Sunday 1st July - gaz wins!

Opps its been a whole week since i wrote the blog - where has the time gone?!

Im very proud of gaz this week as not only has he been for a run, but he's also won not one, but TWO of the poker tournaments here in port stephens! Well done gaz....he brought home a nice 200AUD the first time and insisted i took half....bless him. He went with Nathan to a poker tournament in a place called raymond terrace on friday night and the were gone till 1am. People must have thought it was a set up as nathan came second and gaz came first! On friday night, whilst gaz was at poker, i went to a works do. We had it at the bowling alley just down the road. I went over to one of the dental assistants flats first where the other girls all met up swell and had dinner. We were a little peeved at the bowling alley because on friday nights they turn the lights off and you bowl in the dark and the pins and balls all glow and theres strobe lighting and they crank the music up...but there was a group of disabled people int here, one of which had epilepsy so we weren't allowed to do it until they all let....and they hung around for AGES afterwards. Anyway, my bowling skills were as expected...pretty shocking...but so were the other girls so it was alright.

My lesson with Ellen on monday went well but it had been raining so the school was a little water logged and Angie didn't really enjoy trotting through all the puddles for an hour. Plus it was nearly feeding time at the yard, when Ellen puts the hay out for the horses, so i could see Angie eyeing up the other horses int heir fields making sure their hay hadn't arrived yet!

The week in work has been a mixed bag. The days looked quiet but somehow loads of people kept walking in off the streets wanting treatment so we were able to fit them in. The other dentist has gone on holiday now for 2 weeks so I'm going to have a busy time ahead of me (hopefully!).  Im even working a monday morning which i don't usually do!

This morning i was up at 6am and met 2 of the girls with horses at the yard. We tacked up and headed out to the private land (owned by the water works) which we aren't really meant to be riding on. Never the less it was fantastic! We've had lovely weather this past week and its meant to continue into next week. Angie was such a star...i didn't know how she would behave as she hadn't been off the yard since before november. For the first 5 minutes i could feel she was a little excited/anxious but i just relaxed the reins and she soon settled. There were a number of occasions where we had to ride through water up to their bellies.Angie LOVED it! She wanted to lead the whole way. She splashed her way through the water. We all had a trot so i put Angie to the back of the ride but she didn't even try to quicken up to overtake them. Being a race horse i wasn't sure if she would want to get in front but nope, she was perfect. I was so happy with her. One of the girls has invited me to take Angie on her horse float (box) next weekend to go to another horse riding track...a legal track. I don't know what Angie is like to load onto a float!

Gaz and i are off up the yard again to see angie this evening and we are taking Em and Nathan with us. Em loves horses so I've said she can have Angies brushes when I'm away and she can go up and brush her whenever she likes. Angie will enjoy the attention.

Oh and I've contacted the local koala rescue society and Gaz and i are going to do a course when we com back out so eventually we can be injured koala carers! yay!

Sunday 24th June - Snow white and the huntsmen

Another lovely day today! i was up at 7am to go and see Angie. I thought id try the monty roberts 'join up' technique on her where you can get the horse to follow you round the ring and stuff but it fail miserably as i probe was doing it all wrong and instead angie thought bugger this and instead of following me, turned to eat some grass. LOL.

I did another 30 minute run which went well. Gaz has impressed me as he went for his second run yesterday! he said he only lasted 10 minutes but the fact he got out there is great! very proud of him.

We have been to the cinema to see snow white and the huntsmen. i really enjoyed the film but gaz found it a little pants. We were sat in front of this mother and daughter who commented on EVERYTHING throughout the start of the film 'oh look at her crown.' 'oh look at her dress' ....10 minutes of constant chatter and gaz turned round and sued them to stop talking lol...well done gaz!

For dinner we had pork belly cooked fantastically by gaz. Was delicious and has made the house smell yummy!

Friday 21st June - Gaz finds his feet

Im so proud of gaz today (without sounding patronising) coz he found the time to go for a run. Its been lovely wether here all week and today he made the most of it and got outside. He's going to be sore tomorrow! But he managed to run for 13 minutes...got to start somewhere and ins use if he keeps it up he will be able to run for a lot longer.

Work went well, the book was full today so I've been busy busy. Didn't go and see Angie but I've had Ellen taking her rug off this morning and putting it on tonight so i know she's ok.

Gaz did well on the computer today so its been a good day all round! I have work for half the day tomorrow so the sooner thats over with, the sooner i can go and see Angie!

Thursday 21st june - poker night

Gaz and i have been to Diggers to have a meal with Em and Nathan. Ive left Gaz there as he is now playing poker with Nathan amongst a sea of older women. It was a nice meal and nathan introduced us to one of his friends, Mick...its always nice to meet someone new. I had the day off work today. Its been pretty stressful this week as for some reason Pacific Smiles are struggling to get patients to fill the books. It isn't just our centre that is struggling, its all over but my book is doing worse than Wyatts. I counted up how many check ups Wyatt has this week...i counted 27. I counted how many i have....5. I pointed out to the girls doing the bookings this and was told 'its because wyatt would have seen these people before so we rebook them with him'...when i went back to check if he had seen them before, 21 patients were new patients...i thought this was a little unfair so I've brought it to everyones attention just so they know to even it out a little bit more! It was nice having the day off today. Gaz was up and out of bed before me for the first time....well ever?! He couldn't believe how cold it was and had all the heating going...now he knows what i have to deal with! It wasn't like he was up very early, he got out of bed at 7.45am as he had a poker lesson on at 8am. Whilst he was having a coaching session on the computer, i went for a run. I ran for 30 minutes around the beach and past all the nice houses here. It was beautiful weather for it. The past week we have had lovely sunshine! I came back and gaz was still being coached so i went up to see Angie and shovelled some poo from her field until it was time for my lesson at 1pm. Angie is improving all the time. Whilst shovelling the poo, i took some hay to the field for Angie. I felt bad because all the other horses were looking longingly at Angie eating her hay. Ive also been paying Ellen to take Angies rug off int he mornings so she can have the day int he sunshine with it off, and then put it back on when it gets cold int he evenings. No one else seems to take the rugs off their horses and they all look so hot int hem! I rang gaz to see how his coaching session was and he was still going! he paid the guy for 90 minutes but ended up having 4 hours of coaching!!! thats what i call getting your monies worth!

So yesterday my friend from the gym back home, Adam, sent me a training plan to help promote his business. Basically i took some before photos, and I'm keeping a video diary of my progress, and he's given me exercises to do for the next 4 weeks and then ill take some after photos. The idea is for there to be some improvement so he can show it to potential clients. Im very excited! Unfortunately i can't coax gaz into doing any exercise which is a shame as he's getting very lazy. Im hoping maybe our new friend nathan can get him out to do some kayaking/surfing or running!

Im still doing research on cars. Ian pointed out that i might want to consider a ute (SUV) and put a canopy over the back so as not to get the whole car dirty if I'm to be transporting hay, horse feed, dogs etc...I didn't really think much into it until on the weekend, after test driving the pathfinder and challenger, i went to pick some feed up for Angie and treated her to a bale of hay. The hay has made an awful mess in the boot of the car! i don't want my new car to be getting trashed with hay and wet dogs. (yes i think we will get a dog when we come back out). I have therefore done further research in to the toyota hilux....but way too out of my price range and apparently a little out dated now compared to other suv's around...the ford ranger which has had very very good reviews....but out of my price range...the nissan nirvana....dont like it....the mitusbishi triton has poor reviews, the new holden colorado...new on the market, in my price range but average reviews....and the mazda bt-50. I think after all the research I've done, I'm aiming towards the mazda BT-50 utility XT Hi rider automatic diesel 2wd which is 39,672AUD brand new but I've seen a 1 year old model going for 33,000. This is more in my price range and has had good reviews (unless any one can prove me wrong). I do like the idea of buing an SUV and putting a canopy over the back.

Monday 18th June - Best lesson ever!

I am soooo thrilled with Angie today! Ever since I've had Angie we have been working together to develop correct muscle tone. As she is an ex race horse, she is used to being worked with her head high in the air (the natural position for a galloping horse)...The disadvantage of a horse being ridden with their head in the air is that their back dips down to the floor. If the back has dipped down, it means they can carry less weight and can even damage their backs. Imagine yourself being on all fours and someone sitting on you back with your back dipped to the floor - it may hurt a little....then try raising your back up to the ceiling - you will be able to carry more weight. Therefore, when a horse tucks their head in (ie. drops the head so it is vertical), their back rounds, they engage their hind quarters and work their muscles correctly. This has been a complex thing to ask Angie to do as she 1. has had to develop a different set of muscles and 2. has had to learn and understand what i am asking of her....and 3. I've never been taught or understood how to get a horse to do this before so I've been learning aswell!
Ellen has noticed Angie resisting my hand and leg aids and i have worked VERY hard for her to achieve this position in the walk but she always fights it in the trot. Today Ellen leant me one of her bridles with a different bit on it - this was to give more leverage from the reins so that Angie could release the pressure and find comfort not by sticking her head up, but by 'giving' her nose. We started work by lunging her - this is with no one riding her but a long piece of rope attached to the bridle and Angie circling around myself in large circles. At first Angie was trying to stick her head up, she had a little moment where she retaliated but Ellen had be driving her forwards and not letting her get up to mischief. It worked. In 5 minutes, Angie was relaxed, lowering her head and even licking the bit (sign of relaxation and contentment). She rounded her frame in both walk and trot - she has never done this in trot before so we were so pleased! she worked for 45 minutes on the lunge rope. She had sweat DRIPPING off her!!! She worked so hard. The next challenge was to try getting her to do this with me on her - this means using my hands and legs to achieve this rounded frame. It requires a lot of squeezing with the legs in the right place to get the impulsion of energy from behind in order to 'catch the energy' with the hands....it takes a good 'feel' of the bit (ie. feeling pressure with the left and right rein and using a sponging effect to enable her to relax and hold her position...and also having them at the right angle...meanwhile there is other technical stuff going on which in horse terminology is called being 'straight and true' but ill waffle about that another time! So as you can see, theres more to horse riding than just sitting not he horses back! Angie rounded her frame in both walk and for the first time in trot with me! I no longer had to work hard to get her to do this, every time i asked, she gave to me...it was an amazing feeling...together we are progressing and I'm so thrilled that we have an 'understanding' between one another...im also very grateful to Ellen who is such a fantastic, patient instructor and without her there is no way i would have got this far!!!

