Skip to main content

What dreams are made of...

It's Sunday evening again, and yet another weekend has passed in the blink of an eye. I have failed to get out on my bike, run or do a yoga class, but I have made at least of one of my children very, very happy. I guess that's an achievement in itself. 

The week passed very very slowly for Abi as she counted down the days to Saturday when she, Amanda and I were off to the other side of the country to pick up apparently the only available horse in the world. We started well, everyone up in time and raring to go, only for Amanda to ring and say that the gearbox on her van was bust - eek! Luckily it seems that everyone in the horse world is very kind, and one of the girls at Milligan's offered up her box instead. So poor Amanda had to hot foot it to Wivey to collect said box, and we met back at her house, only an hour and a half later than planned, to start or road trip. 

The Sat Nav said it was a 2 hour and 58 min journey. Of course the Sat Nav thought we would be doing the speed limit all the way...which we weren't. Luckily we had all day and we had snacks, so we sat back and trundled all the way to Leighton Buzzard in someone else's van, chatting happily. Despite the dreadful weather forecast it was bight sunshine and so it was a pretty easy drive. We stopped once, grabbed lunch and then hit the lanes where upon it felt like we were never going to get there. The roads got ever smaller and while I'm sure if you were in a car it was the best route - in a horsebox maybe not! Finally after 30 miles of narrow roads we arrived - a small field in the middle of nowhere. 

It was clear after about 3 hours of being in the van that she would have to only have 3 legs for us not to be taking her home. The vet report hadn't been so great (footsore after having had her shoes off a few weeks) so we had some minor concerns but it had been a long journey and she looked ok so we chatted to Hannah for half an hour or so before grabbing her 'wardrobe' and loading her up. She loaded really well but then had a bit of a paddy at the realisation that she was leaving her field friends and started to kick the box. We then went into overdrive , bundled up the doors and drove off with half a tonne of very unsettled horse in the back, down all those country lanes again.

The journey home was long but uneventful right until the last few miles when the heavens opened and the road conditions completely deteriorated. Just before Bridgwater Services in torrential rain and flooding surfaces a car in the outside lane aquaplaned in front of us, hit the central reservation and spun round, spraying water and car bits everywhere. Amanda was brilliant - pulled over to the hard shoulder without panicking and so missed all the debris (and the car that then pulled in front of us, nearly hitting our bonnet). We called 999, reported it and explained with a horse in the van we couldn't stop, and slowly carried on. Thank goodness we hadn't been going faster or been closer to the accident. 

We came off the motorway and did the last few miles as the skies cleared and after about 11 hours on the road, finally arrived at Nula's new home. We settled her and and went back to our respective homes, via flooded roads and police diversions!

This morning Abi was up bright and early and the whole day has been given over to Nula. She's been groomed, walked and nurtured. Everyone has been to see her and all agree she seems very lovely. She is very food oriented but that means give her a hay net and she's stand and do anything. I hope all this bodes well. Abi finally came home about 7:30pm and started to plan tomorrow. If noting else it's giving her focus! All that and Izzy loves her too - let's hope bringing her back to condition is a summer project for both of them!

Betty and Bertie 'helping' me cut
and collect thistles


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ypres

Walking around the lake in Ypres while waiting for the rugby to finish! A wet Monday evening after a lovely long weekend away in Ypres - just the two of us and just what I needed after what has been a relatively stressful few months of decision making. The decision is now made however and on Monday I resigned my job in order to join a new company in January. This will be the same role, but a company that hopefully offers more long term stability than my current one. It's been hard going through the initial round of telling people.Despite only being there for 7 months I've made some good friends and very quickly become established and everybody who I've told has been happy for me but very sad that I'm going - it hasn't made it easy. I do feel like I've been through the mill a bit this year - what with leaving EY, ramping up to a big new role, finding out it probably didn't have the longevity I was looking for and then going through the process of finding ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cough, cough

Izzy - can't do a photo without rude finger gestures It's fair to say that the last couple of weeks have been rough. I managed to get the cough Mum had a while back and it has been horrible! Both Dad and Glenn seemed to get a very mild version of it but Mum and I got the full dose and I can safely say that it has been a stark reminder of just how bad a viral infection can be. It also illustrates the whole Covid experience - some get it worse than others. For me it has meant that for over 2 weeks I have had the worst cough which has left me unable to sleep properly. I still can't sleep lying down fully, and have to be propped up on pillows on my back which is not my favoured sleeping position! It has also meant that Glenn has spent the last 10 days in the spare room because I have been coughing so badly he is unable to sleep in the same room. Thank goodness we didn't all have it - we'd have shaken the house to its foundations! It has also meant that I have been exhau...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sunny days

As we stare down the barrel of a second national lockdown I'm not ashamed to report that I'm feeling pretty angry about the whole thing. So much for 'world beating test and trace' systems and the ability to get super granular with the way in which we respond to coronavirus. I get the fact that nationally we are seeing rates of infection and (apparently) hospital numbers rising, but the data says that in our neck of the woods we have 3(3!) cases per 100,000 people and so I cannot see why we should have to lockdown in the same way that Bolton needs to when their rates are at 190! The average for England is 16 so surely we aren't at a point where we need to take the same approach everywhere? Part of the reason I'm ranting so much is that after 2 weeks back at school I'm finally getting my Izzy back again. She has thrived with the social interactions school gives her and (although she complains about it) has loved being back. Instead of the morose, withdrawn gir...
Post a Comment
Read more