The final of Sea Patrol was really quite awesome! With all the stuff they blew up, lots of gun usage, Mike being awesome and it was just really fun! So instead of trying to write down all my thoughts I'm picspamming it because I feel the need...

( Under the cut... )

Here are some of the photos I took at the Horse of the Year Show on the 22 of March,I'm editing together a video as well but it'll probably take me a while to finish because of uni stuff.


( Heaps of photos... )

Last night I went and hung with Fiona and we watched "Driven" which is a very funny episode of NCIS, then we randomly decided to watch some X-Files because we hadn't for months!
At about midnight she thought it would be a good idea to drive down to Tally and put on his cover as it was raining and really cold but the gates to the Equestrian Centre were padlocked so that idea was killed.
We got back to the halls at uni where she lives and because it was a Saturday night and everyone with lives had gone to town the common rooms were empty so we took one over with Sea Patrol,it was so much fun! We got some odd looks from people returning from town though because no-one really uses those common rooms at that time of night...I ended up staying there until half past two and then drove back to the flat,it's really fun driving at that time of the morning.
Then I had to get up again seven and get my stuff ready and go back to Fiona's room at the halls where we were picked up by her Mum and went up to Horse of the Year.
It was a good day,I bought some joint supplement for Biddy and the cats and some more of the horse version as well for Joe,I ended up talking to the woman in that tent for quite a while just raving on about how awesome their products are.
The show-jumping wasn't as good as last year,it was won by an Aussie *boo* and there were hardly any clear rounds,I got 381 photos and videos now which will all need sorting through and cropping etc which I don't have time for tonight because I have to go and research information on octopus reproduction for tomorrow since I left it until the last minute.

But! I got to see Pico Bello! He was my favourite horse for years,he is so sexy,but he was sold to an Australian two years ago and has been in Aussie since but he was there today! So he didn't do all that great but I got to see him!

Gah I just spent ages cropping photos and photobucket is in maintenance mode I can't upload them so I'll have to do that later, how typical.

Good things came in the mail today. I got a new card credit card! It's black and sparkly and pretty, I couldn't use my old one because they fucked up and issued me two and I don't think I ever got the one that actually worked. But now I have a working one, I probably won't use it much, only when I need to order something online and you can pay by bank transfer. Plus it only has a $500 limit so it's not like I can go mad with it. And the other bit of good news to come in the mail was from studylink saying that my scholarship for this year had been approved, so yay! It is so awesome, it means I only pay $1000 towards my study fees and studylink pays the rest. I still need to sort out my loan/allowance because I'm not going to be getting any money until that is is done but I need a letter from the accountant which hasn't come yet.

Cooked french toast for breakfast for me and my sister, was fucking awesome.

I also gave my saddle it's end of summer clean and pretty much packed it away, it's coming for a trip down to uni with me though because my mate wants to try it out on her horse.

My sister and I went down to the beach later in the afternoon with the dogs and went for a bit of a paddle in the sea...last time I will go to the beach this summer...strange to think about.

And then tomorrow I'll spend most of the day packing and perhaps go out to dinner,we'll see.
( Photos... )

Haven't updated in a few days because nothing updateable has happened.

I rode Chunky yesterday...no the day before and it was alright but he was nappy and gah I just can't be bothered having to fight with him at the moment, it's ok if I am in the mood but I'm kind of sick of it and I think he's bored of always just hacking up the same bit of road but ah well. And the weather has been raining so it's not the most inspiring weather to ride in.

I got a haircut today, it's short! I had pretty much half of it cut off because it had just gotten stupidly long and it was really annoying. So now it's so short that I can *just* tie it up and it's layered and shaped which is nice,it looks quite different though.

Also changed my layout,yay!

I'm watching Third Watch at the moment, I think I can remember this episode,I'm not sure...but Vibe is up to season six now which is when I started watching it. And I really want to see the 100th episode because back in the day at the hostel we had to go to bed at 9.00 and TW went until 9.30 so I only saw half, I might look up which episode it is and see if it's going to be on tv anytime soon. And I really love Carlos' hair in this season...I have a thing about hair.

