'Ship of Dreams'

Oh yes here it is my little pet project! Designed to keep me quiet whilst I'm recovering.

OK so this is a 1:350 scale model of the ill fated liner R.M.S Titanic. It measures two and a half feet in length. Well if you are going to build the Titanic an itsy bitsy model just will not do, you need the biggest one out there! Oh and of course the most accurate historically.

So this first picture shows the hull completely untouched and exactly as it comes out of the box. Now I have never made a modle before so I am roaming into completely unchartered territory here...bit of a mans world thing this really.

So my first job wat to trim any rough edges from the moulding process and of course to admire all the little Portholes which are two sizes..0.8mm and 1.2mm as shown below....

OK so it's not the best picture I know but, you can see how many of the little devils there are. Now every single one of these needs to be drilled out and I work on the theory that if you are going to do something then do it properly. You can paint the hull with the portholes not drilled but, i figure that it's just not going to look the same...

Bear in mind that I am planning to import from the United States the Photo Etch (Brass!) Railings and benches for this thing.

So moving swiftly on, a good two and a half hours later and a lot of plastic dust. I finish drilling out all the Portholes in the Hull. No I did'nt count them. What I can tell you is that if you look at the photo of the bow and at the top layer shall we say, before the cut out section...you can just make out the Portholes of which there are 15, now work your way back to the clearly visible 16 Portholes below the windows, ok so I am guessing I drilled a lot of Portholes yesterday!!!!!

So here is the result of all that drilling. That's the bow seen from Port Side. I have assempled the base that comes with the model but, at this time I am currently thinking that if this comes out the way I want it to, then I think a better quality base will be needed. I have also been told that once complete a Plexi Glass case is in order as the thing is a dust magnet!

Hmmmmmmm......

The finished Hull, trimmed and drilled and now ready to be masked of to spray paint.....

Sitting on the supplied base that I will use as a working environment till completion. Hopefully today I will start preparing the deck ready for glueing.

The original Titanic never completed it's voyage..hopefully mine will.

2009 AQHA UK Hunter Under Saddle Championships

Well Finally, here it is the 2009 AQHA UK Amateur Hunter under Saddle Championship that has been the focus of my entire life!! I can not even describe or put in to words just how much qualifying for the Championships meant to me and of course to TC.

Two and a half years ago this horse was in pieces, Emaciated, Chronically lame with a condition called Laminitis that had been caused by continued trauma to his front feet. Sad fact is that all it would have taken to protect his feet and legs was 5 minutes..yep that's it...5 minutes to put a set of protective boots on...is that really so hard to do? That lack of boots resulted in horrific cracks to both front feet which resulted in the Laminitis and TC having to have metal plates screwed to his feet to hold them together. Starving him as a punishment was just downright cruel.

I have poured time, money, energy, blood, sweat and tears into that horse. You know what? it's worth every second and every penny and every tear. The road to recovery has been a rocky and emotional one. However, I think that we have arrived at a better place. It's always difficult to capture the mannerisms of a horse.

When TC arrived he was a state mentally and physically. Check out the photos in this Facebook album on his own page!!! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=64352&id=41550445778&l=91abd1afd6

The Photo's are in Chronological order and I have selected the 'best' ones although I use that term loosely!!

When I watch the video I don't see the placing, I don't see the fact that my idiot left leg was so useless (because of my health problems) I could not help him pick up the correct lead. A mistake that promptly ricocheted us to the bottom of the pile. That said we were not last we finished 5th (one was DQ'd). I don't even see the fact that he is still very novice.

What I do see is a horse that functions and is happy to do his work, a horse that is no longer crippled with pain but, is pain free and enjoying his life again. TC will never forget his treatment and on occasion has issues but, he does know that I will never treat him that way and that I always bring him food and water. He also knows that just for the hell of it I show up at his field and just spend time with him, that simple scratch and rub go along way to healing a troubled mind.

