Oh the excitement! My cousin Elroy was over for the Rugby World Cup (great idea that turned out to be!) we met up in Belgium with no plans despite my repeated questioning months in advance. After s did the touristy bus thing which was unbelievably crowded – we were lucky to even get on the bus letearching the net for tickets to, well anywhere we settled on taking the train to London for a few days. It was quite fun we alone find a plug for the headphones or a seat. 
Did the London Eye again with two old ladys and their even older father in a wheelchair that insisted on following us round the capsule and identifying every building they could see with great enthusiasm, Elroy tried to help, suggesting the donut shaped one they were stuck on was a McDonald's, I'm not sure they were convinced however. Had a look at Madame Tussaud's the wax museum which to my extreme
disappointment didn't have Hugh Grant but was loads of crazy fun anyway. We also went to a couple of shows, We Will Rock You was amazing and the next night Mamma Mia which wasn't quite as good but probably would have been awesome if we didn't see We Will Rock You first.
Did the London Eye again with two old ladys and their even older father in a wheelchair that insisted on following us round the capsule and identifying every building they could see with great enthusiasm, Elroy tried to help, suggesting the donut shaped one they were stuck on was a McDonald's, I'm not sure they were convinced however. Had a look at Madame Tussaud's the wax museum which to my extreme
disappointment didn't have Hugh Grant but was loads of crazy fun anyway. We also went to a couple of shows, We Will Rock You was amazing and the next night Mamma Mia which wasn't quite as good but probably would have been awesome if we didn't see We Will Rock You first.
The week after I went to Pau 4* with Stefano a friend of Susys as his usual groom was on holiday. So I was back home for one day before flying down to Stefanos in Rome and then driving 20 hours to France. We got about half way there when Stef suddenly started cursing, I looked at him strangely and he goes “I forgot my saddle”... OK, we do have the horse don't we? Seriously though how do you do that, thank god I had nothing to do with the packing! What do you plan on doing, riding it bareback?!? He ended up sharing Andrew Nicholsons, god it was such a pain tearing the saddle of the horse as soon as it comes out of the arena because the other horse is the next one in.
It was a great event though, the XC was huge - bigger than Badminton they were saying which caused Stef to turn a little white as it was Toms (18yo) first 4*. But he trucked round, just had one stop at the second water and one rail in the SJ so he was very pleased. As usual the French were tossers, determined not to speak English or move from the middle of the narrow path that your racing down in panic mode trying to find a saddle for the parade. And as usual when I go to France it was absolutely freezing! It was really weird you'd wake up in the morning and think oh its not so bad today but then as the day went on it got colder and colder till I ended up wearing every item of clothing that I took with me and waddling around as I couldn't bend my elbows or knees.We've now got a 3yo TB mare, just a cheapy to make a bit of money on. Shes very sweet and something fun and different to play with over winter. Her name is Izzy she has one baby tooth left on her bottom jaw and it sticks straight out, its so funny she looks like such a Redneck! Susy has also brought a Grand Prix dressage horse called Dodo. I just watched the video and shes gorgeous! Completely black with a bit of white on her off fore. She arrives next week so that's quite exciting will be very fun to play on.
I think that's about all the news I have, the other three eventers are all on holiday now so they're all fat and happy. I'm hoping to go back to NZ for a couple of weeks at the end of Jan start of Feb so I can catch up with everyone... must start saving!
