Giraffes and lions and broncs and bulls!

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Its been an interesting and slightly traumatic fortnight here in Themiddleofnowhere, Canterbury, NZ. Last Saturday Musa, from the old farm, and i took an extra day off (lots of pleading and begging!) to go to Orana Wildlife Park and the International Indoor Rodeo. It was ridiculously hot (around 36 degrees apparently!) and so the poor Pommie skin couldnt take it and i got VERY sunburnt across my shoulders. its a week and a half later and its still rather red and peely. But the park was ace - we followed the feeding schedule around the park and so got a good view fo just about everything. the cheetahs were a bit dissapointing as only one of them bothered to run after the bait, and then crashed into the fence at the other end, but the giraffes and lions were ace. If you get there early enough you can get an extra ticket to ride in the feeding truck with the lions. this is a metal cage on the back of a lorry which is driven right into the lion enclosure. in order to "stimulate" their natural feeding behaviour the lions have to chase the truck, and as soon as it stops they jump at or on the cage. sadly we didnt get there in time but we got to watch from the platform and taht was scary enough! one of the lions spent the whole time prowling around on the roof of the cage and poking its tongue and paws through the mesh, and the other three threw themselves into the sides and gripped on with their claws! the end was quite funny as they cant leave the enclosure until the lions get off, and they have been known to lie down and sleep on top! this time they took it in turns to jump on and off the top so the truck couldnt get out! The giraffes were ace - they have this huge viewing platform where you can feed them leaves (Musa tried to eat his branch while we were in the queue!). the male has to be separated coz he's a bit grumpy so he mooched at the edge and looked sulky. there were 2 or 3 young ones who were only just tall enough to reach the platform, but the adults werent shy and you had to hold on pretty tight to the branch because their tongues are so strong! they also quite like a neck scratch and i got some amazing pictures of the two of us with them. Musa also fell in love with the otters and wanted one as a pet, until the keeper explained that he was feeding them with a rake in his hand because sometimes they think they havent had enough fish so go for his ankles! they were pretty cute though.

In the evening we headed to the arena for the rodeo. Sandro and his wife and daughter were there, as i had bought their tickets, and so were a whole head of trainees, half of which were on the same row as us despite booking separately! Big boss Freddy was also there, without his tribe, moaning that they would only let him buy 2 beers at a time! neither of us had ever been to a rodeo before so were quite excited, and it didnt dissapoint. they had quite a few events, including saddle bronc (horse with saddle), bareback bronc (horse without saddle), women's barrel racing (racing around 3 barrels in a set formation as fast as you can) and bull riding (ridiculously scary!). Each ride has to last 8 seconds to count, and it was amazing that some of them even managed taht much, although a few got up to around 20 seconds. Our seats were right above the chutes so we could really clearly see the take off entry and there were quite a few mishaps. a couple of times the bull or bronc fell or lay down in the chute as the gate opened, and one bronc fell on top of the rider. he was knocked out cold and it was a bit worrying for a while but he woke up half way through the St John's guys putting him on a stretcher and apparenly he was fine in the end. there was a lot of whooping and yelling with the tumbles (including from me!) and a sea of cowboy hats. i quite fancy a go at barrel racing, once i finally learn to ride!

So after the interest and excitement came the trauma. As i may have mentioned, i get along well in general with my boss Dale but he hasnt had a day off since May so can be a bit tired and grumpy (he has a t-shirt to prove it!). Recently he has been getting worse, always grumbling about something and very hard to please. everyone has noticed it, even Gordon the AI technician, and we have all been walking on eggshells for a fortnight. On Monday both Sandro and Edwin were off, so Dale and I finished milking together and treated the sick cows together. Usually when the boys are working we have a fairly set routine which no-one talks about but everyone knows what to do, but when Dale is there he tends to do things differently and its hard to work out what to do. So i carried on as normal but he obviously thought i was doing things wrong and started rather angrily ordering me around telling me to do jobs in a different order. i duly complied but still managed to get it wrong in his eyes and so he yelled at me. Dale isnt the most patient or communicative of men at the best of times, so when i tried to explain what i was doing he wasnt interested and told me to just get on with it. i found this a little harsh, especially with the previous fortnight's grumpiness and outbursts, but took it on the chin and carried on. but then he decided to lay into me a little accusing me of 'cleaning like an old lady' and generally being lazy, and saying that i try to shirk cleaning by going to hose the yards (something i thought was part of cleaning!) and never washed down my apron (which is totally not true)! by this time i was beginning to feel upset and rather got-at, which he could tell, but he carried on, saying i wasnt to help the AI tech any more as it wasnt my job (even though he encouraged me to help in the first few weeks and it speeds up mating by nearly half an hour!). by then i had really had enough but he finally walked away and i finished off before going home for breakfast.

