Yet again everything has been so crazy I just haven't been able to keep up with my blog.
We officially have a new working student. Mirjam was accepted and stayed on straight from her bootcamp. She's absolutely fab and I'm loving having her in our team! The team is a real unit at the moment, working very well together - so we're all very sad that this is Mathilde's last week with us! Luckily she doesn't live too far away, only an hour away which is not like most working students! so we'll still see her from time to time i'm sure!
Karen has healed from her accident, and the car crash seems so distant now it's almost like it never happened - apart from the fact that i don't have a car!
I have made major progress with Touria! We now do canter without fear of rodeo style bucking sprees! in the arena and on the trail, alone or in company! I even took her over her first jump with a rider the other day and it went so smoothly it was a complete non-event. And I've started riding her bareback back to the pasture after our sessions. It feels like we've really had a massive breakthrough - our relationship is better than ever and she is really understanding this being ridden business! I couldn't be more proud of her I'm sure!
I haven't done so much with Riva, she turned up a bit lame at the boot camp and we started her on some kind of injections into her joints. she's still not sound on a circle to the left but she's playing like crazy in the paddock paradise so i have decided to do SOMETHING with her. I have started teaching her zone 5 driving at the walk with short slow bits of trot. She got it amazingly fast and it seems like a good puzzle for her! And I have also started to pony her on trailrides, leading her from Paris. Not only does it reinforce her stick to me and give her a job, it gives a purpose to my bridleless riding with Paris, which has gone a tad bit rusty!
Gabi has been working with me to ride Seth again. He went lame for a while after i had my car accident and then i went on holiday so he had a long time off but now we're keen to really press forward with his education. He's such a smart cooky when his emotions don't get in the way of his brain! I do love playing with him, he's a great teacher!
And of course Paris - wow, that horse is the coolest! I have been doing fluid rein to build his confidence in the bit ready for doing the game of contact and it is really progressing. We've done a bit of freestyle jumping too. Online I have been improving our draw and drive because our yoyo was really awful, a real "old couples disease" issue! it's getting much better. and he is much more attentive and connected lately, i'm really enjoying this new depth to our relationship. he is literally just a cool dude now!
OK, now i'm going to deviate from my normally very horsey blog and get rather more personal!
WARNING: This Blog in very long and may contain extremely nauseatingly slushy stuff!!
I went home to go to my little sister's wedding. She has married a lovely bloke, absolutely the perfect guy for her - Congratulations Lizzie and Marco!
I knew going home would be fun and interesting - I didn't quite guess just how much! The short of it, for those of you who don't want to be stuck here reading my life story for ages, is that I found the man of my dreams (I warned you it was slushy)! I didn't expect this to happen whilst I was in France, but the story started much earlier, long long ago...
Once upon a time, when I was five years old in fact, I made friends with a boy at school called William. We were not
only best friends but each others only friend. We hung out at lunch times pretending to be all kinds of animals, Willl got me interested in dinosaurs and I got him to pretend to be a magical winged unicorn! We would swing from the braches of the willow tree and build giant birds nests out of the grass clippings. One day, when we were in year 5, we had an argument, it was pretty bad and
I didn't talk to Will for two weeks after, then he stopped trying to
talk to me and suddenly he was gone. I felt aweful like I was
responsible for him leaving the school or something. School was strange without Will, but I guess it was an imprtant part of me becoming who I am now. I learned to be even more independant. The other school kids had never been very nice to me but they were absolutely horrible to Will. When he left some of their attitude toward him was directed at me. I remember making the decision to not care what they thought of me anymore. For an 11 year old I was pretty mature I think!
Ten years later I went to the local tack shop to buy some horse stuff
with my mum and I saw him working there! I recognised him immediately
but was terrified that he would be angry with me. I told my mum and as soon as she remembered him (of course she had
known my only school friend!) she ran over and started asking him "do
you remember Cheryl?!" The strange thing is that my mum was a volunteer
for Riding for the Disabled Association and so was Will and they had gone
to an RDA quiz night and been on the same team but hadn't clicked that
they already knew each other from many years before. My sister, Tammy,
was born when I was 7 and later diagnosed with autism. Will's brother is
also autistic. Anyway, as soon as the penny dropped and he realised who
i was he was really happy to see me! he said we should go out and catch
up! so we swapped numbers and hung out a few times. We always had fun
but I had just broken up with my first boyfriend after a four year
relationship (getting all the details now aren't you?) and I turned down
Will's advances and things got a little awkward. The last time I saw
him was the day I randomly turned up on his door step to give him a
rabbit (as you do) that I had bought him as a present on impulse - yeah a
real rabbit, cos he's a magician! it was a white one.
then we didn't see or hear from each other at all for another five years.
of
course you know how I embarked on a spiritual journey after my
arrival in France (an ongoing journey) and friendship with Elvira. In around September, about
the time that I started having lessons with the missionaries I think, I suddenly
remembered my old school friend. I remembered that he really really
believed in God, but I did not know anything about what denomination or
anything. I guess I secretly hoped he was LDS ...
