birthday in sandland…

it was my birthday yesterday. come to think of it, it was my first birthday away from my homeland.

well, i would say that's about the only thing special about the day... my first birthday in dubai. other than that, it's just like my other non-working saturdays here. no parties, no celebrations... just lotsa wishes on facebook, a few sms, and 2 of my colleagues dropped by for some chit-chat. oh, and a video made by my niece, showing my parents, all my cousins and nieces singing a birthday song for me, which made me go slightly teary. heck, they're throwing me a birthday party without me! :D

anyway, i spent the whole of my birthday walking about like an old grandmother. that's because i went for my horse riding lesson the previous night, and i fell from the trotting horse! TWICE!!! :(

it was my 5th lesson, so i'm not in the beginner's group anymore. my group trots at a faster pace and we learn some other "more advanced" stuff like going into the jump position,  whipping the horse with a stick to make it go faster etc.

anyway, there were only me and another girl that day, and i was in the 2nd position. my horse, a brown stallion named sebastian, kept wanting to overtake the horse in front, even though i tried hard to rein him in. some horses are quite temperamental, and MUST be in front at all times, like the horse the other girl was on that day, named shorab (the horse, not the girl). that was why i have to keep sebastian behind at all times. but when turning at the corner, shorab was so slow. apa lar, wanna be in front, but
trotted so slowly! so sebastian was trying to overtake him and the coach was shouting at me to pull him in to stay behind. i kept pulling him to the left (we were going clockwise and were making a right turn when sebastian tried to cut shorab from the inside). i pulled and pulled, but he just refused to fall in line! then i lost my balance (coz i was standing and sitting the whole time) and fell berdebuk (malay: with a thud) to my left onto the sand! hurt like hell, i tell you!

but i got up, told the coach that i'm ok and got onto sebastian again. things went well for some time, coz i learnt to keep my distance from shorab. but again, when we were making a turn (we were going in anti-clockwise this time), shorab was too slow. sebastian caught up and tried his antics again. again, the coach shouted at me to pull him to the right to stay behind. sebastian already had half his body alongside shorab, and when i pulled him in, he did try to get in line. but when we were right behind shorab, because we were too close, shorab gave sebastian a kick with his hind legs! so sebastian gave a jolt and i lost my balance again! this time, i fell to my right... HARD!

so now my bruises are well-balanced on both sides of my waist, just above my hips. my left side felt like a normal bruise, albeit a blardy painful one, but my right side felt as if i’ve twisted my waist or something. now i’m just spraying it with a sports salonpas spray, which helps some, but i’m gonna go to the staff clinic tomorrow to get the doctor’s letter to go for an x-ray. hopefully nothing’s broken!

so anyway, that’s how my birthday went… quite a memorable one, dun ‘cha think? :P