A Jolly Good Time with Joules

I spent part of last week at Blenheim Palace. Tis rather large and rather wondrous.




The library was busy being set up for a wedding reception when we went around. Oh my word. Can you even imagine how much that must cost? I shudder to think.




Guys, it's a cake palace. It's made of CAKE. Who wants to help me eat it?

In short: the palace was most excellent. We weren't there just to look around impressive buildings though. During that week in September a whole other little city sets up camp in the grounds. A horsey city! We were volunteering at Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials which has got to have one of the loveliest sporting backdrops possible.



Aside from the three phases of the main competition (dressage, cross-country and showjumping) there are tons of tradestands, a food hall, an attractions arena with loads of brill demos and displays, doggie agility, a funfair and all sorts of fun and games to take part in. My shopping mostly consisted of horsey related things and I can't in all honesty expect you to get excited about the martingale I bought (the blingy green browband perhaps - it's like Crown and Glory but for ponies!).

Gin and tonic sorbet though...



Also, Joules. We all love it, don't we?



Hello there, tempting tradestand. It's Joules' Jubilee this year, marking 25 years of deliciously colourful country clothing. As far as I'm concerned, they're are a match made in heaven for horse trials shopping. While I daren't even look at tradestands like Dubarry (eye-wateringly expensive), I know that there will always be tons of things to take my fancy on the Joules stand. I utterly lost my heart to their amazing new fox jumper.



Knowing that I was off for a weekend of horses and gallivanting around in tents and fields, they had very kindly asked me if I'd like to try out anything from the Equestrian Collection. I couldn't resist the mega comfy Hartland gilet and super stripy Cowdray sweatshirt (mine is the salt wash colourway but it doesn't seem to be available online any more).

I'm delighted with them both. There's the additional side benefit of the tongue twisting amusement of trying to say Joules gilet but even without that it'd be pretty much perfect in my book. I don't like my gilets too shiny or too padded (don't need to look any bulkier than I am!) and this one is soft, cosy and absolutely ideal for those autumnal days when the weather can't quite decide how warm it wants to be.

The sweatshirt is equally perfect for an evening sitting outside the tent reading and then cooking dinner.



Also loving the turn back cuffs. Ideal for those of us with short arms!



So what was for dinner? Corned beef mash, campsite style. I adore that little gas stove.



We had a smashing time. I can't think of many better ways to spend four days than camping somewhere beautiful and enjoying the very best in country shopping and sporting entertainment. Just to end up with a little bit of horsiness, here's my favourite picture from the weekend:



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Brilliant Blenheim

As someone who works with over 350 volunteers, I know full well that people who volunteer have a whole range of motivations for doing it. So what on earth makes me take a precious holiday day off work, give up a whole weekend and drive a round trip of 350 miles to spend three days living in a tent and getting absolutely soaked?

Well, we got asked to volunteer at Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials. Can't say no to an offer like that, can you? It's the third biggest event in the UK and only Badminton and Burghley are more important. We started out as British Eventing volunteers last February for flips sake! I honestly never expected to be rubbing shoulders with people who'd worked at the Olympics so soon, if at all. It just goes to show that being dedicated (and also chatty on social media!) gets you noticed. Not exactly a case of who you know, but more a case of making yourself known, if that makes sense?

What makes us want to do it? Well, we truly love the sport and this is an amazing chance to be a part of it (and let's be honest, the chance to exchange a few words with fitties like Oli Townend and Andrew Nicholson when they're walking the course doesn't hurt either!). Fence judging usually means a long day but it's always a lively one. We had an enormous amount of fun at Blenheim and as the teams were a little bigger than at one day events, it meant there was plenty of opportunity to mix with other volunteers. We spent most of Sunday having a fab time and roaring with laughter with the three other fence judges at our fence.

Most events look after their volunteers really well but the team at Blenheim were exceptionally good to us. We got free entry and camping passes for all four days, programme vouchers, a cross-country course walk with the course designer, all sorts of brilliant special offers from their clothing partners, a fab goody bag (honestly, the way to my heart lies through pens and post it notes), as much coffee and cake as we could manage without bursting, branded clothing for the weekend and a lovely hog roast on the Saturday night. Who wouldn't want to volunteer?! It was worth every second of that extremely tedious drive down the M6 and M40 to get there.