Angie was also lucky today as i went up early and took her rug off as it was very sunny. She followed me towards the gate of the field thinking she was going to get worked but i kept telling her to go and eat some grass and ill see her later!  I went down to Newcastle to test drive cars for the horse float. I then went to pick Angie up some more feed and even grabbed a bale of hay. As i had 2 hours before my lesson, i gave Angie some hay in her field and sat with her and groomed her, both enjoying the sunshine - to was like a summers day in the UK!

Test driving cars was fun. I tried the misubishi challenger and the nissan pathfinder. I preferred driving the pathfinder -  i think it is the more superior engine very slughly but the challenger is a lot cheaper. Ive therefore decided on either getting the top of the range misubishi challenger (4WD XLS) or the middle range Nissan pathfinder (ST-L) as second hand and 1-2 years old, these cars are about the same price - I'm going to be spending 40-45 grand on the car still. I LOVED the pathfinder Ti550 but its way out of my price range, even though i loved all the little extras like the DVD player for the kids in the back! I must be realistic...i have no kids so it would not benefit any one and i don't think Angie would want to watch anything on tv from the float lol.

Gaz has spent the day on the computer....a days work and he made 8 AUD. lol. Gaz said he would leave it to me to test drive the cars as he said he would only make me nervous which is true coz he likes to dictate to me how i should drive....even though HES the only one thats ever tried to kill us (hehe).

Gaz and I went for food on saturday night with our new friends em and nathan. they are great fun and we laughed so hard all night - we will have to do it again soon!

I asked Gaz if he would like to add anything he has done this weekend to the blog...he said no. he hasn't done any thing lol.

Friday 15th June - horse float on order!

Yesterday Gaz went to play poker at Diggers...he still didn't win but he says it isn't coz he's rubbish, more to do with luck of the cards...i keep telling him these old ladies he's playing must be better poker players than him (just to wind him up....its working hehe)...our friend nathan won for the 4th time in a row!  Gaz had a good time and enjoyed himself...he was out till late and by the time he got home, i hate eaten a whole dominos pizza to myself and was snuggled up in bed fast asleep.

Today i didn't have a patient until 10.30am so i got up at 6.30am and went to ride Angie. It was beautiful day and got up to 21 degrees so i left Angies rug off her all day and got Ellen to put it on her this evening. I think she was grateful to have the rug off for a change...i bet she's been rolling!

Ive put a deposit down on my horse box...so excited! The guy will enjoy making it as I'm having lots of extras put in. it takes 3 months to make so at least ill have it for october when I'm back. Now all i need to do is to find a car which i will be test driving 2 of them on monday.

VISA UPDATE:

Having spoken with the immigration lawyer who may or may not know what he's doing...i am now applying for a temporary sponsorship visa (457) and gaz will be put on to this visa. We only need to show proof we have been living together for 6 months for gaz to go on my 457 visa...we have more than 6 months proof as we got the rent, bills and the car in both our names. Im signing a contract at work for 2 years. This will allow me to do my implant and invisalign course next year plus an extra year before gaz and i consider buying and starting up our own dental practice....which is the plan! the visas will be lodged when we leave to come back to the uK in july as gaz has to be off australian soil to lodge a new application. Exciting!

Wednesday 13th June - date night

It rained all day today...again. Work was OK...i got my pay for the month which came in at 20,000AUD...after tax....i think i have some tax return money in there...either way, i was stoked! I have put a deposit down on my horse box...am sooo excited! Spoke to the guy whose going to be making it and we talked through all the extras I'm having added on...its going to look amazing! It will take 3 months to make so i thought id get the order in now so its ready for when i come back.

I rode Angie after work as i only had a half day...she is soooo gorgeous. Love her to bits!

Gaz and i went out for date night this evening. It was my turn to decide where we were to go. We went to an italian restaurant called marcos. When we arrived just before 6pm, there was a table of 15 guys who had just ordered and the rest of the restaurant was empty. We waited ages to have our drinks order taken. Gaz asked the waitress what vegetables came with the food...she didn't know. I was tossing up the decision between the lamb shanks or the duck with 'polenta'. i didn't know what polenta was...according to the waitress it was cheese. We waited over half hour for our startes which was stale bread and a load of oil and gone off balsamic vinegar. By this time, the restaurant was full with only one waitress. She was bloody useless! very slow and dopey. Some beeping noise was going on for about 15 minutes before someone asked her to turn it off. The food finally came and was awful! The polenta was not cheese but a corn type thing...tasted burnt to me! We called the waitress over and i said 'sorry i thought you said this was cheese?'....she said 'oh yes i did, i was confused'...i said well how about you give us some more potatoes then! The veg was undercooked and she had taken the order down wrong so only given one portion of potatoes. It was very poor. The meal with 2 drinks each came to 88AUD....you would expect it to be better than that for that price!!! no one else had had their food by the time we left...and people were getting restless. It was very disappointing and we won't be going back there again! Gaz has banned me from choosing restaurants in the future.

Monday 12th June - STRESSFUL DAY!

Friday after work, gaz and i met up with one of gazs poker friends from diggers, Nathan. He brought his girlfriend, Em, with him. It was lovely to meet them both and we all got on really well. We enjoyed a nice meal at one of the sports clubs in Fingal Bay and talked non-stop for hours. Turns out we all have pretty similar interests and nathan is a keen surfer and has invited us out to surf with him...which could be useful as he knows when the best times to go are! Em is also into horse riding so ill have to introduce her to Ellen for some lessons! After dinner, we all went out separate ways and Gaz got us home in time for the rugby - wales vs australia. The less said about that match the better!

I was up for work on saturday...very envious of Gaz who was snuggled up like a cacoon in the duvet. The weather has been really bad here lately...lots of rain! Work was ok...was glad when it was over as i got to go and ride Angie! One of the girls had a new horse up there and was taking her 'out the back' to the land behind where Ellen keeps all the horses. I must say, i was a little disappointed....i took Angie thinking it was going to be an interesting ride for her...but no, it was just a field...and a small one at that. Ia asked the girl where she rides from here? and she said you just go around in circles around the field...but you can change direction...woopdedo...the rest of the land is owned by the water company and they have wardens patrolling the land...if you get caught riding out there, you get a $300 fine...i don't think thats worth the risk...ill just have to wait to get my horse box so that i can take Angie interesting places like to the beach!

On Sunday i was up riding Angie early before gaz and i headed down to sydney. Gaz kindly drove all the way...Sydney was pouring down! intact, it didn't stop raining all weekend and it wasn't even drizzle...it was big rain droplets! We stayed in a different hotel to the one we were in last time...this hotel was in 'the rocks' and the net road over from darling harbour. Great location. As it was raining, we grabbed some lunch and went to the cinema to watch 'prometheus'....pretty average film but the cinema was impressive! Very big! Afterwards we went into one of the arcades to have a go on a simulator pirate ship game...you sit in the ship and it moves around as you shoot the skeleton ghosts....its good fun. We spent $27 on the game...good times! Afterwards we stopped at a restaurant that Gaz spotted. it was small but romantically lit and the food was very decently priced and delicious.

Monday morning and gaz and i enjoyed a well deserved lie in. As it was raining, we decided to go to madam tussauds...it wasn't as good or as big as the one in london but was still good fun. At first gaz didn't look impressed but your invited to try on outfits and take photos of you with the wax models of celebrities...i ordered gaz to have the first of his pictures taken and after that, he loved it! (he won't admit it though but i have the photographic evidence!!!).

After madam tussauds we had a stroll around the rocks (the old part of sydney). We were looking for UGG boots only the pair i liked ($360) didn't have my size....probabley for the best really as in hindsight, that is a stupid amount to spend on a pair of shoes...but they were gorgeous! We even went in to the original UGG boot store...was a little disappointing...no nice UGG boots there. Opposite was a cafe which we were ushered in to by the waitress....we got a little annoyed as they seated us upstairs and kept us eating ages before they took our drinks order. They even had the cheek to put in small print on the menu '$3 surcharge PER MEAL as its bank holiday'....the cheek!  To be fair, the food was bloody good but thats not the point. it was nice inside. They had an upstairs and a downstairs log fire burning...felt like being home in the UK at winter. Rain lashing on the windows and being all snug inside next to the fire.
In the afternoon we had a browse of some of the shops...i bought a dress...will need some shoes for it now too! Gaz was just happy to get to sit down outside the changing rooms for 5 minutes! We went back to the hotel and slept for an hour before Fi, the girl we met through Tom in sydney last time, gave us a text and we met up in Max brenners...the ultimate chocolate/coffee shop!

