Word on a wing

Tough deci$ions

nobody@vox.com(Eva) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 12:13:48 +0100

In a way, it felt like I had won the lottery, but with a massive BUT to it.

I've had my horse for 6 years now. In that time, he's grown to be my buddy, my master in crime, most irritating beast ever and superduperbeastie. We've had wars and make ups, ups and downs, great rides and big falls.

And then someone came along last sunday, after seeing him jump an almost all clear with the words "Are you interested in selling him?". My initial instant response was "no way!". My friend told me not to say no right away, so I said we'd discuss it and get back to them. She's more savvy in the wheeling and dealing of horse business, so she caught up with the people later.

The situations was... a huge, HUGE sum of money to sell him to an international rider. I mean, we're talking brand-ne- middle-class-car-amount here. A lot of money for a 9 year old horse, who has never done anything in his life and can be very stroppy to boot.

So I had to consider it, and it was terrible. I didn't sleep most of the night, and was completely absent at work. Every hour my decision would change from "yes" to "no".

Now, all my more commercially inclined friends are calling me crazy, but I don't care, 'cause I'm still quite happy with my little pony Solon and he's going to stay with me for a little while yet.

But what a difficult decision to make...

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Winter wonderland

nobody@vox.com(Eva) — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 23:13:19 +0100

This was the view from my balcony this morning. All the fog had frozen onto the tree's branches during the night, which made for a beautiful view. Then there was this very bright, low wintersun, which made everything just look beautiful and stunning. A lot of people went skating... I haven't been on iceskates in years and would probably just fall over if I tried. So I did all kinds of dull stuff. Bought a sander to finish up the work I'm doing in my kitchen, got home just in time to catch the postman, who delivered my skiing pants. They're wonderful and warm, and best of all, cheap! So today when I finally came around to going to the horse, I wasn't cold at all. Wonderful! Should have bought one years ago.

Anyway, pictures. The view from my balcony this morning.

And the beautiful roses in my living room. I get them from one of the glasshouses in the neighbourhood. They sell of the flowers that didn't quite make the grade real cheap, but I can't really see anything wrong with them. They're just stunning. Surprisingly enough, the cats haven't knocked them over yet either. Shocking.

And this is the area my horse lives in. This is only about 30 minutes out of Amsterdam's city center, mind, and about 10 minutes away from my house. On bike, that is :-] I may live in boring suburbia, but I like it. So there.

And of course I had to take some pictures of Himself. He couldn't quite figure out how the skaters managed to float over ice, and was quite alert because of that. The low sun and frost made for some really nice pictures.

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Tidbits

nobody@vox.com(Eva) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 14:26:34 +0200

More horsie pics! I know everybody is just dying to see them, but I'm really proud of my boy, so there's more. Funny how one moment you don't have any, and the next moment, you have 2 sets within 3 weeks. Last weekend I took Solon out to a concours hippique in Lisse. A two day event, and I was one of the lucky ones that had to ride at the very start, so I got up at 5:30 saturday as well as sunday. A bit much, but I had a great weekend! Solon did really well, and we ended up 12th and 10th out of 22 on Saturday and 21st and 6th out of 24 on Sunday. I'm very happy with the result. Sure, the 21st spot was a glitch, but at these sort of events competition is fierce and there's a lot of people that are basically unbeatable. So ending up in the mid field and upper mid field is something to be proud off :-]

Solon

There's some real problems in the above pictures that I need to adress. One of the most sucky ones though, is that I noticed that I have really gained weight over the past few months. I blame it on the new company which has sugary snacks up for grabs everywhere. I have decided it's time to try and do something about it too, so I will be trying to pay more attention to my food intake and pick up a bit more excercise, namely cycling and swimming. Let's see how that works out.

I just got a phonecall from the phoneshop to say that my new phone has arrived. I'll be going for the N95 after all. Hopefully the size won't bother me too much.

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My pride and joy

nobody@vox.com(Eva) — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:20:29 +0200

I'm digging this picture.

Solon

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Over the weekend...

nobody@vox.com(Eva) — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 11:58:00 +0200

This weekend was just excellent. For some reason I got really active on Friday, meaning I got most of my house more or less cleaned up even before the weekend had officially started, leaving me with a little more time to do fun stuff.

