vanessa's for a couple days, I started to get cracking on my riding and training. At the start, we had 90 horses on the property and around 20 in work. Clearly I am not able to work every horse every day but I was managing to get to about 10 horses a day. Probably why I haven't had much time to blog and keep you all posted. The horses in work right now range from young ones just brought in from pasture to older horses with a few competitions under their girth. Sorry for the bad pun. If you really want to hear what my day to day life is like on the farm send me an email and I will try to fill you in but in the interest of time I will just hit the major highlights. The day to day stuff can get really repetitive. The first weekend I was here, Vanessa had a school reunion down on the Mornington Peninsula. The peninsula, as we locals call it, is the area just south of Melbourne. It is known for its surf beaches as well as its camping sites along the beach. Pretty nice area. I told Vanessa that she should go and I would be happy to stick around and run the farm but she insisted that I come down with her and Paul to look around while she was at the party. Paul is a really nice guy that helps out alot around the farm and he volunteered to take us down there and show me around.
After dropping off Vanessa, Paul and I continued down the peninsula and first things first, we got lunch. This was my first time ordering food in Australia and man did I screw it up. Paul went first and I tried to listen in. He said something about two potatoes and chips. That was the first point that I got confused. I thought that you ordered a certain number of potatoes to be cut up into french fries. Clearly I was wrong. By the time I got my food, I ended up ordering an extremely large burger, chips, and two potato cakes. That was a ton of food. Not to mention that food over here is way too expensive and that meal cost me about 15 dollars. For those of you who dont know, chips are french fries and french fries are potato chips shaped like french fries. Dont worry I'm still confused about that.
After lunch, we continued driving down the coast visiting random surf beaches along the way. Below are a few pictured from Gunnamatta Beach. Unfortunately the weather was a little overcast but you get the idea.
After Gunnamatta, we continued back up the coast and stopped next at Arthur's Seat. This is a "mountain" as they call it right on the coast that you are able to drive up. Judging by the size of their "mountains" they clearly have never been to the rockies. From the top you can see all the way back up to Melbourne as well as all the way down to Portsea, the bottom of the peninsula. Again, the weather was pretty bad but the pictures give you an idea of the views from up there.
Following our afternoon tour of the Mornington Peninsula, Paul and I went back to pick up Vanessa and ended up staying there for about an hour before heading back up to the farm. We got home around 1 AM and I was off to bed to get some sleep before waking up again at 7:30 to start my day at work.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)