This morning was the most stressful day in a long while! I was up at 6am to walk down to have my medical done for my visa...it was a longggggg walk. At 7am, sydney was like a ghost town! I was first to arrive at my visa but when they opened up, people had managed to get served before me....typical. I  then got pushed further back in the que as i had to refill my forms out because my printer had cut some writing off the top of one of the pages. The chest x ray and eye test was done quite quick...then i was called for a urine sample but got stage fright and took ages to issue a dribble...and then blood test was quick...but had to wait AGES for the doctor examination. People who had sat down after me were getting served before me? just as i had text my rage to gaz, i was then called through. The doctor was a young guy who made me strip down to my underwear...a little embarrassing as i had odd underwear on as i wasn't expecting that! But he asked what my partner did so i told him and he spent the majority of the examination, between listening to breathing and measuring blood pressure, asking how gaz makes his money LOL. When the medical was finally over (took 2 hours in all) i marched up George street, sydney, to get to the immigration lawyer. Gaz was still in bed so didn't come with me...when i got to the immigration lawyer, he told me gaz may swell go straight onto my visa application. I rung gaz and put him on speakerphone...the lawyer was surprised to hear gaz was on a  tourist visa but hadn't been leaving the country every 3 months..the lawyer seemed to think gaz may have been breaching his visa as usually people have to leave every 3 months to come back into the country on the visa? of course that got gaz panicking then....I remember when gaz got the visa, we read through it about 10 times so i knew there wasn't a clause about having to leave every 3 months so i was pretty calm about it all...Gaz was pulling his hair out though! Luckly we got home and gaz checked his visa...its all ok, he hasn't breached his visa, the immigration lawyer got it wrong....worryingly!

Ive been up to ride Angie and had my last physic session for my back which hasn't been twanging quite as bad as what it was doing 3 weeks ago.

Thursday 7th June - Rain rain rain

Yesterday was day night and it was Gaz's turn to organise where we were going. I finished work at 2.30pm so was able to have a lesson on Angie first. It hasn't stopped raining the last few days/nights. Angie is all toasty in her nice warm rug as it has gone bitterly cold here. The arena where i was riding was water logged and the rain was lashing down but it didn't stop us from our lesson! Ellen said she knew where i got my craziness for riding in the rain as she had been watching the jubilee on the tele and seen everyone celebrating out in the pouring rain in london. Angie is still doing very well and i am so excited because i have her paperwork so she is officially mine! 500 dollars for her...even gypsy horses go for 3 grand out here lol...Ellen says she is probe the biggest bargain ill ever find and she's told me when i start showing her, people will be offering me big bucks for her. This horse has a lot of potential! Oh and she was shod on monday so now she has new shoes so when the rain stops one day, ill be able to take her riding out the back through the woodland. Ive been researching a lot into cars and horse boxes. Ive finally chosen the JR Easy traveller as many reviews have said how well designed they are. Im going to get a brand new one as it will be safer for Angie. Im currently deciding what fittings to have put in...it will take 3 months to make so once i get my visa, ill be ringing them up to get it made! I've also narrowed the cars down to a mitsubishi challenger or a nissan pathfinder...i think ill get a year old second hand car. Got some test drives booked for 2 weeks time...exciting! oh yes back to date night...Gaz took me to a tapas bar in nelson bay. We sat down and ordered 6 tapas dishes which came to over 100aud...i must say the food was very average. i wasn't all that impressed and the potties were undercooked. We asked them to recook the potatoes seeing as we were paying 20aud for them (thats about 14 pounds for 8 potatoes lol)...when they brought them back to our table they were still a little undercooked. oh well. we won't go back there again but it was nice for a change!

Gaz has been out playing poker tonight at Diggers. He has made friends with a few people down there and they had even said the tables have been a lot more fun since he has been there. Its really nice to hear him come home all excited with lots of stories as to what has gone on. Does him good to be out there socialising! He still didn't win but came forth so well done gaz! Overall his month on the computer is going really well. Its a shame the weather has been too bad to go surfing. The winds have been so strong that a whale washed up on the shore 2 years ago which was buried by the council, has since been exposed by the sand being blown away! Apparently the smell of the rotting carcus is unbearable!

Work was oK today. I didn't have any patients booked in this morning so i was able to have a lie in. Gaz's dad, Ian, had an operation yesterday so Gaz was all worried...but we got to speak to Ian tonight and he's doing well so gaz is very relieved. We are both very much looking forward to coming home and seeing everyone,,,,especially theenie and ian and chris' new cocker spaniel, Madoc!

Im not looking forward to work tomorrow as i have a few patients i really can't be bothered seeing! This weekend gaz and i are off to sydney so that i can have my medical done for my visa...and we are going to drop off my visa paperwork at one of the immigration lawyers down there so he can get processing it.

Saturday 2nd June - sick!

WOW its been a whole week since i wrote the blog last, where has the time gone?! We attempted to surf again on sunday and this time there WERE waves but they were huge!!! we thought we would catch the little white wash ones near the shore but the rip was so strong it was a struggle to stay on your feet. Neither of us felt very comfortable in the water so we headed out and sat on the beach watching the pros riding the big waves.

Work has been OK but I'm glad of the weekend now! I started feeling a little sick last night and 5am this morning i was up with my head over the toilet. Poor gaz wondered what on earth was going on! Feeling like death this morning, gaz was insistent i didn't go in to work but i didn't want to cancel patients so i went in any way. I was feeling very rough but made it through the day and even went for a lesson on Angie. I forgot i was feeling sick during my lesson so afterwards i had waves of feeling find, to feeling a lil sick to being fine again. The lesson went great...Angie was great as always and ellen loves her to bits! She works really hard for me and we are still learning lots together. Under the instruction of ellen, i have started riding with spurs. The idea is to try not to use them but they are there as an aid incase she ignores me...they aren't as bad as i thought.

Gaz made me a lovely vegetable and beef stew tonight which was great and made me feel soooo much better! Gaz is doing well on the computer this month so he's happy. 

Saturday 25th May

Gaz has had a good month so far on the computer so he's pretty happy! He's decided not to do the poker videos as for some reason he was stressing over them...i think he should have just done it but he says i don't understand. Anyway, its his decision! We are both going to go surfing tomorrow after i ride Angie. We have had a big storm here so the waves are meant to be pretty big right now...hopefully not TOO big!!!

Yesterday work was VERY slow. It appears Aussies don't like going out when its wet and stormy as the majority of my patients cancelled in the afternoon...so instead i went and rode Angie. Id rather be riding Angie than working any way! Today was very busy in work...people turning up off the street with toothaches! One 18 year old kid from England came and had a tooth pulled and left without paying! The receptionist ran after him but he had cycled off...What he didn't realise was his mum who rang and made the appointment had left a telephone number which i rung straight away. The mum answered and i said her son had left without paying. I was very annoyed because he was booked in for a check up and clean...now i could have charged him 150 dollars for the clean but he was in pain so i said look there isn't much point me cleaning your teeth as you only brush once a day any way, how about we get you out of pain instead? He made me laugh, i said 'do you brush you teeth in the morning?' he replied "no i have a new job now, i don't have time to brush in the morning?" i said "what you can't spare 2 minutes of your morning to brush your teeth?" he said "no i don't have time" i said well how about you make time and set your alarm 2 minutes earlier, it isn't difficult. People are so stupid!

I didn't ride Angie today as it was very windy and I'm sooooo tired from work this week. I did 10 and a half hours work on thursday and turned over $4500. I can't wait to have my own practice!!! Im really enjoying work at salamander bay and its really nice to hear good feedback from the patients. All the staff get on so well and the patients pick up on it and comment how nice an atmosphere it is.

Gaz is currently downloading this weeks apprentice...hopefully that annoying northern guy will go!!!

Thursday 24th May - 12 hour shift

I think i must be nuts but in order to get a wednesday afternoon off, i decided to work later on a thursday ie. from 8.30am to 8pm....Yesterday i finished at 2.30pm so Gaz picked me up from work with the surf board on the roof and wetsuits packed. We drove to one mile beach and were so excited about our afternoon out surfing. Angie had been ridden at 5am so i knew she was all exercised and fed for the day leaving a good afternoon free for surfing...gaz carried the surf board to the beach (balanced on his head...as you do)...we were both geared up in our wet suits...got to the beach....uho....no waves. Not even a little wave....nothing. it was flat...we thought we would get closer to the water just incase the waves were any bigger close up...but there weren't any waves so we paddled for a few minutes and admitted defeat. Board went back on the car and gaz took me out for food. We went to the sports club in a place called fin gal bay. We haven't been there before but were pleasantly surprised at how good the food was! Afterwards, as it was 'date night', gaz took me to the cinema to see 'The Dictator'...it was a load of rubbish so ill save you all 2 hours of your lives, don't bother going to see it.