While I was waiting for Third Watch to come on I was half watching the court shows on before it, and my god what a fucking waste of television they are. On Judge Judy the case was some woman who had taken her 6 year old daughter on a go kart ride and her husbands best mate had bumped into the back of their go kart and caused her daughter to hurt her neck and the woman was sueing him. Just WTF?! accidents happen it doesn't mean you have to fucking sue them, I don't think she won but then I didn't really care. It was so pathetic and just ugh.

Uh I'm going back to Palmy on Friday and I am kind of looking forward to it, especially just gaining my independence again really and I've just gotten bored of not doing anything.

EDIT - Oh god the guy playing the suicide victim in this episode is the guy who plays Randy on My Name is Earl...this is really odd. And another odd thing is the guy who plays the Dad of JJ's baby on Criminal Mind's has just started on TW and he looks so young! And doesn't have the amusing Southern accent that he has on CM.

Here's my report for Top Gear Live that I went to see last night in Auckland, it'll probably get pretty long and contain a lot of photos and videos.

( Everything under the cut. )

Ah it's been a long day.

In the morning I went down to Albany with my sister and one of her mates to go shopping. I went to JB and got me some Sea Patrol and then to Borders where I read Torchwood and Doctor Who books for a while and then I went to K-mart and got a little toy of Julian the Lemur from the Madgascar movie,I'm not sure why I got it...but it was cute and cheap! We left after that.

Got home and then turned around and went back to Auckland pretty much straight away because we were gojng to Top Gear Live,just got back from it and it was so awesome! I have heaps of photos and videos that I need to edit and upload but I'll do that tomorrow because I am about to crash and go watch Sea Patrol.

Oh and other good things which happened today; I can get a student allowance again this year, yay! It means I don't have to get a student loan which I wasn't keen on and also my papers this year have been confirmed so I don't have to be back in Palmy by Friday like I thought.

It's raining! We haven't had real rain since before Christmas so its so nice to finally get some because we really did need it,everything was turning an unhealthy shade of brown. So it's been raining off and on all day which gave me a perfect excuse to stay in my pajamas all day and do fuck all.

On Sunday the weather was gorgeous and really hot so Chunky got a bath which didn't amuse him at all, the only time he stood still was when I cleaned his sheath,he enjoys it which kinda makes you feel like a pervert when you clean it but ah well that job is done for another year or so. He also stood still when I took a video,he just stared at the camera for ages which was kinda amusing,he thinks he's so sexy.
( Bath photos. )

I was planning on riding him that evening when it had cooled down but we went over to our mates new house in Omaha for dinner. It was so good, they had been out scalloping in the morning and we had about 120 scallops to eat,yum! So that was good.

And that's about all that has been happening,I got my GPS in the mail today which was exciting, I really needed to buy one because I have no sense of direction at all so I will be able to try that out when I drive back to Palmy next week (!).

Oh and Top Gear Live in three days! So excited!
 

Gah it has been so hot and it's going to get even hotter, it should be close to 30 degrees tomorrow which isn't too hot but it's hot for where I live. Although the sky was perfectly blue today and it did look rather impressive,but I have a feeling I may be spending a lot of time in the pool over the next few days.

I had to milk this afternoon because my parents went to their mates wedding anniversary party. I haven't had to start off the milking by myself before but it was really pretty easy,you just have to turn some taps and then push the big green button to start the milking machine. My brother helped me as well because I am a bit slow by myself but it didn't take as long and by the time my Dad came down the last row had their cups on and he finished off and hosed down which was good.

