What I Write About

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Life is Cruel

This morning the poor little baby giraffe died... The mother was refusing to let her drink, and they were having trouble bottle feeding her, after all she was 1.7 metres tall and weighed 60 kg when she was born.

I was actually on the verge of crying in the office when I read the news. I can't explain why, it's not as if I have a facination for giraffes or anything, but it was just something about her that got to me.

I swear it's old age that is making me go all soft.

In Is the New Out

Apparently staying in is the new going out, or so I'm led to believe. And frankly it couldn't suit me better.

With the temperatures creeping down below freezing I'd much rather spend the night in front of the fireplace at home than balance around town in heels and an outfit that is put together purely to hide the woollen underwear in a desperate attempt to stay alive.

So bring on the logs, candles, over-the-knee socks and woollen cardigans. I'm staying in - snuggled up in bed with... well, a few good books.

I'll be meeting the winter in company of Jeremy Clarkson, Lawrence Wright and Jan Egeland. I could do a lot worse I suppose.

He Sure Can Jump!

Back in the summer Richie actually raced in Sweden. There were hardly any suitable races here so Dad and the trainer took a little weekend trip and entered Richie for a jump race. The ground turned out to be rock hard and Richie never really got going so it wasn't particularly successful, but he did at least prove that he could jump... First this horse came along and went through the fence rather than over it...

The force of the horse hitting it made it flip around and it actually ended up upside down...

Richie came right behind it and proved that he might have a show jumping career ahead of him when he's done with racing... This just shows how sensible he is, because normally they brush right through the top of the fences, that's the whole point of it, but if he'd tried that here he would have fallen for sure...

'


I just love the look on his face - it looks like he's thinking "Shit, this is not what I signed up for!"

And he clears it beautifully. So what could have potentially been quite a dangerous situation actually looks really cool. I do love that little horse!

PS: These pictures have been blatantly nicked off the internet from a guy called Daniel Olsen... I do apologise...

WANTED: A decent jump jockey

About two weeks ago Richard raced in the final jump race of the season. Marcus was booked, the ground was surprisingly good and Richie looking better than ever. So realistically we were looking at at least being in the money if everything went by plan.

But of course it didn't. Once again bloody Marcus didn't show up. He'd got a few rides at Cheltenham. This time he did at least let us know, but it didn't help very much because where do you find a jump jockey around here?!

After calling every person we could think of in the UK and Scandinavia we were left with two choices: A Swedish girl who's name made the few people who had actually heard of her shake their heads and say 'no no no' and a 50 year old retired jump jockey who hadn't jump raced for years, but could do the weight.

A difficult one yes, but we landed on experience over uselessness. But as the race got away it became very clear that our man had lost his nerve somewhere on the other side of 50. He never got in the race, nearly fell off over the second last although Richie jumped perfectly and stayed well at the back even on the home straight.

So Richie came back looking like he'd been out for a walk in the park and the jockey jumped off and just walked away without saying a word. He knew as well as us.

And I don't blame him at all. At least he tried. And besides because he was so far at the back he made sure Richie went well clear of the carnage that took place at the last fence. The horse that won the other jump race a few weeks ago did what it usually does - totally failed to pick its feet up. This time the fence was flung up in the air and landed several meters ahead on top of the poor jockey's arm. He came away with just a bruise - but what a bruise! He could barely use his arm to pick up his pint later on...

So all in all I was quite happy with the outcome. But it is of course terribly annoying that a race where Richie should have been in the money was ruined by something so stupid, especialy since things have been going a bit wrong all season really.

Before I left the races I told Rene that he best just loose some weight before next season - we could sure do with a decent back-up rider.

Autumn Racing

Baby Giraffe

Isn't it adorable!? I can't help but love this little baby giraffe that was born in a zoo down south a week ago. It's had a really rough start to life, they had to put it on a drip and all sorts, but is now apparently doing okay.

For some reason it reminds me of Romantico when he was a baby - not entirely sure that is a good thing though. But it sure is really cute!