Today i had a 12 hour shift in work. My lunch break was a little messed up so i ended up missing it and rung gaz at 2pm saying IM STARVING! so he kindly offered to go pick me up a sandwich from subway.   He's so lovely! He brought it in to work for me, bless him. I then didn't get a chance to eat it until 4pm...i was starrrrrving. This evening i worked till 8pm. My last patient was the woman i had the wax build ups of her teeth done in the lab...they looked amazing and she was almost in tears in the chair. She is coming back in on saturday for the finishing touches as they still need polishing and neatening up around the gum area but overall they look great....will take some pics!

Gaz picked me up after work as he decided not to go to Diggers to play poker. Yesterday he said he would make those poker videos but today he's changed his mind...i wish he would just make a decision! We had a thai takeaway - it was yummy but I'm tired now. sleep time!

Monday 21st May - Italian

Gaz and i have just been for an italian meal at a local restaurant which was absolutely beautiful! very fresh  and very well cooked.

Gaz had an interview today with a poker guy who has asked gaz to make some videos for his website...gaz seems interested and its a bit of extra money should he accept so he has to make a decision by thursday morning. He should just do it but you all know what he's like, worries about everything and has low confidence thinking people might not agree with the information he gives. i don't think he really has much to loose but its his decision.

I had work today as i had the other saturday off. i only worked a half day but i got lots of treatments done in that time. Im also sorting out my visa which is a real headache! So much paperwork...at least I'm going through an agency linked to pacific smiles this time so they can help me out.

I had a lesson on Angie...we are learning so much...every lesson ellen teaches me something new...just when you think theres nothing more to learn! Ive also made another video of her which once it has uploaded (in the next 2 hours) you will be able to watch it on this link below...(Nanny, click the writing below)...

http://youtu.be/NiVaibTyTXk

Saturday 19th May - Skype

Friday gaz text me while ti was in work saying he had a surprise for me which was very exciting! When i got home, he opened the door to the garage and propped up against the wall was a surf board! The guy who gave us the wet suits had also called round ear lie run the day to give us a board...was so nice of him!

After i finished work, i went up to lunge Angie. I panicked for a bit because she wasn't waiting by the fence like she usually does and it was pitch black so i couldn't see her. She is in a 3 acre field filled with trees which i have not yet ventured through so i called her and called her. I shone my rubbish torch but it didn't shine very far...i rung gaz a little worried that she hadn't come to the fence but as i was speaking to him, i could see a reflection of her eye in the torch. She was on her way to the fence...thank god! I lunged her for half an hour...she was a little naughty but she's still awesome!

This morning i had work...it seemed to be a quiet day in work as my appointment times were really long and none of the treatment took me as long to complete. Gaz had a good day on the computer and when i got home from work, we went in search of a roof rack for the surf boards...we didn't manage to find any thing suitable unfortunately.

I lunged angie again today and she went crazy! Greg (Ellens husband) was in the shed next to the round ring and angie didn't like the sound of the banging so she was going crazy...she then stood on the lunge line and snapped it....it belonged to ellen so i best text her an apology and get her a new one tomorrow! When i rode Angie she was good as gold. I think she's getting a little board of all the schooling so i must see about getting some shoes put on her.

Gaz and i spoke to mum and dad for the first time in weeks! don't know where the time has gone but it was good to hear from them. Huw also rang and we got to see how much Emmy has grown.

Tomorrow the plan was to go surfing but if we can't find a roof rack, we won't be able to :( either way ill be up riding angie and making a new video of her so you can all see her progress!

Wednesday 16th May - date night disaster!

So today was my turn to take gaz out for our weekly 'date night'. I thought it would be nice to drive him to Newcastle to have a meal and then visit his favourite chocolate shop for desert, Max Brenner. Unfortunately the sat nav took us the most ridiculous way...we got stuck in 45 mins of traffic on top of the hour long drive to where we were heading. We had to keep pulling over to check where we were...gaz wanting to find where we were on the sat nav, myself getting annoyed that i had the route on my iPhone gps so lets follow that but gaz demanding i wait whilst he set the sat nav...it was only a lil tiff, we were fine afterwards lol...i drove us to the shopping centre where it bought max brenners was only the car park was empty and all the shops closed. According to the iPhone, max brenners was 6 minutes away. Back in the car and gaz drove, hot headed to the 'max brannier' location on the iPhone. It was nothing but Newcastles version of the RSL. Accordingt o the iPhone we were stood right on top of max Brenner! We then checked the max brannier website....nope....max brannier WAS back at the shopping centre we were at originally only we were in the 'north' car park and it appears most people park in the 'south' car park. WHAT EFFORT! A very stressed vicky and gaz finally found max brenners. We had food in a burger joint and then forced a chocolate soufflé down our necks just because despite being full up on burger and chips, we had driven 2 hours to be here and we WERE going to make the most of it! Gaz and i laughed about the whole experience not he way back in the car...at least our first date night will be one to remember! Gaz's turn for date night next week...he says we will keep it local!

It wasn't helped by the fact i had been up since 5am for a horse riding lesson at 6am. Angie is improving every lesson and Ellen even said she's building muscle int he right places. My riding has also vastly improved and more importantly, I'm beginning to understand WHY we do certain things when we ride and when they should be done.

Work was pretty quiet. A few nutters but nothing out of the ordinary. Oh and the guy, luke, who i saw on monday (our surfing instructor) came in to have a tooth out...as i wasn't charging him, he gave gaz and i some wet suits!!!

Gaz did well on the computer although he is still undecided about making his own poker videos...so watch this space!

Tuesday 15th May

Gaz and I had a surf lesson on Sunday which was great fun. Gaz was heaps better than our first lesson. We had a different instructor, Luke, and he showed gaz a different technique on how to stand up on the board and it seemed to do the trick as gaz caught a lot of waves. Luke mentioned his tooth had been sore so i offered to see him as a patient at the practice. On monday i wasn't going to go in to work but i had as coincidence would have it, i had a dream that one of my patients (whose crown got stuck in place during the try in) had come off so i rung work on my day off on monday and asked the receptionist to ring the guy to see if he wanted to come in at 10am and have the crown put back on. She said she would ring him at 9am but apparently as soon as she put the phone down from speaking to me, he rung to say his crown had come off! Luke had also text gaz saying his tooth had been aching all night...i text luke offering to treat him monday morning. Although it was my day off, i didn't mind going in. Luke needed a bit of work going so i did most of it and haven't charged him...hes had a good 700AUD if not more of dental work done for free. He's offered to sort gaz and i out with some wetsuits for surfing.

Yesterday afternoon, gaz went out on the kayak to do some fishing but it was too rough to do the fishing part so instead he paddled around on the kayak. I had a riding lesson on Angie. She's doing very well and is improving every lesson.

Gaz was offered a job today producing poker videos for a poker training site. He is still contemplating whether to take it or not.

Work went well today. The manager showed me the feedback forms that some patients had filled in online...there war sonly 4 that had been completed so obviously hardly any one fills them in...but they were all 10 out of 10's and positive comments about professionalism and being made to feel at ease. It was nice to not have any negative feedback!

I haven't been to see Angie today so i cooked some dinner for gaz and i and we are now watching lord of the rings. Tomorrow is 'date night'...a new thing gaz and i are doing. Each wednesday one of us must take the other one out whether it be to a restaurant, cinema, bowling etc etc...im going to take gaz to newcastle (40 mins away) and we will go to a nice restaurant there before going to max brenners the chocolate shop for desert!

Friday 11th May - 5am start

Yesterday after work i went to a lecture on root canal treatment with Wyatt (my work colleague). It didn't finish until 8.30pm so i was pretty tired, especially after a long day in work! Gaz spent the evening at Diggers entering a poker tournament there. He said the players were rubbish...yet they still beat him so I've had fun ridiculing him for that.

I have spent most of my time the past few evenings editing another video of our weekend in Sydney. 2 hours of video footage to get through! Ive managed to narrow it down to 9 minutes of action packed fun to music. This morning i was up at 5am to drive to see angie as Ellen was giving me a 6am lesson. Ellen is away this weekend and i haven't had a lesson all week. I wanted to make sure i wasn't doing any thing wrong on Angie. When i got up to the yard at 5.30am most of the horses were lying down sleeping. Angie was awake and standing and gave her excited neigh when she heard me call her. She worked very nicely for me during the lesson and Ellen is impressed with how well she behaves. By the time i finished up the yard, i didn't have time to eat any breakfast so i quickly showered and went straight to work. i couldn't wait for lunch time...but i had a very difficult extraction that turned into a surgical and i couldn't finish it as it all got  bit messy so I've had to refer her...i think she hates me but i didn't charge her for an hour of my time as i felt a bit bad! I've had a rubbish day...i went to insert a crown i had made for someone...he bit down and the crown popped on very nicely...but the trouble is i couldn't get it off to cement it on!!! Ive told hint o try eating a sticky toffee to pull it off but he didn't come back so I'm assuming it still hasn't come off!!! The crown fit the tooth very well...im worried he's going to swallow it now!!!

The good news is i have another day off tomorrow as there weren't enough patients to fill me book so they felt it best we just close the surgery for the day. Yay! I get to see Angie instead and she's having her hooves trimmed so I'm glad ill be there for that.

The weather has been lovely here. Not been so cold in the evenings as it was last week and int he day its been like a hot summers day in the uk.