Then after dinner I took Chunky for a hack because I haven't ridden him all week and I'm glad I was feeling confident because he put up a bit of a fight. It started out okay but we got to the road and he decided to nap and then I heard a car coming so I stood him on the side of the road to wait for it to go past but they didn't slow down at all and Chunky was standing with his bum to the car so it came up behind him which freaked him out a bit and he was dancing around. And then he refused to walk forward again up the road and he reared (it was only tiny though) and kept trying to head for home but I won that little fight.
Ah we got to about the cowshed before we had our next big fight,he napped like a total bugger and didn't want to walk forward at all so after about five minutes of fighting I won that round as well and we managed to get the top of the hill just past the cowshed where I decided I wouldn't push him on any further and turned him for home. We had a good long trot up the road most of the way home but this hyped him up and refused to walk calmly up the drive,he was such a sweaty mess at the end of it.

So tomorrow I might just ride him in the paddock and perhaps do some jumping.

I really need to take and post some photos as well.

I knew there was a reason why I don't ride when it's windy....it sends Chunky nuts.

I decided that I should actually do something day other than just obsess about David Tennant so I went around the farm and opened the gates so we could go up the race and then through the paddocks.

So I went and got Chunky and got on him and we started by spooking at the same place on the driveway that he always spooks at it and halfway down the driveway he decides to nap for home so I gave him a bit of a smack with the reins which he was offended by and responded by taking off in a pace. We got to the end of the drive and part way down the road okay before he decided to do his newest napping trick which is to go sideways in the ditch and then take off at a pace. But that was okay and we made it to the entrance to the cowshed where he decided that no, he didn't want to go down there. We had a massive fight about it which caused the cut on my finger to reopen and I started bleeding everywhere. I won though and we made it down past the scary pump and onto the race where we were joined by a botfly. I hate botflies so much as does Chunky, so this pissed him off greatly and he wouldn't settle down and just wanted to take off. We took the race home rather than go through the paddocks because the botfly was annoying him too much and he was spooking at everything.

So yeah, it wasn't as fun as I hoped it would be but at least I stayed on, it situations like that I usually jump off and lead him so I'm glad that I stuck with him.

Gah I've been so bored the past few days and its really annoying me. I just have no urge to do anything and its bugging me so much.

I helped out moving cows to the run-off this morning and then after lunch I helped my Dad pick up rubbish and take it to the dump,such an exciting day.

I did ride though,I wasn't going to because I couldn't be bothered but I pretty much forced myself to and I'm glad that I did because it was fun :). We did some jumping and Chunky was such a good boy,but I have come to the conclusion that I need to change the position of my jumps because I had some close calls with the water trough,so yeah I will have to set up a different course for next time.

Some video stills...

Took the Chunky beast for a ride this morning,he was not impressed because it was hot and pretty humid. I had planned to go for quite a long ride but that didn't really work out. We started with him deciding we should go down the hill but he started napping and I didn't want to fight him on the hill because it's twisty and steep so we went back the other way. Gah he napped quite a it but it wasn't as full on as usual and he also spooked at some people with a van. We got up to the neighbours farm and there was a tractor pumping out the shitpond and he was like "OMFG!" and I knew he would freak out if I tried to make him fo past it so we turned back for home again.
I did however make him go over the farm back home rather than the road,he wasn't keen on going down the tankloop because the pump was on and making scary noises but we managed to get past that.
Hopefully we are going beaching tomorrow,I'll lead him down because he is too unfit for me to ride him down really and I don't want to get sand all over my saddle,I want to go exploring and try and find the way out to the lakes because I have never done that before,but I will probably get lost. And I'm paranoid we all meet other horses because last time we did he flipped out and had a rearing and bucking fit for about 15 minutes.

I've been working on my 2009 scrapbook post for so long trying to get the coding and everything right,it took me so long to get the cut to work and even then I couldn't get it exactly how I wanted but ah well,I think it's starting to look the way I want.

