Today is our first wedding anniversary. As good a day as any for contemplation I think! This first post's intent is to update the reader on major events since we finished up at university and moved into our wee town in the deep south - a time of some mystery to you all! It's an abridged version; been a big year for us.
12th December 2013 brings graduation for both of us, a Bachelor of Veterinary Science, with distinction for myself; absolutely scorching hot day, especially in our woollen bat costumes! All of our close family was in attendance, a very special occasion.
Three days later we were on the road headed 1000km south with a container of stuff in tow, and two newly adopted cats in the car. Stopped off on the way at a cute little place just north of Kaikoura, a done up rail car, almost obscured by a vast collection of greek nudes! Woke early in the morning to untethered horses crunching their way down the gravel path outside.
Three days later again, on the 18th, we started our very first permanent full time jobs. The challenges have been many, and the learning curves steep, with many enjoyable successes and huge gains in confidence along the way :-)
Christmas/New Year was a pleasant breathing space before our wedding on the 18th of January. I took the week off prior, and was joined by a bridesmaid to tie the last minute things together. The wedding itself took place over three days, beginning on the Friday night with a barbecue - indoors, thanks to the 'exciting' South Otago weather making itself known. The atmosphere was special to say the least. It was one of the highlights of the whole occasion for me; the arrival of many close friends and family, sitting down to share a meal with us in an absolutely stunning location. The anticipation of the next day, the excitement of everyone... Saturday morning came far too soon, and I emerged for the scheduled beautifications puffy-eyed and nest-haired. It was raining. Oh well. The preparations were delightfully uneventful, everyone scrubbed up shiny, including the weather fairy - the clouds parted and the sun came beaming down the moment the register was signed, amidst the song of tui. It was a beautiful day. I feel grateful every time I think of the event - Thank you again to everyone for your part in our lives, we have been and continue to be lifted upon the shoulders of many :-) Our lives are blessed and privileged ones because of all of you.
Some time at the end of January, and the post-work exhaustions were getting less severe. So, I enacted on my lifelong passion and joined the local choir. And the adult ballet class. And started learning ceramic art... I immensely enjoy all of these, and have been making progress to boot! I stopped ballet and ceramics at the start of spring as work started to eat up my energies again.
Something on our lifetime wish list is 'get some land and stuff' - so when, at the start of March, I came across a 10 acre, 4 bedroom place on the market down here for $50k under the previous purchase price, I jumped at the chance to have a nosy. It had a wee fishy fish pond, a BIG pond with willows and everything, established orchard, gardens, gorgeous. We moved in on the 23rd of March. And then brought a puppy home the following weekend. Well. Life gets a bit exciting! The weekend after that, our first shipment of sheep arrived. Our dream of self-sufficient living was starting to gain a heap of traction. We haven't bought veggies for two months as of this writing! 
The next major event of the year, for myself, was attending and speaking at the national vet conference on the 19th of June. My talk was based on a best-in-class case report I had written in my final year at university. In preparation, I read widely about making such a presentation, including an excellent book called "talk like TED". If you don't know what TED is, google it and prepare to lose many hours and much ignorance ;-) The work was worth it - I won Best Practitioner Presentation!
Two weeks later, the South Otago winter was getting a bit oppressive... Bev and I jumped on a plane, and headed to Brisbane on our honeymoon. Glad to spend a minimum of time in the city, we thoroughly enjoyed a fleeting trip to Noosa and Fraser Island, followed by the absolute highlight of the trip - four days at O'Rielly's Rainforest Retreat in the centre of Lamington National park. Wow wow wow and wow again. From our cabin: the deck, the car on ground level, and then pristine subtropical rainforest not five meters away. Included in the trip were various guided tours and seminars on the history and ecology of the area, could not have been more worth the effort to attend. Absolutely amazing. Each of the guides is an encyclopaedia in their own right, just phenomenal! Seeing Albert's lyrebird in the flesh, not once, but twice, was so special. It was like living in an Attenborough documentary. Quite literally - one of the senior guides was Attenborough's cinematographer in Australia!!! Recommended is an understatement. The trip to Australia culminated in a reunion of every living descendent of my paternal Grandmother's mother on the Gold Coast. I was supremely unimpressed by the GC I have to say. Meeting and spending time with family was lovely :-)
At the start of September, this guy arrived ===>
He's a pretty awesome chilled out dude, so happy to have my dream pony! Even if he is a 15.3hh quarter horse X - probably a better height for me ^.< It took us about half an hour to learn the Parelli 7 games, and we've been progressing ever since. Labour weekend saw us spend three days together at a clinic with Russell Higgins, soooooo worth the effort to attend! It never ceases to astonish me, what's possible between horses and humans.
I forget when, but sometime at the start of spring, an opportunity came up which caused me some conflict - auditions for the year's South Otago Theatrical Society production. I have always loved music and dancing, but I have always preferred to be a part of a group of performers... I decided no, this is a great opportunity to gain confidence! Well, I tell you, having rehearsals three days a week on top of working 45++ hours a week, choir practice, ceramics class, keeping a horse, having an enormous veggie garden, dog, two cats, chickens, pet lambs, pet calves, 80 something sheep, and all the normal life stuff is no easy task. I would say I loved every minute, but that wouldn't quite be true - I shall say that the enjoyments of being in the theatre and the improvement in my confidence as a singer have been well worth the effort required! Thank you for your support :-) The end of year Christmas choir show was also a great success.
In amongst all this is two 4 day trips to catch up with dear friends around the country, even more visitors here, and a trip to Mt John Observatory - mind blowingly awesome!
That brings us to the 15th of December, just over a year after the start of the post... It's now bed time, so the rest will have to wait!