I sent him a Facebook friend request and soon we where chatting
online. mostly it was fun but we had a couple of less fun conversations
where we "discussed" some of the differences in our faiths. Will is a baptist. When I went
home in November for 10 days, I met Will. It was the day before I was
about to come back to France and we spent the whole day together. Will
came to the stables and then we went to his and he gave me a
demonstration of his budgie act (did I mention he trains budgies?). then
we had dinner with my family and Will let my mum drive his classic
Austin 1100 car (named Bertie, btw, and Bertie has his own facebook account). When it was time to say goodbye it was so hard. I
thought about Will all the time as I drove back to France. We would
occassionally chat on facebook but as pantomime season took off (Will
was one of the ugly stepsisters in the local amateur dramatics
production of Cinderella) Will went a bit cold with me, always just
responding to my "how's you?"'s with "busy". I was really
starting to wonder what was going on, had I upset him? Was he just a
jerk? Then at the end of January Marie-Claire invited me to stay at the
Plessis much longer. I was so happy and when I told Will his response
was "typical". I thought that was a bit odd for someone who seemingly
hadn't cared about talking to me. but from then on Will was much
chattier and our friendship was normal again. In March, Will convinced
me to download Skype. So glad I did. When we could talk face to face by
webcam it was so much better. we would chat for hours, Will would tell
me jokes and play songs on his ukulele singing lyrics he had made up. I
really missed him when we couldn't chat and was finding myself more and
more looking forward to skyping with him. He kept telling me not to love
him because he had already been hurt and did not want to be hurt by me.
But I couldn't help it, I was falling for him more and more but I just
kept it to myself. And I knew that he was falling too, it was like the
pair of us had no control over it, no matter how we tried to ignore it
or deny it. I tried to be rational and so did he. In the hours we spoke
we got to know eachother so well. The funny thing is that we are both so
much still the people we were as kids. we already knew so much about
each other, and we discovered just how much we have in common. I guess
it makes sense. We were so important to each other and spent so much
time together when we were at the point in our lives where we shape who
we are. And we shaped eachother. Unconsciously. I used to look forward
to the point in the conversation, usually around 1am, when things would
shift from joking and chatting to something deeper, more serious.
The poor girls here at the Plessis, they had to listen to me trying
to make sense of what was going on. I hope I wasn't too bad, I certainly
tried not to "go on" about anything too much. Maybe too much so...
We decided that we would meet up when I went home for my sister's
wedding. As soon as the decision had been made we were both looking
forward to it, counting down the weeks as they went by.
Will
came over to my mum's house the first evening I was home. We had a
lovely evening with my family and my friend Hayley. I went with Will to
his car to say good night, I think we were there almost two hours! He
showed of his diablo skills in the dark and I did my impression of Peter
Griifin from Family guy... I can't remember what I was saying when Will
interupted me and said "shut up and kiss me". My heart skipped a beat.
I'd wanted to kiss him for hours but I didn't want to put pressure on
him at all. He had been mending a broken heart, he didn't need me making
things harder for him. It might not be the most romantic thing anyone's
ever said (and he has said a lot of romantic stuff!) but it was
significant. It meant it was ok. It was ok for me to fall, I could let
go because he was falling with me!
We had our first kiss. All those years. All the talking. All the
silence. I'll never forget that kiss for as long as I live. soft,
gentle, magical. It felt like time had stopped but it hadn't and Will
gently reminded me he had to go, he had work in the morning and it was
about 1 am. Funny, always 1 am.
The next day I went with my Mum and Dave to the New Forest to pick
up Tammy from her school. We spent the night in a B&B. It was a
wonderful two days, Beautiful weather,beautiful landscape. I befriended a
few "wild" ponies, even tought one to pick up it's feet! We went to
Beaulieu National Motor Museum and I thought about how much Will would
love it. I missed him.
