Weddings and Exams

I doubt that there are many people at Talygarn now that remember Lisa, she was a full time instructor here for 5 years about 9 years ago and a very good instructor too, She was Amelia’s first instructor and I remember her taking Amelia on her first cross country competition in the pairs. Unfortunately for us she moved down to Devon to be nearer her parents. Last weekend she got married to Alun. Amelia and I went to Devon for the reception in the evening. What do you buy as a wedding present for a couple who have their own house and have been together for a while. We decided that we would visit a garden centre when we arrived and buy something for the garden as they are both into gardening. We couldn’t find a garden centre but ended up at Homebase in Tiverton. Nothing in the gardening part caught our eye until we looked at the house plants and spotted a 3ft high cactus, looked like something out of a western. But we loved it after inquiring as to whether Homebase would exchange it if they really didn’t like it we decided to buy it. We had to put the roof down on the car as it wouldn’t fit in, thank goodness it wasn’t raining. It was only a short drive to Lisa’s but the soil blew everywhere. I must say Lisa looked somewhat surprised but Alun (who I am assuming was drunk) appeared to love it. It now has prime position in their lounge. What I want to know though is how long does it take to grow a cactus to 3ft. If it takes 10 years does some 10year old think to himself, ‘I’ll plant a load of those cause I’ll be rich when I’m 20′. I only paid £30 for it so theres not much profit margin and theres the soil and the pot to consider. There was a party at the guest house we stayed at for the landlady’s birthday so after the wedding we gatecrashed that and all in all had a good night. Driving back on Sunday evening. Wednesday Leigh was taking his Stage 3 at Warwick College. I was up at 4am to drive there. After picking him up and then coming back here to get his hat we left at about 5 and arrived there just before 8. The exam was scheduled to finish at 4.30 and spectators are not allowed so I spent the day at Warwickshire Castle. It cost me £3 to park and £17.95 to get in the castle I was gobsmacked I didn’t realise it was so expensive to visit a castle. Although I must say there were a few displays there and quite a bit to see. I returned to the exam centre in the afternoon and waited for Leigh. The riding section did not go well. The horse Leigh jumped was difficult and Leigh came off it, another girl in his group came off it twice and a third girl had a dirty stop on it. Consequently they weren’t allowed to continue into the cross country which means they will have failed the riding. I do tend to feel that its a little unfair when everyone has problems with a particular horse and maybe they should have been seen riding something else. I came off my jumping horse when I took may stage three and so did the other girl that rode it, we were both allowed to continue into the cross country and therefore felt we had an opportunity to redeem ourselves on another horse and we both passed. We won’t know the results of the care section for approx 10 days but ‘fingers crossed’. I have to add (cause Sharon insisted) that sharon stood in for Amelia and taught on the weekend and also covered for Leigh to be away for his exam. Next week Amelia Jo and Freya are taking their Stage 2 at Usk College.

Posted on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 1:06 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.