I've just spent 3 hours trying to download one card.  And it's still going.  I've given up a couple of times, and done a restart.  The computer seems to be running fine apart from in Photoshop.  The images are coming off the card but it is slow as a wet week.  So my plan of taking the U13 boys a few prints down after their game (in which they received a hiding in) has gone up in smoke.  My hard drive is new and nowhere near full.  These are brand new memory cards (on loan, so please god don't let there be anything wrong with them!!!!!) and I want to pull all my hair out and it's making my head hurt!!!!! Perhaps the frustration is not completely wasted, because it made me begin to tidy up my desk, however I feel dead cross about it all at the moment! Below is a few of the images that aren't still being held hostage on the card.  I tentatively asked at one of the breaks whether they were playing a really good team, hoping the answer would be ye...

No.  My alarm is NOT set for Stupid O'Clock, as my post title might suggest.  It's only set for 6am.  Tomorrow is Heath's first AFL game.  It's actually Round 2 because we missed Round 1 due to my work commitments in Sydney.  In a cruel twist of fate his first game is early.  Ouch...  9am kickoff.  Meaning I have to find the football ground somewhere in Mt Martha, where I've not yet ventured, by 8.15am.   I've been reminded that his shirt is not a shirt.  It's a guernsey or a jumper.  That I don't say 'great catch!!!!' - I have to say 'great mark'...  I'm trying, honestly I am..  Heath and I watched a little bit of an AFL game on TV yesterday.  Alas and woe I missed the end of the Carlton game, because I happen to like Carlton.  I always did.  I noticed my mate Gatty was silent about them, whereas normally he unleashes terrible tirades about them.  He is of course an evil Collingwood supporter...

Saturday at Royal Randwick is the All Aged Stakes meeting.  I haven't always photographed this meeting, because it has always fallen at the end of a long summer and autumn which for me meant many consecutive weekends on the road.  This year is one of those years where I can't make it.   As always, I feel pangs of regret at missing what is a fine WFA race over 1400m at headquarters.  It has been won by true champions, including one of the true darlings and champions of the turf, the mighty Sunline.  This great champion from New Zealand was bred and owned until she turned 3 years old by one of my great friends, Susan Archer.  I didn't photograph either of Sunline's 2 All Aged victories.  I'll always regret that.  I did photograph her winning both of her Doncaster Handicaps and both of her Cox Plates.  For this I'll always be grateful. It reminds me of a great line out of the movie I've been watching tonight, "The Dish": "Failur...

I spent today running errands and making phone calls.  Important phone calls on a number of subjects.  There were 3 phone calls on a subject which is important to me, and alas they came up with zero results.  What was I calling about?  A home for Freelance of course.  I had driven past a place a couple of months ago, shortly after we arrived, when I was taking Heath to his first AFL training session early on in our time living in our new home.  There was a sign saying "Balcrest Lodge" with a phone number saying agistment was available.  Location wise it was the clear winner, being on Balnarring Beach Road.  I took down the phone number and name of the place in a note in my phone, at the time thinking a little dejectedly "I bet they are full" , and then promptly did nothing further about it.   This afternoon however I finally made that phone call.  I'm so glad that I did.   Freelance is coming home. To stay... ...

I decided this evening that I miss my mare Freelance terribly. I have been distracted by the many things to be done in getting the kids settled in and all their transitions done. I've also been very busy working during this process that is getting us settled. Establishing new lives isn't always easy and it is time consuming. Having Arche to ride probably lessened the urgency I'd felt to get Freelance down to the Peninsula to be with us. But Arche, beautiful though he is, is NOT my horse and I understand very clearly that he will never belong to me.  So this evening my determination to find somewhere lovely for Freelance to live suddenly multiplied rapidly.  There's been 2 or 3 things happen in the past 36 hours that I've found a little tricky to deal with. I miss my mare under these circumstances. The option of whether she could go back into work flutters through my mind. I don't know how well her legs will go. We had a few niggly issues a few years ago and...

I sit this evening in a reflective mood.  We staggered in the door last night tired.  I was exhausted, but slept very badly.  As a result we were all slow to move this morning.  In all honesty I should have gotten to Caulfield for Race 2 today but due to our late arrival back home I felt it wasn't feasible.  I'd also promised Heath he could go shopping at KMart today, after making him wait patiently until we arrived home because the item he'd chosen was too big to carry on the plane, what with our many bags and the kitty. Today the news that I had been expecting was announced.  It's a Dundeel has been retired to stud and will commence stallion duties at the famed Arrowfield Stud in September 2014.  He will revert to his original registered name Dundeel (NZ) when he joins the roster at Arrowfield.  I quite like this change.   I've spent a great deal of time behind the scenes with this feisty bay stallion over the past 8 months an...

We are in the taxi heading for the airport. Mum was tired. Plus her little corolla hatchback had NO hope of fitting all our things. One photographer. Two kids. One kitty yowling that he should be on a lap instead of in his cat box.  I'll do a proper post about The Championships when I get home but here are a couple of pics of the gorgeous Dundeel. Vicky from Arrowfield wrapped me on a huge bear hug after the race before he arrived back to scale. We've put a lot of work into promoting this boy who will retire to Arrowfield before too long.  I broke my cool K-9 keyring when I dropped my keys and have failed utterly so far to find a replacement. I'm a bit upset about that. It's my favourite.