Hopefully tomorrow gaz will get out on the kayak...i might go with him as it might actually force him to go out and do it otherwise he will get all caught up on the computer.

link to Angies video...

My first 3 weeks of owning Angie can be viewed on the video i made!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs6qSgrTxJk&feature=share

Monday 7th may - Weekend in sydney

ARGHHHHH i just wrote the blog for the weekend and then it got deleted! Angry!!!

Gaz and i spent the weekend in sydney visiting his friend, Tom, who he has known since high school. Tom was meant to be running the ironman up in port macquarie but broke his hand 2 weeks ago and had to pull out so him a nd his girlfriend, sarah, were staying with a friend in sydney.

We drove to meet them in manly on saturday afternoon and Gaz got very stressed with the traffic...especially when some idiot almost drove into the back of us! we found a car park but once parked up, we noticed it was 40AUD for 2 hours!!! we went to leave but the car wouldn't start. Luckily the guy next to us was just leaving and noticed we were having some trouble so he very kindly offered to jump start our car. We found a cheaper car park but were a little anxious that the car wouldn't start up again! We had lunch in a pub with tom, sarah, Fi and carla. We talked non stop, laughed and enjoyed each others company. It was great fun. We then drove everyone into the centre of sydney and got to drive over the harbour bridge!

We found our hotel which apparently was 4 star but i would argue it was more 3. great location though. We went over to Fis flat in the centre of sydney and had pre drinks before we went out to enjoy the fireworks at darling harbour. For a free firework display, it was 6 minutes worth of very good fireworks! Afterwards we went and had dinner at a tepanyaki restaurant. For those thatdont know, it is where your food is cooked in front of you by a chef...he also entertained us by chucking food at us...sounds a bit like abuse but it was great fun!

The next day we met everyone to go for breakfast at a place ever looking the water in darling harbour. the weather was great - shorts and t shirt weather which aint bad for winter! We walked over to the chinese gardens where gaz had been to visit a few times when he was travelling...i can't imagine gaz enjoying chinese gardens but he did! afterwards we went to sydney aquarium...i was a little disappointed as they seem to have changed it. There weren't any crocodiles or any seals like there used to be and i was a little sad at the big turtle swimming back and for along the barrier in the hope he may be able to escape. not like how i remembered it.

In the evening Fi took us to a very posh chinese restaurant. It was busy inside, full of chinese people. We were seated...and given one menu between the five of us. Fi asked for another menu...we were given one more. We were then completely ignored for the next 15 minutes. No offer of drinks...and the waiters were just flitting about between the chinese peoples tables. I said it reminded me of our experience win canberra! Fi asked if we were still happy to eat there and i could see from everyones expressions they weren't too keen...so i piped up and said i didn't feel very comfortable in there and i didn't like the fact we were ignored. S o we got up and left...none of the waiters asked where we were going or made eye contact. We headed in to china town and found a pleasant cheap restaurant where we got a decent meal.

After our food we went to the entertainment arcade and managed to get Tom on dance dance. I have filmed him dancing and will have to speed it up to some benny hill music! It was yet another great day.

This morning we met up with sarah and tom and had a stroll around the shops before heading to our favourite, max Branner for another hot chocolate...yum! Gaz and i left not long after and drove safely home via Autobarn and picked up a battery operated jump start kit for the car. i then went to see Angie and rode her. Just uploading a video i have done of angie....stay tuned!

Wednesday 2nd May - Angie progresses

Not much has happened since the weekend. On Monday i had a lesson on Angie with Ellen. We had a break through in both my riding skill and Angies ability. I was able to get Angie to 'give her nose' aka to become more rounded in her frame and push with more energy from her hind quarters (her back legs). It is something that i have only really been able to do since my lessons with Ellen as the horse i used to ride, Tammy was always able to do it...but to get Angie to do it means i must be applying the right aids because it is something she's not been able to do before. She went really well for me in the lesson and i didn't want to get off her! Ellen loves angie and said she is very jealous that i have landed on such a beautiful horse for a give away price!

Whilst i was riding, gaz took the kayak out for a paddle. He took his fishing gear but he said the rod got in the way a little so i think he's going to keep kayaking and fishing separate in the future. He paddled right out to some headland and said it was really enjoyable so he will be doing it again soon.

Gaz cooked a curry in the evening...it was delicious!

Yesterday work flew by. I have turned over 38 grand for the practice in 4 weeks and thats working 4.5 days a week and including the 3 days i had off for public holidays. The manager is very pleased with me! next month i should hopefully turn over even more as the first 2 weeks in april were pretty quiet for me as i hadn't long started at work and have been building up a patient base. Word must be getting around about me as one patient asked me if i was 'the welsh dentist'...thank god she didn't say english! I have my own business cards and my name on a plaque on the wall in work...they just need to change my name over on the website now.

Yesterday evening Gaz came up to see angie with me. This horse just keeps getting better and better. I asked for her nose and she gave it straight away without any pulling on the reins. She listened to what i asked and did it, no fussing.

Today work is going well. I was showing the other dentist there how to surgically remove a wisdom tooth...it was a very difficult surgical as the roots were curved so the tooth had anchored itself into the bone. I showed the dentist how to cut the gum, remove bone, section the tooth and elevate it out and suture...he was impressed...ive told him to find his own patient to practice on and to call me in if he needs a hand. Thats the beauty of having worked in hervey bay...i feel very confident with surgicals now. I was running 40 minutes behind but i managed to catch up. Im on my lunch break at the moment...gaz is busy on the computer so i thought id write the blog! i think we are going to go bowling tonight. We have a bowling alley just down the road..it can't be any worse than the one in hervey bay! Im thinking about buying a cheap HD video camera so i can perhaps record parts of the day and edit them daily instead of writing a diary. Ian...any HD video camera recommendations? Don't want to be spending over 500AUD but don't want any thing too cheap. Something small, light, simple to use and easy to edit with.

Sunday 29th April - surf lesson

Friday i had the afternoon off work so i couldn't wait to finish and get over to see Angie. I went and bought her a new saddle...Ellen very kindly let me take the saddle she has leant me to the shop to find one the same size. The women in the shop were very helpful and i managed to find the perfect saddle...thank you to mum and dad for the money for my birthday to allow me to buy the saddle. She looks lovely with it on! By the time i got back to the stables, caught angie, groomed her and tacked her up ready for the ride, it was getting dark. It gets dark here at 5.30 and is pitch black by 6! She went very well for me in the round arena. she earnt her feed!

Gaz had spent the day playing on the computer which went well. We couldn't be bothered to cook so we ventured to Diggers for a pizza. yummy.

Yesterday i had work in the morning which went very smoothly. Ive had feedback from the manager of the practice saying i am doing extremely well and that my books being full so early on is a reflection of me as a dentist. She said its a small town and people talk so word is getting around about me. Its nice to have some positive feedback!

After work i went up to see Angie and she was a little restless when tied up whilst was trying to groom her but yet again, she performed well for me. She had a 3 second panic when the lawnmower started in the field next to her but after that, she was fine. By the time i got home, gaz was cooking up some more curry bases to use for future curries. It smelt amazing! Jack the next door neighbour came round with some cookies he had baked for us...so very kind! they taste lovely.

Today I was up at 6am to see Angie. I gave her an early schooling session in the large arena but i was lucky because the sun was shining, albeit a little chilly. Angie has moved fields now into a 3acre paddock down the bottom of the stables. she can still see the other horses so she isn't alone. Ellen is 'slashing' her field to help the grass grow better so Angie can return in a week or two.

When i got home around 9.30am Gaz and i went to our first surfing lesson. It was awesome! There were only 3 of us int he class and the one guy had been the day before so he was pretty much off on his own any way. The instructor was your typical surf dude....tall, athletically slim build and very good looking (those were gaz's words, not mine). And he was really easy going and a great instructor. Both Gaz andy were standing on the boards after a few attempts. I think the snow boarding i have done really helped as i was finding i was even starting to direct where i wanted to go. Same principle as snow boarding. It was tiring work and we were both shattered afterwards! The weather too a turn for the worse during our lesson and the rain came lashing down and the wind really picked up. By the end of the lesson we were the only people in the water! We enjoyed it so much we are going to arrange for another lesson some time...i think ill need a few days to recover as my legs are starting to ache already!

Gaz and i have been invited over Wyatts house at 6 tonight. Wyatt is the other dentist at pacific smiles so it will be good to meet his fiancee and have a chat and some dinner!

Day off tomorrow so gaz and i are going to take the kayak out in the morning before i have a lesson on angie in the afternoon. Will try and get some photos of gaz on the kayak!

Thursday 26th April - Kayak

Gaz has today been and bought a kayak! We have gone halves on it but i don't think ill have much time to use it...plus if it meant it will get him out of the house I'm more than happy to put some money towards it! Its nice to see him excited about something so hopefully this can be his new hobby and help keep him fit. He is having it delivered tomorrow so he should be able to use it on the weekend...lets hope the weathers nice!

