Finally something worked out

I found a great place to work, finally.

The people are amazing, I'm working by myself for the most part and get left alone to do my own thing. Its a showing barn, they show young stock in hand, which is not of particular interest to me, but everything else is excellent. Its all about finding a place where you fit in.

I'm now in a borough of London called Barnet, which means I can walk to the tube station and go into downtown London and play tourist, which I did on my last day off when I saw the Tower of London. I've been meeting people here as well, the daughter of the woman I'm working for is approximately my age, and we've become friends so I have someone talk to, and to introduce me to people.

It all seems to have fallen into place.

Well that sucked

I am at my Dad's cousin Neil's house now, he came and picked me up yesterday after I quit my job working for one of the most miserable, gossipy people I have ever met. She found fault in everything I did, or if someone else did something and she thought that I did it, it was wrong too, although if she thought someone else did something that I had done it was alright, not fun to work for. She was constantly gossiping and bad mouthing people, most of whom were her clients or staff in front of other clients or staff and apparently she wanted me out, but not enough to ask me to leave, she decided to make me miserable enough to leave on my own, so I did.

Its really nice here, there are three horses in the garden and its great to be around people who actually want me here for a change, I think the worst things about Sue's was that it was so isolated and I didn't have any friends. I was working 10.5 hours a day 5.5 days a week but it had turned into two people doing the job of three so I was working 10.5 hours 5 days a week and then half an hour on my day off and a half day + half an hour on my half day off, so I couldn't really go anywhere on my day off because I had to be back for 9 o'clock to do the late night checks.

Oh well, its over, now I can relax for a few days and start looking for a new job, yay the adventure.

Manchester airport

Its 12.21 in Manchester as I start to write this while sitting in the train station attached to the Manchester airport, fortunately there is wireless internet, although plugs are distinctly lacking and battery power is slowly dwindling. It is 8.21 in the Maritimes and 7.21 Eastern time, which I am currently on since I flew out of Toronto yesterday and didn't really sleep much on the plane so I'm on the far end of exhausted and I still have 4 hours of train travel ahead of me before I get picked up, at least I'll be able to kill the jet lag in one day, which is fortunate because my first day of work is tomorrow.

The plane ride over was very smooth, just a slight bit of turbulance outside Liverpool, but it was neat to come over the city and see how the cities sort of blend into each other. Now I have to go catch my train, so hopefully I'll be able to update this soon with pictures of the countryside from the train.

Last day in Antigonish

Well its now officially my last day in Antigonish, probably for a long time. I came back for Dave and Leanne's wedding on Saturday and now that is over, it was a beautiful wedding and I'm glad I came back and got to see everyone and be there to see Dave, Leanne and Kyle looking so happy.

I spent most of Sunday with Evan and his family, we went to Cribbon's but didn't jump off the rocks because it was low tide and there was too much seaweed for Robyn and I to want to go near the rocks. We stayed in the water for a good half an hour, long enough to be shivering when I got out but it was very refreshing, especially after the summer in Calgary where there isn't really any water. I stayed for dinner where Anne and John made an excellent bbq smoked turkey and then we watched the Iron Chef which I had never seen.

The rest of the day was spent saying bye to people who I probably won't see again for a long time, if ever, which is something that seems to be happening quite often lately. I am not looking forward to leaving Antigonish in 11 hours, and I still have some people that I have to see so I guess I should get some sleep.

Last touristy thing in Calgary?

I went to the zoo yesterday, it was pretty nice as zoos go. It was something that I'd been wanting to do since I got here but hadn't made time for. I leave at really early on Sunday morning so now I have stuff to do up to my ears and probably no more time for touristy stuff.

This peahen was walking around the grounds at the zoo, she seemed to like the camera and came right up to me while I was taking her picture.

Unfortunately I have a pile of stuff to do to close up this house and I should stop putting it off.

I suppose I should explain myself ...

Since everyone keeps asking I was offered this job in England in May 2005 on the strength of a post I had put on a riders headhunting site one day when I was unhappy with the progress I was making towards my degree. I knew I was going to keep studying and indicated that in my advertisment so I couldn't believe it when I got this job offer. I was offered room and board plus 100 pounds a week for the job I'd always dreamed about. My job includes mucking stalls (I'm weird I know) riding ponies, teaching lessons and oh by the way they are paying for lessons for me as well as all testing in the BHS (British Horse Society) to get me my coaching certification, not a bad perk.

I am currently in Calgary where I spent the summer working at Eastside Mario's (don't work there if you're considering it, you can make the same amount in tips with much less work elsewhere) and living with Caitie, my friend from University. Calgary has been a blast, the food alone here is amazing, especially after Antigonish, there are so many choices, I think today I'll go to taste of Calgary, assuming I'm not going alone of course. Calgary is a beautiful city, I highly recommend that people visit here, there is so much to do and to eat.

While in Calgary I finally got the tattoo that I'd been wanting for 2 years, and now that its done I can't wait to get another one, I'm having to restrain myself because I don't want to get a random one for the sake of getting another tattoo. It didn't hurt nearly as much as I had expected, especially on my back which is rather bony, I figured it would be all I could do to sit still, but I didn't move once during the hour and a half that he worked on my back, I was so proud of myself! The weirdest feeling was the needle making my ribs and spine vibrate and occationally hiting a nerve and making a random part of my body twitch, toes and fingers most often.