Waking up early on Saturday morning (I've been waking up earlier and earlier ever since I got the kitten), I snoozed for a little bit, half awake, half asleep and groggily took up the idea to load up the horse and go to Kootwijk for a bit of a trail ride. Solon has been a bit of a git again lately, so I wasn't 100% sure about it, but I went with the flow, and around 11 we were driving along the A1 towards the Veluwe, one of our biggest national parks. The nature around there is just stunning. Looking at it's Wikipedia entry just now, I learned much of it goes back to the last ice age! I never knew! What I love best about the area is the huge sand drift, which apparently is the biggest in Europe (I did know that). Riding across it on bareback, the wind and a few drops of rain falling around you, you consider yourself almost alone, surrounded by vast amounts of nothingness. It makes you feel pretty insignificant and small, and really gives the "poor lonesome cowboy" idea. I absolutely love it.

Passing that brought us through heath lands and then into the forest. I only encountered other people maybe three times, but for the rest of the 2 hours, I was alone with my horse. Absolutely glorious. Solon started off a bit rocky and overexcited, but settled down very nicely, allowing me to leave him with a long rein to enjoy it as much as I did. He really got into it after a while, galloping for miles on end, jumping over puddles and branches ear pricked forward, trying to look around the corner for the next bit of excitement. He didn't get stroppy again until we almost got back to the trailer, where he refused to get onto the parking lot. He probably decided the fence just there was spooky or something, then decided to throw a temper tantrum when I wanted to go there anyway. He's a real monster when he gets like that.

He got over it pretty quick though, after he's had some water and feed and found some grass to nibble on. I sat on my car's bumper, shielded from the rain drops by the back door and watched him graze. Perfectly content, perfectly relaxed. A little monster at times, but also a little star. He's such a character that horse!

Speaking of characters, there's Sterre my 3 month old kitten. She's like a little rubber ball, bouncing around my flat. Poor Storm takes the brunt of it, as she thinks his tail is the best ever toy she's ever had! So she'll sneak up on him and jump on his tummy when he isn't looking. Poor chap. Anyway, Sunday I was taking it slow, lounging on the couch for a bit, watching Sterre play on the balcony with some flowers or whatever caught her attention that very moment.

Well, he attention was captured by a bumble bee, buzzing around her head. She lashed out with her little paws and caught it. For a few seconds anyway, until it stung her. I wasn't quite sure if she really got stung or not, since I couldn't find a stinger or anything. She was sucking her paw though. About two hours later, her entire front leg had swollen to twice it size and she was very quiet. I started worrying a little, her being so small and all. For all I know, a bee sting may kill a kitten, so I called the vet. Nothing to be done about it, just cool it and put some cream on her paw against the itching. I was a bit reluctant to leave her alone after that, but I did have to chuck some food at Solon as well.

By the time I got back, her paw wasn't her main concern however... Keetje was. I was dog sitting our Tibetian Terrier for the evening, while my stepfather is in the US, and my mum had some evening with friends. I'm not entirely sure who was more scared of who. Keetje spent most of the evening as close to me as possible, even climbing onto my shoulder, quivering in fear, while Sterre would sometimes tip toe closer, only to hiss at Keetje and run off again. Through it all, Storm just slept and Keetje weed the bed...

A very laid back, pet filled weekend then, though I could have done without the weeing of the bed.

This week I have a few cool thing coming up. My birthday this wednesday, thought I have decided against the Scissor Sisters gig. Thursday is Rufus day, and Saturday I got on a week's vacation to Texel with the "whole" family (my family isn't that big) and the horse to celebrate my mum's 60th birthday. Quite looking forward to that actually, though it would be nice if the weather would clear up a little.

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Music and horses

nobody@vox.com(Eva) — Wed, 23 May 2007 09:12:00 +0200

I wouldn't have minded seeing Oi Va Voi at the Paradiso last night, but it clashed with my weekly horse training session, so I let it pass. Especially as Solon and me had a reason for celebrating. Last weekend I rode the last over 60% test I needed to be able to advance to the Medium class, which is pretty neat. I had never thought I'd ever even get out of the Beginner class. Solon is 8 next month, and Medium qualified... I think that's pretty well done. The taste of victory is made even more sweet by the fact that I taught him everything I know all by myself, having bought him as a practically unhandled 2.5 year old. Well done Solon... and, well, well done me :D

Monday evening we took it easy to recover from our competition Sunday and hacked around the area. The area we hack out in is called Het Amsterdamse Bos and is a forest/park built up as an unemployment scheme in the 1930s. Considering it's crammed in between Schiphol airport and our capital city of Amsterdam, it's amazing how quiet and tranquil hacking out a horse on a weekday evening can be. I barely saw a living soul last Monday, apart from one well known Dutch singers/celebs Gerard Joling. Spotting him running I had to smile, thinking how he's been enjoying the forest as much as I have over the past 15 years, as that's roughly how many years it's been since I saw him there the first time. While his singing is really not my kind of thing, his flamboyant character makes me laugh. When he spotted me smiling to myself considering all that he spontaneously said hi, which I thought was pretty spontaneous, so I waved and said hi back, before trotting off.