Let me shower you with photos:

Our fence on the Saturday. Choo choo!

Our fence on the Sunday. A water jump!

Horses, horses everywhere. I was too busy fence judging to take cross-country photos so these were snapped on the Friday whilst we were wandering around.

Shopping happened. Behold my lovely new hat. A) it fits (this is rare when it comes to my enormous head), B) it suits me (also rare) and C) it's waterproof. As it rained pretty much all weekend, this was kinda important.

I did also wear the trusty badger hat though. It was cold as well as rainy. Stupid autumn weather.

The Mothership modelling her official rugby shirt and fab new boots.

Brekkie in the Odd Socks tent, accompanied by about 7 pairs of soggy walking shoes. Did I mention it was a wet weekend?

Well, one has to keep up one's standards, even when camping.

Picnics, Tents & Horses

Catton Hall (in the top photo) is rather beautiful, isn't it? We were volunteering at the British Eventing competition there this weekend and the owners, being the super nice people that they are, let us camp in the grounds. Such a treat!



I fecking love camping. The tent held up exceedingly well to Friday night's heavy rain and Saturday night's wind and we were v. cosy inside.


Horsey bag by Cath Kidston, Bambi washbag by H&M, camp blanket by me.







Saturday saw us in a woodland clearing at the top of a massive hill. Alas, there was no real opportunity to take photos as I was too busy doing the normal fence judgey things as well as operating a video camera thingy for someone else. Still have no idea how it worked but I had to hit the big pink square on the iPhone when a horse was coming and it spoke to the video camera and did the rest itself. Very clever!


This is my fence judging face.

I am shit hot with a radio, whistle, stopwatch, clipboard and red flag. Read this post if you want to know more about why you need all those things for a day of fence judging but carry on with this one for epic picnic photos. And grey horses.

Our Sunday fence was also in the woods (a different part - Catton is very woody), where the midges promptly attacked me. I now have a HUGE insect bite on my arm which is all red and revolting. Wish I wasn't so attractive to the stupid things.  Other than that, it was lovely! Hurrah for being able to sit and watch fantastic sport all day, especially whilst eating a giant picnic. I'm all about the picnics.


We did have proper food too. It didn't consist entirely of gluten and dairy free millionaire's shortbread and sweets. Honest.


Look, I made g/f d/f scones too!


And we had mini wine. Mainly cos the bottle made me go "HAHAHA" in the middle of Morrisons but it does taste quite nice.

As we weren't needed for the final couple of classes on the Sunday, we ambled down to the water jump on our way home and I took a few splashy photos.  I'm still saving up for a better lens for sports photography but I'm pleased with how this one turned out.



One day we'll get to fence judge a water jump. The wellies remain in the car on the off chance...

My Day At The Olympics

I'm still on a complete high after my day at the Olympics.  I don't think I can be coherent about it.  It was astonishing.  From start to finish, just a truly wonderful day.  London was stunning - even more vivid, colourful and exciting than normal.  Everyone was incredibly friendly and happy and helpful.  We were through security in about three minutes flat, the sun shone, I was with my lovely mum and we were watching some of the best sporting action I've ever seen.

My god, was it different to normal though.  Here's the thing.  Eventing is a very polite sport to be a spectator at.  You clap when the horses jump well.  You take a big picnic.  You go for a walk around beautiful countryside. You even bring the dog with you (I don't have a dog, but go with me here).

At Greenwich, it was unlike anything I've ever been to before.  Dogs and picnics weren't allowed.  The park was certainly stunning but it was packed.  So, so many people and because the course was twistier and narrower than normal, there was less room for spectators and so we were all bunched up around the fences. That's not a negative though - it just made it more exciting.  It wasn't polite; it was raucous and nerve-jangling.  Everyone was cheering and whooping and hollering, even for the lesser-known riders. That's what the Olympics are all about.  It was all so close and so thrilling to watch.

No zoom on this picture - I was about two feet away from him.

I was appropriately patriotically-legged.  Wow, did these tights get me noticed.  I don't think I've ever been looked at so much in my life!
 

I am not fessing up to how much my expensive horsey boots cost. Gulp.

