And there I was…

… in the A&E department in hospital. Carefully holding my left wrist with my right hand, hoping the pain killers the GP had given me would kick in soon. I gave the ‘letter of recommendation’ the GP had also given me to the nurse behind the ‘Welcome To A&E, Make Yourself Comfortable, This May Take A While’ desk.
Actually, the sign above the desk just said ‘Reception’.

‘Please don’t drink or eat anything’, the nurse encouragingly said, ‘in case you’ll need an operation.’

That morning I’d fallen off my young horse. She didn’t mean to throw me off, she simply made a silly jump sideways, pretending to be startled by something and I simply forgot rule 1 of horse riding: keep one leg on each side of the horse, soles of your feet pointing towards the floor. Before I knew it, I had made a lovely butt-shaped indentation in the sand and the soles of my feet pointed towards the sky. All of me was fine, except my left wrist. That hurt a bit, but I remounted and rode for another 10 minutes or so. I then brought the horses to the field, gave coffee to a visiting friend, decided not to muck out the stables because of the sore wrist and took a book from the pile of books waiting to be read. It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny, so I tried to relax a bit. The wrist started to look alarmingly blue with strange swellings. I wrapped it in an elastic bandage and waited until hubs came home that evening.

He decided that I needed to ‘go see the doctor’. The doctor decided I needed to go to hospital, so hubs dropped me off there and went home to take care of the Brinkbeest-zoo and muck out the stables. ‘I’ll call you when I’m done here’, I said and there I was, in the A&E department in hospital.

It was the night of the semi-finals of the Eurovision Song Contest. For those of you who are not familiar with this annual event, each country that’s a member of the EBU-UER (don’t ask, I never heard of the EBU-UER, until I just tried to find out which countries can enter in the Eurovision Song Contest) chooses a singer or a band and a song to send to the contest, every country gets to vote and the one with the most votes wins (gosh, really?). Now, in recent years the country with the weirdest act has won, so almost all the other countries thought ‘we have to send weird acts too’, which made the whole event even weirder than it already was. And not weird in a good way. Just weird in a weird way.
The A&E waiting room has a television and someone had decided that we should watch the semi-finals of the Eurovision Song Contest. As if we weren’t suffering enough.

This was the Dutch entry in 2012. She didn’t go through to the final. I wonder why not (not).

And then there was the Irish act:

The Russian grannies came second in the final:

Actually, I believe Sweden won with a really decent song. So perhaps next year other countries will send decent singers to the contest too. Whatever. I don’t really care. If it had been an evening at home, I’d have never watched this. But I had to.

The other entertainment while waiting for my X-rays to be taken was provided by a loud woman who had brought a louder friend and four even louder kids to the A&E. The loud woman was in a wheelchair and the louder friend parked her in the waiting room and flipflopped (nice weather remember?) away to take care of the administrative side of things, while the kids flipflopped to the coffee and tea-corner and tried to get third-degree burns by making themselves tea (tea and coffee are free for the people waiting in A&E, but they serve hot water for tea and coffee in those large thermos flasks, under which you have to hold a plastic cup with one hand while pressing the top with the other hand, which even if I was allowed to drink something I couldn’t do because of the probably broken wrist. Still… a dry mouth wasn’t the worst of my problems.)

The loud woman sat in her wheelchair in the middle of the waiting room and grabbed her mobile. She started to call the first person on her list: ‘HI, IT’S ME, YOU’LL NEVER GUESS WHERE I AM. I’M IN HOSPITAL. H O S P I T A L!! YES. I KNOW!
I’LL TELL YOU. I WAS CYCLING HOME AND CAME PAST THAT POND, YOU KNOW THE ONE, NEAR MY HOUSE, AND THERE WAS A SWAN AND IT FLEW UP JUST AS I PASSED AND TO AVOID IT I HAD TO MAKE A STRANGE MANOUVRE AND I FELL. AND NOW I HAVE A REALLY SORE KNEE. IT’S IN A BANDAGE. I’M IN A WHEELCHAIR. YEAH. … (name of friend) BROUGHT ME TO THE A&E AND NOW THEY ARE GOING TO TAKE X-RAYS. YEAH.. OKAY… BYE

She put down her phone. A collective sigh of relief went through the waiting room.

Then she took up her phone again and phoned the second person on her list: ‘HI, IT’S ME, YOU’LL NEVER GUESS WHERE I AM….

And we all had to hear the whole story again.

By the time she called the third person to tell where she was, I and some of the other people waiting mumbled ‘swan, flew up, fell down, hurt knee, blablabla’ and we collectively sighed again. The mad woman telephoned at least 8 people and repeated the whole story VERY LOUDLY!!!!
I swear, if I had had the use of both of my hands, she’d no longer be alive. But then again, I wouldn’t have been in hospital either.

