Its later than you think

It has been a busy couple of weeks since last update, a heady whirlwind of assignments and socialising and assignments. A brief summary -

After london, had week of MUCH ASSIGNMENTING mixed with much Family due to teh mother's 70th birthday. Which she managed to make last most of a week, well played The Mother!
Then MOAR Assignments (final 2!) and last official lectures for course. V sad, and rather sudden, still keep thinking there should be more!
(Ziggy was off at stud for all of this, which was possibly just as well)

And then a flying visit to Dublin, hurrah! went to see art exhibition of the man who paints amazing horses - http://www.whitetreestudio.ie/ - even managed to buy one of his paintings at Not Gallery Price through the magic of Facebook. Then pub with Lisa (WINOLJ) for a quick pint before an evening of tasty noms and lots of wine/cider at Castle Thesmington. A Very Fine evening indeed. Next day was mostly hungover watching of THOR (hmmm Thor) before stupid late taxi made us miss train, hang around train station for AGEs til next one and finally home.

Then assingment panic REALLY set in as The last week went something like -
Sunday -studystudystudy
Monday - studystudystudy
Tues/wed 2 day course on Python which turned out to be not v useful as was heavy on theory and background and a bit light on actually how to USE it. Still was an intro to it at least. Stayed in Portrush in hotel tues night and found out Ziggy pregnant! YAY! AFter 2nd day of course had to head to dpk for...
Thurs - up at 7 to get mother to hosptial appt which took 3 hours to get a 2 minute injection. Yay. Then clothes shopping for brother's wedding. Then home, lunch and unplanned dash to school to pick up niece & nephew as niece was being sick (all over classroom assistant apparently). Finally managed to get away, then MOAR STUDY while also trying to pack for SiL-to-be's hen weekend on friday (worst. timing. ever.)
Friday-Sunday Hen weekend. Was more fun than anticipated! Girls all lovely and caught up with friend I have not seen since school (SiL's older sister). And even got some work done while others went out for cooked breakfast sat morning ;p Got back sunday evening v tired, v hungover. But Ziggy was BACK. so went to see her and spent nearly an hour cleaning her; apparently they don't have brushes at stud farms. Or food for that matter, she's lost quite a bit of weight (which is actually a good thing in her case!)

Monday - hand in day. By some MIRACLE had both assignments finished and submitted by lunchtime; spent some time taunting classmates on fb with this ;) Then tried to clean house, get horse sorted and then PUB with some of the kids from school to celebrate. Many Ciders had. Possibly just topping up alcohol levels from weekend.
Yesterday. Slept. Mostly slept.
Today - _unhurt_ arrived! Also got to ride for first time in... 6 weeks.
Tomorrow, probably v stiff but! FINALLY get to see AVENGERS. So very excited!!

Ooh and also, to round off the wall of text, my painting arrived and is now in pride of place in livingroom...
( My Lovely horse )
Tomorrow. Also Mostly Sleeping. All the Sleeping, then AVENGERS OMG and pub with unhurt. And on Saturday, thesme is here. Hurrah! Next week, start research for thesis. Or sleep. MORE SLEEP

This morning I had a big ranty post in my head about all the diet ads (DIE SPECIAL K DIE) and pressures to have the Right Body, plus RAAAAGE at this article about bikini bodies (srsly do NOT read unless you want to start screaming)... but then I had a pretty good day so, sod ranting ;p

Found out I passed stage 1 of the BHS horse owner's course with 95.5%! Hurrah! Stage 2 starts Monday and I suspect isn't quite as 'What colour is that horsie?' as stage 1 ;p

Then 2nd lesson with Lucy Adams, top local dressage lady. Also a very good and onlyabitterrifying instructor. Wasn't sure Ziggy would be up to it because she went off to her first hunt in 2 years on Tuesday and by all accounts had a blast charging all over the place, but it turned out she was just fine and I was the one who couldn't keep up.

Details mainly for my own benefit under the cut. And a pic, because... pretty horsie (pretty horsie is a GREY horsie. A fleabitten grey to be precise, all her lovely dapples have gone :/)

( lesson 2 with Lucy )

Now, a hot bath to soothe achy legs. And possibly cider.

