The Luck Changes

Well where do I start? I have so much news...

Ive been away at competitions for the last 2 1/2 weeks and just got home late last night (was very excited to have my own bed and my own shower again argh I feel so clean) so that's why you guys haven't heard from me for like ever - I know you having withdrawals so Ill catch you up on everything now.

First off we went to Luhmühlen in Germany, had Tucker in the 4* and Zack in the 2* (my first 4* - very exciting) Surprisingly I wasn't as daunted by the 4* track as I expected to be, I guess its always nice if you know you don't have to ride it lol. So as always we were one of the first to arrive on a nice sunny summers day which lasted until dressage day when it started bucketing down, the car park ended up being knee deep in slushy wet mud... good times. But it was an awesome week and Tucker was a little star and ended up 10th which is Susys best result in a 4*. Zack on the other hand was a complete shit so hes gone to live with a friend of Susys and we are now down to 4 horses. oh my life is so cruisy! There were so many big names there though. David Green tried to jump me, he snuck into the lorry in the middle of the night jumped in my bed and stuck his hand down my top before I realised what was happening and was able to kick him out. And I talked to Zara Phillips (well she asked me for a spanner at the end of the XC - hey its my claim to fame I'm practically royal now!!) but also met lots of other people Hoys, Fredricks, Mary King (OMG shes SO nice!)

From Luhmühlen we went straight up to Ede in Holland and had Tony and Fabio come up in the little lorry to swap horses. We had another good week (with better weather thank god) with Ava coming 3rd in the 3* which had about120 starters so a pretty good effort in my opinion.

A bit of drama on the way home though. We were honing it along the motor way and Susy pulled out to pass a car in front of us, the car then pulled out to stop her getting past - OK so the car wants to go faster now so we pulled back and the car pulled back this happened a couple more times with Susy getting more and more pissed with the car when finally it pulls over to take an exit so Susy decides to run him off the road - not literally of course just give him a bit of a scare (and me too as Ava was sent flying around in the back) so we passed him with not much room to spare and the horn and lights on full blast and carried on our merry little way when we realised he was following us - OK heres me thinking about that truckie back in NZ that got attacked with a claw hammer. Then a few ks on a cop pulls in front of us with a flashing sign say "please follow" fantastic!!! He took us off the motor way into a tiny little village with very narrow roads (I have no idea what he was thinking! That was almost scarier that running the car off the road!) and was like oh just a routine check can we see all the documents etc which were all fine then there was a bit of a drama about not having a disc (which we don't have to have because its registered as a campervan or something but the cops didn't know that so had to sit around for about half an hour while they rang up and were checking everything out) and finally when they couldn't give us a ticket they told us that they had a call from a car saying that we were doing 120km and driving erratically which is completely untrue because it has a limiter that wont let it go above 105km... Tosser!!!

Belgium

Q. How many forms of public transport does it take to get to Belgium ??

A. Just about everything ever invented well lets not be silly and include space ships in this but everything else! – Car, Bus, Train, Metro, Shuttle, Plane, Taxi

I had an awesome time in Brussels , it was great to see someone that I actually knew – and that spoke English =) (How is it that I keep ending up in places that don’t speak the language I do?!? The have 3 national languages there FFS and not one of them is English!! What are they thinking!) The plane ride there was horrible, it was a million degrees we were all crammed in like sardines (I know what did I expect) Ah but the worst part was the screaming baby!! 2 hours of solid screaming! How is that possible?!?

Helen, Chloe and I went to Bruggs and had a poke around and saw some old church and went for a boat ride on the canals which was fun until it started raining =S That night Chloe, Diego (Chloes boyfriend) and I went out. We had a good night ended up drinking cocktails… =S and then going to a sheesha bar. That was interesting it’s a big pipey thing? (looks kinda like a vase really) that has a tube coming from the bottom that you smoke. It has water in the bottom so makes bubbly sounds and somewhere there’s tobacco flavoured like apples… mmm…

Chloe had her prom on the Monday night so I got to see her looking all pretty. Helen tried to make her hair curly with rollers and stuff but as soon as they came out it was dead straight again. How unfair she wants curly hair and can’t have it I want straight hair and can’t have it – where is the justice??? Anyway she looked great and said she had a good night.

So yea didn’t really do much else. Saw the Manikin Pis - got a photo of it pissing on my head, rubbed the angel face that gives you good luck (giving the angels feet a wide berth – they’re meant to help you get pregnant) and saw the main squarey thingy – what’s it called?? Something in French. (See I can’t keep up with all these languages!)

And yay!! I have a laptop now. =) very exciting. Haven't quite got it connected to the internet yet but am working on that. And in the mean time I can watch DVDs and stuff.

We've had a few dramas around here since I got back, Susys been away (she's on holiday in Egypt – as you do) Rose had colic from windsucking too much!! So now has a collar and a muzzle on all the time although it still doesn’t stop her. And Avas had a swollen leg from galloping. Oh good times.