DAY 25 Wed 7 July

Slept in a little, trying to catch up on lost sleep – I nearly succeeded. By the time I finally got up, Cris had arrived, as Sabine was going to check on Nayzak and see if they could work out what was wrong with him. I went in and helped get some stuff sorted for Maryanne and give the dogs their medicine. Demon was being picky though, and Geo ran in and ate his prozac – oops. In the end I had to drop a prozac down Demon's throat – he managed to eat off all the cheese and the meat surrounding it, leaving me no choice.
I sat inside wih everyone for a bit until the grooms asked if I wanted to head out for a ride – silly question :) They saddled up Nazeer for me – my first ride on him for a couple of years at least. We headed out past Marina – they were actually working on the building before it again, but fortunately there was no concrete mixer or winch up the side, so nothing for the horses to spook at. Turned left at Marina and down along the canal, which was actually rather full and clearish (in places at least). There was the requisite view of people fixing pumps, and donkeys and donkey carts galore. That is always a nice sight riding down that side – there are the nice little mud brick and palm front animal shelters – and a proper brick building with huge cracks in it – sometimes you wonder how buildings stay standing around here. We got to the bottom of the canal where we turn back and ride up the other side, and Tatoush was there on one of his HUGE warmbloods it stands taller than 1m 76cm at the withers. They headed in our direction but along the path on the other side of the canal, and when they went cantering past, all the horses seemed to think it was time for a race – Nazeer was jumping all over the place, throwing in little bucks. So much so that I had to tuck my camera into the waistband of my trousers so that I had both hands free for the reins – I'd say he is pretty much over the strangles, and feeling very good with all the good food he has been on – he was very frisky!
I also saw some of the perch in the canal – these ones were about the size of a finger, though Maryanne has told me they can get to about the size of a hand (not my hand size but a normal persons hand size). I have also been meaning to write about the dragonflies for quite a while – they are all different colours – there are ones with red bodies and red transluscent wings, and others that are red with clear transluscent wings. I have also seen some with blue bodies as well. The ones I like the best however have a black body and the majority of their wing is transluscent, except for two black bits at the end, so they look really cool while they are fluttering around – and they will often follow along beside the horses as well. The local butterflies are also nicely coloured and will flitter alongside the horses. They are orangey brown, with black and white on the edges of their wings – I have actually seen them before in one of the butterfly houses in New Zealand (can't remember if it is in Thames or at Butterfly Creek at Auckland Airport, or both). We turned to head across the field, but the farmland around had been submerged under water, and the path we usually ride along was very wet and pugged up, so we headed back out beside the canal and continued on our way. At one stage, there was a pump pumping water across the track and straight into the field, so we had to wait while they turned it off before making our way across – but little Mohamed was having a hard time getting Farhan to walk across the wet spots in the track, so they started it up again, but had to stop it for him to get across.
The ride wasn't so exciting this time as we pretty much walked down one side of the canal and back up the other, but there were still neat things to see, and the countryside changes from day to day – you are always likely to see something new. And as we rode past Marina, there were three kids on the back of a donkey talking to another kid – it's amazing to see how many people can fit on the back of a donkey, or a motorbike, or a scooter over here. While we were waiting for someone to come and open the back gate, I noticed a horse tethered to the end of a fence a little further along. When I went to look, it had this hideous leopard skin print over the saddle (which I think was one of the dancing horse saddles) – talk about tacky! That certainly required a photo!
Because the temperature has snuck upwards again, the heat of the afternoon has been spent inside relaxing. I headed over to Morad's place to watch the soccer, Germany vs Spain. There was a bit of a wait till the game started, and to fill in time Morad did some channel surfing and we watched a bit of I think it was Ocean's Twelve. From the time the game started, Spain clearly had the upper hand in terms of possession and they played better than Germany, but they hardly even tried for the goal – it was kind of frustrating, and I was starting to doze off while the game went on – not quite sure why I was so tired.
At half time we switched back to Ocean's Twelve for a bit which I must admit woke me up somewhat, and then Morad announced we were going to go and watch the rest of the game in airconditioning, so we hopped in the Jeep and drove down the road. We pulled into a driveway, with Ramy not far behind us, and walked into a house (well, house isn't really the right word for it – it was just one room – Ramy's place I am assuming. Because it was a nice small room, the air conditioning unit cooled it nicely (almost too well by the end of the game!). Ramy didn't stay for long, dropping off some dorito's and pepsi and then he went on his way. Finally Spain scored (it made Morad happy because he was cheering for Spain, though he thought Germany would win. We were joined towards the end of the game by another brother of Ramy and Saber's, though I didn't catch his name, and he gave me a lift home in Morad's Jeep after the game had finished – I really needed sleep. It wasn't until we were driving out however that I realised just how close it was to Maryanne's place – just a walk across a field.
Oh well, that time of night isn't exactly the best time for a single foreign female to go wandering around.

Countryside ride 13:
Distance - 4.23km
Time - 0:55:31
Average speed - 4.6kmph
Max speed - 12.5kmph