You Scratch My Back...

... and I'll try to take a chunk out of yours.

What started out as a nice little cuddling session with the boys turned into a bit of a rough and tumble.

Starting to get a bit heavy with the teeth...

And before I knew it I was nearly being lifted up in the air...



Luckily, or so he thought, Kris was there to get photographic evidence of the mischief

But fortunately all it took was a bit of a telling off and suddenly we were on our best behavoiur again...



And that's the picture we'll use...

What a Week

After a disappointing first exam where I for some reason couldn't remember a thing - I really started to worry when it took me several minutes to work out what date it was - the micro exam went quite well.

My memory has worried me a bit recently, surely it is not normal to not remember what you did yesterday or read two minutes ago. The really annoying thing was that I had prepared so much for this exam and been so focused. So I was pretty down on Monday night after producing only a fraction of what I actually knew.

But then things were sort of put into perspective when I collapsed on Tuesday morning.

Spending hours and hours in the emergency room waiting for them to try and figure out what the heck was wrong with me somewhat ruined the run up to the micro exam, but got me thinking that there are much worse things in life than underperforming on an exam.

Luckily they didn't find anything seriously wrong with me, and after seeing a specialist on Wednesday I was sent home reassured that as far as they could see I would live to see quite a few more exams.

So this left me with just over 24 hours to prepare for the micro. Not ideal, but somewhat I managed to cram in the main models this time, and reproduce it on Friday.

As expected we got the neoclassical farm household model, and after spending Thursday rewriting it again and again on this whiteboard it somewhat stuck.

Another Season Ahead

Spring is definitely here, the new hedges have arrived and Richie is ready for some action.

He came third in a flat race the other week and is racing again next Thursday. First time out on grass 2000 m on the flat.

On Wednesday Rene schooled him over the new fake hedges for the first time and apparently he really took a pull and jumped well. I couldn't be there as was preparing for my last exam this spring, but there's picture evidence...



The Easyfix hedges are meant to be maintenance free and apparently they don't flip over so we'll avoid situations like this. But the brush is quite short so the danger is that they'll hit it if they're not careful. And then this could happen.

Not sure whether I am looking forward to the jump season or not really...

Fridge Fashion

The coolest fridge in town lives with my cousin up town. It turns out he is rather into his design stuff... Who would have thought?!?

That's My Girls

Just have to say that I was actually quite impressed with the girls today. Some of them improved their dressage by nearly 8 percent from two weeks ago, and nearly all improved their score.

Admittedly it was pretty bad last time, but I felt kind of proud seeing some of them using the tips and hints I gave them on Friday and clocking up the points.

It was particularly nice that this one girl I fought for at the selection was placed today. She was a bit anonymous and quite stiff in her shoulders, but for some reason I felt she would be a good one to work with.

Just three weeks into the program she is showing some real improvement already, and it felt really good to see today that my gut feeling was right.

Some of the others still worry me a bit, but all in all they are a really nice group. I suppose some of them just need a bit more time.

Besides all but two got around the SJ yesterday, which was a bit of an achievement after half the group was eliminated after three refusals last time!

One Week to Go

With just over one week until my first exam I find that panic is starting to stir under the surface.


I have absolutely no idea how I am going to make my brain remember it all. Think I might have a little look in my sports psychology book right now, I think it has a chapter on how to perform under pressure.


I think what is making me extra tense is that this exam is on the stuff that I really like, so hence I really want to do well.


I went to a breakfast meeting the other week where the Foreign Minister was speaking and listening to him I suddenly realised just how much I am enjoying learning and trying to understand the world.


And as I've probably mentioned before, if he can find a way to write a flippin book before going to "work" in the morning I really just need to get it together with my shit.

The Foreign Minister telling us about Norway's foreign policy.

Badminton Radio!

So I didn't make it to Badminton this year either.

Such a shame really as it is the absolute highlight of the eventing season. Must be more than 5 years now since the last time I went.

But you can imagine my joy when I realized that I could listen to Badminton Radio online. And to make it even greater they had Pammy Hutton and Carl Hester commentating the dressage all day.

Carl Hester is my all time favourite dressage rider and the only man to have kept his position on my nightstand for pretty much the last ten years. It's got to be said though that it is of course mainly due to the fact that he is riding my darling Laska in the picture. For obvious reasons he is not really the type to fancy, unless you are a boy of course. But truth be told I did for a little while sort of secretly hope that his former boyfriend might think better of it and decide he wanted to marry me instead. Luckily I was intelligent enough to understand that I didn't stand a hope in hell there...

Due to his brilliance in the saddle and extremely witty demeanour Carl has become somewhat of a dressage superstar in the UK. And listening to him today I remembered why.

Needless to say I decided to opt for home office today. I put the financial crisis and economic growth related issues to the side for a few hours and got a lot of other much needed stuff done whilst getting a much needed dosage of Carl's brilliance coming out of my very own computer.

Besides he and Pammy are a hilarious combination.

It was good to listen to someone like him who makes it all sound so easy. When I did my theory lecture on competing with the girls from the riding club this afternoon I felt really inspired.

Hopefully some of it rubbed off on them because they are competing this weekend, and truth be told they are in need of a bit of a miracle...

Mexican week...

I'm sure the canteen staff at the university regretted having picked just last week for a Mexican theme.

I certainly regretted walking all the way up there to be met by a sorry looking buffet with a serious image problem. So I eventually settled for a cup of coffee back at the Economics building instead.

Haven't had time to check what they're doing this week yet, but have a feeling it won't be pork...

On the Mend

After a few days on antibiotics and a few days of bandaging the leg was starting to look good and he was starting to stand still whilst being treated.


On Sunday I could clean it and replace the bandage without anyone holding him - without any protests.


He even did some posing for the camera afterwards...

What's Love Got to Do With It?!

I really don't know anymore. I wish I did, but I don't. What I do know though is that you've got to love Tina.

She was simply the best!!