Yep, more horse stuff, sorry. It's about all I do these days so it's that or more moaning about avoiding work on the tenders. Which is pretty much what this is.

Took Ziggy out for a hack this morning, there's lots of pretty quiet wee country roads around us so its usually good to potter around on. She is very good with traffic, and when with another horse, very little bothers her at all. When on her own however, she gets a bit SUPER VIGILANT and things that she'd normally never look twice at suddenly become Horse Eating Monsters.

Today, the world was full of them.

First part of the hack is down the main road. Lorries, vans, cars whizzing past. All fine.

A sign outside new houses (that she has passed several times with no problem) - HORSE EATING MONSTER GET AWAY FROM IT QUICK

Grates/manhole covers - traps for the unuwary horse. To be avoided at ALL COSTS

Bins - suspicious, keep a close eye on them

Bin lorry - huge, clanking, bin eating monster. Obviously a friend to horses therefore and absolutely nothing to worry about

Sheep moving in a field - OMGOMG! WHAT IS IT? DOES IT WANT TO EAT ME?? RUN AWAAAAY!

A roll of fencing wire EVIL EVIL EVIL! HELP HELP! Quick get to the other side of the road don'tmakemegonearit!!

Flags (from the 12th) waving from every lamp post thro small village - no problem

Lorry with rattly trailer - fine

Cyclist whizzing past down hill - fine

Dog barking from behind a fence AAARRRGHHH (a full four feet off the ground spook at that one)

Cows - possibly monsters. Keep a VERY WATCHFUL EYE on them

Red Hedge cutting sign on road - EVIL!

Blue line painted on road - REALLY EVIL! HELP! DON'T STAND ON IT!!

Hedge cutting machine - AAARGGH MONSTER RUN AWAAAAAAY (to be fair it was behind the hedge so she couldn't really see it, just the big arm thing making really strange noises)

Red post office van - meh, fine

Bit of newspaper on side of road - GOING TO EAT ME! HELP!

Dog in middle of road barking - wary, but fine (then it ran away)

Dogs behind fences barking - RUN AWAAAAAAY

Wall painted blue on top - possibly EVIL! Beware!

Stone lions on gateposts - fine

Stone lions on ground - EVIL WAITING TO POUNCE! Do Not Approach!!

A single leaf lying on the ground - DANGER! KEEP AWAY!

We did make it back fine, despite it being a more eventful ride than usual. And she was very brave going past the scary hedge cutting machine. Some of the rest of it tho... why the SHEEP? And blue things. Blue things BAD in Ziggyland. Unless they are bin lorries. Bin lorries FRIEND.

Still, it gets me out in the fresh air ;p

So, it snowed. In Other News, AFV seems to have completely cleared up. The shattering exhaustion has gone too, which is nice!

This week I have mostly gone to work. Expect for Wed evening/thurs. morning which I spent with the young chap in the icon (First Nephew), who is over from Canada for a week or so with his mum. He is now 7 and Cool tho did very politely humour his Nana by mostly enjoying the trip to Santa. We spent the rest of the time fighing with remote control helicopters, playing LoTR top trumps (I even got to explain why some of the orcs had pointy ears like elves!), building lego spaceships and watching some Lord of the Rings. OOH and reading Roald Dahl.

And the...SNOWCOPOLYSE HIT!! OMG!!! etc!!!


Made it to work, actually got some xmas shopping done v. easily cos shops were all empty then, got sent home at half 2! Yay!
Except then I had to go sort the horses out, which meant ( returning to Narnia )

Got home, changed out of wet boots/jeans into cosy jammies, got snacks and ONLY THEN thought to check the fridge for cider. and oh. OH.

WAILY WAILY WAILY THERE WAS NONE OH NOES OH NOES OH NOES
But I was sure i could cope. I COULD COPE it would be FINE... til the internet STOPPED WORKING.