While mad woman was informing everyone where she was and why, her friend flipflopped into the waiting room again. ‘HERE!!!’, she shouted towards the kids, who had managed to survive the tea-making-adventure with only minor burns, ‘GO FIND SOMETHING TO PLAY WITH. THERE ARE TOYS IN THAT CORNER. WE’LL BE HERE FOR A WHILE!!!’

‘HEY, GUYS, IT’S THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST!’, loud woman shouted towards her friend and the kids. ‘PUT ME IN FRONT OF THE TELLY AND GET SOME CHAIRS. WE’LL WATCH IT TOGETHER. IT’S FUN!! OUR INDIAN HAS A CATCHY SONG! I KNOW ALL THE WORDS!!! I CAN’T HELP SINGING ALONG WHEN IT’S ON THE RADIO!!!’ And towards some other people in the waiting room: ‘DON’T YOU LOVE THE SONG CONTEST? I LOVE IT! I’M GOING TO SING ALONG!’ The people smiled and nodded. Rule 1 when dealing with idiots, try not to upset them. ‘CAN SOMEONE PUT THE VOLUME UP?!’

‘Oh God’, I moaned.
’Is your arm very painful?’, the man sitting next to me asked concerned.
’Yep, that too’, I smiled.
’Oh’, he understood, ‘They are rather loud aren’t they.’
We leaned back in our chairs and tried to not be there.

Finally it was my turn to get the arm X-rayed and to see a doctor and then the arm was put in plaster and then I phoned hubs and then he came to get me out of there. Hooray!

Broken

my wrist that is. can’t be bothered with capitals since i’m typing with 2 fingers of my right hand now. the other hand is neatly wrapped up in plaster. only a plaster splint for now to allow space for swelling and then next week they’ll fit me with a nice coloured plaster (i’m thinking orange because of the olympics which i like watching and it will also make me very popular with people who love football/soccer, which i don’t care about at all, but that information will be purely given out on a need-to-know-basis). i will have to wear that for 6 weeks and if not all is well by then i can choose another (or the same) colour for another 6 weeks. apparently i broke a tiny bone with a long name that has a reputation for being a bad healer. fingers crossed it will behave in my wrist.

so. that is why i will have one white and one brown arm at the end of summer.

will have to do what petje does best, just relax and enjoy the sun.

Something blogworthy happened…

…and now I can only type with one hand and don’t have the patience to type the entire short story. So I’ll make it even shorter. I made a lovely butt shaped indentation in the sand again (2nd time involuntary descent from young and incredibly-quick-turn-around Evie) and also a lovely hand shaped one. Must have done, because my wrist hurts like hell. Can’t really remember how I landed. The rest of me is fine, I did climb up and rode her further for a while. Went well. But now ouch.

So… i’ll just keep posting photos here and on my photoblog (see link at bottom of this page).

Something blogworthy turned out to be something shit. Sorry if you’re offended by my language.

I’ll make it up to you with this photo of Biggles and Mozes. Best friends.

Sunday Selections: the nap time edition no. 3

This is the last nap time edition. They are still cute (of course they are), but by now it’s beginning to get a bit booooooring to watch animals sleep.

Sunday Selections is hosted by Kim from Frogpondsrock and gives us the opportunity to finally post those photos that have been hanging around in folders on our computers for ages.

21 year old Bengeltje

 

Holle and Mozes

 

Evie, two days old and all legs

 

Sunday Selections: another love edition

Last week I chose LOVE as a theme, because our Sunday Selections host Kim from Frogpondsrock’s daughter just got married. I found so many LOVEly photos in my files that I had enough for another LOVE edition.

So, here they are:

 

A LOVEly meeting between dog and foal. (They still are attracted to each other. Holle (dog) often licks Evie’s nose. Awww.)

 

The love between Naloma and Evie.

 

Our lovely Holle.

 

Hubs and Evie having an intimate get together.

 

This is just weird.

 

I really don’t love, or even like, my photo being taken. In fact, I don’t even want to look at photos of myself. But this self-portrait I could almost love. Should have cleaned the window though, before I took this shot.

 

Naloma loves being hugged. And no, she doesn’t have 7 legs and two tails.

 

Synchronized love.

 

Yep, there is the ‘horse kisser’ again. He loves (kissing) his horses.

 

They love each other and I know that our Sunday Selections host, Kim from Frogpondsrock, loves them.

On the search for these LOVEly photos, I found a lot of photos that will fit another theme next week. Be prepared for lots of chuckles and awwws.

Training Evie and other horse related news

Evie is 2 and a half years old now. We’re slowly preparing her for her future career as a well-behaved riding horse (hopefully). Our trainer/friend thought that today was the perfect day to put a saddle on her for the very first time. We’re not going to ride her yet, she’s far too young, but letting her get acquainted with the equipment is an important step towards that.

