Today is by far the hottest since I've been out here. Whilst we have acclimatised pretty well, the very early afternoon sun is pretty much a killer and I like the heat! Having walked out of the air conditioned Vet Clinic this afternoon to do some experimental thermography work with Dr. David Marlin and Professor Lars Roepstorff in the main arena and the indoor school. Anyway I digress... well you know that feeling you get when you land in a foreign country, the airplane doors open and boom the hot air hits you... Well, this was like a brick wall! Thankfully today is a non competition day and is the 2nd Inspection of the showjumpers. So I decided to take an image of the deck by the Vet Clinic.... Yep you are seeing correctly... that's 74 degrees Celsius.... Also below is a picture of the WBGT index... Hanging at 30.5, just below the extreme danger category.
I did wake up yesterday morning to texts from home asking me about the earthquake... " Earthquake, what earthquake????" was my response. Well apparently there was an earthquake, 6 on the Richter scale at just after 5.30am. Well nope, I was fast asleep in my very very high rise hotel building. Clearly Japanese builders have done a good job as I didn't even stir! Either that or the midnight finish with the 5am start has really taken its toll.
Whilst it was quiet we also managed to have a Vet Clinic team photo by the Olympic rings. I've been so overwhelmed by the friendly reception from everyone that I have met, it has been a truly international community spirit and I feel I have made some wonderful connections. My biggest shout out however, does go to the Farrier team. Anyone that knows me, knows I do enjoy talking to farriers and they are globally a great bunch of people. We've had some work led discussions, chatted about the technicalities of shoeing etc but also some great chat and banter. Special thanks do go to Ben Benson, Emma Cornish, Harry Spinks and Paul Horner for making me feel not so much of a " one man island". I truly hope we all get to work together again.
I'm sure some of you will also remember that I was telling you about the badges, well I now have a very full lanyard and feel like Mr T walking around with that on my neck, but one of the other little perks you get is a raffle on certain days in the canteen. Well so far my luck has been pretty good as I have acquired two Tokyo 2020 Swatch watches. A lovely memento to keep to remember this fabulous time.