I had a riding lesson on angie yesterday. It was ANZAC day so we had a public holiday therefore no work! yippee! It was a very windy day so all the horses were a little spooked. I was lunging angie in the round arena and in the arena opposite a girls horse had run loose and was galloping around the arena like a maniac! Angie took no notice and carried on going about our training session. A horse was then being unloaded from a hors box next to where i was schooling angie...again, angie paid no attention to the horse. I got on Angie and began riding her...Ellens horse had run onto the road (it barged past Ellens husband with a wheelbarrow and was running around on the road almost giving ellen a heart attack!)...the horse in the field next to Angie started bucking and rearing in a mad frenzy...again, this would have been a great opportunity for Angie to get all spooked but she didn't bat an eyelid...she kept listening to what i was asking of her. Ellen has had me working on circles with angie to get her flexing. We are trying to ease her in to giving her nose to give that nice rounded shape you see typical of dressage horses. She is learning slowly - it takes a lot of neck muscle to do it for a long time but she will get there! I began trotting her...she was so tired by the time i finished with her! She saw me dishing the feed out into her bucket and gave a little neigh of excitement. She is very gentle and i carried the bucket to her field, leading her next to me and not once did she try and steal the feed from  the bucket. She has lots of manners! I gave her the day off today so i didn't go up to see her. Hopefully it will make her all the more excited to see me tomorrow! i have taken the afternoon off work so i can go and buy her a saddle with the money mum and dad gave me for my birthday. She's going to look so smart! can't wait to get riding her again tomorrow.

Work was very busy..had two very difficult extractions...i got the teeth out in the end, just took a little while. Im still enjoying work here...its nice looking forward to going to work!

Gaz hasn't played on the computer today but is currently downloading the apprentice episode for the week. We enjoy watching it and seeing how stupid they all are - its one of those irritating yet addictive tv shows.

Tuesday 24th April

Gaz has had a really good day on the computer again so he is back to his winning streaks after a month of not doing very well. He seems to have got his confidence back and is definitely happier for it. Work was really bad today...my root canal went awful and one woman whose husband has parkinsons was very rude to me. I have met them both before in my first week. She wheeled her husband in today and i asked what we were doing for him and she gave me a very smarmy laugh and said 'well you should know.' i said that when they booked the appointment, the girls on desk had written 'pt needs fills' but i wasn't sure which teeth. The woman said "well your the one who told us to come back to have the fillings, how can you not know?" i said very calmly that i see a lot of patients each day and it has been a while since i have seen the patient so i can't be expected to know off the top of my head whats going on! luckily i write good notes so it was all there as to what needed doing. the poor guy has parkinsons, can't even put his denture in and out and has 6 teeth on the bottom that are so engrossed in plaque that you can smell it from a metre away when he opens his mouth. His wife obviously isn't helping him brush his teeth...she dumped him in the dental chair and went shopping so i couldn't say any thing to her. He's a lovely chap too...god knows how he puts up with her!

This evening gaz came up to see Angie with me. I didn't finish work till 5.30 so we drove up in the dark. She left her hay and got all excited to see me...i feel so loved! gaz had a little pat and a stroke of her. I gave her a lunge with the saddle on before getting on her. Gaz was very impressed how well she listened to my voice commands. She trotted when i asked for a trot, cantered when i asked for the canter and walked when i asked. She stood still swell when i asked but that took a little more encouragement. 10 minutes into the lunging session and i felt ready to get on her. She stood very patiently when i got on and off. She listened to everything i asked of her...we worked on circling her in the walk as we did in the lesson with ellen yesterday. Angie has a very soft mouth so doesn't pull on the bit at all. Some horses try and pull the reins out of your hands but angie does none of this. She stood dead still as soon as i asked her to and walked when i want her to. She was very very good tonight, i am very pleased. She has come on such a long way since i took her on only 10 days ago! After the ride she had another big feed which she enjoyed. Gaz and i couldn't believe how cold it was! He was so cold he had to go sit in the car. Luckily angie has her canvas rug on but if it gets any colder, she can have her warmer rug on! She also had her second dose of worming tonight which she didn't approve of. It went everywhere and she somehow got it all up my arm!

For dinner gaz and i went to Diggers only I'm starting to notice more and more patients around the place and its horrible! i wish i had a disguise for going to public places in...maybe a bag over my head? Anzac day tomorrow...day off from work and another lesson on Angie!

Monday 23rd April - first day riding angie

Yesterday it rained all day and was pretty much the same all day today too! I was up the stables yesterday to do some more ground work with Angie. I went to the horse shop to get her a bridle...there are 3 sizes - pony, cob and full. I got her a cob thinking it would be ample but no, the size of her head is deceiving. I had to cut the labels off to get the bridle part so i could try it on her so i didn't think they would exchange it...but they did! She now has a full sized bridle which fits her perfectly. Today i went and got her some horse feed. She now has some loupins to fatten her up, some chaf which is a bulk feed with lots of fibre, a hors emix with some seeds and barley to keep it interesting, some garlic and some vitamins. She's one lucky horse!

I fetched her front he field. As i called to her and she saw me coming, she started walking over to the gate to meet me. She seems to be really enjoying all the work. I did some ground work on her in the pouring rain and then Ellen gave me a lesson. We put the saddle on her and lunged her before i got on. She had a flighty few minutes in canter so we made sure we tired her out before i got on her. I only did a walk on her but was doing lots of circling and changing rein (changing direction) to get her to supple her neck and listen to my hand and leg aids. I am learning so much with ellen and Angie was so lovely to ride! she listened to everything that i asked of her and she was very soft in the mouth and didn't pull back on my reins.  To reward her for all the effort she had put in to the schooling lesson and also to fatten her up, she had a big feast in her feed bucket! She made me laugh because i was stood int he field watching her eat her feed. When she got to the end of the food int he bucket, she picked the bucket up with her teeth and moved it over to the side so she could get at the bits she dropped on the floor. So very cute! She also has her lovely new canvas rug on - thanks to chris and ian who offered to buy it for her as a birthday present. thanks guys it looks lovely on her! Ellen is very impressed with the style and quality of the rug that she's going to get some for her own horses!

Meanwhile gaz has been playing on the computer. Yesterday gaz had a very good day at poker. He hasn't done much else to talk about other than the other night when he went fishing he managed to catch a few fish, one of which was big enough to bring home so he cut its head off and gave it to our next door neighbour, jack who was very grateful. Gaz has rung a kayak company who has a kayak he disinterested in in stock so he's going to pick that up some time this week..but for 20AUD they will deliver it which will be easier!

Saturday 21st April - Night fishing

Yesterday i had a busy day in work which is great because the busier i am, the more money i make! i have now finally got around to sorting out my income protection too which i felt would be a wise move, especially now with all the horse riding I'm doing. Im also insured incase i have a needlestick injury or if i loose my hand or anything else that would stop me working (god forbid!).

I went up to see Angie after work today...shes so cute! i tied her up and another girl tied her horse up next to her so angie and the other horse were nosing one another. the girl was very friendly but kept trying to talk to me..i feel a bit bad because she was very lovely but i just didn't really want to talk...i wanted to concentrate on angie. I took angie in the schooling ring and she worked very nicely and did what she was told. The girl was still plaiting her horses mane and asked if we could take the horses back to their paddocks together...her horse kept stopping to eat grass. Ive taught angie better than that but she was getting a little frustrated that we had to wait for this horse all the time! The girl was fussing about with a rug in the field so i told her i was off and going home. I don't want to get too pally with the girls up the yard as i know horsey people are strange and I'm more than happy being on my own with angie...a little anti social i know!

When i got home gaz had cooked a beautiful pork belly ...the crackling on top smelt and tasted amazing! the meat was very moist and was cooked to perfection...clever chap! Gaz has now gone night fishing to see if he can catch any thing so thats given me a chance to blitz the house which has got a bit messy since I've been so obsessed with the horse! Hopefully gaz is safe and having fun!

Gaz and i have also booked a surf lesson next weekend. Unfortunately it is the end of the surfing season here so we won't be able to go again for a few months unless we hire out our own stuff. Gaz is currently in the process of finding a kayak to keep him entertained.

Nanny, as you haven't seen these photos yet...here is Angie!

                                                        Very underweight!

Wednsday 18th April - my birthday!

Yesterday it rained non stop and Angie didn't have a rug on. Although it is raining, it isn't cold here and therefore the rug i got her is a little thick still for this time of year and is more of a winter rug for this area. I therefore didn't have anything more lightweight to put on her so Ellen very kindly dug out a canvas rug for me that i could use. After work i drove straight up to see Angie. She sees me coming and walks right up to me - its very cute! She was happily led down the fields to the stables where she was able to get out of the rain for an hour. I gave her a feed which she really enjoyed and then put the canvas rug on that Ellen has leant us. Its only for 2 days as i have ordered her a lovely caribu canvas rug which she will look lovely in.

Today was my birthday and Gaz was up at 7am to wish me happy birthday. I opened my cards and presents in bed before heading off to work. thank you to everyone who sent me a card and birthday wishes! Work was pretty miserable as it still hasn't stopped raining and the patients were really annoying. I was happy to finish work today! Gaz came to pick me up and on the way home we saw a little cockatoo hobbling around on the pavement. We watched him for a long while and decided he wasn't very well. gaz rung the bird rescue place and they told us to catch him and take him to the vets which was literally around the corner. We did just that...gaz chucked his jacket over the bird...i could see two girls in the distance wondering what the hell was going on and whether we were kidnapping this poor bird. The poor thing must have been very scared and continuously pecked at gazs fingers. we got hint to he vet where they will look after him.

