So after returning from Byron I made my way back to the Pub in Paddington to await further instructions as to where I was going to be going next. I met up with Alice who told me I would be heading back off to Lantern Hill with her car a Range Rover sport top of the range, with her dog gellert, the big irish wolf hound. What a result a real smart car and a dog and a beautiful house to stay in and I am getting paid for it too. Actually getting to Lantern Hill which is in the southern highlands was a bit of a mission well just managing to get out of Sydney was the tricky part once I found the highway it was all good. I started work on the friday and first on the agenda was to clean the wound of the injured horse that is aptly named 'Brave'. I had been told that he had managed to cut open his shoulder on what is believed to be a gate latch. I thought yes I have seen lots of wound like that over the years on cattle so I would be fine. It was a huge gash on his shoulder which overnight builds up with puss and needs to be hosed out. It was a bit of a shock and I found myself a little light headed after the first washing session. After a few days I had become accustomed to it and was actually washing it and picking all of the pus by the end of the week. Over the weekend I was taken along to the Bundanoon pub this is a proper country pub where everyone knows everyone and Graham who I have been working with knew everyone so I was introduced to some characters shall we say. One of which tried to persuade that the best way to see Australia was to join the carnivals and get out on the road and work the carnies as he put it. I think I will pass on that one, I think the deal I have is pretty good. That said the pub is full of characeters and it is a nice pub not overly child friendly I imagine. I went to Grahams on the saturday evening for a meal and I in fact ended up staying the night there so I could have a few drinks. Graham has a whole load of bearded dragons. These are pretty friendly animals but they don't look that way they just cling onto you and rest there. See the picture! He also had some green tree frogs native to Australia which are also pretty cool. I had an education on australian history whilst I was there I watched 'The man from Snowy River 1 and 2. These are two old traditional Australian stockman stories about horsemen based in the mountains near to melbourne. I also watched 8 seconds about Lane frost a legendary American bull rider not necessarily about Australia but it was a good watch.

The week just gone was the start of my detox and I managed to last from the Sunday until the Friday it was more of a test to see the fact that it is possible to stay of the drink despite the temptations that were present in the house at lantern Hill. I did it I am not an alcoholic althought at times it may seem that way. I also started to do some exercise something I haven't done for a very long time I think the last time was sometime between Christmas and New Year where Ben and I would drag ourselves out on a run around the streets of Sydney. It was a bit of a shock but I cracked on and got a few runs under the belt and a bit of circuit training going it also helped to pass a bit of time in the evenings. The get fit campaign had begun and let it continue on a bit longer than a week. Gellert the big Irish wolf hound was a bit of a lazy sod and spent most of the week lying around the house sleeping. This is what dogs do right. During the week at work we had some much needed rain as the country is still very dry and there is not a lot of feed around for the cattle. Hopefully the rain will kick start some growth in the grass for the cattle. We managed to dodge the rain with some indoor jobs and in between the showers we were able to repair some fences. I have now learnt the Aussie way of fencing another skill to add to the CV. Hugh, Alice and Cody Hugh's son came down on Friday for the weekend as they use lantern hill as their getaway house away from the city. Hugh has a vast saddle collection and he and I spent saturday afternoon cleaning all of the saddles. I think from memory there was 21 different saddles ranging from stock horse saddles to Polo saddles. As it was around lunch time when we started work we cracked open a can of XXXX gold and plugged the speakers in tuned into some country music and set about the task of cleaning all the saddles. It was a great way to spend the afternoon listening to some of the stories Hugh told to go with the different saddles. The evening was topped of with a cracking (no pun intended…) roast Pork dinner prepared by Alice. As it was earth hour we took part for the hour of darkness and again told more stories around the fire. The Sunday was a beautiful day and there was not a cloud in sight. We started by cleaning the wound of the injured horse and then set about saddling some of the other horses to go out for a ride. I was on Tal the palomino stock horse Hugh was on his Horse blue and huge great rodeo horse. Cody and Alice came along as well it was a fantastic few hours and I am beginning to get to grips with Horse riding. A few more months and I'll be galloping across paddocks. Well maybe.

I am going to be spending another week at Lantern Hill with Graham helping out and will be on hand to assist with more Chinese visitors coming on Friday. Let the good times continue....