So. I donned Warm Clothes, Riding boots (long enough to forge through INCHES of snow) and not-quite-Yaktrax grippy things and womanfully forged a path down the Hill of Doom, the Ski Slopes of the Train Station (which you have to navigate to get through the Tunnel, or chance being mowed down by cars under the bridge) to make it to the Off Licence for precious cider and lovely fizzy wine. Then made it back UP same obstacles (grippy things quite good!) while carrying bag full of precious alcohol. JOY!!!
Have since enjoyed Wines, Popcorn and extended phone call with being_here while watching David Tennant... and now cider.

And one final snow picture, purely because the contrast between Fittingly Snow-covered Fir Tree with Less Fittingly snow covered Palm Trees amused me hugely this morning ;p

Hello! and Happy Solstice ! I have been meaning to post for aaaages, but just never seem to get to it! The last few weeks have been busy, but mostly in a good way, actual nights out in pubs, having fun with the horse and even doing interesting stuff at work!
Even the work christmas do was good fun, tasty foods, tasty drink in comfy, uncrowded bar.

This weekend, I even had visitors! thesme_01 and lazy_hoor arrived on sat. afternoon, after doing some very Unpatriotic Shopping around Belfast. We exchanged Tasteful And Interesing Presents (they got me the tastful one ;p), then went for foods and cinema.
2012 is great, if you like giggling at terrible terrible disaster movies that MAKE NO SENSE. The special effects tho are pretty damn awesome, but there should been more of them and less 'plot', 'dialogue' and pull-ups. On the plus side, Giraffe!
After 3 hours of that (THREE HOURS!) we returned home to sip fine, fizzy wines and discuss the issues of the day (that part is actually true!). BUt then, SNOW! Thesme took photos and had weathergasms, so we had to pelt her with snowballs to calm her down again, like the TROO FWENDS we are. Then, MOAR WINE. All this AND we got to see teh hoors Relaxoslacks. They are awesome, I want some!

Sunday was Cold and Snowy. After the ladies departed back for the south, I remained on the sofa for some time, til I could put off going up to the stables no longer. There was much thawing tho, so I figured it would be safe to take the windy, hilly, little lane rather than take the much longer route round the main roads.
It was all fine at first, then I turned a corner and... Oh dear.




'Maybe it'll get better further on' I thought...
(  moar snow! )

So there we go! Today we had a Solstice Day at work, in which I had to demonstrate our web mapping/database thingsy to The Public, then there was a talk on astro-archaeology and solstices, followed by an excellent (if less relevent) talk on tree rings, comets and mythology, which you can read about here and here, if you like that kind of thing.

Tomorrow, normal work day, the wed, Last Day, which usually means pub. Then HOLIDAY. For nearly a week! Hurrah!

How are y'all doing out there? I have been reading lj, if not quite managing commenting/posting, but have probably missed plenty!

Oh and, btw (if you are still reading) if you don't want do sit through THREE HOURS of 2012, Cleolinda has done a 15 minute review, here!

Today was another beautiful warm, sunny, blue-skied day. So after a morning of lie-in, pottering round the house and tackling the Washing Mountain, I went off to the stables and decided that instead of riding, it was bath time for Ziggy. And brought the camera...

The view from the top of the hill down to the fields is pretty stunning on a good day -


( bathtime fun for ziggy )

BAI then



I may bring the camera again tomorrow to show how dirty she can get herself again overnight. THo at least her mane and tail should stay clean looking for a while.

Horse is moved to lovely new home! Along with tack box, feed box, tack, rugs, feed, grooming kit and various other bits and pieces, half of which is still in the car to be sorted tomorrow... I think we may have left a couple of rugs behind acutally, must check that with D. And get a yard brush for the stable.

But she is installed in a lovely big stable (inside stables! no getting soaked!), fed and has hay. And getting shod tomorrow - a regular farrier! Such luxury. TBH I think I found the whole thing much more stressful than she did, I've been going to other place for 10 years or so now, so was a bit of wrench leaving. The new place has miles better facilities tho. It'll be good!

Knackered now! Hopefully we will all be happy there, it seems like a friendly place anyway.


ION, not much really. Must put food on. then sleeeeep.

Good morning! How are we all today? The sunshine has come back, typically, onna Monday. But still! How was your weekend? Mine went thusly...