Back int he house, gaz had been to the bakery and bought me a chocolate cake and had the cake lady sprinkle little hearts all over it...so cute! he even got me a '2' and '5' shaped candles and put them on the cake. Very thoughtful! After cake we ordered a dominos pizza...yum yum. we scoffed the lot. I'm not looking up personal trainers in the area! lol. tomorrow i have a schooling lesson with ellen and angie..i hope it stops raining!

Monday 16th April - flat battery

yesterday i was up at the stables bright and early so that i could lunge angie in the morning and then go buy all her shampoo and grooming essentials. She worked very well for me and was very calm and pleasant when bathing. She wasn't phased by the hose pipe and i think she enjoyed having her tail brushed. She lifted her legs one by one for me to pick out the hooves and gave the occasional little snort to show she was content. I spent most of the day up with her and then returned home and went for food with gaz to our new favourite place, Diggers. It was hot and sunny yesterday and for mod tof today the sun shone but this evening has gone very wet! I went up to see Angie this morning and take her rug off her (as it did pour int he night). I sat in the car to have a chat with my new tax man who was recommended to me by the other dentist where i work...to be fair, he seems pretty on the ball and after all the mess I've had with trying to get an ABN number, he's managed to get one for me in a few hours! He's also on the ball about claiming money back for things so i figure he will be a worthwhile asset.

I had a lesson with Angie this evening. Ellen has been away all weekend and was very surprised to see such a calm horse before her! we have progressed with the lunging work and ellen showed me how to place ropes from the horses bit to a 'roller' (a bit like a girth that goes around their tummy) and to tie the rope with gentle pressure on the horses mouth...with the aim of the horse rounding their neck down and in to their chest slightly. The idea of this is to give better balance to the horse, better movement and it arches their back so that it is strengthened and can take more weight. Angie has a lot to learn but after the schooling session we went through some basic behavioural lessons i should be doing with angie...for instance teaching her the world 'back' and 'forward' and to turn in certain ways when pressure is applied...im learning an awful lot with ellen...its great learning for both angie and me! The next time i will be able to get up the stables and see angie is thursday after work where ellen will give me another lunging lesson. Its still too early to be riding angie (although she's had people riding her before)...if I'm going to make a good dressage horse out of her, we need to get the basics right first without a rider...hence why we are only lunging. Next week i have changed my hours in work to accommodate me being able to get up to the stables more often.

oh and when i went to start the car, the battery had died...i must have been talking too long with the door open and the lights on...i don't know for sure but ellen had to jump start me. I went to a local garage and they tested the battery but they said it all seemed fine. We are going to purchase one of those mobile battery and spark plugs you can put in the car boot.

Gaz has had an excellent day on the computer but didn't get to go fishing as it started raining a lot earlier in salamander bay than where i was with angie. He even cooked me dinner bless him!

Saturday 13th April - a new edition to the family!

In work yesterday i received a missed call. It was a very unexpected call but it was from Ellen the lady that owns the horse stables where i have my riding lessons. A few weeks ago, Ellen had asked if i was interested in a mare who had been left by the girl who had her on loan. I said i was interested but by the time Ellen got in touch with the girl to let her know, she said she already had someone to come and take the horse. The weeks have gone by and the mare is still there! So Ellen was ringing to see if i was still interested. I thought i best check with Gaz first as i knew i would get a level headed opinion...he seems to think its my money, i have the time and she will be looked after at Ellens yard so if i was happy to take her on, its my choice. Yippee! I rung Ellen and said id like a 2 week trial period to see if i get on with the horse. After work yesterday evening i went straight up the yard where i got Ellen to give me a lesson in lunging the horse. This horse has been left in a field with no rug (she ripped hers weeks ago and the girl never bothered to bring up a new one) and has not been ridden since november. She has a fat belly but you can see her ribs. Poor thing. She's about 15.1 hh i think...ill have to measure her some time! I learnt so much from Ellen in the lunging session. Angie (the name of the horse...short for andromeder something...her racing name) had a few little bucks when we put a roller on her back...Ellen said its best i lunge her for a week or two to get her used to being worked again and get all the energy out of her! She sped around and around but eventually settled in to it...i can see a lot of potential int his horse! I went up to see her again after work today...i had intended to bath her but being a saturday, patients kept turning up with emergencies! I didn't get out till 2.30. I went to buy Angie a new rug (she looks posh as in that thing!) and gave her a lunge for half hour. She was like a different horse! She saw me coming to get her in from the field and she walked to the gate to meet me! She's so cute...she enjoyed a nice brush and she was like a different horse when lunging her! she went beautifully. I must take some before photos so that in a few months i can get some after photos and show the difference...shes going to look amazing!

Work was very busy today but i really enjoyed it. I had my pay cheque a few days ago which was a beauty so its been a good boost to working hard. Gaz's day didn't go so well on the computer...but he's going to come and meet Angie on monday :D

Thursday 12th april - bad weather

Gaz has been doing much better on the computer this month and seems to have got his confidence back which is nice to see. The weather has been terrible so he hasn't been able to get out fishing. It rained non stop yesterday and today hasn't been much better. Its also getting dark by 6pm now so when i finish work the sun is going down. Not much has happened in the last few days to really write about other than gaz and i have booked our flights home. We will be flying on 20th july so landing 5.45pm uk time in london on saturday 21st. I then have a wedding to get to on the 22nd...talk about cutting it fine! we are flying air china as they seemed to be the only reasonably priced airline...with the olympics and all, the flights were double! I am very much looking forward to seeing theenie and gaz's parents new cocker spaniel puppy!

Friday - Monday 9th April - Holiday to canberra

Gaz and i have been away this easter weekend for a trip down to canberra to visit gaz's cousins John, his wife sue and their son, Rhys. It was a 5 hour drive to canberra made half hour longer by the heavy traffic but it was well worth it. Friday night gaz and i checked into a 4 and a half star hotel in Canberra city centre. Rhys and his girlfriend sarah came to pick us up later in the evening to take us for a meal in chinatown. Gaz really enjoyed seeing rhys again although he did say he's quietened down a lot! The first restaurant we ventured into was almost empty until a sudden rush of asian people just as our order had been taken. we waited...and waited....and waited....eventually our entree came out....then we carrie down airing....drinks empty....waited...over an hour later and our main course still hadn't come. We asked one girl how long the food would be but she went to the kitchen, came out with a cup of coffee and completely avoided our table. We then asked another guy how long our food would be...he went to the kitchen and then started serving other people and taking food out to all the asians that came well after we had arrived! We weren't the only ones getting annoyed...a table net to us with aussies on were also being ignored and they got up and left. we did the same and were so disgusted with the service, didn't bother paying. We headed down the road to the next restaurant where we were served much quicker and the food was excellent.

The next day gaz and i took a trip to cocking ton green. This was a place one of my dental assistants told me i should visit. It is a place full of miniature models and people and buildings from all over the world. Gaz was very disappointed and moaned the whole way round although he did enjoy the train ride. The models were a little naff i must admit but i enjoyed it...it was different. The only black person model we saw though was lying dead on the ground being resuscitated by some white person...very strange! We then went to visit the war memorial. I was very impressed with the museum...which was free....and had lots of war memorabilia...they even had a sound and light show which tried to give you an idea of what it was like flying a plane in the war...it was very well done. We went to the place where all the names of those who died were up on the wall. Very sad.

Next was a trip to the old parliament house where we saw the aboriginal camp outside...what a mess! and then to the new parliament house. We didn't stop to have a look around as our bellies were rumbling and food was on the cards! After lunch, gaz drove us to John and sues house.

They were excellent hosts and have a beautiful house near captains flat just outside canberra city centre. It is in the middle of lots of hills and is a very interesting house. When we arrived, they served some cheese and biscuits down on their little veranda over a little bridge int he garden. John let his very friendly chickens out which would come up and let you stroke them. They have a new fox terror dog called millie who was very anxious of gaz and i but she's only 4 months old and very small. They were also puppy sitting for their friends 8 months old cocker spaniel, Rylie (its a girl). She was beautiful! her big droopy ears and her big fluffy paws...she was so sociable and her temperament was lovely. Her whole bum wiggled when her tail wagged and she loved attention! In the evening sue and john cooked a steak dinner with all the trimmings...it was lovely. They appear to have an open house policy so a lot of the locals would just call in to the house to say hi, have a chat and then disappear. It was a lovely atmosphere.

On sunday morning sue and john did a cooked breakfast for us which we ate int he company of the king parrots that attend their tree next to the porch every morning for their feed which john puts in the bird feeders for them. John bbq'd the meat on the bbq around the corner and the music played...it was so relaxing and sue and john made us feel so at ease. it was great. We talked the whole time.After breakfast, sue and john had arranged for us to visit the kangaroo rescue place at their friends house at the top of the mountain. This was so nice of them! The track up to the house was VERY worn and luckily john was experienced at driving the 4x4 up the road because there were times when the car felt like it should topple on its side. I was starting to think i should have sorted my income protection out before the holiday! Sue was funny...she said she didn't like going up the track because it scared her so every time we were coming up to a big hole she would be like "oh john, i don't like this!' every time sounding more and more panic. Gaz and i flew around in the back of the truck until eventually we reached the kangaroo rescue place. The woman who run it was called cindy. She was very friendly and let us in the cage with the little joeys. She had them in comfy looking sacks to imitate the mothers pouch. She had reared these kangaroos from little babies coz their mothers got hit by cars or died from other incidents. It was lovely to see them being cared for. they all looked so chilled! She had other older kangaroos in another cage and said that even some of the kangaroos she has released still come back for visits and have started bringing little joeys with them! Gaz and i would love to one day do something similar, looking after kangaroos and koalas!

