She lives!

Ok - yes so, it's been a while! What on EARTH have I been up to for a month?!?!

Well we had our much awaited QLD trip which was a blast - had a really good time visiting theme parks and what not - I was most proud of myself I must say. I am a bit of a wuss when it comes to rides, so I was expecting to be the 'bag holder' for some of the rides at least :). First stop was Movie World - 2 of the best rides there Superman Escape and your Batwing Spaceshot. Well - we were lining up for Superman, Loz was telling us how much fun it was, well I was lining up crapping myself thinking, 'i'm not sure if I can handle this'... but at the same time, knowing if I pulled out I'd regret it. I HAD to try it at least once right?! Well the start of it is pretty tame - all the time I'm thinking "oh sh!t, oh Sh!t, oh Sh!t'" You are then shot out of the 'indoor area' fast... um... lets say 0 - 100kms fast!!! You go up a massive 'hill' (ok so it's not a hill, but my brain can't think of another word!) and then fall what felt like almost vertical down. Did I enjoy it?! Umm... enough to go on 3 more times!!!! Oh yes, I am now a self confirmed adrenaline junkie thanks to the Superman ride... it was AWESOME! Also my excuse for every other ride on our trip 'well if I can go on Superman, I can go on x, y, z'. Other rides we went on at Movie world? The Lethal Weapon, Scooby Doo and most of the others, however the Wild West Falls were closed *sob*.

Ok - so after Movie World we also went to Dreamworld... Here again I grappled with nerves (should I add in here that I'm not great with heights and hate any rides really where I'm falling backwards).... so going on the Tower of Terror or Giant Drop was a big ask and I wasn't sure if I could do it. Once again, I was encouraged to have a go. I almost didn't make it to the tower or terror... the falling backwards really wasn't sitting well with me. A typical conversation while lining up:

One of the 3 girls: "But you went on Superman, this won't be as scary as Superman"
Me: "Yes, but in this one we are falling BACKWARDS!"

Repeat this several times and you get the gist.

Did I enjoy it first time round - sort of, once I got over crapping myself... and I mean seriously crapping myself!! Well - I enjoyed it enough to go on an additional 4 times, and yes, each time it got more fun, till I was leaving my hands up in the air! ROFL.

So I guess after the ToT I had to do the Giant Drop too. Now that was fun, but nowhere near as scary as I thought it would be :P.... see.... adrenaline junky! Who doesn't find dropping 40 stories *that* scary!?

Other rides? The Claw, Motocoaster & Cyclone

We also went to Wet N Wild on yup, you guessed it, one of the coldest days we were there *rolls eyes*... Typical weather isn't it!

What else did we do? Hmm... I caught up with Maria, one of my trainer/ online friends which was great, and also went horseriding, shopping and general 'fun' stuff :). As per usual, we barely stopped :p A great trip :

Yes - I know this is a long post - but there is one more 'major' event I need to cover off too :)

ok - so our next big event was our 10th Anniversary Australian Shepherd Specialty show and Most Versatile Aussie (MVA) competition... this was held on cup weekend and we had down breed specialist from America judging our dogs :). Was a day I looked forward to all year :).

I was very pleased with how my dogs went. Leo won Neuter in Show (with some VERY pleasing comments from the judge, including the question "WHY is this dog de-sexed"!) and Kinta won her class. Both pleasing results with over 140 Aussies entered :)

The MVA consisted of the dogs competing in conformation (critiqued by Sheila Polk), herding, obedience and agility. No - we didn't get any passes (other than herding), but we got very nice critique (96/100 for Leo, 95/100 for Kinta! WOO HOO!) but I was really chuffed with their efforts... doing 3 disciplines in one day is no mean feat.. quite difficult for the dogs to switch between activities as anyone would expect :)

On the whole - dogs have been doing very nice work lately which is pleasing as well as frustrating! Why frustrating you may ask? Because they are working REALLY well, but with no passes to show for it! It's not like they can't do it, it's just that it never all goes right on the day, and no I'm not making excuses - it really is so! They really do work brilliantly, but I seem to be missing a link somewhere between training and trialing especially for Miss K. If you've trialled before you'd understand how frustrating this can be.

Anyway enough waffling from me - I'll try and post more regularly now, but as you can imagine, life has been busy :p.