I got back home at 9pm, my phone battery had died in the new forest
so i charged it as soon as i got home and called Will to let him know he
could come over. He was tired from a long day of work, it was late and
we did not live so close to eachother. But I pointed out that I was not
in the UK for long, in a few days I'd be off to Italy for my sister;s
wedding, then i'd be going back to France. He would regret not coming
over. So Will came with his motorbike (gorgeous Royal Enfield Bullet)
and turned up in his leathers (oh I did like that!). We sat in my mum's
garden and chatted, it's amazing we always have stuff to talk about! We
opened up to each other, we shared everything. He told me how he had
been trying not to love me, that was the reason he had been "off" with
me in january, but he said he couldn't not love me.
We spent two and a half wonderful days together before I headed to
Italy with my family. Italy is beautiful and I was enjoying just being
on holiday with the people I love but i still really missed Will, of
course. So when I got a message from him saying he needed details of
where we were because he was coming(!) I was so excited I started
jumping up and down squeeling "eeeeeek" like one of those lame blond
girls from the american chick flicks.
Will arrived on the Friday and my family kindly took me to the
station to pick him up (not that they had much choice - I was about
ready to "steal" the hire car and go myself!). We arrived just in time. I
saw his train arriving at the platform across the rails and i ran down
the stairs through the underpass and up onto the right platform. I saw
him and his polka dot suitcase through the crowd and we headed toward
each other. Crazy italians just started to cross the rails! so we did
the same! it was so bizarre stepping off the platform onto the track!
Rather than head straight back to the hotel we decided to make the most
of being in a different town and went to the nearby beach. it was a
beautiful beach and the sea was so crystal clear and inviting. My legs
were still throbbing from the sun burn they got two days before and the
cool water was too much to resist. I had no swimming clothes with me so I
decided to wade into the water. I held my skirt up to keep it dry but a
particularly big wave got me soaked so I thought "oh well, i'm wet now"
and dived into the water, swimming and just literally wallowed in the happiness and freedom i felt right at that moment. We cuddled on the beach and spent the rest of our time in Italy virtually inseparable. We hired a pedello and went around town, walked for hours together, went to the beach, ate icecream, visited shops, went to dinner with my family, hung out at the local gay bar, even discovered some old beaten up pedellos in the police carpark.
Lizzie's wedding was the most beautiful and extravagant thing i have ever been to. The service itself took place in a little registry office, mostly in Italian. Lizzie's friends read a poem and it was a very personal affair. Most of the guests travelled up in a big coach to the hotel where the reception was being held. Us bridesmaids were going in mum's hire car and i kidnapped will and he came with us too. The hotel was at the top of a mountain, the next mountain had a giant statue of Jesus on top of it, like the one at Rio. The hotel was enormous, with the biggest marble lobby i have ever seen in my life. A champagne reception and entree buffet was served on the large poolside terrace and Lizzie and Marco arrived in a convertible VW beetle. They looked like a celebrity couple, so glamorous and beautiful, both of them. Already my feet were hurting in my heels and I was walking around barefoot. At least one of the other bridesmaids had the same problem and did the same. Lizzie whisked me away to help with finishing touched in the dining/dance hall. My jaw virtually hit the ground when I walked into a massive room of silver and white. It reminded me of the palace of the snow queen. Everything had been thought of, everyhting was just perfect. The table plan was made in acrylic and each name plaque had also been made to match! A very flashy and stylish affair.
Since Will had not been a planned guest at the wedding, he was placed at a different table, there were 10 courses and the gap between them was quite large so i would eat each course and then sit with Will until the next one arrived. We danced and laughed and Will played music with the band. It really was the best wedding I've ever been to - and I've been a bridesmaid 5 times now! At 3am the coach came to pick up all the guests and take them back to their respective hotels. As we waited for the coach driver I lay in the road with Lizzie's friends. We stared up at the stars singing "somewhere over the rainbow" whilst Will played the tune on his uke. The moon was virtually full and it filled the sky and reflected off the ocean as we made our way back down the mountain to our little seaside town. A perfect night.
The next day we went to Marco's parent's villa for a pool party to celebrate the Jubilee. I spent hours playing in the pool like a little child! it was so much fun! Will had an underwater camera and we had so much entertainment trying to film everyone diving into the pool. I'm the worst diver ever! i think i drank half the pool!
Our time in Italy quickly came to an end. I was starting to feel very sad about that because it meant my time with my family, and with Will, was coming to an end. On Friday I would be heading back to France. Will had to go back to work too so we made he most of the evenings we had left but before we knew it we were doing our best not to get too emotional as we said goodbye and I headed for the airport.
We skype EVERY day. Seriously, without Skype I don't know what I'd do... go insane probably!
Things are going very well and really right now, I am the happiest and luckiest person alive!
Will is visiting in three weeks, which given my current blogging track record, probably means it will be in the next blog i write! I'll keep you posted!
