3 posts tagged “weekend”
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.
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.
Fuck yeah! It's almost weekend... Weeehaaaa!
German friend is wanting me to take her to see Nick in Bonn in November, but I haven't really decided yet. At almost EUR80/concert it's a wee bit expensive to just randomly go, especially after I've seen so amny already. Nevermind that it's on a tuesday, so I'll have to sort something out with work (actually, I just found out that after all my October tripping I'll still have 14 vacation days left, so that's hardly a show stopper). I'll give it some more thought. It'll be cool to introduce my friend to Nick's music... I don't think she's ever seen him, or even heard him. Would be cool.
No big plans for the weekend. I suppose I really should sort my Dublin trip out, since I'll be going there, uh, oh, in 5 days. Maybe some laundry will be handy. I'm taking the horse out for a dressage comp this sunday, but I'm sure he'll be a complete pigheaded little shit again. He's been doing that real well lately... Little git. But he looks so cute being a pig... just can't get angry with him. Sod.
Other than that, nothing planned at all, just a quiet weekend at home. Kind of need one of those... Paris was rough ;-]