That was silence before the storm as far as Solon was concerned, because last night during my training session we really worked him. He's really picking up on the work and his canter is finally improving. About bloody time too. He still finds it very difficult though, resulting into one lathered up, very sweaty horse (and rider, eg, me) afterwards. Lucky for him, today is a day off for him, as I'm off to see Steve Albini's Shellac at the Paradiso tonight. I'm feeling a bit tired, having started early today and being woken by Storm pouncing on me at about 5:45, so I think I may give the support act (Tall Firs) a miss.

I watched the Scott Walker documentary on BBC1 last night. Very interesting watch, though I was very, very tired and it was hard to focus. Some excellent Jarvis and Gavin snippets though, and David was very entertaining to watch. I was intrigued by the backdrop of his interview, shelves filled with... Books, cds? Tapes? I think I'd have a field day browsing through his music/art/book/movie collection.

It's 9:10 now, so colleague's will start pouring in any minute now. In other words, time to look busy :-]

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The greatest...

nobody@vox.com(Eva) — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 21:17:39 +0100

Like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth...

Solon

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Back to work

nobody@vox.com(Eva) — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 11:13:14 +0200

Life is hectic at the moment, and frankly, it's only getting worse. Good worse, but worse nonetheless :)

Thursday and Friday I spent in a course that I'm taking. It's about communication and listening and observing and whatnot, and trying to better yourself. Kind of blah blah blah corporate shit, or... well, that was my opinion of it anyway. Nevermind that it is (in my eyes) way overpriced. It did end up being quite intensive and a bit of an eye opener though, and actually was a lot of fun. A fun group and while not 100% of the course's subjects will matter to me, I can see how some of it will actually help me personally as well. Even after two days, I have the feeling I am more aware of the way people talk, like you start saying something, and halfway you start becoming aware of how you're actually delivering it and maybe there's a better way. Right now that's a bit of a pain in the ass, because my thoughts run all over the place while I'm talking.

Either way, that's what had me tied up all day Thursday and Friday. Aside from that, I've been putting bucketloads of work in my Halloween costume, which is now finally coming together. About time it did too, because I am flying off to Budapest this Thursday evening and it would be nice if it was finished then. The papier machee didn't turn out as nice as I had imagined it. It seems the wallpaper glue stuff I used just wasn't sticky enough, so the paper feels a little "loose" in places. I sprayed one of my wings yesterday with it's base colour and it looks pretty nifty. Planning to detail it with a little black and silver later today, if I manage to get home while there's still some daylight left.

Saturday I got up quite early and went into town to check out the information day of a photographic academy type, who offer a 3 month part time course (on saturdays) and also the option to take it up a level and do a real, proper education as well, which actually gets recognised as a Proper Education (of which I have none). Downside is that it's pretty expensive, and of course, the time and attention it'll need. I am interested in maybe doing the 3 month course and see how I cope with going to school on Saturdays before taking the plunge. As for the finances, I may be able to deduct the actual course cost from taxes and maybe even scrounge a nifty lens out of it. Need to check up on that.

After that I dropped in at the so called "Halloween Specialist of Amsterdam" and stocked up on some make up, latex horns and ears and lots of mastix. It's all coming together very nicely, methinks. On the way back I took the tram up to the market, where there's a great trimmings, buttons and godknowswhat shop, where I bought... trimmings, buttons and godknowswhat. I want to brighten up the boring grey army typ jacket I got a while back and make it look a little more appealing. I'll post pictures of that too, if I ever come around to it :-]

Sunday was the best. I got up early and went to the stables, hooked up my trailer and set off to the beach with a friend. She really wanted to go, but her mare has never been, so she needed me and Solon as rock solid types to give her mare some confidence. What can I say? Solon was an absolute gem. He was giving me the evil eye because I dared showing up before 9 then didn't even put him out in his field. All that changed the minute he spotted the trailer. His ears perked up and he walked right into it, which would make some horse owners real envious :-] The beach I like to go to is only about 30 minutes away and it has very easy parking. There was a lot of wind, so the sea looked really rough with waves and whatnot, but that also meant it was moderately quiet. This particular beach at IJmuiderslag is very wide, and we'd checked the tides beforehand, so we got on the beach just as the tide was going out, and sand banks start to form. This is great, because you get puddles where the waves are a little less fierce so the horses don't get as spooked from them.