Having a saddle on your back and a girth around your belly is quite an event for such a young horse. We’ve been lunging her, so she’s used to that, and she’s also used to the bridle and a double-jointed snaffle/bit (?) . But you never know how a young horse reacts to the saddle. So, there I was, well out of the way with iPod at the ready to shoot some exciting footage of Evie reacting to the saddle.

And here it is, the blockbuster movie of the future. Just a couple of warnings before you watch it:

- it is a very exciting movie, so make sure you’ve taken your pills (actually, nothing exciting happens, it is the most boring movie ever. And long!)
- my voice is back and you will hear it (when trainer/friend shuts up for a moment ), but you probably won’t understand what I’m saying, since most of it is Dutch. And since what I’m saying didn’t make any sense in the first place, you’re not missing anything important.

TRAINING EVIE

putting a saddle on Evie for the first time

We’re very proud of our not so little girl. She’s behaving very well.
Don’t look at her fat belly. She’s had a bit too much to eat the last couple of days. And she is a woman. You know how it is with women. One bite too many and immediately we put on pounds. Fortunately for her, Evie is one of those girls who loses those pounds faster than you can say ‘diet’. If I didn’t love her so much, I’d hate her.

 

Other horse related news:

I’ve started yet another blog. It is called: de andere paardenfoto. Which is Dutch for ‘a different horse-photo’ or for ‘horse-photo with a difference’. It is a Dutch blog and I’ve started it with the aim of trying to get people enthusiastic enough to hire me for a photo-shoot of (them and) their horse(s). Who knows what it will lead to. You never know how a cow catches a hare. I’ve only just started it yesterday, and I’m almost continuously adding photos to it, but perhaps you’d like to take a look over there and scroll down to see what I call ‘de andere paardenfoto’. Please let me know what you think (be honest, but gentle).

Sunday Selections

Sunday Selections is hosted by Kim from Frogpondsrock and is the perfect opportunity to post those photos that are otherwise hanging around aimlessly in folders on your computer.

HEADS UP

So, last week I posted their bottoms, and today I’m posting their other ends. Their heads. Well, I tried, but some just didn’t want to look at the little birdie.

Like that middle cow. Stubborn thing.

 

And this is the other end of Mozes. He’s probably looking at another little birdie.

 

Mozes and Biggles putting their heads together.

 

The Biggles Face

 

You’re not photographing my bum again are you?

 

Yeah (snigger), but I’m also making some shots of your beautiful head.

 

Hullo?! What’s that big bum doing there? The chickens are fascinated by this particular posterior too (Too? What do I mean: ‘too’. I’m not. No, honestly. I’m not!)

Now I have to post a photo of his head too.

And of that of his little ‘brother’. Ugly, but nice. (Tumtum is the one in front, Nufnuf is… well… looking at Tumtum’s bum. Are we all posterior-obsessed here?)

THE FRONT END

All About Evie

It's hubs' birthday today and I made this as a present. Well, obviously he has the live version of this book. He's pretty chuffed with it. It's all about Evie's first year and there are some really nice photos in it. You can view the entire book by clicking on the link below (hehe, you can even buy the book if you want. Please do. It's a hideous amount of money, but well worth it if you want to follow Evie from her birth at April 8, 2009 to her first birthday. But I guess it's for a niche market *sigh*). For a full page view, click on the four arrows in the bottom right and click on it again if you want to return to the smaller size. Be warned though. There are a lot of pages. A lot! But most of them are worth a look.

Okay, I'm biased.

Evie by Carolina Brinkman | Make Your Own Book

Sunday Selections

 

Bottoms

My Sunday Selections (hosted by Kim from Frogpondsrock and a really good excuse to post those photos that are sort of aimlessly hanging around in your computer somewhere) is all about bottoms this week. Perhaps it’s only fair that I’ll dedicate the next Sunday Selections to the other ends of these animals; their lovely faces. Although I don’t have a photo of the last one’s face. For some reason it kept running away from me.

 

 

 

  

THE END

Sunday Selections

Some time ago I decided that I wouldn’t join memes anymore, because: a) it takes so much time to visit everyone else on the list and b) it started to feel like too much pressure to come up with something original every week, but then I visited Jay at the Depp Effect and she joined this great new meme: Sunday Selections. A meme, started by Kim over at Frogpondsrock, that ‘allows’ you to post those photos that have been sitting in folders on your computer, doing nothing. Waiting for an opportunity to be shared with others.

Now, I think this is a wonderful excuse to bore you with more of my photos, so I’ve decided to join this meme.