After our adventure up the mountain, john drove us into little town for a milkshake. It was beautiful weather so we sat outside and even bumped into cindy again!

In the evening Rhys and his girlfriend sarah joined us again for a meal in a very nice restaurant. It was called 'the outsiders' and although the restaurant was closed, the owners opened it up especially for us to cook us an evening meal. The food was fantastic. The restaurant was an interesting place...full of the owner, gunthers, art on the walls. The wife, christine has a sad story to tell. her daughter, ebony simpson, at the age of 9 was kidnapped by a man from the bus stop, thrown into the boot of the car, taken to the nearby river where her hands were tied with speaker wire and she was raped, before being thrown into the river with her legs tied and rocks put in her satchel. The next day there was a search for her and the murderer even joined in the search. he later confessed to everything and has now to life imprisonment. There is a painting on the wall to show the story...it is very sad.

This morning gaz and i woke up to yet another cooked breakfast which we again ate outside on the porch in the shining sun. Although it was getting very cold in the evening, the days were warm. Gaz and i are back in salamander bay now but we have had a great weekend and we will deffinately go back and visit when we come back out to aus again.

Thursday 4th April - car problems

I didn't realise it had been so long since i last wrote the blog. After all the sleep i lost over the guy i saw on saturday who i failed to take the tooth out on, he was meant to be booked in today with the oral surgeon to have the tooth removed. The receptionist rung him up...he said he has been fine, the pain hasn't been too bad and he had a chat to his friend who is a dentist and theres no need to worry coz his friend has booked him in with a guy he knows who can take the teeth out...but thats not until next week! the antibiotics run out today so hopefully he will be ok till then as it is so important he doesn't get an infection on his new heart stent! silly boy.

Any way, last night gaz and i drove to woolworths only to find the car was making very strange noises. It was the same noise that we had heard in hervey bay before when the catalytic converter screw came loose. Gaz was able to get the garage to have a look at it today. Turns out its the OTHER catalytic converter thats gone and will need replacing. worse still, it isn't covered under the warranty (yes the warranty that has made us get our car serviced 4 times in the last year and costs 170AUD each time....what a joke). So whilst they sort that tomorrow, they will also put some new tyres on for us. I guess it will be worth getting it all sorted before our trip down to canberra over the weekend.

Not much else has happened. Gaz and i had a movie night tonight so i made some popcorn (ie. i put the bag in the microwave and pressed the start button) and we watched lord of the rings...the extended version. 3 hours long! Gaz has done ok on the computer today so he's a little happier.

Saturday 31st March

Gaz ordered me a bunch of flowers to be delivered to work yesterday. It was meant to be a surprise only they never turned up and the woman rung me today when i was in work and left an answer phone message saying she had some flowers for me. Gaz was very annoyed that they hadn't delivered them yesterday like they said they would but they said they had lost the address? pretty poor service! However, i have the flowers now and they are lovely :) and a very nice thought! The message said they were for being so great sorting all the moving stuff out over the last few weeks...so cute of him!

Work was awful today and was the first time I've ever failed to start taking a tooth out only 2 hours later to not be getting anywhere and have to stitch the poor patient up and refer to an oral surgeon. I felt so rubbish but the patient was really appreciative for me having tried for so long. I got a bit nervous when he started going all shakey in the chair...6 weeks ago he had a stent put in and has part of his liver not functioning...as well as recovering from broken ribs (he was in a boating accident)...so being the only dentist in work i felt we should call it a day. He's on some antibiotics but i really hope he's ok!

Gaz and i tried out the RSL here in nelson bay and were very impressed. It has a number of restaurants inside and looked very sophisticated. Im sure we shall be eating in there more often. We have just been watching a film, 'almost famous'. Im very tired and ready for bed now! gaz is sorting some things on the computer. Tomorrow we are going to the garden centre to buy a bird table :)

Tuesday 28th March - Gazs birthday

The house has been sprayed to kill all the cockroaches and spiders. It has been horrible waking up to dead cockroaches on their backs! Yesterday i had to get Gaz out of bed as a cockroach had blocked the door - he was HUGE! and was still alive albeit a little intoxicated and not really moving much but he was still a big bugger and i wasn't going to get past him to get through the door. Gaz thought he had killed it but i screamed so loud when it ran out of the kitchen roll and back around gazs feet! The other night gaz and i were watching 'troll hunter' in bed....it got to a very tense moment in the film when all of a sudden this big black cockroach started running up our laptop screen! I leaped a mile out of bed...gaz tried catching it in some oiler paper to send it on a journey down the 'porcelain express' (the toilet). I couldn't sleep very well after that, constantly thinking i had a cockroach crawling on me!

Work went great today...my book was full and i loved it! Gaz has spent the day sorting his computer out as he has downloaded some software that has made it run very slowly...he was going to go fishing but that plan fell through as it took him longer to sort the computer out than he thought...i think its all sorted now.

I sang gaz happy birthday at 7.30am...we decided we won't bother with cards and presents for each other but i did go out and find him a chocolate echidna themed cake as he has talked about always wanting to see an echidna! The cake was yummy. i put candles on it when i got home from work and sang for him again...he just can't get enough of my amazing singing...not. We even took some cake around to jack next door. He had been in hospital yesterday to have his yearly scan for bowel cancer which he had been diagnosed and treated for in 2001. He appreciated the cake and we gave him an extra slice for his daughter...together gaz and i have managed to demolish the rest of the cake...thats team work!

As it is gaz's birthday i took him for a meal at the hogs breath cafe. He managed to eat the half a cow on his plate and now we are sitting at home trying not to explode!

I have another full day in work tomorrow...cant wait! Is it really sad to enjoy work so much?

Sunday 25th March - spiders galore!

This week has flown. Work is very laid back about what hours i want to work...im even contemplating extending my hours on a thursday to do a late night surgery as a big request from patients is to have appointments after they finish work...i said ill give the extended hours a trial period. Im really enjoying work...the money is just a bonus but I'm loving every thing about private practice. The patients really appreciate you and are so polite! I have given myself half hour for check ups because that gives me enough time to do all i have to get done as well as being able to relax and have a chat with every patient about their day, this that and the other. Im a little bit sceptical about some of the work i have been given to do by a previous dentist as fillings have been marked down...yet when i look at the tooth, i can't see a reason as to why the tooth needs to be filled. Im morally only going to do what needs to be done, i earn enough without trying to find extra work to do on people!!!

Gaz still hasn't had much luck on the computer. He's going through a bit of a bad patch.

Yesterday our neighbour, jack, came over to our house to let us know that he had cut our hedge back. Gaz was meant to be doing it next week with him but he said it had been annoying him and he just wanted to get it done. for some stupid reason, whoever designed these houses made it so that poor jack has to go through our back garden to put his bins out. He said he put them out the other day and a funnel web latched onto him as he came through our gate. Jack had put the clippings in apple on the floor and had kindly offered to clear them up and put them in his bin. i beat him to it this morning, i was up at 8am so i was out the back clearing away the hedge clippings. I got the house pipe and began squirting through the thick cobwebs hanging from our house. i didn't expect to find so many spiders!!! Big ones, small ones, poisonous ones, deadly ones and HUGE GOLF BALL SIZED ONES!!! look up a 'garden orb spider'. huge things and they make these very large webs in-between trees and the webs are so fine, you don't even know its there...unless your like me and you walk into it. gross. This orb spider was so big that when i washed it off of the house, you could hear it as it smacked the floor!!! I gave a loud shriek as one spider landed on me, dropped the hose pipe that began waving around uncontrollably on the floor like a manic cobra and then composed myself whilst looking around to make sure no one just saw. Our house win infested with red back spiders...the nice thing about red backs (if 'nice' is the right word) is that at least you can identify them! Funnel webs...not entirely sure what they look like other than i know for our far tour house has them and i probably washed a few away today. Funnily enough, i asked gaz to help me with the garden and his reply was 'i aint going any where near that place until the pesticide people have sprayed it all tomorrow'. i must have been crazy. Jack came over to tell me how good the garden was looking!

After tackling the garden i did another blitz around the house as the cleaners we had were pretty rubbish so i went over everything again. Gaz and i went for an evening stroll on the beach and we were talking to some people catching yabbis to use as their fish bait tomorrow. They had this long metal pump that they used to pump up the sand and then they grabbed the pinky orangey yabbis that were sucked to the surface. The woman offered gaz to hold one...i was amazed at how big they ate with huge lobster like pincers. The seagulls were hovering around catching the odd yabbi that the people missed poaching.

I have taken a few pictures of the house as not everyone has seen it yet...

Our house :)

Downstairs lounge

Dining room/Gaz work station

Our bedroom

Second bedroom

There is also a 3rd bedroom but theres nothing in it.

Main bathroom

Ensuite

Kitchen

Upstairs lounge

Balcony

Upstairs lounge from a diff angle

View of the sea from balcony

View from the upstairs lounge