Solon was a great little trooper, plunging right into the deep of a steep sandbank, until he was in about knee deep and started splashing around, which gave my friend's mare the confidence to follow his example. We walked, trotted, cantered, galloped (=race the horses) and got complete soaked because the horses splashed so much. Solon got so into it, he even braved the waves, which rode up and broke against his belly. So Sunday left me with a real proud feeling of how my little boy (he was 2.5 when I bought him) has now grown out to be this rock solid companion. That's quite a neat trick, considering he's only 7 himself. He's grown into a nice little horse, which is pretty awesome, considering that's all my work. Well, my work, and his personality I guess. If only he didn't have those temper tantrums...

In the evening I worked on my Halloween junk some more, sewing together my furry vest, while watching CSI and Bones. I'm no great fan of CSI and Bones type shows, really, because I tend to eat late and all the blood and gore tends to put me off my food. But now I watched with half an eye. The Bones episode was about a boy being killed while trying to pretend to be a superhero or something. It was kind of funny, especially because I spotted the little easter egg. The boy's name being Warren and one of the other characters' last name being Ellis, which must have been a little nod to the comic book writer Warren Ellis, but not the Dirty Three's Warren Ellis. I'm not entirely sure if it was a positive or a negative one, as they then started slagging roleplayer, comic book lovers and geeks in general, and stereotyped the whole lot and mixed them in together, while playing Hard-Fi in the background (I confused them for Bauhaus at first!). I had mixed feelings about that, yanno, having been a roleplayer, geek, liking Hard-Fi, and not so much being a comic book lover, but I do love Neil Gaiman's writing, so I guess that makes me a weirdo too (Neil Gaiman also got a mention on the show). Whatever... it was fun to see they do their research. Someone in their team must be a geek, which makes it alright, I suppose.

Oh yeah, and I also spent 250 quid before breakfast on a twin bed room + festival access to the All Tomorrow's Parties festival. Now I just need to find someone who'll want to come with me =) The lineup is starting to look pretty cool. Somehow it reminds me a little of the Liss Ard festival, back in the days.

Now I am unfortunately back in work, installing a server and staving off people who want me to do more work than I have time for and telling them no.

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Vox Hunt: My Favorite Animal

nobody@vox.com(Eva) — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 16:35:34 +0200

Show us your favorite animal.
Inspired by the Emporer.

Solon

My little buddy, Solon. Yes, he's a horse. I mean, I know he's a horse, you know he's a horse, he, however, is convinced he's a 1300 pound labrador.

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Ha.

nobody@vox.com(Eva) — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 16:21:14 +0200

Sod all that, I just bought a new one :)

That, and my Nick tickets were waiting on my desk at work when I got in this morning, so there's now about EUR250 worth in tickets sitting on my desk. I'd better not lose those!

People are driving me slightly nuts in work at the moment. They seem to have a failure to grasp the idea of there being only one me, despite them thinking I can seamlessly split myself in a half a dozen me's and do whatever they deem" SO IMPORTANT IT CAN'T POSSIBLE WAIT HALF A DAY" right now. They don't seem to understand the concept of prioritising, or maybe they just don't understand the concept of their stuff not having the highest priority. Heh.

I have one more day to get a complete new branch finished, which is going to come with it's entire set of own problems. Just configured and upgraded about 8 access switches with a few to go still, and am doing the core switches on location Monday & Tuesday. Aside from that I have to install one of the gaming systems required, though I can't really see how I'll fit that in. I mean, I could do it, if people would stop interrupting me.

At least I finally got some streaming radio working again (6 Music), so I can listen to some tunes again. I wish last.fm would work from here, but it doesn't (yet). And hey, lookatthat... it's almost 5, so I can fleeeeeeeee! Kicking back on the couch for a little before going to the horse sounds pretty nifty actually.

May jump the horse a little tonight... always a great way to get rid of excess frustration/agression. Just take it out on the jumps :)

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