So enjoy with me 10 minutes of sheer pleasure and happiness as I sit up on top of my horse and, in my mind, the world and show that love does actually conquer all.

Bling, Bling, Bling!!!

It's here, It has arrived......

Just check out my latest piece of bling. This is the Buckle that I have for winning the Sean Dillon High Point this year.

The award was calculated over the four Fenland Shows that were held this year and presented to the Sean Dillon offspring that accumulated the most points. This of course was my own TC or Zero Turbo Charge!

Now I am just waiting to be able to get into some jeans so I can wear it....

Sometimes it all goes wrong....

OK so sometimes stuff is not as plain sailing as you thought it was going to be, and sometimes you just wonder why it's happening to you.

So here we are on the 22nd of October, some 25 days after my operation. I feel better, yes. Although I am now a couple of weeks behind in my recovery.

You see the op went smoothly as did the initial period in hospital (4 days) I came home on the Friday and all appeared to be OK until the Monday. That is when the pain started and other side effects, I just thought it was normal although the bleeding did prompt me to call the hospital ward to check. A few sleepless nights did not help either and the pain was increasing, eventually I ran out of painkillers and on Saturday it seemed to have subsided. To the point that a friend took me out for coffee and cake! Yummy! I then was picked up by them to go to tea at their house and had delicious home made Italian...I just love Italian food...I once made a Cannelloni from scratch!!

However, at 3am on Sunday morning I was in a mess, doubled over in pain and unable to sleep I felt terrible. I struggled on till morning but, to no avail, I could not walk, I was running a temperature and by 3pm I was unable to manage the pain. So I was rushed to the Hospital A & E.

They filled me full of Morphine and shuttled me over to a larger hospital where they had on call Gynae Doctors. I arrived there about 8.30pm and was put in a side room to await an examination. The morphine was wearing off...i was starting to hurt again. At 10.30 approx I was seen by a doctor who gave me a full exam and said I had an infection. I was admitted and finally settled on the ward by midnight.

Monday was a barrage of Canula's and tests. I was suffering from Low Blood Pressure and chronic Pain. They sent me for an Ultrasound Scan which showed an internal bleed and a collection of blood in my abdomen. The first threat of further surgery came...

My surgeon arrived on Tuesday and was very reluctant to put me back under the knife, he was reassuring and wonderful as he always is.

They pumped fluids in using an IV drip to try boost my blood pressure with bags of proteins. 48 hours later the blood pressure was normal. So on Wednesday they removed the canula. 6 hours later my blood pressure plummeted back down and they again contemplated further surgery, they set my status to 'Nil by Mouth' in case the theatre beckoned and again reinserted another canula in my left hand. More fluids......then my temperature shot up......running a fever my mother arrived to find me shaking under a sheet on the bed complaining of the cold.

Thursday morning and I felt much better but, oh so very tired....I slept most of the day and hardly got out of bed unless I needed the bathroom. Everywhere I went I took 'Dave' the Drip stand! Thursday night meant a brand new series of Scrubs! I owe JD, Turk and Elliot my sanity, they kept me smiling through the whole thing.

Friday they said I could go home but, they had found a second collection on my left side which is draining naturally...as long as I understood that this would bleed out at some point I was allowed home, I had to see the consultant on the Monday to check on me after the weekend. I did see him and I feel much better, nowhere near where I should be right now but, at least I feel better than I did.

So right now I look pretty awful and have some ground to cover recovery wise but, hopefully I should be OK once it all settles down...and I won't speak of this again. This is the first time that I have felt well enough and coherent enough to blog.

I did ask 'Why me?' and then realised that I was younger and fitter than all the others I have seen have this operation, so I was better equipped to deal with the problems and the pain...so I guess I would rather it be me than them...

The other side

Hey, I'm back. I'm tired and sleep a lot. Can't do very much either but at least I am here and at least everyday will be an improvement.

Right so I need to tell you guys all about the championship and I need to tell you other stuff too. So I'll try upload the video to you tube today and get posting again.

xx