Friday - fled work (hurrah) went to stables to ride horse. Spent FORTY-FIVE minutes trying to catch horse. By the time i eventually did, couldn't be bothered riding and we were both soaked anyway. So did stable and phoned D. to see what the story is for the next few weeks. Recieved following bombshell...
Sometime in the next few weeks he is taking her to visit this damn fine horse for breeding! OMG! HORSE BABY! (maybe).
Pure-bred Irish draft too, which is great, orignially he was thinking something lighter... but yay! Classic Vision . It also turns out, as another shock, that Ziggy is *not* purebred ID but is in fact HALF TB. WTF? this is half TB? Wow.
Anyway. I forsee a v. quick and short learning curve in my future on how to cope with pregnant mares and then foals. If he actually goes ahead with it and it all works out...
Rest of Fri. was spent drying out on the sofa with cider, googling Classic Vision and going OMG. And mudding.

Sat.... LIE IN. Yay. Sleeep. Then home to family for family doing stuff (giving presents for older nephew's b'day, going Awwwww at the baby, etc).

Sunday - moar family stuff, then I went on a mission to buy a new kitchen table. After much checking thro shops that only sold big dining tables and finally found this one , which fits v. nicely against the wall and matches the actual kitchen v. well. Tho, it has chrome legs. I am not sure why, but there you go. The rest of Sunday was spent Assembling the table (which was easy), getting it upright afterwards (which really was Not, it weighs a ton) then getting old table out and to garage etc. Then making tasty foods to eat off it.
Rounded off the weekend watching Blade (first time!), which was v. good, despite missing a most of the Exposition part in the middle due to phone calls, then with a long hot bath and catching up on some reading .

So there you have it - horses, family and kitchen tables. The excitement never starts stops round here!

Working week is nearly over (for me), which is GOOD. Tho, I have been Productive this week, so go me.

Also, more importantly, went riding again! This time managed to do a bit more, although it does highlight just how lacking I am in leg muscles now, particularly left calf, leading to a distinct lack of bending in that direction. Also inability to use both legs at once To Create Forward Impulsion (as the books say), which caused poor Ziggy some confusion when I was trying to get her to trot (I got brave. Also bored with walking ;p), but could only use one leg to do it. And even more confusion when she did trot and I stopped her again after 3 or 4 strides.
But, once we got moving, i did manage a few very short bursts of trotting on each rein - still sitting, not even contemplating rising trot for some time yet. Current plan is to go up once or twice a week, depending on what nights I can sort out with the others, and do a bit more each time, until she goes off for her summer break. Then start all over again after that (hopefully july/august), by which time leg should be a lot stronger anyway.

Came home with much more energy than I've had in weeks and managed to clear kitchen, put bins out, put away shopping, replace old flowers with fresh ones AND cook dinner all before hitting the sofa. I think I need to get out in the fresh air much more often, it obviously does me good!

Tonight, packing for READMEET then Pilates. Then tomorrow, a refined evening of Culture, Art and Cider with team horror Lovely People. And Pie!
Then saturday, more of the same, hopefully with the addition of Dasquian and Malvino.
Tho. Reading may be a step up from Feltham, but y'all really do need to move somewhere more Exotic for me to come visit. Somewhere sunny, by the sea would be good. Or just all move over here, save me the airfares ;p

Teh Zigs has gone off on her summer hols - turned out in a huge big field with a couple of other hossies to do nothing but eat for a couple of months. Which means I'm sort of on mine now too! I have EVENINGS again. I have WEEKENDS. I have FREE TIME!

So um. What do you do with it? Already I'm vaguely at a loss, I'm not used to being home before 9pm!

So, you Normal Folk, who do not spend 2-3 hrs every evening hanging round horses, what do you do with your evenings? If it ever stops raining long enough, gardening may happen. Reading, catching up on dvds... what else?


oh and _unhurt_ by way of a peace offering - http://sabaceanbabe.livejournal.com/69102.html - several cross over ficlets, including Firefly/Farscape, some BSG and, I kid you not, Farscape/Muppets