Sitting in my house in floods of tears, feeling very frustrated that he refused to listen to me and accused me of things that werent true, i decided that i really couldnt handle going back to work. i ummed and aahed for half an hour about what to do, but decided that as he wouldnt let me speak i had to do something definite to get his attention and show that i really wasnt happy with what was going on. so i had a shower, got changed and left the farm. when i got to the end of the road i texted Dale to say that i wasnt coming back until afternoon milking and briefly explained why. then i carried on driving. Dale tried to ring me but i ignored it (and i dont answer the phone while driving) but he left me a message saying that what i said was a load of sh*t and that he would make sure i wasnt paid for my time off. So i carried on going and eventually wound up at the internet cafe in Rakaia. During this time Dale must have called Freddy (next boss up) who then rang me. thankfully he was much more patient and understanding and allowed me to explain what had happened and about Dale's general mood recently. he was quite supportive and said he would call Dale and arrange a meeting to sort us out then ring back. over an hour passed and i needed to head back for milking but Freddy hadnt called so i went back anyway, to find that Dale had rearranged the milking and said i could have the rest of the day off. We didnt say anymore than that and i didnt protest as clearly he hadnt had enough time to cool off and want to talk.

so i went back home and texted Jo who leads my church house group. She is a new mum so always home so she invited me over for coffee, chocolate and a chat. so i spent the rest of the afternoon at her place. to start with i couldnt talk about it because i kept bursting into tears so we talked babies for a while and i got lots of cuddles with newborn Ethan and played with her older girls (Maddison, 5 and Caitlin, 3) in the garden. i stayed for tea and we ate lots of ice cream and chocolate biscuits and finally i felt good enough to talk. Her husband Paul is a dairy farmer so it was great to sit down with them and go through it with their perspective as farmers as well as supporting me as a friend. i felt a lot better about it afterwards and we prayed together before i went home. Freddy sent me a blank text half way through the afternoon but i didnt hear anything else from him. At home i texted Dale to check that i was back to milking the next day and then went to bed.

The next morning we carried on as normal and the boys were back to the routine went back to normal too. About midmorning Dale simply said that he didnt feel he was picking on me (not what i had accused him of) but that i had had a few slack days and needed to make more effort. he also said he was sorry if he had upset me and that generally i was going a very good job. i didnt really know what to say back so i just said ok. i wanted to say that i would appreciate it if he spoke more like that the rest of the time and gave me a chance to explain before telling me off, but i got the feeling that all of that had been relayed by Freddy. I was hugely relieved and thanking God that we had cleared the air and it was going to be ok, and since then it has been. Dale has just (finally) had 3 days off but i havent seen him since as i am off currently. But the few days before he went were fine and he generally seemed a lot more relaxed. Jo and Paul reminded me to pray for him and his stress levels and for the farm as a few things have gone wrong recently, and i determined to but more energy into my work. While Dale was gone Sandro has been in charge and it has been great. We have created a jobs board so no-one ends up doing nothing and we have got a lot done in a short amount of time. Sandro is so laid back compared to Dale it makes work so much better, even when we make mistakes. i made a major error, partly due to the language barrier and partly due to not listening properly, which ended up giving Sandro an extra half hour's work at the end of the day, but i went to his house that evening to apologise and he just smiled straight away and said no worries! it took me a lot longer to forgive myself!

So now i am back in Kaikoura (again!) going whale watching in the morning (again!) and hoping this time to actually see some whales - watch this space! the weather has been much better recently and they have seen lots of whales and dolphins etc in the last few days so i am very hopeful. Today i went up to Blenheim, another 2 hours north, to lay a memorial to childhood friend Adam Birdsey who died there in April. He was travelling in a campervan which hit a 4x4 towing a boat at a difficult junction. All the guys were injured but sadly Adam died. It felt really strange going to the spot several months later but i took along some stones from my garden to make a cairn and i bought a silk rose and fern in town to tie to the fence. I have never even been to a funeral so i didnt really know what to do or say, but i prayed for him and for his family and read some bible verses. The site is actually quite beautiful, with wineries on 3 sides and some tall trees on the other. the wineries have roses along the front and there is a paddock of sheep right beside it. A young tree is growing over the place i put the cairn. i still cant believe that he is gone and i have so many funny memories as us as kids, it all seems such a shame. i hope that i learn something from it all and that my tribute did him justice, he was such a kind, lovely guy.

Not to end on a downer, things are slowly progressing on the Oz front. i have emailed a few contacts and applied for ajob on a cattle station in Western Australia - they have over 1 million acres and at least 20,000 head of cattle at any one time. Lottie is coming over end of April til Mid May and the rents should make it end of May til mid June so that may limit my work time, but lots of holiday is all good by me! Friends also have contacts with a vet in Tazmania so i may head down there for some work experience too. Anyone else has any contacts, people willing to put me up in return for an honest days work etc please let me know! best head to bed, up early for the sake of the whales!

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