Ups and Downs

The day is drawing to a close and I can feel myself getting tired, having been up since 3.30am.  I arrived at the stables on time, fortunate seeing as I switched into autopilot and found myself driving along the route I usually take to Rosehill Gardens when I should really have been heading along the Hume Highway because my destination was Warwick Farm.  I hadn't been aware that the entire "Team Arrowfield" was going along for his trackwork session.  Whenever John Messara, my most important client, is present, I feel an extra weight of expectation on me.  Luckily I was trialling a new camera, Nikon's brand new D4s, and it produced incredible results for me.   I realise that the camera does not make the photographer.  I've seen certain photographers produce very ordinary results with the same equipment I use, so it's not true to say that the images will be fabulous just by plonking a fancy camera in someone's hands.  I was pretty impressed by this camera though and came away thinking it was a matter of whether I will buy one.  It is just a matter of whether I decide to wait days or weeks.  

I did pause though, to reflect on the things that have gone 'wrong' this past week.  Here's a little list:

1. Maxie and Basil got into a big fight and turned into warty toads when they met.
2. I left my laptop on the plane - luckily I was with Qantas, who are ace and fabulous and Colin picked it up from whether they put it the next morning.
3. My D4 broke on Slipper Day, when I did something strange to one of the CFCs and then bent a pin in the card slotty thing in the camera.  
4. Nikon fixed it.  Jeremy is ace and lovely.  That was a plus.  My lovely 32 GB card was a write off though...  Bugger it....
5. The D4 then threw a complete whammy and shut down completely the next day.  Back to Nikon.  Again Jeremy sorted me out, although it made us late for the sales, but 2 hours later they found and fixed the problem.  I can't remember what he said was wrong so please don't ask.
6. That morning I lost the QXD card.  Suddenly I'm down 2 cards!  And I'm in strife....
7. I left the car headlights on at the sales.  That's in my Mum's car she'd kindly lent us.  We got home almost 2 hours later than expected.  Tired and frustrated.
8. Due to the lost/broken cards I ordered new ones, and a QXD card reader at long last.  The PayPal payment made me curse, redirecting the order to Melbourne not Sydney where I really needed it.
9. My aunty died on Friday.  That's my first aunt or uncle to die.  I find that a little bit rattling  And it means Mum has to go interstate to her funeral.
10. It rains all day at Randwick.  That made me cross.  I had to wear a raincoat over my lovely new dress.  And it poured for Lankan Rupee's race.  Then it stopped when they came back to scale.  This fickleness and nastiness of The Weather God made me cross and prone to muttering 4 letter words.
11. I still can't get the WT-5 to work!  Dang!  Jay Town is supposed to be emailing me some help.  He hasn't sent it yet.  I say to myself hopefully, like Mr Incredible does, "I've still got time"..  I'll need to hassle him gently tomorrow though.
12. I discover that there is a problem with my Visa debit card.  It fails to work.  It is of course the account with the money in it.
13. My card order from Adorama goes into some strange holding pattern.  I've spent $600 on cards and readers I desperately need and now they won't arrive until after this peak is finished.  Bugger it!
14. A friend is loaning me some cards to get me through. This is such a relief after finding out today there is no chance my order will arrive.
15. I phoned the bank after my card would not work.  A number of cards have been 'compromised', as they call it.  They don't know why or how, or whether it's real.  But they don't take chances and they stop the card.  Yay...  Mine was one of them.  No email notification I said with a slight frown.  My card needs stopping and replacing (sigh....) and this will take 7-10 days.  All of a sudden I have no easy access to my money.
16. We ran late and missed the horse I was trying to get at the pool
17. It's poured all night this week.  This makes me pace a little bit out of worry for Dundeel, plus it meant we completely missed the special red blood moon tonight.  It's just started coming down really heavily again which makes me scowl angrily outside.  Honestly rain, just SOD OFF.... I had a shower late and washed my hair and no longer feel cold. A quick check of the BOM site made me curse. 29mm of rain since 3.30pm. I just want to produce one glittering frame for John Messara of our new boy winning in his new Arrowfield silks. Barrier 1. Wet track???  He did go beautifully though this morning. 

Pluses?

1. I had such an ace time with Tash
2. The kids are both sporting new haircuts.  My hair is crap and needs doing
3. I manage to transfer some money successfully
4. Heath found my missing QXD card in the car this evening!!!!  Oh joy!  Ok, so using it is still a right pain in the neck because I don't have a card reader and using the USB cable is as slow as a wet week.  Because of this I am v pleased to be getting the loan ones.
5. Jeremy lent me a cool camera and it took terrific photos of Dundeel....
6. I got some lovely pics of Dundeel this morning
7. I hope my brother and his boys can still make it to Sydney this weekend.