The fences were very British and wonderfully designed and built.  Wind in the Willows!  Horses made of horseshoes! Fruit and veg! Cricket! Squirrels aplenty!

Due to the sheer nature of how busy it was, I wasn't able to get quite as up close and photo-happy as usual but here are a few pictures:

Want to see our glorious silver medal winning British team? Of course you do.

Mary King and Imperial Cavalier

 

Nicola Wilson and Opposition Buzz

 

Zara Phillips and High Kingdom

 

Tina Cook and Miners Frolic

 

William Fox-Pitt and Lionheart

I spent the following day on the sofa, biting my nails and watching the showjumping phase.  I am delighted beyond words that we won the team silver medal.  Individual medals weren't to be, but there's nothing to do except applaud Michael Jung and his horse Sam. European champions, World champions and now Olympic champions.  They're an astonishing pair.

I hope you had a chance to see some of it on the tv.  This is one of my favourite things about the Olympics - that sudden opportunity for the lesser known sports to get some tv coverage.  If you liked it, trot on over to British Eventing and see if there are any events taking place near you.  Take a picnic, take the dog (optional, obviously) and have a smashing day out.  If you're NW based you might even see me doing some fence judging!

Olympic Fever

On Monday I will be at Greenwich Park to watch the cross-country day of the eventing competition in the London 2012 Olympics and I am so excited about it that I feel sick.  Seriously.  It's worse (or better?) than that feeling of anticipation and joy that you get on Christmas Eve.  I am having to actively stop myself thinking about it because I just want to go ARRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHH extremely loudly every time that I do.

Here's the thing.  I love sport, even though I don't take part in anything other than swimming with any great regularity.  I volunteer with British Eventing and that's about as close to competition as I'll ever get.  But watching sport is brilliant.  I will watch almost anything (not golf.  It is the most tedious and pointless thing ever and especially the Ryder Cup with all those annoying Yanks bellowing "GET IN THE HOLE!") and this is only heightened during the Olympics when I become truly sports obsessed and plan all my time around what's on the tv.  Yes, I am that crazy person who books time off work just to make sure that I can watch certain events.  I devour excessive amounts of sports that just don't get much, if any, tv coverage the rest of the year and I love it.  I've watched things that I won't ever forget.

I remember Atlanta in 1996 and having a sleepover at my friend Ruth's house.  A houseful of 12 and 13 year old girls who, when we weren't busy drinking ridiculous amounts of coke or putting toothpaste in each others' hair (yeah, I don't know why we did that), were absolutely hooked on watching the gymnastics.  A small amount of drooling over Alexei Nemov as he won multiple medals may have taken place...

obviously known to us as Sexy Alexei...

I remember the rowing commentary from so many Olympics - that "Just!" for the four in Athens or "Go boys. Go boys!" for the eight in Sydney or the whole world going mad when Steve Redgrave won his fifth gold medal.

I remember this face:

I remember staying up all night for Sydney in 2000 watching something with very little British involvement that I didn't even understand the rules of (judo or something like that), desperately trying to stay awake so that I wouldn't miss Audley Harrison's gold medal fight.  And I don't even like boxing. 

I remember holding my breath as the stadium lit up with flashbulbs when Cathy Freeman sprung up out of the blocks at the start of the 400m final.

I remember sitting there utterly gobsmacked at how bad some of the riding was in the modern pentathlon at Bejing - one of the very few times I will ever think "I really could do better than that" about any type of top-level sporting event.

I remember those moments that truly define Olympic spirit.  Not just the world records and the gold medals and the superhuman performances.  Although I was young at the time of the Barcelona games and not even that interested in sport back then, I do remember Derek Redmond's semi-final race very vividly and it still makes me cry to watch it now.  Ditto Kerri Strug battling on through injury to win team gold in the gymnastics in Atlanta.  Even things like Eric the Eel struggling his way up the pool sum up exactly what it's all about.

The important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle, the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.

So this year, although I'll no doubt watch an enormous amount of tv coverage and sit through some iconic commentary, it won't be the main way I remember these Olympics. I'm going to remember it because I'm going to be there.  Watching my sport, in my country, cheering on my heroes. I cannot wait.