You see: my best photos, or the photos that I consider to be my best up till now (because I haven’t taken my best photo yet; I haven’t even taken a really good one yet, but as long as there is life there is hope) I put up on my photo blog (link can be found at the bottom of this blog). Photos that can illustrate a story or just seem to be suitable for my ‘normal’ (using the term ‘normal’ very loosely here) blog I put up here. And yet there are more photos I don’t want to throw away, but that are not suited for posting either. Unless there is a really good reason. And this meme is a good reason. So… here they are: photos that did not have a purpose until now. If that isn’t a happy ending… Or a happy beginning?

Evie & Willem

Naloma

Don’t worry, they won’t all be horsey photos. Just wanted to get these ones of our horses ‘of my chest’ so to speak.

So, if you have folders full of photos on your computer and haven’t found a good excuse to post them yet, here’s your chance: visit Frogpondsrock and join Sunday Selections.

Evies collection of funny faces

 

I’ve published these photos of Evie, doing her camel-impressions when she was just a couple of months old, before. But I think they are cute and I have some new friends who probably haven’t seen them. And since a lot of you enjoyed Naloma’s funny faces in the previous post, I thought you might enjoy to see these ones of her daughter (again).

 

Hard to believe that the ugly duckling above turned out into this pretty 1 1/2 year old filly.
Well I think she’s pretty anyway. But I’m biased

I’m probably going to bother you with more reruns of funny Evie photos this week, I have lots, unless something happens that is interesting enough to blog about. Who knows?

Boost

 

Leaving Blogworld unannounced for a couple of weeks is really very good for your self-esteem. I can highly recommend it. All your beloved Blogfriends tell you how much they miss you. It’s good to know that you mean something to them. Whatever it is.
(Just between you and me, that’s why I disappear now and again. I need a confidence-boost from time to time. But don’t tell anyone. They might just stop caring.)

(Actually, that’s a lie. What I told you yesterday is the truth. Honest!)

So, what’s been happening while I was neither here nor there. I mean, I was here but not hére. And from my point of view I’m never there. Not even always here. Are you still following? Good for you! I’ve lost the plot totally. Where was I? Oh yes, I wasn’t here, nor there, but here. And what happened here? Not much.

Main event: Evie had a colic. God knows why. She’s alright now, but I can’t for the life of me think of a reason why she suddenly was constipated. We are always careful about what we feed the horses (their intestines are very sensitive to variations in their diet). As soon as I noticed something was wrong I gave her a dose of Colosan (sadly not known in other parts of the world as a medicine for horses with a tummy ache), which usually does the trick within 10 minutes or so but this time it didn’t work. So the vet came and gave her an injection to ease the pain and get her system working again. Vet even tried to do an internal examination, but poor Evie was highly surprised someone tried to push an arm into her… erm… arse. She didn’t agree with such impertinent behaviour and made that very clear to vet and me. She didn’t kick, but jumped around a lot and tried to stand on her hind legs, which you can imagine isn’t funny if you have your arm somewhere up there. (Well, it is funny to watch if you are an innocent bystander perhaps.) So vet abandoned the idea and said: “I’ll just give her the injection then…”, and that worked. Non-horsey-people probably don’t understand why you’re doing a happy dance when you see a pile of your horse’s poo.

We also did some obstacle training when I wasn’t in Blogworld. Horses sometimes consider the most normal things to be horribly scary, so it’s important to show them that not everything is as frightening as it may seem. An umbrella for instance makes Naloma snort like a pig. She does that when she doesn’t trust something. I know. It’s weird. She’s weird. I’ve done ‘umbrella-training’ before and it took Willem about 2 minutes to destroy the umbrella I dropped in the paddock. He isn’t scared of anything. He picked it up, shook it, dropped it and stood on it. Dead umbrella. Naloma however… totally different story. Her first reaction is WHAAAAAAAA SNORT. Her second reaction is SNORT and keeping a safe distance from the weird object. I did some work with her and eventually she dared to touch the umbrella, but she still wasn’t convinced the thing didn’t want to attack her.

So I thought I’d introduce an umbrella to Evie. She had much the same reaction as Willem, but the umbrella survived this time.

Then we introduced a sheet of plastic and tried to make them walk over it.
Willem didn’t care. He didn’t even raise an eyebrow. So no problem there.

Evie thought it was an exciting thing, but she’s very curious so she couldn’t keep her distance for long. She walked over it in no time and when we let her do her own thing….

…she tried to eat it. Not a good idea. We saved the plastic (and Evie) and…

…then we introduced the plastic to Naloma. She snorted a lot…

…but about half a bucket of treats later…

…she accidentally put one foot on it, which she regretted soon afterwards…

Don’t you just love her?

Eventually she walked over the plastic a couple of times, after I took over from hubs, but there is no photographic proof, because I’m silly and rather not have my photo taken. 

So my lovelies… that’s about it for today. I’m off to rake up the leaves. I love Autumn for its light and beautiful colours, but all those dropping leaves… Can do without that!