August 30th

Brent and I showed some friends the ‘estate’.

I was amused to hear Brent telling Tim that we were going to cut some trees in the middle of the Macrocarpa forest to make a dressage arena; “Out of the wind that way”, he said, “terrific for training horses in”. Exactly what I had told him a few days before, to much rolling of eyes and scornful scoffing.

 

He’s suddenly become more ‘horsey’ than a ‘Pony Club Mother’.

We met some friends of our friends, who also have horses; “So”, said Brent, trying to look like a natural horseman, “What do you do with your horses?” The husband looked at Brent as if he was mad, “er, we ride them”, he said.

There wasn’t much Brent could say after that.

August 31st

Karen and I took Jamie and The Phantom to a horse show.

The Phantom just went along as a Travel Buddy, for the experience and for the carrots.

It’s the first show Karen has ever ridden in and she rode like a pro, I was Gobsmacked.

I had been a little worried that she’d taken on too much as she has only just learned to canter and feels most safe when Jamie plods around the arena – she gets terrified if he so much as tosses his head – all perfectly understandable, due to an horrific accident a few years ago; however, there she was, gamely cantering around in the middle of a bunch of other horses aboard an exemplarily Jamie, who had obviously made it his mission to look after her.

It suddenly dawned on me that she had him going better than most there and the next thing I knew, she was being called in to receive third place ribbon in Paced and Mannered – no mean feat!

They then proceeded to win an obscene number of ribbons in every class she had entered.

We walked over to The Phantom who had been tied up nearby and was busy making new friends and helping himself to anything he could snatch from passers by.

“Well?”, said The Phantom, “Did you buck?”

“Certainly not”, replied Jamie, “I am a gentleman”.

“I’d have bucked”, said The Phantom, grabbing my jersey and giving it a tug, “but I guess white horses can’t buck” he said sighing dramatically and rolling his eyes.

I felt it was time to saddle him up and ride him around a bit.

“So you think you can Buck”, I said getting with the theme of TV shows and movies.

“This horse has got Talent”, said the Phantom playing right along, putting in a big bounce which I abruptly halted before it went too far, “That was clearly a case of Criminal Intent”, I said making him canter slowly and beautifully around a group of horses.”

“I’m sensing carrots”, said Phantom.

We’ve really got to stop watching so much TV.

Sept 1st

They don’t come any busier than me.

I had important jobs galore to do for Brent today, a lot of which involved delivering papers to the Solicitors, talking to Engineers about planning consents, chatting to City Council Employees about LIM reports and trying to look fascinated and knowledgeable throughout it all.

Luckily I took notes which I could hand to Brent when he asked me what everyone had said. The tricky bit was putting the questions in the right order and making sure the correct person was asked the right question at the right time. I got the hang of looking interested in what was being said when in fact I was wondering why the hell anyone in their right minds would want to do these sorts of jobs, and fighting off a coma that threatened to overcome me every time anyone talked to me about the various reports and facts needed before you can build a house.

 

 

 

 

 

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