And Counting

And in a week from now, I'll be up in the air, sitting in seat 8F (I prefer to think of it as The Seat of F8 - geddit?). The trolleys will be working the aisles, dispensing coffee and early morning alcohol. I can't quite believe how well the whole airline travel with mobility equipment has gone. I thought that they would only carry wheelchairs, manual and powered, but not scooters. But it turns out that scooters can be carried too, and in fact, it's possible to bring 2 mobility devices, so in theory I could bring Rolley as well (hence the pimping last weekend). This is so progressive I was almost squealing with delight when I spoke to the disability desk at Continental airlines. The icing on the cake was when she told me that I don't need to book an airport wheelchair because I can have the scooter all the way up to the gate, and I'd have it back during the changeovers. I absolutely hate being pushed around, never mind who is doing it, I resent the lack of control over where I'm going and compound that with a sense of guilt that I'm getting heavier. Nonsense really, but I'm so much happier when I'm in charge - and not forgetting that the scooter goes at 8mph. I'm not going to keep doing this 'in a week...' thing for a whole week btw, because once the travel is done and I arrive at Flag is Up Farm, I have no idea what I'll be doing, it's all up to 8F. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A Week, A Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek eek

In a week, a week even, in ONE week from now I'll be packing bags and getting ready to leave for destination Monty Roberts and Flag is Up Farm, in genuinely sunny (i.e. not ironic) California. Oh yes. Really. When I went to Vegas I did some feeling of excitement and there was always the possibility of that parachute jump actually becoming scary enough to bother me, not that it did, but this trip is another thing altogether. This isn't 3 days in the most fake city in the World, staying in a hotel shaped liked a giant glossy black glass pyramid with 7,000 rooms and a beam of light out the top of it which can be seen from space (why? no idea) and all the quick fix, short-lived thrills of it all. I remember saying I'd never have chosen Vegas if I had the choice of any destination, a couple of weeks on a ranch in the countryside (but a really nice one where there wasn't any cruelty and they were nice to the animals and didn't do loads of killing) would have been more like it for me, though the experience of Vegas was not something to say no to, there's no way I'd have gone there deliberately (never mind the parachute jump). I certainly didn't think I'd end up actually winning a ranch holiday, never mind that it could be the home of Monty Roberts and his family. It would never have occurred to me to think that such a competition would be run, never mind that I'd win it. But both those things happened, so be careful what you wish for, be very careful and you might just get both what you want and what you need. Here's something to watch. I dug out an old VHS tape (so excuse the quality) of me doing my first Join-up, from around 1997. Kelly Marks is the voice in the background. I hadn't seen this myself for quite a few years and it was quite interesting to see how many ways I have changed since then. For a start there's the large prosthetic arm the 'Grypher' which I was wearing at the time, though I'm not really sure why I had it on for that task as it really only got in the way. I don't bother with prosthetics any more. I'm also much more mobile in the video than am now, I don't think I'd even started having problems with my feet, but I wouldn't be able to do that now, all that skipping and running around stuff. The other big difference is a few extra pounds that I'm carrying, linked somewhat to the decreasing mobility. Another thing I noticed is that even though I has spent hours and hours in the field with a long line, practising the throwing of it, I never actually needed to throw it or perhaps I didn't really feel confident that I could pull it back in whilst keeping the horse going. As it was, Kelly had to tell me several times to grab hold of the buckle as I was going to hit myself with it. I probably had hit myself with it a few times but not noticed because I was so intent on what I was doing. It does all make me wonder how I might be able to do it. Could it be done from the scooter? maybe, but how do I work the line when I need my hand to control the scooter. If I use Rolly - the rollator (which, by the way, I pimped up last weekend and got rid of the horrid granny burgundy red and sprayed it blue - finally) there might be a problem with the sand or flooring being too deep for it to work. The low tech option is to do it on feet/knees. The ultimate high tech would be a Segway conversion with big chunky wheels, and a device that looks like a kneeling stool so most of the weight is off my feet but also acts as steering device by leaning forward/backward to go/stop, lean left/right to turn. Now, if only there was a competition to win one of those.

Yes, it's real

Ever since my first post I've been ever so slightly holding my breath, just in case it didn't pan out. But as of Monday this week, I have confirmed plane tickets so I think I can finally start to believe it. I'm leaving on the 6th September - less than a month away. So before I go on, I'll just recap on some of the things that have happened since my first posting.

Well, competition-wise I've had a few nice prizes, including an action packed weekend in Carmarthenshire, staying on a 'Holiday Park', and visiting some great locations. The best of my pictures are on Flickr. I've had a few other things, including a giant knife and fork. They're are a carving set, but being a vegetarian I'm not much called upon to carve things. Nice sharp knife though. I like knives, especially big sharp shiny ones. I also had a nice DVD player with a box set of 41 Crossroads DVDs. Never did watch those DVDs yet. Too busy watching Monty's Online Uni (more on that later probably, because it's fab).

And then of course, there was the bizarre co-incidence of the horses moving in. Only a matter of days before the LWE arrived, four horses moved into the field. The field behind my house had been empty since Princess and Nelly moved on. Princess was my horse, a daft clever sort of a horse who came to me aged 2 1/2 with wonky feet. Nelly was her friend, left behind when her owner moved away. When I became incapable of managing them through the long winters - pushing wheelbarrows full of hay up slippery slopes one-handed, falling splat on my face on many occasions and having to break pond ice and haul buckets of water into their drinking trough with cold wet feet - I took the hard decision to let them go somewhere else to live. They ended up moving to a fantastic farm run by the Brothers and Sisters at Skanda Vale where they are part of a herd and will live out their lives without ever being hurt or treated with anything other than loving care. I thought I'd be able to go and visit them there (and i can if I want to) but I've not been able to do it. I think I'd want them back - ridiculous and impractical though that is. So after they went, the field stayed empty for a few years, needing the rest after several years intensive grazing and I didn't think I would be able to have horses in my life again. That wasn't completely the case because by this time I was getting more into photography and particularly like taking pictures of horses and other animals, (more horse pictures on Flickr)  Earlier this year I'd decided to try and tack it out so that it didn't get overgrown with weeds but hadn't done much about it. Then Sam and Alex turned up looking for a place for their horses to graze as they'd been stabled all winter. So they moved in,

Psyche	Elvis
Moon and Squirt	and Josie

A few weeks later, Dolly the sheep and Dave the other sheep moved in as well. I'll save the pictures of these rather remarkable sheep for another day - I for one have never met a 13 year old sheep before, never mind two.

So there I was with horses back in the field and even with the offer of some riding as they were preparing at the time for a 25 mile archaeological ride, documented in the Riding the Trod site. I started to think maybe horses were coming back into my life and then that LWE arrived.