War on a Saturday

This was the only Saturday I would have sandwiched between 3 other days off - basically, because of my delayed day off I had Friday off then Saturday on, and Sunday / Monday off again. Fine with me, felt like I was on holidays!

I felt surprisingly well after drinking quite a decent amount the night before (I think the late-night pasta helped), so I was in a good mood (for once, as the boys say... man, I must be a bitch to work with!). Didn't have a lot of rides, considering it was a cruise ship day, not sure what happened there but they were light on for sure.

I started with a 2-hour ride, as I usually do. The only time I haven't been assigned that ride was when they wanted the - uhhh - less "complimentary" guide to be featured on the promo video for the cruise ships, and I and I were preferred for the other rides. Anyway, I digress... the 2-hour ride was pleasant enuf, the couple was nice and I could have a laugh with them. $10 tip at the end, a bit cheap for a 2-hour ride buuuuuut better than nothing. If I had a penny for every time I said that...

Actually, a funny thing happened on that ride. As we were coming out of the beach, the man's horse, Fuerte (meaning "strong" in Spanish, him being one of our strongest horses) couldn't draw his legs out of the water and got kind of bogged. That meant his body fell from over him and i had to tell the rider to get off, get off quick! I thought he was rolling but turns out he was just stuck and needed help getting out. Poor thing! The man was all cool with it, understood what happened... I didn't have the heart to tell him it was because he was too big! haha

There were no more rides for me until the end of the day, when a couple from the French side came and a last-minute addition of a young girl who'd won a ride from some school camp activity. It was non-eventful, almost boring for me - my horse had bad gas and I kinda felt bad for riding him as I think he had pains, but it was just one hour so I hope I didn't do any major damage. I knew he'd get 2 days off when I was off anyhow, so hopefully he'll use them to recover. Surprisingly, the French couple gave me a small tip (they lived on the Dutch side, maybe that's why).

After that, I was done, just helped to feed the horses and that was it. My boy was now in Melbourne so it became a 15-hour time difference - never easy in the first place, now.... grrrr. I try to call him when I can but it's hard. Oh well, not long to go.

The boss wife told me of a screening at work of Warhouse, on a big projector, that very evening so I said yes. Had no real plans as E had still not found her phone and I couldn't arrange anything over the internet (in fact, I asked her to call me if she got access to another phone as I wasn't on the net, but heard nothing). The movie was a bit unrealistic and dramatic, but also sad as it dealt with war themes, something I'm never too good at watching because I know it actually did happen in some regard in years past, but when I realised it was a Steven Speilberg flick, it made sense. Beautiful horses, though.

And that was it for the day. Basically went home after that, nursing one of the sleeping kids of my boss, the other one sprawled out in the back of the car. Another crazy Saturday night in St Maarten.