Brennig Jones (and friends)

The bank holiday weekend has vaporised quicker than an outgoing clutch of MPs can take their obscene payoffs and disappear, like thieves in the night…

Horse stuff first:
We seem to be on-course! Sunday’s show-jumping at Allenshill was very interesting. Tom had a fence down in the 90cm, but put in a storming double-clear in the 1m (1.10cm in the jump-off), to finish second against some stiff competition that included three speedster jumping ponies.

Yay! Go Tom!

He was less than angelic though, and showed an inclination to muck about if he wasn’t firmly guided around the track.

Our next British Eventing one-day event is the BE 90 (formerly BE Intro) on Sunday 11th April, down on Salisbury Plain, not far from Stonehenge.

The remainder of the week that falls between now and Sunday is mapped out with flatwork schooling almost every day, some cross-country schooling on Thursday, a show-jump training session with Owen on Friday afternoon and a run up the gallops on Saturday morning.

On Saturday afternoon Tom will be bathed, groomed, plaited-up and prettied to within an inch of his life, and his tack will be cleaned. While that’s going on I’ll drive down to Salisbury Plain to walk the cross-country course a couple of times – and drink hot chocolate and eat a chocolate fudge brownie, as a reward for all of that exercise!

The following day I’ll make the trip down to Salisbury Plain in the lorry with a freshly-scented Tom in the back. I’ll settle for getting around all three phases nicely!

The following weekend – Saturday 17th April – Tom will do an unaffiliated one-day event at Aston-le-Walls in Northamptonshire, with Sammi sitting in the hot seat.

Yesterday we fired off an entry for Broadway (1) in the BE 100 class – which used to be called Pre-Novice (or Pre-Nervous) – which is a step up the difficulty ladder. We think that giving Tom more complex things to think about will hopefully stop him mucking about.

Although Tom continues to show that he has the potential to be naughty – and therefore I’ve got to be very sharp and switched on to potential naughtiness every step of the way – he’s terrific fun to ride and a lovely person to be around.

Also, Tom does seem to have settled down in the two-weeks since our first one-day event (after which we changed his feeds!). Whether he stays settled down when we get to the one-day events remains to be seen.

In music news…
Yesterday I shuffled off in to Headington (correctly identified by roseski by the photograph of the shark in the roof in yesterday’s post) to interview the very talented singer, songwriter and all-round troubadour, Ben Walker.

Ben’s a lovely guy; he gave me coffee, an entertaining and informative interview and anecdotage.

It’s also worth visiting Ben’s website to read a very thoughtful response to the unacceptably-worded Digital Economy Bill that your MP is willing to see rushed in to law.

I need to edit the audio from the interview with Ben a little, but I’m hoping to use the audio content in either this weekend’s podcast or, failing that, next weekend’s.

And on a music/fashion-related topic…
Is it only me who is able to see the whole ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ aspect to the ridiculous news that Cheryl Cole has been voted The World’s Best Dressed Female Celebrity?

Really?

Has everyone out there who voted (or who even put her on the short-list) for this award, forgotten the stupidly-stiletto-booted, ridiculously-torn-trousers, weirdly-waisted, tits-barely-tied back, doorman-from-a-Cairo-brothel-circa-1951 look, that she adopted for the ‘Fight For This Love’ single?

Just in case you have forgotten how stupid this particular Emperor of New Clothes looked, here’s a reminder:

Seriously folks, best dressed? Someone, somewhere is really taking the piss out of you right now!

Travel news:
According to this article, the Lib Dems have set out plans to reopen thousands of miles of railway tracks and stations.

Congratulations. That’s half a step in the right direction.

That a major town like Witney, Oxfordshire (sitting MP, David Cameron – leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition) with a population of 23,000, has no rail link to anywhere in the UK at all, and is only connected to the national transport infrastructure via the almost-perpetually snarled up and choking-to-death *single carriageway* A40 (hereafter named ‘The Road Of Doom’) is a complete and utter fucking disgrace.

I did say that the Lib Dem idea is half a step in the right direction because – obviously – the whole step would be to include affordable train fares, not a penalty fare.

I would love to be able to catch the train in to London!

Meanwhile, in the North of England…
I had a surprise phone call from Conor and Mark yesterday. Was it really four-and-a-half years ago that I moved in to the house in Stretford, Manchester, with those two herberts?

The lads have invited me up to Manc for a boozy night out. The thought is both interesting and a little scary. But it was good to have a big catch-up on what’s going on in their lives, and what’s changed since we last saw each other.

They make me laugh, and that’s a good thing.

And in the ‘And Finally’ comedy round-up…
The statement from Conservative MP Chris Grayling that people who operate as Bed & Breakfast accommodation providers should be allowed to pick and choose who they allow to use their services is hilarious.

Needless to say, though, the majority of Daily Mail readers love Chris Grayling’s view.

If, as Mr Grayling has suggested, B&B owners would be allowed to put up signs like ‘No gays’, or ‘No blacks’, or ‘No Irish’, or ‘No Christians’ (you haven’t thought of that one, have you Mr Grayling?), I find myself looking forward to the prospect of a future Daily Mail campaign that castigates the owner of a B&B for putting up a ‘Muslims only’ sign (because you just know it will happen, don’t you?).

I also expect the future Daily Mail article will go on ask which total twunt of a bureaucrat allowed people to make such qualifying statements in the first place.

Step forward Chris Grayling MP, Shadow Home Secretary in Her Majesty’s Opposition and utter twat – and significantly backed by The Daily Mail’s readership.

You will note that I’ve avoided the logical point that if people choose to operate a business they must be bound by the legislative framework of the country, and that people choosing to operate a business in their home not mitigating against that legislative framework. Clearly this point of logic does not trouble Chris Grayling.

Twat.

So…
All in all it has been a fun bank holiday weekend. I’ve loved my time with the horses. I’ve loved my time with Sophie and I’ve loved the many laughs we’ve had together over the last four days.

There has been much mirth, copious cuddles and gallons of giggles.

It’s also been a time of catching up with old friends, a time of being outdoors and being active, a time of gossiping with the girls in the tack room over mugs of tea and a time of looking at my fellow man and wondering just how many branches of the stupid tree s/he managed to hit as s/he fell out.

See above.

How was yours? Did you – as Masher said he would – do bugger all? Or were you out and about too?