The farrier came this morning so that's one less thing for me to stress about. I took Chunky for a ride this evening,it had just rained though so he was all wet but ah well,he was pretty good,hardly any napping! But he was a bit jogging and at one stage he thought it would be a good idea to canter up the road. We went the farthest we have been on our own though which is good :) he felt kind of off though in trot....it was his left shoulder I think,but I'm not sure if it was because he was dicking around and so I was holding him back a bit or what,so I'm going to trot him along the driveway tomorrow and video it so I can have a look. I'm probably stressing over nothing but argh just as everything is starting to click it would be just my luck for him to go lame,I swear there is always something wrong and so I can't ride.hors

I had a really strange dream last night, I forget where I was or what was happening but I was somewhere where there were heaps of people,there was some kind of event on. And I somehow managed to swap bodies with Jeremy Clarkson (I blame this on watching the New Earth ep of Doctor Who where this occured) so I was walking around feeling very WTF and James May walked past and said "Jezza" which I replied to with "hey" but it was my normal voice so I freaked out because I sounded all girly and James would know something was up. There was more but I forget and I'm not sure if I actually swapped back into my body.

Had a pajama day today and didn't really do much,I joined the abandonedplaces community today and I love it! Old and abandoned buildings really fascinate me,whenever I see an old barn/house I have the urge to go explore in it,but that would be trespassing,so I love this community already.

And yay the farrier is coming tomorrow!

Ugh I'm sick and it sucks. I hate being sick in summer because the weather is all nice and you're stuck inside being all sick and having no energy to be able to go outside and enjoy summer but anyway yay for being drugged up on cold meds.

I took Chunky for a hack this morning and tried using the double inserts and I *think* it was better,he didn't nap until we got to the road and then he spooked a bit at my brother riding his bike,which is fair enough because he was in the bushes. I *think* the sweat marks were more even but I don't actually think I am riding him long enough for him to work up a good enough sweat but yeah it was still quite uneven, although I do however have a new plan! I found a NZ website that sells the thinline pads and have been reading a treeless message board and quite a few people use the thinlines with their saddles and find that they help so I'm going to try that, and they aren't too expensive which is a bonus. So as soon as the website lets me sign up I'll order one.
I want to take him down to the beach sometime this week but I don't think its going to happen because I probably won't have time and also his feet badly need doing,so gah got to get all that sorted. He has also ballooned from being in the side paddock where there are heaps of grass so I am going to be mean and put him in the front paddock with the cows haha.

And there are new Bones sides but they haven't been posted online anywhere *sigh*.

Gah.
The napping was back tonight,I used both his treeless pads though,the normal and the physio and I don't think he liked the combination because he wasn't very happy and kept spooking when he has been quite relaxed the past few rides. So now I am going to try removing the foam inserts from the regular pad and putting them in the physio pad ( if I can get them in) because the sweat makrs did look a bit more even but then we didn't go for a long enough ride for him to work up a good enough sweat. He can have tomorrow off though.

And fuck I am so tired,I woke up tired and have been tired all day and it sucks! So I am going to bed early to see if I can catch up on sleep or whatever.

It's 2009 and I find that really strange for some reason.

Ugh I am sunburnt so bad,I spent all day being a piping steward (I got to wear a badge with that on it,I felt special) at the Highland Games and so I pretty much listened to bagpipes all day and my god I am sick of them now! But it was so so hot and I got really burnt and I have a sun headache and ugh so I am going to go to bed pretty soon and watch me some House.

Took Chunky for a ride when I got home and he was a bit nappy but pretty good.

I'm sure I had more to say...

I was going to do a 2008 picspam thingy but I'm too lazy.

I got my physio pad today,well one of them (I fucked up and ordered two from two different websites) so I tried that out tonight with Chunky and so far I am pleased with it. It gives more spinal clearance than the other one and when I took it off after the ride the sweat marks looked pretty even. With the other one he got sweat marks at the front and back but the middle remained fully dry. He didn't work up too much of a sweat but it was even which was my biggest worry,but I need to try it out a bit more before I am certain...haha its black though and my saddle is brown but ah well.
The hack went really well too :) we made it all the way down the drive with no napping! He usually goes a little bit down the drive and then starts napping like a bastard and I have to fight him the whole way down the drive. He did nap a bit on the road but it didn't take much to turn him around and getting going again. We didn't goo too far but it was really good :)

So its a good way to end 2008.