Horse Farm Diaries #4: a roomate (post from last week)

Still no car and my second day off turned into a sudden workday, which deprived me off the chance to go to Sydney and search for a car there. But it gave me the pleasure of a 4hrs ride with experienced riders from England and the chance to discover yet another creek I had not seen before. Lizzy took yet another German girl for a ride, there are heaps of German tourists up here, and usually Kathy lets me do all the rides with them. Maybe she thinks I am homesick or something, but it actually does no good to my developing skills in Australian vernacular. I got used to Anthony’s way of speaking and people start wondering where I am from because they cannot place my accent. Anthony actually brought not only beer to the fridge (grocery shopping in a car is much more comfortable), but also music to the place. Finally someone to do all the men’s jobs around the house: chucking the wood and lighting the fire, killing spiders and repairing the leaking tub. I haven’t shown you pictures of the actual house I live in because it is, to speak frankly, a shithole that is falling apart. It is pretty dirty, it smells for horses everywhere, there is horsehair around and the floors are actually sandy. I tried to sweep the floors with a broom since there is no vacuum cleaner, but it lasted not even half a day. At least I disinfected the kitchen and it is an excellent training for my immune system. Anyway, the tub in the bathtub was leaking, and by leaking I mean the water was actually running, which is not good when you are on tank water. So we had to switch of the pump the last two days to save water. I felt reminded of the good ol’ days in Münster when our bathroom was being renovated. But then, working with dirty horses all day it sucks not being able to wash your hand properly. To my relief, Anthony fixed it today, and I took a long refreshing shower.
Now I am sitting – clean and smelling nicely- This is my favorite place and I spend most this afternoon here in the sun, trying to regenerate the tan on my legs. Lizzy and I closed early since we had no more rides in the afternoon, got an ice-cream at the nearby Tearooms up the road, the only outpost of civilization I can walk to. Then we watched Anthony ride Jack, the 8year old quarter mix he broke in yesterday for the second time. Of course we did not do this exclusively out of interest, but since the horse is quite old for being broken in we expected a lot of buckling and eventually Anthony falling off since he deprived us of this satisfaction yesterday. Neither did he do it today. Nevertheless I filmed it and will try to upload it the next time I get a faster internet connection. Pretty cowboy-ish.
The evening activities are very limited and I am getting ever more bored. Last night’s highlight was catching a horse, Jack, who showed up on the other side of the fence of his paddock. Eventually we discovered that some gates were left open, but it was an exciting search in the pitch-dark night. The usual activities are limited to cooking, eating and watching movies.
It is Friday today, and it seems it is yet another weekend spent at home to come. My hope to get out of here to some nice rural pub with tough guys and lots of beer died when Anthony announced that Hilary, a girl that also works here, is coming over tonight. Since she has a boyfriend (the one that got “food-poisoned” after our beer-tasting session), I have to be the “Anstandswauwau”, which will eventually lead to getting fat fast food and watching yet another movie. Yay.